by Mia Madison
Would Anna still say enjoy a few nights or even a whole month with Mr. Hot and live a little? She probably would. That’s why I wanted to call her. As if I needed permission at twenty-three. But I’m not Anna. I’ve never done this before. Maybe I should I tell him where to go, because I have work to do here?
“Listen, Paige, I like you, but I don’t want to lead you on, to let you think that this can go anywhere.”
“So after we ‘walked and talked,’ you’re getting the ‘I’m not looking for a long term relationship’ speech in early. Don’t worry; I get it.”
“You do?”
Does he expect me to be devastated, as if I was too stupid to see it coming? “It’s fine by me. The last thing I need is anything complicated right now. I just shook off one guy, and I’m not looking for another. It doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”
I almost believe it as I say it, but part of me is disappointed. Can I be just his friend? Those kisses held some kind of promise even if it wasn’t the promise of a relationship. A promise of more. If he can make me feel so good with a kiss, how much better could it get? And suddenly I have to know, and I add, “With benefits.”
His eyes light up. “Friends with benefits?”
“Yeah, friends with benefits.” Anna would be proud of me. I can do this.
I look at him, and my breath hitches. Did I just say that I want to sleep with him with no strings?
“It’s late. I know you had a long day. I’ll see you tomorrow, then?” he says.
Knowing me, if he leaves I’ll lose my nerve about this whole casual benefits thing, and right now I’m wide awake because of him. “You can stay a while if you want.”
“I want,” he says. “I just thought you’d be tired. But I want you. Like yesterday, though right now will do at a push.”
I watch his lips. They’re so perfect, I want to trace around them with my fingertip. But I’m rooted to the spot. A ripple of anticipation runs down my spine, heat flooding my core, hearing his words.
He plants the gentlest of kisses on my lips. “Sit here with me.” He leads me over to the bed and pulls me onto his lap. I’m surrounded by sheer male muscle, his thighs hard through my dress, his arms holding me, a heady mix of warmth and strength and sheer masculinity. The scent of him that I’m starting to recognize surrounds me, sending my insides quivering.
One kiss from him and I want him so badly, I hear myself whimper. This is getting out of control. He’s hardly touched me.
“I love those little sounds you make,” he says. “And you’re going to make a bunch more of them. For me.”
“Maybe I won’t.”
“I think you will. I can’t wait to hear you come on my mouth.”
I suck in a breath. I think I lost the power of speech for a moment. Then I say, “You’re direct.”
“Nothing wrong with plain speaking. I tell it how I see it. I want to taste every part of you, but eventually it’s all going to lead to you coming. On my face.”
“What if I don’t come like that?”
“Challenge accepted.”
“You’re bad.”
“Not as bad as I’m going to make you. I love this dress, but it has to come off.” He unzips it, and starts to pull it up over my head. So help me, I let him, even getting up off his lap so he can complete the operation, because I want to see where this is all going to lead.
Dress cast aside, he runs his fingers over a nipple through the thin satin of my bra and the traitorous nub perks into action.
“You’re so sexy standing there in your kinky boots and thigh-highs,” he says. “I’ve a good mind to make you come through your panties.”
“Challenge accepted,” I whisper, and he grins and pulls me toward him so I’m standing between his spread thighs.
He kisses my stomach and nudges his fingers inside the leg band of my panties. “You’re so wet; I love it,” he says. Pulling me toward him, he lays me on the bed.
“This can come off,” he says, unfastening my bra and discarding it. I have the urge to cover myself, but he grabs my hands before they get there, holding them above my head.
“So beautiful,” he says. “I have to see and taste you.” His hot mouth encloses a nipple, and he teases me with his tongue and sucks. Hard. So hard I’m squirming on the bed with need before he’s done. Then he plants a line of kisses down my stomach to my panties, where he stops.
“I changed my mind. Panties down. I need to see you. All of you. But the boots and thigh-highs stay,” he says, yanking my underwear down and right off. I feel so vulnerable, lying almost naked while he’s fully dressed. I can’t help moving my arms and hands to cover myself.
“You’re hiding again,” he says, gently taking my hands. “Don’t ever hide from me. Or I’ll have to spank you.”
“Spank me?” I squeak. No one ever threatened that before. It’s hotter than I expected.
“Yes, I’ll put you over my lap and spank you until you beg me to fuck you.”
“I’ll never beg.”
“You will, at some point.” He laughs. “Maybe even tonight.”
But now his fingers have found my clit, and I don’t want anything but to feel them there, and his mouth which soon replaces them. He drives me to the edge with the tip of his tongue swirling, and flicking, plunging and licking. If I was making a lot of noise when he kissed me, that has nothing on this, and when the pleasure spills over and I come undone, his mouth still on me, I moan all the harder.
He holds me until I come down from that. And now I want to explore him. I reach out and touch the hard length of him through his pants. Impressive. I pop the button open and tackle the zipper.
“Grant! Grant!” No one could miss Tessa’s strident tones.
“Fuck!” he says. “That’s enough to make a man wilt.”
I take a peek. “No, can’t see any wilting going on. Far from it.”
