Page 30 of Mysterious

From me.

Finally, she asks in a tiny voice, “Why do you want to forget you’re responsible for my safety? I thought that meant the world to you, Liam.”

Christ, I should have just kept my mouth shut. I always get myself in trouble when I let myself talk too much. Now she thinks I don’t care about being her bodyguard, a job that means more to me than she can ever imagine.

Facing her for the first time since she walked into my room, I try to find the right words so I don’t make things worse. “That’s not what I meant. Trust me. I don’t want to forget anything when it comes to protecting you.”

My answer makes her smile, but the corners of her lips barely rise. “Okay.”

We stand there staring at one another like two strangers who don’t know what to say next or two opposing armies that have little interest in continuing this battle. I don’t want to fight with her. I’m too busy beating myself up to argue with the person I let down.

After nearly a minute, I ask, “So why are you roaming around the hotel after midnight? I figured you’d be sleeping by now after the night you had.”

I don’t go into detail about that, and I hope she thinks I’m referring to the show and not what happened afterward. Well, not the sex, which was great, but what happened after that.

Jesus. Now she’s going to think I’m making some childish reference to our sleeping together. It would have been better if I didn’t open the door at all.

“I need to fly out to Miami tonight to record a song. I know it’s short notice, but when the muse comes, you don’t ask her why she didn’t wait for a more convenient time. So you need to get ready, and whoever else you want to join us needs to be ready in an hour. We’ll leave right after one.”

Her announcement stuns me. She wants to fly to Miami in the middle of the night to record a song? She can’t wait until tomorrow?

“What do you mean? I need to take the guys to Houston ahead of the show there to make sure everything’s set. I can’t go to Miami tonight.”

As I say those words, her expression falls, like she’s just heard the worst news of her life. I want more than anything to spend every waking minute with her, and the sleeping minutes I’d love to spend with her in my arms together in bed. I just can’t forgive myself for screwing up so badly at that bar tonight.

“I thought you’d want to be there since you’re the one who’s in charge of security, but if you need to go on ahead to Houston, then I guess I’ll have to go with whoever you think you can trust. It’s only a short overnight trip to Miami and back. I should be back within twenty-four hours,” she says, trying to act like she isn’t disappointed.

Damnit, I’m fucking everything up. I should just go with her. She’s supposed to have her head of security with her when she goes anywhere like this.

I can’t. Not tonight. My head is too full of guilt to be in the right place to protect her properly. She deserves better than I can offer right now.

“I’ll get Kip and Brett to go with you. Then I can catch them up on any changes we make when we do the walk-through in Houston,” I say flatly, hoping she can’t see how much I’m blaming myself for before.

“Okay. Brett’s the giant one who’s even bigger than you? Is there a reason you’re sending him?” she asks as she takes a step toward me and then stops.

She’s close enough that I could stretch my arms out and pull her into me like I want to, but I don’t move and instead answer, “It’s always good to have someone his size around. Promise me you won’t do anything but go to the recording studio and back to the airport while you’re in Miami and then only go from the airport to the hotel here. And I need the number for the studio too.”

With a smile, she nods her head and walks over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist like she wanted to do when she first got here. Looking up at me, she says, “I promise. No roaming around the countryside making things difficult for my bodyguards, and I’ll text you the number the minute I get back to my room.”

My entire body relaxes for the first time since I saw her get caught up in that fight at the bar hours ago. The simple feel of her against me makes me think I’m not the worst possible man in the world for her.

“Thank you. I’ll let them know they need to get ready to go.”

Neither of us makes a move so I can call Kip and Brett, though. Mia seems to want to hold on to me, and I can’t think of any good reason to not let her.

“I’m fine, you know. Even that scratch on my shoulder that was bleeding before isn’t. We didn’t have any Band-Aids upstairs, but I didn’t need one. So whatever you’re thinking about that bar thing, don’t. I wouldn’t trade the time we got to spend drinking kamikazes for anything.”

I look down into her sweet face and shake my head. “This is when you should be bitching me out for not doing my job. Don’t let me off the hook so easily, Mia.”

She slides her hands from around my waist and cradles my face. “You did your job, Liam. Nobody expects you to make sure nothing ever happens when I’m out of my house. You saw a problem begin to happen and you handled it, exactly what you’re supposed to do. Stop beating yourself up because I got flustered over nothing.”

“What happened to that woman who balled me out the first day I met her? I’m thinking she should make an appearance right about now,” I say with a chuckle.

“Well, she met this guy who showed her she was being a royal pain in the ass, and now she tries not to be that because of him.”

“Cute.”

Standing on her tiptoes, she kisses me softly and whispers against my lips, “It’s the truth.”

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