Page 43 of The Bodyguard and the Alpha
She may enter. No-one else.
I nodded. I was totally okay with that. I didn’t want a repeat of the way Bastien had reacted the first time my colleague, Matteo, had stuck his head into the room. Bastien had leaped from the bed and charged at him, from all appearancesready to commit murder because a male might have seen me partly naked.
Although, the jealous way he’d fucked me afterwards had beenhot.
The arm was still possessively around my body… my naked body. “You need to let me up big guy. I’m close to my sister, but I’d rather have some clothes on.” If only I knew where my clothes were. It had been days since I’d worn anything.
Bastien’s eyes opened and his heated blue gaze ran up and down my body, lingering on my bare breasts, on the marks he’d left on my skin. The hand moved from my waist to caress my hip.
There’s a robe in the bathroom.
Huh. I’d known that. I’d seen it but my brain hadn’t been working properly for days. “Give me five minutes,” I shouted toward the door as I wriggled off the bed.
I scurried to the bathroom. I didn’t shut the door behind me. There was no point. The lock no longer worked. The first time I’d tried to take a shower alone I’d locked the door out of habit. When Bastien realised he was locked out he had shattered the lock with one kick. I rolled my eyes at the memory. The robe was hanging on a hook behind the door. Blue silk, it hung to mid-thigh. I was covered, but barely. Turning, I reached for a brush. There was no mirror, but given the… activities… I’d been engaged in, my hair was sure to be a tangled mess.
I’ll do it. Bastien’s voice was a warm caress in my mind. He had rammed through my mental defences the first time we’d had sex. He had bitten me again, in the same place where he’d given me my original mate mark, and while I’d been out of my mind with pleasure, he had demolished my shields sothoroughly that his mental presence was now a constant in my mind. I was never alone. Not even in my thoughts.
My hair? You want to do my hair?
Of course. It’s my job to take care of you.
Your job is to be President of the Council.
That washisjob. I am not the President.
Brush in hand, I returned to our room… cell… whatever. Bastien had found a pair of grey sweatpants from somewhere, and he had moved to the table, his large thighs spread wide. He gestured for me to stand between his legs.
Handing him the brush, I turned my back. As he wielded the brush through the tangles in my hair with gentle strokes, I thought about the words I wanted to say.
“I love both parts of you,” I said.
Aloud, he just grunted.You’re mine, he growled down the bond.He kept me from you for five years. He doesn’t deserve you.
And we were back here again. Whenever I tried to broach the topic of Bastien bonding the two halves of his soul, he shut the conversation down. He didn’t want to be the President of the Council and he didn’t want to share me with his human half.
“We can’t stay here forever.”
In reply, Bastien sent me the image of a secluded country house, behind high walls, patrolled by Shifter guards. Ruthlessly, I quashed the feelings that wanted to grow under my breastbone. I knew that house. It was Bastien’s country home. I’d been there a couple of times when visiting political figures had wanted some time away from the spotlight and I’d lovedevery second I’d spent there. If there was a house where I could imagine spending ongoing enforced isolation, it was that house.
Total privacy. Large, shaded gardens. I could be happy there. A place where I didn’t have to be a Witch. Where I could be my own person. Bastien’s mate.
I knew the thought leaked out when I felt Bastien’s pleased hum. Against my back, his cock swelled.
Be quick with your sister. Sharp fangs grazed the sensitive skin of my shoulder. Bastien pulled me onto his lap, and at the same time his deep voice rumbled, “Let her in.”
Tears welled in my eyes as I watched my sister enter the room. She looked good. She looked confident, joyful. Being mated to Luc clearly agreed with her. And she didn’t even blink at Bastien’s beast form.
The door remained open behind her and she paused, hands open and loose by her side, sensibly showing Bastien that she was no threat.Let me go, I ordered and Bastien’s hands dropped from around my waist. In a flash, I was up and running to my sister.
I will leave you two alone, Bastien said gently in my mind. Faintly, I registered that he headed for the bathroom and I sent him a pulse of gratitude. Most of my concentration was on my sister. She grabbed me in a fierce hug that matched my own, both of us crying. The past month had been intense for both of us. While Bastien and I had been in Europe, my pre-cog had fired multiple times, telling me that Caly had been in danger. I’d been just in time to alert her to an attack in her apartment, but I’d spent several hours pacing the floor of my suite in our luxury hotel waiting to hear what had happened. To my surprise, it had been Luc who texted me to let me know that she’d been hurt but was going to be okay.
Then, after Luc and Caly had figured out that she had a journal that was part of a spell to block magic, he’d moved her into the Palace. Where she should have been safe. But she’d been kidnapped from under Luc’s nose, in the most secure building in the country and my warning phone calls had gone unheard.
The hours I’d waited for news of her had been the worst in my life. Thankfully, she and Luc were both all right, although she’d been in serious danger. My pre-cog had stabbed into my brain like a knife.
Finding out that she and Luc were mates, was hard. Envy had stabbed deep into my soul, even though I was rapt for her. Caly deserved happiness. Our mother’s neglect had hit her hard and the overprotective possessive love of an Alpha was perfect for her. But it had been a final nail in the coffin for my life as Bastien’s bodyguard. My own loneliness had reached a tipping point with Caly’s announcement.
Even once I’d returned to the Palace, we didn’t have a moment to ourselves. While Bastien and I prepared for the Summit, Luc had locked Caly away in his suite, his Alpha instincts pushing him hard, and I had been working round the clock. We had doubled Bastien’s security, without adding any new staff to the roster, knowing that Caly’s kidnappers had acquired the journal and the missing parts of the magic dampening spell. If I wasn’t on duty, I was falling into bed exhausted.
