Chapter Two
Ben took one look at Summer and knew he was in trouble. She was a true mixture of ingénue and unknowing seductress. She’d folded her arms across her chest, but the action did little to conceal her ample cleavage and more to push up the swells of her breasts for his viewing pleasure.
He shifted positions. It was all he could do not to adjust his dick inside his pants.
“Oh, beautiful!” A woman with short-cropped dark hair walked in, clapping in delight. “I knew that dress was just perfect for your figure. Turn around. I’ll zip you.”
“Aren’t you worried about who he is and what he’s doing here?” Summer asked, pointing to Ben.
The woman shrugged. “I have clients with men in here all the time. It’s nothing new. Now turn.” She gestured and Summer spun around, revealing her sleek back and pale skin exposed thanks to the way her dress split down the center.
Ben swallowed hard. Hard being the word of the day now that he was around Summer again. He vividly recalled tracing that expanse of skin with his lips and tongue, how she’d trembled and moaned at his touch. Their time together had been short but potent, and he had to shake his head hard to dislodge the memories threatening to overtake him.
After finishing up with her new wardrobe, Summer headed back to the dressing room to change, reappearing in a pair of ripped jeans, black shirt, and white sneakers. Now she looked more like the girl he remembered, the eager-to-please, always-happy-to-perform woman who radiated happiness and sunshine. Fuck. He had to stop thinking like a guy who was whipped when it came to Summer and more like her security detail.
As he followed them into another room, he saw rack after rack of what had to be designer clothing and thanked his lucky stars he didn’t have to sit through any more of the fashion show.
“Thank you so much for today,” Summer said to the stylist, whose name he’d learned was Rose. “I just love the clothes and can’t wait to wear them.” She gestured to the huge pile she’d accumulated.
“What’s next on the agenda, princess?” he asked, an unplanned sarcastic tone to his voice to help offset his attraction to her. One that was still there and not something he welcomed.
She spun toward him, her gaze narrowed. “Excuse me?”
“Isn’t that what you are? A pop princess?”
Her lips pursed in annoyance. “Except coming from you, it sounds more like an insult than a compliment.”
And he, of all people, knew how much her music career meant to her. How much she’d sacrificed, including friends and a normal childhood. Because during the time they’d spent together, she’d confided so much to him, including her hopes and dreams. He was a dick for belittling them now just because she made him feel things he didn’t like or want to experience again.
“I want a new bodyguard. Someone I trust.” She hit back where it would hurt him the most, because he’d confided in her too and he prided himself on a job well done. On being someone trustworthy and reliable.
And this verbal sparring was getting them nowhere, so he held up his hands in surrender. “Stop. What I said was uncalled for. We’re both professionals. We can handle this arrangement for as long as is necessary. No more low blows.”
She swallowed hard, the soft line of her throat moving up and down. He wanted to trace the silken skin with his tongue, bite down until he marked her and she moaned like he knew she would. Those sounds she used to make in the back of her throat when he was deep inside her still haunted him.
“Fine,” she said, breaking into his irreverent daydreams before he could go further, before his body could react to the thoughts he couldn’t control in his brain.
At least she’d acquiesced easier than he’d expected. “So what is next on your agenda?” he asked in a rough voice.
She rubbed her bare arm with one hand. Her nails were long and painted a light blue.
“Errands and then home. I have an early appearance on The Morning Show. It’s a short interview and then I’m performing.”
“Indoors or out?” he asked, already assessing the situation and risk.
“Out.”
He blew out a sharp breath. He’d just have to stick close to the stage. “Fine. When we get back to your place, I need to see your most recent itinerary. Make sure nothing’s changed compared to what was given to me.”
She nodded in agreement. “Okay. And you’ll come by in the morning and go with me to the studio?”
He couldn’t stop the slow grin from lifting the corners of his mouth. “Nope. I’ll be spending the night, so please tell me you’ve got a decent-sized couch?”
She blinked, and those big doe eyes looked at him as if surely he’d lost his mind. “Why would you need to stay over? I’m perfectly safe locked in my apartment until you come to get me.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “In your walk-up apartment with no doorman or alarm? Is that really your definition of perfectly safe?”
