Guarded Desires

by Couper, Lexxie

  Liev had spent a lifetime caught between two sexual appetites. Close to thirty-three years of it. From the day he’d accepted the hard-on he was desperately trying to hide at school had nothing to do with the hot girl from History class sitting beside him and everything to do with the hot captain of the boys’ soccer team running around on the field in front of him—at the sage age of thirteen—he’d known he walked a line most boys didn’t.

  From the first blowjob given to him by a male’s mouth, a few years later by a fellow senior from a different school during an excursion to the ski-slopes—Liev knew he didn’t care the line he walked was socially…shunned.

  The first blowjob he’d received from a girl—six months after that, from the hot girl from History class—had been equally explosive and cemented the fact in his mind he was bi. Sex was sex, and Liev had no issues with the gender of his partner. If he or she turned him on, he was happy to oblige.

  Was that the case with Chris Huntley? Was Chris bi as well?

  He knew the sexual preference of actors, especially ones deemed sex symbols like Chris, was treated like a precious commodity. The more virile and desirable women found an actor, the more money his work could pull in. An actor who’d built his career on his potent heterosexuality could see said career destroyed at just the hint of homosexuality. Why else all the defamation lawsuits?

  Or was he just grasping at straws? He’d been attracted to Chris from the first episode he’d watched of Twice Too Many. Guarding him from a distance last year had only furthered that desire. Now, being in Chris’s presence, breathing in his subtle scent…fair dinkum, it was pretty damn amazing. Seeing the sharp intelligence in the actor’s eyes his sitcom character didn’t allow out, watching Chris’s body move with latent strength, a body more honed to physical perfection thanks to his role in Dead Even…well, amazing didn’t really come close to describing how Liev felt right now.

  He let out a low groan.

  He had to stop thinking about the man. Even if Chris Huntley was sexually interested in Liev—and it was a big bloody if, about the size of the country to be honest—nothing could come of it. Bodyguard’s second rule. Never, ever get sexually involved with the client.

  Never. It was the second rule Aslin Rhodes had taught him. It was the second rule Liev worked by.

  He’d guarded more than one female politician who had suggested activities beyond his job requirement, and he’d declined every one. A bodyguard who fucked around with his client wasn’t just unprofessional. He was stupid.

  Liev wasn’t stupid, despite what his older brother wanted to believe.

  Whatever the spark he’d felt between him and Chris earlier that night—and Christ, he was one hundred percent certain he wasn’t the only one to feel it—nothing could come of it.

  Even if Chris strode out of his bedroom at this very second, took Liev’s hand and wrapped it around Chris’s erect, pre-come dripping cock, Liev would pull away.

  It would be fucking hard, but he would do it.

  Hard. Like his dick was now.

  So damn hard it hurt.

  Biting back a muttered curse, he killed the lights in the living area and kitchen, hurried up the stairs to the third floor and strode to his bedroom.

  The room was opposite Chris’s. The door to the master bedroom was closed. No light filtered from beneath the thin gap at the bottom.

  Liev turned to his door.

  And stopped as the door beside his, the door to Bethany’s bedroom, opened.

  She stood on the threshold, her exquisitely petite body barely covered by a tiny pair of black knickers and a tank top that stopped short of her navel. She studied him, one hand coming to rest on the wooden doorjamb, the other playing with the small gold pendant resting in the shallow cleavage of her breasts. “Finished protecting us for the night, Liev?”

  Liev’s gut clenched. He stared at her, his chest tight. There was barely an inch of fat on her frame. A belly-button ring glinted at him in the muted light, drawing his attention to a delicate tattoo beneath it. A word was inked in her flesh in an ornate script he couldn’t read from where he stood. A name maybe?

  His cock throbbed. On the outside, Bethany Sloan may appear straight-laced, but the navel ring and the tattoo hinted at something else. Something…wilder.

  Swallowing the frantic, beating lump in his throat, he nodded. “Yep. Doors are all locked, windows too. If someone’s getting in now, they’re using a blowtorch or wrecking ball.”

