Page 25 of Flirtatious

With every step, he gets farther away, and I wish I had any reason to stop him. I know it’s stupid, but something about the way he said it’s just his job hurt my feelings.

That’s silly, though. It is his job to protect me. He was just stating the obvious.

Nothing would never work between the two of us anyway, so I need to stop thinking about how sexy he is when he smiles and how gorgeous his blue eyes are when he’s trying to convince me to do something I don’t want to do. He’s not my type.

The Liams of the world are too serious for the Mias of the world. He’s all rules and regulations, and I need to run free. Or at least I need to feel like I’m not being chained to the floor every second of the day. He spends his time worrying about security, and all I want to do is have fun and live my life.

No, we would never work out. Still, I can’t deny I like him.

“What did Mr. Tight Ass want?”

I turn to see Ainsley standing next to me watching Liam walk away down the hall. “See anything you like there, Ains?”

Her cheeks instantly grow red, and she gives me a scowl. “Him? Are you kidding? His chi and my chi would not work together. The man has no yin in him. He insists on constantly conquering every situation he encounters. He’s like yang overload.”

Liam disappears out the door to the gardens as I get my last look at him and Ainsley’s complaints about him filter through my brain. “He said he’d die for me. Michael never said that. No one has ever said that.”

“He’s a bodyguard, Mia. It’s sort of in the job description. I’m sure they’re paying him a king’s ransom to keep you safe. I wouldn’t put too much stock in him saying he’d die for you. That’s just all that yang.”

I smile and nod, knowing she’s right. “Yeah, sure. I know. It did feel nice to hear, though. I mean, who wouldn’t like to know there’s someone who would lay down their life to protect you?”

“Mia, that guy doesn’t have an ounce of the feminine in him. It’s like he’s a total Alpha. Just being around him takes all the happiness out of me. I don’t know how you do it.”

Shrugging, I smile, but not too big so she can see how much I like spending time around Liam. “I don’t know. I think of him like a challenge.”

Unimpressed, she makes a face that looks like she just ate something gross. “Sure, but does he ever not come into a room like he’s Captain America? Maybe if he didn’t give off the vibe that he hated everyone, including you, ninety percent of the time, I could see someone finding him sort of attractive.”

“He doesn’t hate you,” I say before turning to head back outside to the pool. “Just your goat noises.”

I chuckle when I hear her huff in disgust behind me. “They are not goat noises. You know, I think you and that guy spent too much time alone without me and the rest of the crew here to act as a buffer. He’s already rubbing off on you. You never thought my evening stretches sounded like goat noises before he said that.”

She’s right, but I won’t tell her that. I don’t want her to hate Liam, especially now that I know I definitely don’t hate him.

“I was only kidding, Ains. Let’s go back outside and see if I can slough off all of his yang and make you happy.”

Next to me, she grumbles, “That’s going to take an old priest and a young priest, at the very least. Talk about yang overload. Someone should cut back on his energy drinks. I think he’s got too much testosterone coursing through his system.”

I wrap my arm around her shoulders and squeeze her to me. “I love you, Ains. You never fail to make me smile.”

That makes her happy, so she gives up her complaining about the other person who always seems to have a way to make me smile. I won’t tell her about that, though.

CHAPTERTEN

Liam

My eyes flyopen at the sound of someone yelping, or maybe that’s the life coach with her goat birthing noises. I scrub the sleep from my face and look around. Where am I? Nothing looks familiar.

Oh, right. I switched rooms a couple nights ago. Nothing like waking up to the sound of some animal in agony to confuse a guy.

I slowly come to my senses and realize it’s Mia’s entourage making all the noise. Because of course it is. I yearn for the days before they arrived. I truly do.

As I grumble to myself about how selfish these people are, I look out the window and see the sun isn’t even up yet. God, what time is it?

Grabbing my phone, I see 4:40 in big white numbers across the screen. Did I somehow sleep through an entire night of them partying, or has something else kept them up all night? It has to be that they haven’t gone to bed yet because these are not the type of people to wake up early.

The noise continues, and I figure out it’s not in the west wing. Did they decide to take over the entire house? How does Mia live like this? She didn’t stay up all night before they got here.

I roll out of bed and grab a pair of gray sweatpants and a white T-shirt from the dresser that’s on the opposite side of the room from where it used to be. Still sort of groggy, I don’t bother putting shoes on, instead grabbing my slides. If these people want a professionally dressed me, then they shouldn’t wake me up before five in the morning.

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