10.
VIKRAM
Vikram watched with increasing irritation as Qugrom carried on his conversation with Kthlis as though Cassie didn’t exist after that. When she laughed in all the right places and offered a comment, he glanced at her once but didn’t respond. She was being trodden all over, and yet she continued to stand there with her head slightly bowed and staring at him as though he was the most interesting thing in the world as he bitched about how the IU weren’t providing a good enough service for someone of his stature.
It was the most infuriated he’d ever been, and he wasn’t sure if he was more annoyed at the ignorant asses who were treating her like this, or at her for allowing herself to take it.
She had the wit and the knowledge to ruin either of these men in an argument, he was certain, but she never even tried to contradict their points.
His entire body was stiff with tension from the urge to pull her aside and ask her what she was doing.
He spent a good hour in that state, watching as she finally left the side of Qugrom to be introduced to several other delegations around the room. The majority were men, and she never went up to the women and introduced herself to them. He couldn’t understand why—they would surely be less demeaning.
All of them loved to touch her, too. Each would lay a hand on her arm; one even dared to wrap an arm around her waist, hand drifting far enough south to caress her backside when she first leaned in to hug him as a greeting.
Vikram’s hand clenched and unclenched into a fist for a split-second then, and it was when he knew he had to take a break. He leaned forward to whisper in her ear, not missing the shiver that ran down her spine as his breath caressed her ear. “I’m going to stand at the wall, if that’s okay.”
She nodded without turning to him, the epitome of cold professionalism, and he hated the sting to his pride at that. He knew she was different, had treated him differently to all other charges the past two days, but that was a harsh reminder that ultimately she was just the same. Just a client.
He took a deep breath and joined some of his fellow bodyguards on the wall closest to Cassie. There were several firms at the conference, but Vikram went to the fellow Suytovians. They had eyes on the conference, standing dead still and with their hands behind their backs, but chatted to each other over the hum of conversation from the main floor.
“Vikram,” the man, Maxshov, that he stood next to greeted. “Your charge give you a break?”
“I requested one. Listening to that conversation was starting to make my ears bleed.”
Cvetas, from the other side of Maxshov, shook his head. “You really need to learn to block it out, man, I don’t know how you haven’t perfected that yet.”
Most of the bodyguards he spoke to had a lively imagination. They had a world inside their head they disappeared to for most of the day, fictional or not. No one ever listened to the conversations of the men and women they guarded, and he could understand why. It was enough to drive him mad on a regular basis. He’d never been able to, though. It was probably one of the reasons he’d been in training years longer than everyone else. His mental state wasn’t the same as theirs.
“Trust me, this thing is driving me over the edge.”
“She’s bad?” Maxshov asked. “She’s pretty to look at.”
Vikram’s jaw clenched. “Not her. The rest. They’re all so false.”
“And she isn’t? You just so happened to get the one who was different to all the others?”
His reputation as someone who hadn’t exactly graduated top of his class wasn’t unknown. He’d always had a bit of ribbing from his colleagues because of it. He didn’t see them very often, though. It didn’t bother him. “I guess I’m just a lucky man.”
“I don’t know about that. I saw that hand clench on the floor. I’m sure I’m not the only one who did.” Cvetas looked around Maxshov to tell him this, a frown on his face. It was from concern, not humor. “Don’t do that shit.”
Vikram looked away. “It was a stupid mistake.”
“If you’re going to make a stupid mistake every time one of these old guys touches her, you’ve got a problem,” Cvetas replied, before resuming his upright position against the wall.
Vikram had wanted to stand here to catch a break, but it was stressing him out even more. Mostly because Cvetas was right. He was losing control.
Even now, as he watched Cassie lean toward a delegate and giggle, batting her eyelashes in an over-the-top manner, it made his blood boil.
He couldn’t trick himself into thinking it was just because she was selling herself short out there. He couldn’t touch her—couldn’t lay a finger on her without risking his job—and they flirted and touched her as though it was nothing. Those old men who thought it was okay to torture people were putting their hands all over her and she was responding and it was driving him insane.
Every now and then she’d take a quick glance around the room to check he was still in the same place, and offer him a quick smile when their eyes met. It wasn’t anything like the seductive grins she was giving the politicians in the room.
It was when one tucked a strand of hair behind her ear like he’d been dying to the night before that he felt the beginnings of a rage coming on.
He had to get out of there.
He had to stop before he lost control.
He pushed away from the wall and stalked out of the conference hall, pulling his phone out of his pocket and pretending to take a call so that he couldn’t be accused of being too unprofessional. It took everything in him to force his muscles to comply with the order to leave her in there alone. His instincts were taking over, and if he let himself keep watching her, he’d end up hurting someone. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in a cell for killing a high-ranking politician.
Outside the press had dispersed, and he could slip through a side door and follow a corridor he knew went outside without being hounded. He might not have been to the morgue before, but he’d been to the IU’s main space station multiple times, and he at least knew his way around the basic HQ.
Outside the air was stuffy, but he leaned against the cold brick of the building and shut his eyes. The space station had an artificial atmosphere, but with this many people it wasn’t kept cool enough. It was rare when people went outside, anyway. Almost all of the space station was crowded with buildings.
He longed for the cool, fresh air of Suytov. He hadn’t felt a real breeze in months.
This was enough to calm him down, though. He had relative quiet and no obnoxious voices in his ear. It was just him, and Ballar’s voice telling him to stop being a fucking idiot and learn some control.
