2.
MADDIE
Maddie couldn't stop looking at him.
She'd never seen anyone as gorgeous as Redek. He was stunning in an effortless way. Strong jawline and chiseled cheekbones. Dark, intense eyes that caused a shiver to run down her spine when he met her gaze. His muscles were enormous.
He was cold, though. There was nothing on his face. Like a statue.
She immediately set a goal to crack it.
She wanted to see what he looked like when he smiled.
She hurried back down the stairs and was pleased to see Damien had left. He had always been good to her, but he was overbearing and too protective. She was glad to be left alone with her new guard.
"Hey," she said, wondering if she should have changed from her pajamas into something more attractive. She didn't think for a second she was going to get anything romantic from him—she knew Suytov Security’s reputation, she’d seen information about them on the Net before—but it didn't hurt to try and get him to at least look at her. "You wanted to look around?"
"Please."
"Well, this is the living room. Kitchen through there. I cook most of my own food, but I understand if you want to get something sent down from the kitchens. I'm not a great cook."
"I'll try it before I pass judgment." It should have been a joke, but his voice was just as toneless as before. He stuck his head into the kitchen, but didn't go in.
"Your room is through this way. You'll be staying on the first floor. My room is upstairs."
His room was as horribly plain as the rest of the house. White walls and cream bedsheets. The staff had brought his bags down earlier, and it hadn't looked like enough for someone to move in with. Just two plain duffel bags sitting on the center of his bed.
She watched from the doorway as he walked around and peered out of his window. They shared the same view; she was in the room directly above. It looked into the forest, and was gorgeous at this time of year. Wildflowers bloomed and the trees were thick with green leaves.
"What do you think?" she asked.
She always felt like her room was quite big, but this one was swamped by Redek. She hoped the bed wasn't too short for him. He must have been over seven feet tall.
"It's very nice."
"That didn't sound sarcastic at all."
"Really, I meant it."
She groaned. "Are you going to be so formal the entire time? You do know we're going to have to spend every day for the rest of my life together."
His lip quirked, but that was the most she got from him. "I'm here to do my job."
"There's not much to do. Nothing happens here, and I'm not allowed out of the compound." She longed to see the outside world, but as she'd grown up, she'd stopped asking for it. When she grew out of her bratty teenage stage and realized how much Damien had done to help her, she’d stopped pestering him about taking her out to see the universe. He'd be devastated if he lost her. They were like father and daughter.
"What happened to your last bodyguard?" he asked.
Maddie's face fell. "He retired."
She'd never had a great relationship with Kassan. He'd been an older man stuck in his ways and they'd butted heads over what Maddie was and wasn't allowed to do daily. They'd had camaraderie, though. She was used to him. She missed having him around the house, just as someone to talk to. He might have been stuck in his ways, but at least he'd had feelings. Her new guard might as well have been a robot.
"I see. And he stayed here, too?"
"Yes."
"Can you show me upstairs?"
She walked up the stairs first, perfectly aware that her shorts were a bit too short to cover everything, and enjoyed the shiver of exhilaration that crept up her spine.
She'd never been around someone attractive before. She'd spent hours reading romance novels, reading forums about relationships and people and sex, but she'd never felt any of this around someone real.
It was intoxicating, even knowing that nothing would happen and he probably hadn't even noticed that the edge of her panties were on show.
"My bedroom." She opened the door a bit too enthusiastically, and it dislodged a stack of tablets on top of a dresser, which toppled toward her. "Shit," she put her hands up, but nothing hit them.
Redek had swooped in and caught the falling pile of electronics. His arm brushed against hers, and she cursed her long sleeves. "Okay?" he checked, giving her a quick once-over.
It should have been clinical, but somehow it wasn't. His gaze lingered just a little too long on the hint of cleavage she had on show. "Thanks," she said, helping him rebalance them. "My room is always a pigsty."
"No kidding," he muttered, looking at her cluttered floor, desk and bedside table.
Her room was the only one in the whole house that didn't look like it belonged in a hotel.
"You're good with tech?" he asked.
She beamed at the question. "I've always loved computers. I'm a natural, too. I came here when I was six, but I could already do more with them than anyone in his company. It's just luck, really. I'm just good at them."
It was what kept her sane while locked in the house, too. She knew Redek would have noticed that every room they went into had a camera mounted on the wall that sent video and audio feed straight to Damien's computer in the main house. The only rooms that didn't were the bathrooms. She was watched every second.
The only other place he couldn't see was her computer. She'd set up her desk so that the screen wasn't visible by the cameras, and it meant she had free rein to do whatever she wanted on there. Online chatrooms were her favorite. She had friends, even if she'd never spoken to them with her voice, seen their faces, or touched them. There were people out there that knew her dreams and her fears and she knew the dreams and fears of others.
It kept her feeling alive, instead of like a girl in a cage who no one knew existed.
She talked Redek's ear off for the next fifteen minutes about tech as he looked around the remainder of the house. She saw him catalog every camera, and every window and door.
In turn, she watched him. She watched the way his back muscles moved through his tight shirt. She picked up on his habits. He ran his hand through his hair when he was searching for something to say; cracked his fingers as he walked.
"So, what do you think?" she asked when they were back in the living room. She took a seat on the corner of the couch, folding her legs beneath her. "And please actually sit down. I know you're on the job, but you can't follow me from room to room standing against the wall all day every day. You'll put me on edge."
He did as he was told and sat down across from her. "It's nice," he said.
"That's all?"
His gaze flickered to the camera in the corner of the room, and he ran his hand through his hair. "That's all."
Maddie wrinkled her nose and wondered what Damien had said to him when she was cleaning her room. Had he told Redek not to speak to her at all? To be polite but professional and never have a real conversation with her?
Did Damien want her to go crazy?
"Well," she replied, the excitement of his arrival dying. "That's that, then. That's the house. I hope you like working here. I'm going to go to my room and do some work."
"Work?"
"I do some work for Damien's company," she lied. "I'm a tech whiz, weren't you listening?" She stood up and grimaced at her guard, almost pleading with him to just say something that was more than a few words. She wanted to know what he was thinking, really thinking. She wanted some hint as to his personality, beyond stoic.
There was a pause, but Redek's mask never fell.
She sighed. "Right. Catch you later, then."