  The corners of Bethany’s mouth curled. “And I assume you’d stop them before they made it through the hole.”

  “I would.”

  She stopped playing with her necklace and brushed her fingertips over the swell of her right breast, her gaze direct. “What are you planning to do now?”

  Liev forced a chuckle to his lips. “Go to bed.”

  “Alone?”

  He nodded at her question.

  The smile teased her lips some more. “Tell me, in your mind, who is going to be in there with you?”

  Liev kept his expression relaxed. Calm. Inside…fuck a bloody duck, there was nothing calm about him. “In my mind? Jennifer Beal.”

  Bethany chuckled, the sound low and more husky than any he’d heard her make. “Bullshit.”

  “You don’t like Jennifer Beal?”

  Bethany ran the tip of her tongue over the edge of her teeth. “If my tastes ran that way, Jennifer Beal would very much be my sexual fantasy of choice, but I call bullshit because I think you’ve got the gender wrong.”

  An invisible fist smashed into Liev’s gut. “Really? Who do you think I’m taking to bed then? In my mind.”

  Bethany laughed. “We both know who.” She flicked a glance at the closed master bedroom door.

  What little composure Liev was clinging to frayed at her statement. He ground his teeth, holding his body motionless.

  Bethany cocked an eyebrow. “Or am I wrong? If I asked you to join me in my room, what would you say?”

  Liev let a slow smile spread his lips. “I’d say no. Professional duty and all. Can’t really protect the boss when I’m fucking his P.A., can I?”

  Another one of those husky laughs slipped past Bethany’s lips. “No. Good to know Mr. Huntley is well guarded then. It would seem Mr. Rhodes was right about you.”

  Liev couldn’t stop his eyebrows shooting up. “Oh yeah? What did Rhodes say about me?”

  An ambiguous smile pulled at Bethany’s lips. “That you were just what Mr. Huntley needed.”

  And with that, she stepped back into the dark shadows of her room and closed the door.

  Liev’s blood roared in his ears. He stood rooted to the spot.

  The irrational urge to kick her door open, to throw her on the bed and fuck her senseless surged through him. But even as the violent thought formed in his head, Bethany transformed. From a fiery redhead to a sexy blond. From a woman to a man.

  From Bethany to Chris.

  “Fuck,” he muttered, balling his hands into fists. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

  He spun on his heel and stormed into his room.

  Fuck.

  Shutting the door behind him, he pressed his forehead against the wall.

  Damn it. Bethany had not only suspected his desire for their boss, she’d called him on it. He had no doubt the display in the doorway had been intended to test his professionalism, but then, as she’d raked her gaze over his body, he’d seen it again. That interest he’d noticed before in her eyes. There and gone in a heartbeat.

  So now here he was, hornier than he’d ever been, lusting after a man he could never have and a woman who knew how much he—

  Without waiting for the frustrating thought to finish, Liev yanked open his fly, shoved his jeans down his hips and wrapped his hand around his dick.

  The second his fingers pressed his engorged length raw pleasure shot through him. He groaned, lolling his head back. Closing his eyes, he pumped his fist.

  His knees gave out. Stumbling backward, he dr
opped onto his bed, pleasure rendering his legs weak. He choked his cock, fucking his hand with punishing pressure and force.

  In his mind, he saw Bethany at the door. Saw that smile on her lips, that challenging, knowing smile as she brushed her fingers over the swell of her breast.

  In his mind, he saw Chris watching him. He saw Chris undress. Saw him walk toward him and lower to his knees.

  He groaned, letting his fevered brain tell him it was Chris’s hands on his flesh as he reached for his sac and kneaded his balls.

  A searing pressure began to build in the base of his spine. Radiating through his stomach, his groin. The soles of his feet tingled. He curled his toes and pumped his cock harder, squeezing his fingers with increasing rhythm and pressure until just his hand wasn’t enough.

  His hips bucked. His teeth clenched.

  He mauled his scrotum and fucked his hand and watched as Chris lowered his mouth over his shaft and sucked on its rigid length.

