Page 11 of Guarding the Billionaire

I tapped my ear. “Supes have better hearing than humans. I don’t understand, why are you embarrassed about ordering Thai food?”

“I’m not embarrassed about the Thai food,” Flora said slowly. “It’s what I do after I order the Thai food.”

My mind was immediately flooded with inappropriate thoughts that stuttered to a halt when she added, “I watchBuffy the Vampire Slayer.”

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” I asked. “What’s that?”

“It’s a TV show that was super popular in the late nineties and early two thousands.”

I must have given her a blank look because she added, “It’s about this teenage girl who’s a vampire slayer. She was chosen by fate and there’s only one slayer. Well, most of the time there’s only one slayer, and she alone stands against the vampires. And demons and other creepy characters. She keeps pretty busy since she’s the only slayer in the world and her high school is on top of a hellmouth. I can’t believe you never watched it.”

“Do you really think someone like me would watch something about a vampire slayer?”

“There are some good vampires in it too,” she rushed to add. “Well, two good vampires.”

“And what do the good vampires do?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“They kill other vampires and some of the demons too,” Flora replied.

“Well, this I’ve got to see.”

Flora

As long as I could remember, Thai delivery andBuffywas my Sunday thing. I’d started the ritual right after I graduated college. I’d watched a lot of episodes of the show with my bodyguard/roommate while I lived in the dorms, and when I graduated and moved back home, I decided to watch all the episodes I’d missed by starting from the first season. Each week I’d watch four or five episodes and just relax.

Even though I lived with my parents, our house was huge, and I could go days without seeing them since they lived in a separate wing. They rarely used the game room in the basement so that’s where I’d set up for the afternoon.

Having someone join me was a new experience. Even when I was dating someone, I’d always protected Thai andBuffynight as ‘me time’. While I knew I could have easily told Teresa that Iwanted to be alone and let her hang out somewhere else in the house while I went through my Sunday afternoon routine, for some reason I really wanted her to join me.

It was probably because I felt drawn to her for some reason, like I really wanted to get to know her. There was definitely an attraction between us, or at least I felt attracted to her, but it felt like more. It was almost like I’d just found someone I was looking for or something.

It was ridiculous of course. It was painfully obvious she thought I was an idiot, some vapid rich girl. She seemed super grumpy, which just made me default to cheerful, but I couldn’t help but notice that Teresa wasn’t like that with the three guys who’d come to help her today. With them she was smiling and friendly, unlike me.

I remembered the way she’d growled when Boris kissed my hand. What was that all about?

I watched her from underneath my eyelashes as she perused the menu from my favorite Thai restaurant. I’d pulled up the Door Dash page on my iPad and told her to order whatever she wanted. Her blue eyes were serious as she studied the menu options like it was a multiple choice quiz.

Teresa was stunningly beautiful with a coiled strength that gave her just a touch of danger. I looked down at her mouth, remembering when her fangs had extended in my dressing room, and wondering why that happened. For someone whoseemed very in control, that change in her teeth had seemed to take her by surprise.

“Here you go.”

Teresa slid my iPad back across the table, catching me staring at her but not calling me out on it. I added a few items to the order then pressed submit. Thirty seconds later my phone beeped with a text.

“The food will be here in forty-five minutes,” I said. “Are you ready to watch your firstBuffyepisode?”

***

“That’s just bullshit.”

I looked over at Teresa who was glowering at the screen, a container of drunken noodles in her hand.

“What is?”

“Killing vamps with a stake to the heart doesn’t work.”

I paused the program, leaving the teenaged hero frozen in the midst of a roundhouse kick to another vampire. “Sure it does.”

Teresa shook her head stubbornly.

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