The Bodyguard Affair

But that was the thing about Bianca. She bossed Sam around as if she were the hired help and not an independent contractor with an important job. Yet whenever Sam put her foot down, Bianca listened.

It was almost as if she enjoyed it. As if it were a game they were playing. One Sam had not signed up f—

The door swung open. Out stepped Bianca in a lacy purple dress that could only be described as sexy. The short skirt swished around her thighs and the wide, low scoop neck exposed most of her chest—cleavage and all.

“What do you think?” Bianca posed in the doorway, holding up the skirt in one hand, the other playing in her hair. Between her lush curls and the light makeup she had worn that day, she looked like she had stepped out of a fashion spread advertising the young and flirty spring collection.

But it wasn’t Bianca’s face that Sam couldn’t take her eyes off. When did she get breasts? There hadn’t been much there only an hour ago. Not that Sam had been looking. Not that she was looking now.

Pull yourself together. This was her client’s daughter. Her client’s young daughter. Bianca may have been old enough for grad school, but Sam still had almost a decade on her. She was absolutely off-limits.

A part of Sam realized just how long it had been since she’d last gotten laid. Another part of her realized that she hadn’t had the thought ‘I need to get laid’ until meeting Bianca a week ago.

“What do you think?” Bianca approached Sam, swishing her skirt between them. “It’s a little more revealing than what I usually go for, but I’m feeling… daring.”

She twirled around, her skirt flying up, revealing everything. Her bare, bronzed thighs. Her insulin pump, strapped to one of them. Her pink panties. They were as lacy as the dress she wore. And barely there.

“Well?” Bianca peered up at her from under her eyelids. “You’re a woman, Sam. Even if it’s not your style, surely you know what looks good on a girl.” Bianca gathered her curls in her hand and bunched them on top of her head. “So? How do I look?”

Like prey. Like someone I want to drag into the changing rooms, shove against the wall, and kiss until you beg me to do even more—

“Ah, that’s so cute on you!” The shop assistant suddenly appeared, knocking Sam back to her senses and killing whatever mood Bianca had attempted to summon. “So many people try that one on, but it’s never looked as good as on you. I mean it.”

Sam stepped away from the scene. She needed to collect herself. Pink. Panties. Like she’d needed more fuel for her indecent thoughts about her client’s body.

Bianca changed back into her clothes and bought the dress, along with a few other items. As she amassed one more bag, the biggest yet, she announced that she was ready to go home.

As they made their way toward the car, Bianca struggled to balance all the bags in her slender arms. Sam held back a sigh. She was not a chauffeur. She was most definitely not a porter. And yet…

“Give me some of those bags. Before I change my mind.” They were the first words Sam had spoken since Bianca stole her voice in the changing room.

“Oh, thanks.” With a smile, Bianca handed off a handful of bags. They weren’t as heavy as Sam expected. “You’re sweeter than you let on, Sam.”

Sam chose not to respond to that.

Ten minutes later, they were in the car, Bianca in the back and Sam comfortable in the driver’s seat. Fortunately, the trip had been entirely uneventful, at least from a security perspective. And fortunately, her workday was coming to an end. She had been putting in overtime for this gig, but that was part of the deal when she ran her own multi-million-dollar business. And when she had no personal life. She was married to the job.

“Thanks again for taking me out today.” Bianca opened the moisturizer she’d procured from one of the shops and rubbed it into her hands. The scent of vanilla-jasmine filled the car. “I know it’s not in your job description, but I do like spending time with you.”

Sam glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “No problem. Just don’t make a habit of it.”

Traffic was thick on the way back to the Black Diamond Building, giving Sam ample opportunity to watch Bianca in the backseat. As her slender hands rubbed the moisturizer into her arms, Sam involuntarily pictured her own hands on Bianca’s, on her fingers, her delicate wrists, her whole body. Touching, her, teasing her, gripping her as she turned to putty in Sam’s grasp—

Hm?

Sam narrowed her eyes as she focused her attention on the car behind them through the rain-streaked back window. While there was nothing exceptional about the car itself, Sam’s attention to detail was keen enough that she could tell it was the same car that had been on their tail for several blocks.

Silver Subaru. 2014, maybe a little newer. As they pulled up to a light, Sam attempted to get a good look at the driver, but baggy clothes and large sunglasses meant she couldn’t make out any details. She couldn’t even read if they coded male or female.

As soon as the light turned green, Sam flipped her turn signal, making a right instead of continuing straight as planned.

The silver Subaru? Without indicating, it turned right with them.

Alarms began ringing in Sam’s head. There was a familiar rush of adrenaline as she made another right turn, then a left. Sam knew these streets well. They were no longer heading toward the Black Diamond Building, but they were getting closer to Rainier’s headquarters. If she wanted, she could whip into the private parking lot and have Bianca in a panic room within five minutes. But only if she could secure the route from car to building—

“Where are we going?” Bianca asked. “This isn’t the way home.”

“I think we’re being followed.”