He’d always thought that keeping him back for extra training had been unfair, that Ballar was being unduly critical of him, but now he realized he wasn’t ready at all. For easy jobs, absolutely. All his jobs up until this part had been easy. Nothing had challenged him.
Cassie was the first challenge he’d ever received and it was tearing him apart. He was in two minds about everything, and switching from one to the other was probably making her think he was unstable. Maybe he was.
The door beside him eased open, and he stood straight, trying to school his expression.
It was Cassie.
She had wide eyes as she peered around the door, but she relaxed when she saw him. “You left,” she accused.
“You shouldn’t have followed. You’d have been safe in the ballroom, the lobby’s dangerous.” He couldn’t look at her without seeing their hands on her. “Come on. Let’s go back.”
She stood in his way, folding her arms. “Why did you leave? I thought… I thought you were going to stay with me the entire time.” There was doubt in her voice. She’d been playing the subservient card to the politicians all night, but this was the first real vulnerability he’d heard in her voice.
He ran a hand over his face. “I couldn’t watch them treat you like that any longer. I couldn’t watch you let them treat you like that any longer.” And then the dam burst and everything flowed out. His hands made large gestures as he rambled. “You giggle at their jokes as if they’re not treating you like some piece of furniture only there to look pretty. You kept talking about how hard you worked to get here and how you wanted to make your boss proud but you’re letting them touch you like all you want are their dicks.”
Her eyes widened, but instead of taking a step backward she took one forward. “Calm down,” she murmured, hesitating before wrapping her hands around his forearms. “It’s all an act.”
“Is it? Is it an act when they feel your ass and you just laugh about it?”
Her thumbs rubbed circles into his arm and it had the opposite effect of calming him down like she intended. He could feel himself getting riled up again. He wanted to hit something. He desperately wanted to punch the solid brick wall behind him.
“It’s an act,” she insisted. “They’re never going to take me seriously as a diplomat. I’m a woman barely out of my twenties who has no real experience.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to do what you’re doing in there. There’s a line.” They were so close his chest almost touched her with how harshly he was breathing. “I hate watching them touch you.”
She took her hands from his arm and he felt the loss immediately. It only made his rage rise closer to the surface. His skin was beginning to glow, he could feel it. His impulse control was lessening. He had to get away from her. “Go back to the hall,” he insisted. “I’ll come back, I just need a minute. I just need to get myself under control.”
“Why does it bother you so much?” She took a step closer, taking one of his hands in both of hers and examining his darkening skin.
He snatched his hand back, clenched it into a fist, and then wrapped it around her waist, dragging her completely against his chest. Her eyes widened but he didn’t care anymore. He couldn’t deny himself. He crushed his lips against hers, fingers digging into her back as his body was set on fire. Her lips were soft, but pliant, and she opened her mouth for him immediately.
Her eagerness made him groan, and he gave in to it all. He pushed her back against the stone, feeling every inch of her curves against him, hard cock pushing into her stomach without shame.
He wanted her. He wanted all of her right here and now against the HQ of the IU.
Her hands were in his hair, pulling hard enough to hurt just a little, and he hooked a hand around her bare knee to hook her leg around his thigh, making her dress ride up and giving him access to her panties. His hips thrust hard against her, and she broke the kiss to lean her head back and moan. It was a throaty sound that send a bolt of heat to his cock. He needed her, now.
Her face was so unrestrained he couldn’t get enough. Her eyes screwed shut and her mouth parted in a silent scream as he thrust again. He wanted to commit the sight to memory so he could relive it again and again.
His hand traveled between her legs to her panties, which stuck to her sex. He ran a finger along the outside and she jerked when he rubbed over her clit.
The jerk had her opening her eyes and going from pulling him closer to pushing him off, though. “Shit,” she swore, jerking backwards but only meeting hard stone. “Shit. Shit. Get off me.” She looked around wildly, staring into every window. “Oh God, someone could have seen that. What are we doing? In the bedroom next time, please. Fuck.”
Vikram turned his back on her, pressing his hands to his face.
Next time.
As if he’d be stupid enough to let this happen again.
If someone had seen, he would be fired. He’d dedicated his entire life to working for Suytov. His parents had been so proud when he’d fully qualified. He was really risking throwing all that away because his charge happened to be cute?
He was an idiot.
“I’m sorry. That shouldn’t have happened. I don’t know why I did that.”
She leaned back against the wall, body slumped. “Well, it’s not like I did anything to stop you.” She smoothed down her dress. “I have to get back in there, before someone notices I’m missing.”
He nodded, determined that this time he was going to get a hold of himself. He was acting like a teenager, and it was ridiculous.
Her cheeks were still stained red when she tried to flatten her hair, and he just wanted to hoist her over his shoulder and carry her back to his room, give her an excuse to say fuck the conference, and come to bed with him.
That he’d had her beside him all of last night and not made a move, and chosen to do it in the middle of IU HQ instead, filled him with a rush of self-loathing. Last night, there would have been no reason to stop if he didn’t want to. He could have pulled her close, stripped her naked, and run his hands over every inch of her soft skin.
He shook his head, too, and pushed those thoughts away. He was supposed to be a master of control, and he summoned all the lessons Ballar had taught him. He focused on his mentor, on his teachings, and didn’t allow his thoughts to wander.
“Let’s go,” Cassie said, voice still shaky.
When she turned around, he landed a hand on her shoulder, completely out of his control. He took the zip on the back of her dress and pulled it up, knuckle dragging against her back. It had come just a little bit undone when he’d been pushing her against the brick just minutes ago.
“Okay,” he said, voice gruff. “Now let’s go.”