  “Fuck,” he ground out, scalding need turning his blood to molten steel. He was going to come. He was going to come and he wasn’t prepared.

  He had nothing to prevent his seed splattering on the bed’s duvet but his—

  His orgasm tore from him before he could release his cock. Before he could stagger to the bathroom.

  He choked out a cry, wrapping his hand around the crown of his erection, his release oozing between his tight grip even as he continued to pump his hips upward.

  It lasted an eternity. A lifetime. He’d jerked off before, what red-blooded male hadn’t, but never like this. Never so brutal, so punishing.

  His seed continued to spurt from his dick, coating his palm, trickling down his wrist. He bit his lip, afraid if he didn’t he’d call out the one name he couldn’t. It was one thing to imagine Chris Huntley feasting on his climax. It was another to vocalize the fantasy, even if Bethany knew.

  Especially when the man was only a few feet away. Only separated from him by a few feet of carpet and two closed doors.

  Five minutes later, his heartbeat rapid, his breath shallow, Liev stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror.

  “Crap,” he muttered, running cold water over his hands. “You can’t do that again, dickhead.”

  He couldn’t. It was too risky.

  For starters, what would happen if someone tried to gain access to the house while he was mid-ejaculation?

  He needed to control himself until after the job was done. When he was back in his own home, without the immediate demands of his job hanging over his head, then he could jerk off as much as he wanted.

  Until then, he was celibate.

  Seven days. Seven nights. He could control himself for that length of time.

  No matter what his body was telling him, he could control himself. Worst-case scenario, he’d quickly toss one off in the shower each morning. At least then he’d be less inclined to spend the day semi-erect in Chris’s company. A quick wank to take off the tension and then he could direct all his focus and energy on actually being what he was employed to be. Chris’s bodyguard. Just that. Keeping the actor safe and out of harm’s way from his adoring—

  Downstairs, the doorbell chimed.

  Charged adrenaline ripped through Liev’s veins. Snapping off the tap, he ran out of the bathroom, past his crumpled bed and from his room.

  The doorbell rang again.

  By the time Liev was halfway down the stairs, zipping up his fly and tucking in his shirt, whoever was outside had begun to knock as well.

  “Mr. Reynolds?” Bethany called behind him.

  “I’ve got it,” he threw over his shoulder.

  “What’s going on, Liev?”

  Chris’s voice came from the top of the stairs. Liev ground his teeth. “Go back in your room please, Mr. Huntley,” he said without slowing down.

  He strode across the living area, activated all the external lights and hurried down the stairs to the foyer. With one quick look back up to the living area to find Bethany watching him from the top step—alone, he was glad to see—he turned to the door and opened it.

  The young woman from the water taxi stood on the other side, the one Liev had called thanks to her Call Me, Chris sign. “Shit,” she whispered, stumbling back a step.

  Letting out sharp breath, Liev stepped out onto the front step and pulled the door almost closed behind him. “Love,” he said, giving her a hard look, “you really need to go home.”

  She nodded, and once again he noticed she was barely dressed. This close however, he could see she was younger than he thought. Hell, she had to be no older than his niece.

  Jesus, what was a girl of seventeen doing out at two in the morning offering herself to an American celebrity? Where were her parents? Her family?

  “I…I just…” She stumbled another step away and Liev had to grab her arm as her heel slipped off the top step. “Sorry,” she muttered, looking everywhere but at him. “I just wanted to meet him, is all.”

  Liev sighed, releasing her arm. “Not at two in the morning though, love.” He gave her a gentle smile. “And not dressed like that.”

  The young woman’s bottom lip wobbled. She nodded, eyes downcast.

  Liev cast the dark street behind her a steady look. “How did you get here?”

  “Taxi.”

  He suppressed the urge to curse. Studying the top of her head, he withdrew his mobile from his back pocket and punched in a number.

  Wide, terrified eyes snapped up to him. “Who are you calling?”

  “Another taxi.”

  The girl chewed on her bottom lip, her shoulders slumping. “Okay.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Louise Phelman.”

