Page 21 of Guarding the Singer

She didn't want him to walk away.

"You don't have to say a thing." He smiled at her and she felt like she had his full attention.

A heady feeling for sure.

"I... If you wanted to..."

She felt herself shrinking away from the words.

She wanted to keep in touch.

She wanted to at least be friends.

How... silly did that sound?

"Can I," his voice was deep and low, gentle and soft, "touch you?"

Oh.

She knew that it was her own mind going 'there.'

She knew that he wasn't talking about that. Not standing there at the fence of the White House.

Nodding, she licked at her lips.

He smiled.

"Yes?"

She nodded again. "Yes."

He lifted his hand and brushed his fingertips along her cheekbone. "I've been wanting to do that for hours."

Selene turned her head, and his hand moved to cup her cheek.

"I've been hoping you'd do that for hours."

His touch was just as mesmerizing as his smile and the warmth in his gaze. "As the guard assigned to you. That would have been a problem."

She worried her bottom lip at that. "I wouldn't want you to get in trouble over me."

Something changed in his gaze. It was deeper. More intense.

"I'd get in all kinds of trouble over you."

He didn't elaborate, but she felt a tremor move through her, a thrill. She'd fill in the gaps in her dreams.

"I'm guessing you don't live around here?"

She smiled at that. "No. I have a house in Virginia. My hometown. When I'm doing shows, I rent houses to stay in. I'm not big on hotels."

He nodded and looked at the White House on the other side of the fence. "That's a hell of a hotel."

They laughed at that, and she felt him move his hand until his fingertips were moving along the slicked back hair at her temples.

What she wouldn't give to feel his fingers through her hair when it was loose and around her shoulders.

"Do you," she drew in a breath, "do you want my number?"

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