Chapter Nine

__________

 

Leah

 

 

 

“So why a compass?” Dominic asked. “Is it so you know where you’re going?”

I subtly shook my head, trying to stay as still as possible while Rob worked on me. “It’s so I know how to get there.”

He smiled at that, a quick, natural reaction that said he understood the difference. I hated how appealing he looked when he smiled, and I was more than a little weirded out by whatever it was that we were doing. He’d been different from the moment we stepped into this shop – more relaxed, friendlier even – and he’d stepped into this oddly supportive role that I hadn’t expected at all. I knew he could tell how nervous I’d been, but instead of acting like a dick about it, he’d obviously been trying to put me at ease. Maybe it was just that he felt more at home here, but it made me think of that night in the hotel room, and how he’d been after I flipped out on him. It made me think there was some part of him that was a lot more decent than I wanted him to be. Rather than examine that notion too closely, I tried to concentrate on something else, like the needle that was repeatedly penetrating the top layer of my skin. No, that wasn’t good either. The longer this went on, the more I could feel the sting of it. I tried to look stoic like they always were in the movies, but I knew I wasn’t even close to pulling it off.

“You doing okay?”

“Yes,” I said tightly. “I don’t even feel it.”

He chuckled. “You need to hold my hand?”

I gave him a look, pretty sure he was making fun of me. “Shut up.”

To my surprise, though, his hand appeared in my line of vision. He held it open and waiting, like an offering, and I hesitated for only about two seconds before taking it. His hand enveloped mine instantly, huge and warm and solid with strength.

“Do you want to hear about my other tattoos?” he asked, out of nowhere.

“No. I want to see the devil woman.” I was most likely never going to let that go until he showed me, or at least told me where it was.

“That one you don’t get to see. It would involve me disrobing and I don’t think Rob needs to see that.”

“Oh, God, where is it?”

He shook his head. “We’ll just leave that to your imagination.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “My imagination has better things to do.”

We kept this dumb sort of conversation going the entire time Rob worked on my tattoo, and he threw in a significant amount of flirting like he had a tendency to do. I was starting to think it was something that just came naturally to him, rather than always coming from a place of manipulation. Either way, I knew it wasn’t personal, so I tried not to get flustered by it. Even if I was. I wasn’t used to guys like him flirting with me. Actually, I wasn’t used to any guys flirting with me quite the way he did, soft and teasing with an underlying sensuality. I didn’t always know how to react to him, which is why I sometimes put the icy attitude on like armor. It was just easier that way.

Rob finally announced that he was done, and he led me over to the mirror so I could look at my new tattoo. It was all red and raised, but I loved it anyway. I knew it would look awesome after it healed. It was sore, but I didn’t exactly feel it through the excitement that was rushing through me. On an impulse, I grabbed my purse and fished my phone out, handing it to Dom.

“Could you,” I began, but he nodded and took it from me before I got any further than that.

“Yeah. Turn around.”

Wordlessly, I turned so Dominic could take a picture of the tattoo. After, I examined it with what I knew was a goofy looking smile.

“Is it going on the collage?” he asked.

I snickered at his word choice. “Collage? Okay, last millennium called and said they need you back.”

“Last millennium called and said they need that joke back.”

Shaking my head and trying to hide my amusement, I turned so Rob could apply ointment and wrap the tattoo up, and he instructed me on how to take care of it while it healed. When Dominic and I left the shop a short while later, I was startled to see that daylight was almost completely gone, and the sidewalk was twice as crowded as it was before. We automatically started walking toward where the car was parked, because we had to move with traffic or get out of the way, but I paused once we reached the crosswalk. Going home seemed like the most unappealing thing I could do in that moment. I was still too buzzed from what I’d just done, and the energy from the crowds was humming with excitement and possibilities. I wanted to be a part of it.

“Come on, car’s this way,” Dominic said, pointing in the direction of the people crossing. I moved to the crowd waiting to cross left.

“I think I might go in there for a minute.” I’d spotted a club or bar across the street, identifiable only by the small sign above the door and by the lights that were briefly visible when some college aged kids went in.

He glanced over at the club, looking typically unimpressed. And then he flatly said, “No.” That was it. Just no, like he was some kind of king laying down the law. He definitely had all the arrogance and bossiness of a king, but I wasn’t about to fall in line.

