Page 17 of Keep Her Safe

She bounces on her toes and points towards the corner. “There’s a bug.”

I shoot her a look, momentarily ignoring that she’s wearing next to nothing so I can show her how irritated I am. “Are you serious?”

“It’s gross.” She wiggles her fingers and scrunches her nose. “A spider.”

I stomp across the room, grabbing a tissue from her nightstand and pick up the very tiny reason I’m living my worst nightmare slash fantasy before tossing it in the toilet of her ensuite bathroom.

She gives me a smile and two thumbs up. “Thank you!” She bats her eyelashes at me. “You’re the best!”

“You’re welcome. Anything else?” I ask, and the twinkle in her eye lets me know that I’m about to regret that question when she hops on her bed making her tits bounce deliciously.

FUCK. I have to get out of here.

“Well, actually there’s one other thing.”

I cross my arms over my chest, balling my hands into fists in the process, and begin running through every unsexy thing I can think of to calm my dick that is about to start rising. “Mmmhm.” I raise an eyebrow at her.

“So, there’s this party next weekend?”

I lean against the door jamb. “Go on.”

“No paparazzi. They’re even making us check our phones at the door.” This isn’t new. There are often parties she goes to where they want celebrities to feel safe to let loose without the fear of someone leaking a photo so no phones are allowed inside. Usually, security waits outside so we can keep our phones and we have access to some sort of landline.

“But I was thinking…maybe you’d want to actually come.”

“Of course, I’ll come. I’ll be outside like always.” I nod at her.

Her lips form the most adorable fucking pout and I lower my gaze at her. “I mean, like come in…to the party. Have…fun with me?”

Well, shit.“Shay, you don’t pay me to have fun.”

“Okay, well what if I gave you the night off, then will you?”

“If I had the night off, I wouldn’t be going to a party with you. Kind of sounds like work.”

She scoffs and tosses a hair over her shoulder. “Some say hanging out with me is fun.”

“Well, I’m not one of your friends.”

“God, you sound like my parents. You’re not that old, Damian. Don’t you ever let loose?”

“Not while I’m on the job.”

She huffs and puts her hands under her chin as if she’s praying. “Damian, pleeease! I think you’ll have fun, and Veronica and Derek are in their ‘on’ phase and third-wheeling with them is really fucking irritating sometimes.” She rolls her eyes dramatically.

“Shay, I’m not here to entertain you. You have plenty of friends you can go with.”

“Well…yeah, but none of them…are you.” She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip almost to drive her point home that she’s asking me out.

Holy shit.

The most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met just essentially asked me out and I have to tell her no. “Shay.”

“I think you would have fun. I mean I’m fun.” She points at herself. “We would have fun together. I said ‘fun’ a lot, didn’t I?” Her lips form a straight line as she looks up towards the ceiling as if the answer to her question will fall from it.

“Shay, I can’t…we can’t go down that road.”

“It’s just a party.”

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