She opened her mouth to argue, then shut it again, obviously realizing she really couldn’t fight him. The fact was, this was his business and he knew it better than she did.
She blew out a long breath. “You’re in luck,” she muttered, somewhat ungraciously. “I have a pullout sofa so that big body of yours won’t have to curl up on a too-short couch.”
He smirked, realizing he was enjoying watching her squirm. “I can’t wait.”
Ben had taken the subway to get to Summer’s appointment because he’d been told she had car service provided by Jade Glow during the time of the so-called competition. From the stylist’s, a waiting car drove them to Summer’s. Ben was grateful he didn’t have to deal with keeping her safe in subways loaded with people or taxi cabs with random drivers. Rose had sent her home with tomorrow’s clothes and promised to deliver everything else. Without a doorman, Summer instructed Rose to leave everything with the super in her building.
When they arrived, Ben’s suspicions about her apartment were confirmed. The place was a security nightmare. Anyone could come into the building just by following close behind someone heading in. Her lock wasn’t any more secure, something he’d take care of right away by getting one of his company’s trusted locksmiths to put a secure Medeco lock and deadbolt on the door.
“Be it ever so humble,” she said, opening the door and letting him inside first.
He looked around her home, taking in the bright colors and homey atmosphere. A white canvas sofa was covered in red and yellow pillows and there was a black-and-white area rug beneath the cocktail table, which he assumed would move easily so he could open the bed hidden inside. The kitchen was a tiny, narrow room, the eating area a small table at the end of the entryway and just outside the kitchen. A pass-through window opened to the family room. There was nothing pretentious about how she lived.
He placed his bag down beside the sofa.
“The bathroom is through there,” she said, pointing to the door beside her bedroom, a short couple of steps away from where he’d be sleeping, something he wouldn’t think about until he absolutely had to.
“I think we’ll manage just fine,” he said, wishing he were as confident as he sounded.
But the last thing he was ready to do was spend God knew how many nights in this small apartment, surrounded by the fragrant scent of wildflowers he associated with Summer.
* * *
Summer couldn’t sleep. Dinner, which she’d prepared for them both, consisted of whole wheat bow tie pasta with fresh vegetables and tomato sauce, and lackluster conversation. In the background, a locksmith had changed her locks and secured her home, but Ben wouldn’t have been chatty even without the worker there. There seemed to be a definite tension between them leftover from their time together and the past, and he seemed determined to do his job with no other real conversation between them. So she gave him what he wanted and turned in early to her room for bed. But first she’d helped him open the pullout sofa and made up the bed for him to sleep.
Her apartment had one bathroom outside the bedroom, and so she waited until she heard him come out before heading in to wash up and change into a pair of light blue sleep shorts and a matching tee shirt, making sure she didn’t glance his way when she exited. The last thing she wanted to do was catch him shirtless, because the guy had a freaking fantastic chest. All hard muscle and lean abs that had felt so amazing against her hands, her belly, her entire body when they came together.
With a groan, she shook her head of those thoughts or else she’d never be able to get to sleep tonight. Once back in her room, she noticed her phone had a text from her best friend, Ivy Jameson. A web designer, she worked from home and had been busy on deadline or else she’d have been all over coming with Summer to her stylist appointment earlier today.
Ivy: So? Loaded with designer duds?
Summer typed in her reply. You have no idea. Gorgeous stuff.
Ivy: Bodyguard show up yet?
She’d told Ivy about the plan to provide her with security.
She replied immediately. Again, you have no idea.
Oh, Ivy knew all about Summer’s past. They’d had too many girls’ nights for them not to know all about each other. But nobody could have anticipated Summer’s new bodyguard being the man from her past.
Ivy: Is he hot man candy?
Summer: Yes.
And that one word did not accurately capture all that was Ben Hollander. It wasn’t just his exceptional good looks, it was his presence, made even stronger by that hot body. Muscles bulged from beneath the tee shirt and the weapon she knew he carried that was there to keep her safe. And even though he was obviously still angry at her, that brooding thing was sexy, too. She was so screwed, and not necessarily in a good way.
