Page 31 of Close Protection

‘Bella, hi!’ I smile, waving to her. We stop walking and wait for them to catch up. ‘Cousin Isabella, same age, basically grew up together, along with my other cousin, Camilla,’ I whisper to Milosh.

‘I know who she is.’

I feel a nauseating pang of something akin to jealousy as he looks over at her.

Unwarranted and unhinged? Absolutely. But me and common sense are on the outs right now.

‘How are you?’ I ask once she reaches us, briefly lookingover to her boyfriend and smiling warmly. ‘Hi, Eddie.’

‘Hey, Daph.’ He nods back.

‘Daphne, oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in an age!’ Isabella drawls.

‘Is, you saw me at graduation a few weeks ago.’ I laugh.

‘Five weeks ago, Daphne. Five weeks. That’s an age in my book,’ she responds, even though her attention is now elsewhere. ‘Aren’t you gonna introduce me?’ she says, eyeing Milosh up and down, as if Eddie is not standing right there.

‘Oh goodness, yes, sorry. Milosh, this is my Cousin Isabella and her boyfriend Edward. Eddie, Isabella, this is Milosh, my bod—’

‘Boyfriend,’ he interrupts. I feel one of Milosh’s hands lace around my waist as he drops the bags, using his other to shake Eddie’s.

Oh, he’s good at this.

I thread my fingers through his at my waist and bring my other hand up to rest on his chest.

‘Yes, sorry. My boyfriend.’ I laugh stiffly. ‘I just can’t get used to saying it!’

‘Boyfriend? Daph, you never told me you were even interested in someone, let alone dating them.’ Isabella frowns.

‘I was going to tell you, but we wanted to keep it reallylow key,’ I explain, feeling awful for lying to my closest friend.

‘Right… Sure.’ She eyes me suspiciously before looking back over to Milosh and shrugging. ‘Well, you definitely did good, Daph. Youdefinitelydid good.’

‘You did good but I did better,’ Milosh says, looking down at me. His eyes drop to my lips for a moment before I feel his hand move to my hip, gently squeezing.

‘Oh, well, good for you both.’ Isabella smirks. ‘How did you even meet?’

‘Monaco Grand Prix last year,’ Milosh answers as I try to hide my shock. How did he know I was at the grand prix last year? ‘We met when I was on a tour of the Greenway Motors cockpit.’

‘Oh, so you’re a Formula One man?’ Isabella questions, looking more than impressed.

‘Something like that,’ he responds, his hand moving to rub soft circles on my lower back. My skin starts to heat under his touch and my breath involuntarily becomes shallow.

‘Where are you guys off to now?’ I ask, trying to keep it together.

‘We were just about to head into Ralph Lauren to see if we can get a tux for Eddie because all of his are still in Switzerland,’ she replies, rolling her eyes.

Eddie and Isabella met at school and have been that typical on-again-off-again couple for the past three years. If Eddie had it his way she’d already have a big fat engagement ring on her finger, but I’ve come to realize they both have very different ideas of how their relationship should be. Isabella gets bored quickly – hence the on-again-off-again – whereas Eddie’s a committed relationship guy through and through.

‘We were headed there too! Let’s go together,’ I suggest. I need a bit of space from Milosh, and if that means using my cousin as a human buffer so be it. I don’t even bother looking back at him, because I know what his expression will be. Unimpressed and uninterested.

‘Daph, I can’t believe you kept this from me,’ Isabella whispers as we walk into the store. ‘I thought we told each other everything.’

Way to make a girl feel awful.

‘I know, I’m sorry, it was just all so new and I wanted to stay in our little uninterrupted bubble a short while longer.’

Isabella sighs, squeezing my hand in that comforting way she did when we were kids. ‘That’s okay. As long as I’m the first to know I guess it doesn’t matter.’

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