“It’s all right for you, seems to me. You don’t have to go out and deal with her now when staying here seems like much more fun.”
“You’re the one who said we should feel sorry for her.”
“I do, but even so, sometimes she tries the patience of a saint…”
“Grant!” Tessa calls again, more loudly this time.
“I’d better go, but I’ll catch you tomorrow?”
“If I don’t run away first.”
“I might enjoy the chase.”
“I might let you catch me.”
“You’re something else, Paige Newman.” He kisses me, softly, and he’s gone.
I break out into a smile like I just found Louboutin shoes at a rummage sale. I wish he hadn’t had to go. But I’ll see him tomorrow, hopefully for the full Grant Maddox bodyguard experience.
And I can’t help feeling pleased with myself. Fancy me doing this, having a hot friend with benefits and skills.
I want to tell Anna what’s been going on since I arrived. It’s ten thirty at night here. She should be on her way home from work now. I might just catch her before she goes out. But I forgot all about the wi-fi password. It will have to wait until tomorrow.
But Grant remembers my request, and less than half an hour later, he slips it under my door with a smiley face added, but he doesn’t knock. Maybe he thinks he’ll wake me up. No chance of that. I’m up and wide awake, thinking about him and my first day in Scotland. Not even a full day. Just a few hours.
I can’t wait to see what the next day will bring. A two hundred mile drive around the highlands looking for curtain fabric? Tessa thinking about an elephant theme for her bathroom? It doesn’t matter. As long as the day has Grant in it, how bad can it be?
CHAPTER 12
Grant
As I go to find what Tessa wants, I can see her looking puzzled about the direction I’ve come from and maybe my hair is looking ruffled. I sense she wants to ask what I’ve been up to, but she doesn’t quite dare.
“I heard you calling,” I say.
“Yes, I thought I heard a mouse
scratching behind the wall paneling. Have you seen any mice on your rounds?”
“Not since I’ve been here. Mrs. Hanson’s cat probably sees them off.” I try not to sound exasperated, because this could have waited. She’s not even acting scared, never mind actually frightened. “I’d have expected you to scream louder if there was a mouse around.”
“I used to have one as a pet when I was eight, but they can do a lot of damage if there are a few.”
“I’ll keep a look out for them when I’m checking things out in the future. But we’d probably have seen the signs by now if the house had a big problem.”
“What are you up to tonight? Was there something suspicious along there?” she asks.
So there it is. She does want to know what I was doing in Paige’s part of the house. I could lie and say I went to check something out, but the truth, at least part of it, will do just fine. “I promised to give Paige the wi-fi password. Apparently you gave her food for thought, and she wants to get going on your designs right away.”
“That’s good. You won’t recognize the place before too long.”
“I probably won’t be around by the time it’s done, much as I’d like to see it. You know, you don’t really need me to manage your security. Tom could easily do what I do. He said he’d be happy to do a few more hours.”
“I want you to stay on. I just feel safer with you here. It’s a big old house to rattle around on my own.”
“Mrs. Hanson is around. You’re not really alone.”
“Yes, but she has her own quarters. And it’s not the same as having company.”
“What about Jeremy? Isn’t he going to spend more time here?”
“I think he hates it here.” She looks as miserable as I’ve seen her in the two weeks I’ve known her. “I might go back to London in the summer.”
“Why don’t you sell the house? You could buy somewhere you both like.”
“I don’t know. We could, I suppose. But first I’m going to have fun spending his money.” She puts on a positive face and laughs. “And if he doesn’t like it after that, we can find somewhere else.”
“I’ll say good night now, then. I’ve done a walk around the perimeter, and the security system is in place. All’s quiet on the Western Front.”
“I’ll holler if I need you.”
“Right, then.” I hope she doesn’t. “Goodnight, Tessa.”
“You’d rescue me if they got me, wouldn’t you?”
“My job is making sure they don’t get you in the first place, but yes, I would. It won’t come to that, though. There have been no signs, none at all.”
“Not so far.”
“There’s nothing to worry about. I’m pretty sure by now.”
“Not for you,” she murmurs so quietly I might have imagined it, but she quickly follows with, “goodnight, then. I might have a trip to town tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’ll be ready. Goodnight.”
That will be a pain, hanging around dress shops all day. I think she just likes to pretend I’m with her, except I can’t complain like a bored husband when his wife tries on every dress in the shop. I’m the perfect paid shopping companion.
If Paige wasn’t here, I’d definitely be thinking about having another word with Jeremy to get me out of this assignment. I briefly mentioned it a week ago, but he didn’t bite. Maybe he thinks his wife would come back if I left. Poor Tessa. No wonder she’s so highly strung. I like Jeremy less the more I hear about him, but who knows? There are two sides to every story, and I’m just seeing one.
CHAPTER 13
Paige
I put the wi-fi password to good use, and after researching a couple of design ideas for the dining room, I have a long chat with Anna. She makes me feel better about the whole situation, just as I knew she would.
“Hey, a hot bodyguard. What’s not to like? If you’re going to be friends anyway, you might as well have the benefits.”
“Not that I’ve had the full treatment yet; we were interrupted.” I explain about Tessa and the house.