  Liev raised his mobile and pressed it to his ear, waiting for Gary Turpie, a taxi driver he knew well, to answer. “G’day, Turps, it’s me, Reynolds. Sorry for ringing so late, mate. You still on duty tonight?”

  Twenty minutes later, he helped Louise Phelman climb into Turps’s taxi, gave his friend her address and watched them drive away.

  A few lights filled the windows of the multi-million dollar houses around him. A few shadowy silhouettes darkened some of them.

  Liev turned his gaze up to them, noted their location, the size of the people in each one, and then turned back to Chris’s rented home.

  Bethany stood on the doorstep, her black knickers and top covered by practical tracksuit pants and a Twice Too Many T-shirt. “That was impressive.”

  Liev grinned. “I’m an impressive kind of guy.”

  She smiled. “I’m beginning to suspect that may be true.”

  “Glad to see I meet your approval. Is the boss okay?”

  “You do. And he is.” Her smile twisted, and she folded her arms across her breasts. “Now all we have to do is get him to realize you meet his approval and the world will be turning the way it should.”

  Liev’s chest squeezed. “What do you mean, get him to realize? Is he unhappy with my work so far? I haven’t really had much of a chance to do the job, given that we haven’t left the—”

  “No, no.” Bethany shook her head. “He’s very happy with the way you’re doing the job. The way you dealt with the water-taxi situation impressed him greatly. It’s not your body-guarding skills I’m talking about.”

  A constricting throb pressed against Liev’s temples. His throat grew thick. He studied the woman before him, eyes narrow. “What are you talking about then, Bethany?”

  She chuckled and, without another word, turned on her heel and headed back into the luxurious house.

  “Crap.” Liev drove his blunt fingernails into his palms. If he didn’t he’d go after her and make a scene. If she was saying what he thought she was saying…

  How long had she been Chris’s personal assistant for? Long enough to know the actor well?

  Maybe he should call Rhodes? Just to sound his friend out.

  About what? Bethany? Or Chris’s sexual preference?

  With a growl and one last qui
ck scan of the surrounding area, Liev entered the house.

  Bethany was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Chris.

  That was good, because with the pent-up tension in his body, Liev would likely do something really stupid. Like grabbing the guy and kissing him, just to bloody well clear up the situation once and for all.

  Letting out a choppy sigh, he killed the exterior lights and headed up to his room.

  He needed some sleep. Chris’s first appearance for the Dead Even junket was at eight a.m. on Australia’s leading breakfast television program. Getting him there without being mobbed by adoring fans was going to be fun.

  And he used the word fun in the same way aching for a man who may or may not ache for him in return was fun.

  Yeah, this job was turning out to be a bloody pain in the arse.

  Chapter Five

  Four days into the job of protecting Chris, Liev had never been more on edge. His agitation was two-fold. For one thing, every bloody time he looked at the actor he wanted him more and more. Every. Bloody. Time. To make matters worse, every time they had a conversation, discussed shared likes, talked about movies and books and sports, which they did a lot given they were never apart, Liev wanted him even more. And every time Chris looked at him, Liev was sure a question shone in the actor’s eyes, one Liev would have willingly answered if the bloke wasn’t his boss.

  For another thing, the actor’s fans were tenacious. He’d spent the last four nights turning away young—and sometimes not so young—women from the harbour-side abode. At least once an hour there would be a knock on the door. And when Liev answered it, which he always did, there would be a woman barely dressed in what he assumed was meant to be attire designed to seduce Chris into falling instantly in lust with her. Every time Liev sent the deluded female away. The offerings, as Liev thought of them, continued way into the early hours of the morning every night. If he knew who the idiot was at the television network that ran footage of Chris eating breakfast on the balcony overlooking the water on his second day in Australia, Liev would break the bastard’s jaw.

  In all his time as a bodyguard, Liev had never understood the fascination of stalking a celebrity. It was one of the reasons he chose to protect politicians. Politicians didn’t have to worry about crazed fans trying to crawl through the bedroom window during the middle of the night.