Ivy: One-word answer? What aren’t you telling me?
Just that he could make her panties melt with one searing look.
Summer: It’s Ben. And before you ask, yes, that Ben.
Ivy: OMG. Second chances and hot summer sex?
She wished. He’s still angry and bitter. He’s not speaking to me much beyond doing his job.
Ivy: His job is to guard your body. Show it off and you’ll be fine.
She brushed a strand of hair off her face and lowered herself onto the bed. If only the solution to her and Ben were that easy. They had a lot of unfinished business between them that only talking about would help, but he didn’t seem like he was in the mood to listen.
She turned her attention back to her friend and typed. He’s staying here as part of the security detail.
Ivy: Perfect. Use the time to make things right. You know you want to. Then see what happens between you.
She replied, We’ll see… XO, and put her phone on the nightstand.
She thought about what Ivy said, at least about making things right. He hadn’t wanted to take her calls after he was fired, but they had forced proximity now. He’d have to talk to her if she pushed the issue. She didn’t know if she could melt his icy exterior, but she could ease her conscience. Not that she’d been at fault, but he obviously thought she was. And that bothered her.
She climbed into bed and tried to sleep, but thoughts of the man in the other room kept her tossing and turning. An hour later, with no sleep, she decided maybe a cup of hot tea would help.
She walked out of her room, surprised to find a small light on and Ben sitting upright in the bed. “Hey. What are you doing up?” she asked.
“Couldn’t sleep. You?”
“Same. I thought I’d make myself a cup of tea. Can I get you some?”
“No thanks.”
She headed for her kitchen and turned on the stove to boil water, then she took a mug from the cabinet, her thoughts on what Ivy had said.
Make things right.
Talk to him.
Maybe it was time.
* * *
Ben had been tossing and turning when Summer walked out of her room. It wasn’t the bed that was the problem. He’d slept in more awkward accommodations on assignment. It was the woman in the next room and how uncomfortable things were between them. Not to mention the fact that he found her as desirable now as he had then, more so because she’d developed an air of confidence as she’d matured, and he found it fucking sexy.
She’d turned on the light in the kitchen, and one glimpse through the pass-through window revealed her ample, braless breasts, visible through the thin cotton. He pressed a hand against his aching dick.
“I called you, you know. More than once,” she said as she went through the preparations of making her tea, turning on the stove top and putting a bag in a mug.
He didn’t pretend not to know what she was referring to. He’d seen her calls. Had ignored them. He wasn’t proud of it, but he’d been humiliated by the experience and furious with himself for knowingly putting himself in a position to be fired.
He didn’t want to have the conversation now, but she deserved an answer. “I wasn’t in a good mental place to take your call or talk about what happened.”
She walked out of the kitchen and sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry.” She looked down at her hands, which were clasped tightly together. “You were angry and you had a right to be, but I need you to know something. I had nothing to do with the producers finding out about us. I have my suspicions who snitched, but that doesn’t matter now.”
She lifted her head, raised her shoulders, and met his gaze. “What matters is you knowing that I begged them not to fire you. I told them what happened between us was mutual. I even said that I seduced you and offered to leave the show myself.”
She surprised him and not much did these days. “It was a long time ago and I learned a valuable lesson. It’s fine,” he said in a gruff voice. But it wasn’t good enough and he knew it. “I could have handled it better.” He shrugged. “Answered your calls.”
“Can we be more … civil to each other now?” she asked.
He wasn’t sure he could handle civil with her and not cross that line again. Especially with the attraction between them still hot as ever.
“Distance lets me do my job.”
She placed a hand on his foot, covered by a blanket … which he felt all the way to his cock. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said with a cheeky grin, squeezing his toes once before the teakettle began to whistle.
She rose to shut off the stove top, and he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the sway of her hips or the curve of her ass in those shorts. He watched her pour the water into her mug before adding some milk and sugar, her movements lighter and happier than they had been before, lightening the heaviness that had been in his chest.
He refused to consider why.