“Yeah. But if you pick your moments carefully, she’ll never know. Lucky you that the house is so big. All the more rooms to design, and you get a wing virtually to yourself. It sounds like you might be rocking the place with a guy like him, and it will be hard keeping quiet.” She laughs. Typical Anna.
She tells me all she’s been up to. Her love life needs a project plan to avoid getting herself double booked. By the time we’ve caught up, it’s already midnight, and it takes me until the early hours to go to sleep. I’m like a kid on the night before Christmas, all kinds of exciting possibilities churning around in my head.
I set my alarm for eight thirty, and I’m downstairs by nine, but there’s no sign of Grant or Tessa. Mrs. Braithwaite puts a big plate of bacon and eggs in front of me and tells me they’ve gone into Inverness. “Mrs. Frobisher wanted to do some shopping,” she says. “She left you a note.”
I’ve got a horrible feeling it will be about an antelope theme for the library or something. But it’s not, she just tells me to explore in peace and quiet, because they’ll be gone all day, and she hopes it will allow me to get a feel for the place and how well her ideas would work in it.
Right.
I should be happy to have a Tessa free day so I can get to work, but I’m not. I was looking forward to seeing Grant this morning. I came down with the expectation he’d be there winking or smiling at me or something, and all I get is a note from Tessa. I feel like she snatched him away deliberately.
But maybe I’m reading too much into this. As her bodyguard, I guess he has to follow her wherever she goes.
At least it gives me time to look at the main rooms again, draw plans and think about them properly. I eat lunch in the kitchen with Mrs. Braithwaite, who says to call her Brenda, and she tells me about growing up on a farm. While we’re chatting, Tessa sends her a text message to say they’ll be late back, and not to wait for them for dinner either.
Another disappointment.
A walk in the small garden to the side of the house clears my head. I’m overreacting. I know I am. I have to do my job, too, just as Grant has to do his.
But when they still haven’t come back by ten, I go to bed, more than a little fed up. So much for benefits. I’m waiting around for him like a teen girl desperate for an invitation to the prom. No. Just no. I’m not going to be that girl. And still tired from the day before, I go to bed early, switching off my phone, and eventually I manage to drift off to sleep.
CHAPTER 14
Grant
Tessa is driving me crazy. I think we’ve been to every dress shop, shoe shop, and department store in Inverness in the pursuit of perfect items to add to her already vast collection of clothing and footwear. We’ve only had a brief break for a sandwich at lunch time, and a pastry that wouldn’t keep one of Tessa’s mouse friends alive at four o’clock. By the time she says we are staying in town for dinner, and she’s booked us a hotel so we don’t have to drive back, I’ve had enough.
“I need to get home and check everything,” I tell her. “And Tom will want to go home, too.”
“But you said there was no danger. Tom can go home and come back for us tomorrow. He can do the checking if you like.”
“He can if you’re not employing me. It’s still part of the duties I agreed with your husband.”
She pouts, but then she relents. “All right, we’ll just have dinner, then. I told Brenda we wouldn’t be back, so she won’t have prepared anything. Tom can join us if he wants.” She knows he won’t. He always keeps himself to himself. And being old school, he doesn’t think it’s his place to dine with Tessa. Lucky Tom.
I want to see Paige today, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. It’s hard not to show my impatience with Tessa, but I’m polite while she talks about all the things she bought that I’ve already seen. I can’t even send Paige a message until Tessa goes to the bathroom.
Sorry I missed you today. St
uck here having dinner. Grant.
It’s only after I send it that I realize what a brain fart that was. We’re friends, but only since yesterday. Paige doesn’t need to know where I am every hour of the day. Or that I’m missing her. I shouldn’t even be missing her.
Tessa comes back, and we go and find Tom to make the hour long drive back.
There’s no sign of Paige when we go into the house. And I still have to make the tour of the perimeter I made such a fuss about. Alone this time. Total waste of a day. I get on the phone to Jack as I’m doing my rounds. “I feel like a spare part as a bodyguard in this house. I’m not Tessa’s fucking plaything,” I rant.
“I could relieve you for a few weeks if it’s too much,” he says.
That brings an end to my venting. I’d never see Paige then. Not until London, a month away at the earliest, and I might end up anywhere on my next assignment.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll see it out. You can owe me one the next time.”
The decisions are coming right out of Crazyville tonight. What is Paige doing to me?
CHAPTER 15
Paige
I’m half awake in the middle of the night when I hear a crash and breaking glass. What was that? Leaping out of bed, I pull on my robe and pad out into the corridor in my slippers.
At this point I’m not too happy about sleeping in a wing of the house on my own. Are Tessa and Grant even back? And I haven’t seen the housekeeper, Mrs. Hanson, today either. Maybe it’s her day off.
My heart thuds as I gingerly make my way along the corridor. What was that noise? But it’s just the wind. It’s been steadily picking up through the night, rattling the panes at the bedroom window and adding to my restless sleep.
Grant meets me halfway along the corridor, Tessa following him. “It’s okay,” he says. “I’ll take you and Tessa down to the drawing room and check out what’s going on. I think it’s just a big branch falling off or something because of the gale, but I’ll need to secure the house.”
