Page 17 of The Bodyguard's Vow

“Complicated?” she repeated with incredulity as she jumped to her feet and tossed her e-reader on the cushion she’d vacated. She stalked over to stand in front of me, planting her fists on her hips. “It seems simple enough to me. Stop looking at me as Rafa’s little sister, or your protectee, or any other label you’re using to obscure your view. Open your eyes and seeme.”

I pushed to my feet and grabbed hold of her shoulders to keep her from moving when I bent low enough that our faces were barely an inch apart.

“It’s not that I don’t see you,sole,” I snarled angrily. “It’s that I’m not supposed to.” Dropping my head the rest of the way,I brushed my lips against hers when I growled, “But it doesn’t matter how wrong it is—I still want you.”

My mouth crushed over hers as I lifted Gabriella and pressed her body to mine. Her legs curled around my hips, and her hands fisted in my shirt on both sides. Releasing her shoulders, I palmed her face and tilted her head back so her lips naturally parted. I licked them gently before plunging my tongue into her hot, wet mouth.

My feet started moving while I explored her mouth and glided along her tongue. When her back hit the wall, I punched my hips forward to hold her in place and groaned as I slapped a hand on either side of her head.

Gabriella moaned and rubbed her tits restlessly against my chest as she tentatively returned the kiss. I shifted to make sure she was secure and made a guttural sound of pure want as I moved my hands to the bottom of her shirt. They slid up underneath until I filled each of them with a large, round globe. Her tits practically spilled out of my hands, and my mouth tingled at the thought of wrapping my lips around their stiff peaks.

Closing my eyes, I ripped my mouth from hers and pressed our foreheads together. “I’m not supposed to touch you,sole,” I rasped, my voice desperate with hunger. “So why the hell does it feel like you already belong to me?”

Gabriella whimpered, and the sound went straight to my cock. I gently squeezed her tits and rocked my pelvis into her. The little voice telling me to stop was almost gone, replaced with her sexy sounds and the pounding of my heart.

Then my phone chimed with a text, and it was as though a bucket of cold water was dumped over my head.

“Fuck!” I shouted in frustration as I instantly set Gabriella on her feet and backed away.

Shock washed over her face, and she blinked her glazed eyes, clearing some of it away. “What…” She shook her head and licked her lips, nearly breaking the resolve I’d grasped onto. “What just happened?”

“That shouldn’t have happened,” I rumbled as I built my walls up around me again.

“Why?” Gabriella whispered brokenly. “I know you want me.”

I rubbed a hand over my face before threading them both through my hair. Then I met her confused gaze and shuttered my eyes, locking away my emotions. “You were never mine to want.”

“Then why?”

I shook my head and gave her one last shred of feeling before I locked myself up tight. “That doesn’t stop me from wanting to keep you.”

7

DOMENICO

After that night, I was even more vigilant about keeping space between Gabriella and me. I even considered approaching Rafa about having someone else assigned to guard her. But not only would he want an explanation that I couldn’t give, every time I thought about someone else getting close to her—I saw red.

Gabriella didn’t seem to mind the distance, only interacting with me when necessary, which both relieved and chafed me. I shouldn’t want her to feel the same pain that I did, but the obsessed, possessive asshole inside me wanted to know she was still mine.

However, I was pissed about the dark circles under her eyes a week later. Rafa had given me shit over it, too. But when I reminded him that the only way to make sure she was sleeping was to be in bed with her, he changed his tune immediately.

“I think I’m going to head out early,” Gabriella told Aston when he walked into her office with a folder.

He set the packet on her desk, then frowned as he looked her over. I clenched my jaw so I wouldn’t tell him to keep his eyesto himself. “Is everything okay,chérie? You look like you’ve lost weight.”

Frustration bubbled under the surface as I thought about her lack of appetite lately. I’d noticed that she’d lost a few pounds as well, but she brushed me off when I tried to get her to eat more.

“I’m fine. I just haven’t been sleeping well.”

Aston’s gaze slid in my direction, but as usual, my eyes and expression were unreadable.

“Take all the time you need, Gabriella.”

“Gabbi,” I grunted before I could think better of it.

Aston and Gabriella both looked at me, his expression confused and hers hinting at irritation.

“He can call?—”

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