“Uh, yes. You interrupted me the last time I was in a club, remember? Come on, I’ll even let you dance with me this time.”

Whatever he was about to say died in his throat, and he ran his eyes over me as he considered my words. I knew he was remembering the club in L.A., and how he’d asked if I wanted him on the dance floor with me. My derisive reply had tried desperately to hide how affected I was, even then.

He cleared his throat. “As interesting as that sounds, you don’t want to go to the club with a fresh tattoo. People are going to be bumping into you left and right, and trust me when I say it’ll hurt. For real, you need to go home and take it easy.”

I exhaled in disappointment that I knew was clearly visible on my face. He was right, though. I hadn’t thought about how vulnerable the tattoo would be around so many people. Still not wanting to give in, I looked over some of the shops nearby just as the signal changed and the crowd began to move.

Dominic sighed, causing me to look back at him. Finally, he said, “There’s that burger place across the street. You hungry?”

 

 

And that was how I found myself in a back booth with Dominic, sitting on opposite sides of a tray filled with burgers and steaming hot fries. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I bit into my burger and my taste buds moaned in pleasure. No, wait, that was me.

Dom, who had been texting and hadn’t even touched his food yet, froze and looked up at me with a weird look on his face. “Jeez, take it down a notch, would you?”

“I can’t help it. It’s so good. I’m starving.”

Setting his phone back in his pocket, he picked up his burger and started peeling away the foil wrapper. “Probably because you haven’t eaten for the past four hours and, by the way, neither have I.”

“So that’s why you didn’t put up a fight about going home. You were hungry.”

He nodded, conceding, and easily took a bite that was at least half the size of the burger. I felt a twinge of guilt because I’d gotten so distracted I’d forgotten to eat. Typically bodyguards are on your time, so they eat when you do. They also don’t usually sit down to eat with you, at least not in my experience, but that’s another story.

“You could have said something.”

“Hey, the itinerary’s on you. Next time I’ll know I have to remind you of basic things like stopping for something to eat.”

I gave him a phony, too-sweet smile. “You’re already thinking of next time. That’s adorable.”

“More like dreading,” he muttered, but there was no real bite to his tone.

Finished with the burger, I started on the fries, dipping one into a huge pile of ketchup. “Have you ever been a bodyguard before?”

He nodded. “For two years before I started working for Canton. It was mostly event venues and hire-by-days.”

“So you like what you do now better?”

“What I do now?” He looked vaguely amused. “You mean, follow you around?”

“I mean at the company. When you’re not creeping on me. Are you super pissed about that, by the way?”

“No, I’m actually thrilled. My life’s ambition has always been to babysit rich girls, so I guess you could say I’m living the dream.”

The things he said to me sometimes were so completely out of line, but the way that he said them made it impossible to take offense. It was the way his voice always carried that vaguely teasing edge, and the way he would look at me, like it was a joke we shared, one we were in on together. I tried not to give in to this illusion by laughing, even though I wanted to. Instead, I chucked a fry at him. He caught it reflexively, and only looked down to see what it was after it was wrapped in his palm.

“Seriously? You threw a fry at me?”

I shrugged innocently, watching as he tossed the fry into his mouth even though he still had a huge pile of his own. “The things you say to me sometimes are just…” I trailed off, not knowing how to put words to it. Not being quite brave enough to try. The reaction I had just from talking to him was physical, bringing heat to all the wrong places and electrifying the nerves under my skin. It had been that way since the first time he spoke to me, and I was feeling more and more off-kilter and vulnerable, like there was no way to hide it. Which meant I needed to keep myself in check and stop talking.

Fortunately, he didn’t wait for me to finish my sentence, just kind of nodded like he knew where it was going. “I think you’ll find there’s not much I won’t say.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“Because you’ve spent more than five minutes with me?”

Okay, fair point. “And does that work out well for you?”

“Usually,” he said. “People tend to trust someone who doesn’t filter themselves or try to bullshit them. It’s gotten me this far.”

Back on safer ground, I grabbed another fry and swirled it into ketchup. “How far? I mean, I’m just curious. How’d you end up doing security?”

Leaning back against the cushion of the booth, he took a long pull from the straw of his drink. His limbs were only stretched out slightly on either side of him, but he still managed to take up almost the entire seat. “After I moved out here with my friend Travis, I had a few server jobs and then eventually started working the doors of clubs in Brooklyn.”

