Page 28 of The Bodyguard Proposal

Judd goes to his knees. “I should?—”

“You should?—”

“Apologize,” he says at the same time I say, “Go!”

His face crumbles. “Did I hurt you?”

“Not at all,” I blurt honestly.

“But then why?”

“Period blood,” I insist, despite his disbelieving expression. “But I’m fine.Totallyfine.”

“Are you still bleeding?”

“Maybe,” I say truthfully, without thinking. My plan is to poke a finger inside me as soon as he leaves while doing some scouring of internet forums to see if this has happened to anyone before.Sat On Man’s Lap Like A Bicycle Seat and Very Slightly Bled But No Pain Whatsoever.

But for that?—

“Judd, you need to go!”

“Right! I’ll get help.”

“Mmm.” I wad more toilet paper together and scrub it across the floor. Thankfully, there is very little blood by volume, but speckles have landed everywhere. I’m talking behind the toilet seat. And I’m so focused on erasing all evidence this happened that it takes a minute to comprehend Judd’s last words before he left.

Get… help? He said,Get help?

But fromwho?

Like, is he bringing someone to see me in here?

I groan and rush out of the bathroom, careening down the corridor in a daze. This night can’t get any worse. Can it?

It does.

When I whip around the left-hand corner, I see him.

Judd is there, and he is dangling in the air?—

A forearm pins him to the wall.

NINE

The grip my bodyguard has on Judd is immovable. I reach out and try to dislodge his arm, but I might as well be doing nothing.

Huan is unfazed by my rescue attempts, so I resort to accusations. “Hey! Why are you holding him up like that?”

“He was rambling about you,” says Huan. “With his pants falling down. But he hasn't been able to share what exactly has happened.”

Oh, shit.

It’s the soft vehemence of his tone; I’ve never heard it like this before.

Huan Li has lost his cool. But how?

He’s an immaculately even-tempered bodyguard. Even when we got a letter written in blood by one of my mother’s fans, or when a fan disguised as a cleaner snuck into our house, or when the barricade broke and protestors mobbed her last red carpet, Huan never lost his composure. His mouth would pinch and the rest of him was a board… like the Titanic board or debris or whatever it was that Kate Winslet floats away on. What I’m saying is, it took her away to safety with no fuss, despite the behemoth of a ship sinking to its doom behind it… and that isHuan. So reliable you wonder whether he’s got fear or doubt or any heightened emotion inside him.

The man in front of me is no longer a polished blade of efficiency. Locks of hair fall across his forehead like they've been dragged there by his fingers. His eyes are narrowed until all you see are pinpricks of pupils, and his nose is flaring.

---