“You were a bouncer?” I could actually picture him as a bouncer. He had the large, imposing presence and the take-no-shit attitude, as well as an obvious ease around people.

“Yeah, for a couple of years. I was working at this place called Deviate, it was mostly a scene for D-list celebrities and mid-level players, but I got to know a lot of them. When you’re the doorman, you’re everyone’s best friend. Most of them only love you until they get what they want from you, but some of their people…the assistants, the security…they connected with me a little more. That’s how I met my old boss at the agency Thomas hired me from. I was working for him when I got temped out to Thomas, who eventually hired me on full time, and you know the rest.”

I considered that for a moment, how he’d come out to New York without knowing anyone out here and worked his way into a pretty nice career, all on his own merits. “That’s really impressive,” I said honestly.

He gave me a look like he didn’t know if I was being sarcastic or not. “Why?”

“Because you did it all on your own.”

“Not really. That’s the whole point. Like with any business, it’s all in who you know. I had people helping me out every step of the way.”

“Okay, but knowing the right people isn’t going to get you anywhere if you don’t have what it takes to succeed. People aren’t just out looking for protégés to take under their wing. They saw something in you, and I don’t know if I have that. I don’t know if I have anything I’m really good at, and if I go work for my dad after I graduate like he wants, I’ll never know. I’ll just be doing what he expects me to, like I’ve always done.” My tone veered into bitter territory with this last bit.

“What do you want to do, then? You don’t like the financial stuff?”

“Well, that’s the thing. I do. I like business and finance, putting numbers together, learning patterns and trends, all of it. It’s like a big, intricate puzzle and it’s fascinating to me.”

“So there’s your answer. You are good at something. It just so happens to be what your dad wants you to be good at, and that’s what you have a problem with.”

I exhaled, unnerved by the way he went right to the heart of the matter. “You’re entirely too perceptive.”

“In my line of work, you learn to read people pretty well.”

“And you can read me?” I asked.

“Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes no.”

“What kind of an answer is that? Sometimes yes, sometimes no? Did they teach that kind of hedging speak at the security agency?”

He shook his head. “No, that’s the kind of thing you pick up along the way.”

“Very sage. You know, you’re not like any bodyguard I’ve ever had before.”

“By that you mean I’m the best bodyguard you’ve ever had.”

I fought not to laugh, but quickly gave in to it. It bubbled out of me like something alive, something I had absolutely no power over. “Sure, we’ll go with that. As soon as I get over the little matter of how you kidnapped me and handcuffed me to you in a hotel room.”

Only after saying that did I realize how dirty it sounded, and I could feel the heat rush to my cheeks, but I didn’t back down from it. My smile lingered on my face and his eyes seemed to trace my mouth before he spoke. “You’ve made it obvious you’re never getting over that. And, for the record, I didn’t kidnap you.”

“I mean, you pretty much did. But that reminds me. You didn’t answer my question before.”

“Which question was that?”

“Do you like what you do at Canton? Apart from this little side job?”

“It has its ups and downs, like any job. But the benefits are amazing and the advancement opportunities are endless.”

I nodded, watching him and noting the way his tone had flattened out slightly, like he was reading from a brochure. “But do you love it?”

He shrugged. “Yeah. When I left Chicago I never even considered I’d end up here. Life is wild sometimes.”

“Do you miss Chicago?”

He kept his face carefully blank, like he wasn’t nearly as willing to spill his guts as I was. “I miss my brother and sister. Which reminds me, my little brother Lucas is coming to visit next weekend, so you’ll have to get by without me for a few days.”

I found myself wanting to continue asking questions, because I was disturbingly curious about him, where he came from and who he was outside of work. But his very demeanor shut me down, and thankfully so, because I did not need to be engaging in soulful conversation with him in the quiet back corner of a burger place. So I just smiled and dropped my napkin on my tray, signaling that I was done. “I’m sure I’ll manage. I’ll just have another shadow in your place, anyway, so it’s good.”

Amusement brightened his eyes as he grabbed the tray with one hand and stood up. “One that will take you out for tattoos and hamburgers? Doubt it. Maybe when I’m gone you’ll realize I actually am the best bodyguard you’ve had.”

I couldn’t keep my smile down, even as I rolled my eyes to downplay my reaction to the way he put that, like he was actually taking me out. And also to downplay that yes, there was a strong possibility that he probably was the best.