Beloved Bodyguard (6 page)

She fluttered her eyelashes and assumed a
breathless baby-doll voice. “Will you be right by me all the time
to protect me?”

He gave her a “don’t fuck with me” look then
stared away across the garden.

Leelah sipped her
chamti
, the jolt of
caffeine finishing the job of waking her up. She ate another grape
and breathed in a lungful of the fresh morning air as she
considered her next move.

“Look, Ja-hun. Having you stand while I sit
feels awkward. Please, sit down on the bench. I swear I won’t flirt
any more or touch you at all. Just sit. Please.”

Reluctantly, as though his body was beyond
his control, he did as she bid.

She felt the warmth of his body and smelled
the woodsy cologne he wore. “What is that scent?”

“What scent?”

“That you’re wearing.”

“I don’t have anything on.” He paused. “The
air of my room is infused with
mashiki
.”

“That’s it.” Her own room was infused with
roses, a fragrance she particularly liked. Maybe she’d have to
switch to
mashiki
for a while. “I like it.”

“No flirting,” he reminded her, but there was
a ghost of a smile on his hard mouth.

“Not flirting, just making an observation.
Tell me more about where you’re from and what brought you
here.”

The ghost-smile disappeared. “You don’t want
to know.”

“Yes, I do or I wouldn’t ask. Trust me, you
can’t shock me. I already suspect the worst. I imagine you haven’t
always been a bodyguard. I imagine you’ve been hired to kill people
in the past. Maybe you’re trying to leave that life behind now.”
She laughed. “Or maybe you’ve been sent to kill
me
, although
I think you would have accomplished it by now.”

There wasn’t a glimmer of amusement in his
eyes as he stared back at her.

“You don’t have much of a sense of humor, do
you? I don’t think you’ve laughed since I met you.”

He remained silent.

“Okay, so you don’t want to talk about your
work history. I get that. How about family history? Where do you
come from originally?”

He paused so long she thought he wasn’t going
to answer that question either; then he suddenly spoke.
“OldEarth.”

Her eyes widened. “No
shenje
? Like
directly from OldEarth? My father’s ancestors came from there. They
were among the first to colonize NewEarth, but that was so many
generations ago I can’t count them. I’ve never met anyone who was
actually
from
OldEarth. What’s it really like? The vids show
it as a wasteland.”

“The vids are right,” he answered
quietly.

“Go on. Tell me more.” She was getting tired
of having to prod every word from his mouth.

“I come from a place on OldEarth called
Japan. An island and one of the few places people still exist. They
live crowded together in all the safe zones across the planet.
There’s not enough work, not enough food or water, not enough
anything.”

“Why don’t they leave?” Leelah couldn’t
imagine staying in such conditions.

“Can’t afford to fly out. Those who stayed
behind when the migrations began were the very poorest, and life
didn’t get any better for them over the next generations. Residents
of OldEarth are the forgotten people.” His tone was level and
emotionless. The shutters had drawn over his eyes again.

She’d heard this about OldEarth, but never
firsthand. “How did you get off-planet?”

“Stowed away on a carrier that dropped care
supplies from the Free Worlds. By the time I was discovered, we
were nearly to NewEarth. I was sure the captain was going to
jettison me with the garbage, but he decided to let the authorities
deal with me when we got to port. I managed to get away before I
could be arrested.” He smiled. “NewEarth was a shock, to say the
least. I’d never imagined anything like it, so much of everything
anyone needed.”

Leelah felt a wave of guilt at the awe in his
voice. She took everything she had for granted, but Ja-hun carried
inside him a kernel of that half-starved boy amazed at the riches
around him.

“Without an ID card, I couldn’t get work, not
legal work anyway. That’s how I stumbled into my first profession,
wet work for criminal types.”

Hired killer. She’d been half kidding when
she said it. A little chill went through her at the realization she
was sitting next to a man who had actually murdered people.

“I finally decided I’d had enough of that
life, but guarding Crin-tai entailed some of the same tasks I was
trying to avoid. So now I’m here.”

“Guarding me and my father. He must really
think we’re in danger to hire…” She left the words “a killer”
unsaid.

“Someone like me,” he finished. “Yes. The
threats he’s received suggest this organization or person knows
details about your lives only a member of your household or someone
who’s been doing intensive surveillance could know.”

A chill went through her. A spy in her own
home? “No one told me this.”

“Your father didn’t want you to be
frightened.”

“Well, I am now! I wish he’d respected me
enough to tell me the truth. And, hey, I would’ve been nicer to you
if I’d known this.” She smiled at Ja-hun through the flare of anger
she felt at her father. “Or maybe not. You’re kind of fun to
harass.”

His lips curved slightly. She wanted to turn
that curve into a full smile.

“You’re kind of fun to do a lot of things
with.” She set her breakfast dishes on the ground and leaned toward
Ja-hun, placing a hand on his thigh.

The action didn’t make his smile grow wider.
Instead it disappeared and he started to rise.

“Come on. I like you. You like me. We’re both
adults. Why can’t we indulge ourselves a little? Besides, if I’m
with you, I’m completely safe, right? So you’ll still be doing your
job.”

He grabbed her hand, but instead of thrusting
it away, he held it. “Leelah…”

“I know you think I’m a spoiled rich girl,
who just wants to have a fling with the hired help, but that’s not
what this is.”

She grasped his strong, hard hand, pressing
it with her fingers, and gazed directly into his eyes, willing him
to listen. “I swear to you, I’ve never come on to one of my
bodyguards before, never imagined doing that, but with you… There’s
something between us, and you know it, too. Can’t you feel it?”

Ja-hun paused before nodding once. “Which is
all the more reason I need to keep my distance.”

“You’re afraid of falling in love?” There!
She’d said the word, put it out there for his examination and hers.
Was such a word even possible when they’d known each other barely a
week and apparently had nothing in common besides a healthy sex
drive?

He pulled his hand away and rose from the
bench. “I’m afraid of you having a crush on a man who’s totally
wrong for you.”

Leelah stood too, blocking his getaway. “Why
don’t you let me worry about that?” She moved in close to him,
chest to chest, her head tilted back so she could look into his
eyes. Her hands slid around his lower back and rested there. “If my
heart gets broken later, I’ll deal. I’m a strong woman. But for
now, come with me. I want to show you an even more private place in
my garden.”

“Ah, Leelah.” The sound of her name was a
caress falling from his lips, and she knew she’d won this round. He
let her take his hand and lead him along the path to the gazebo in
the cool shade of the Baalong tree’s branches.

Once inside the shelter of the building,
Leelah threw her arms around Ja-hun’s neck. “I’m irresistible,
aren’t I?”

“You know you are.” He held her tightly,
hands cupping her bottom. “And I’m weaker than I ever knew.”

“I admire weakness in a man when it works in
my favor,” she teased, rising up on her toes to reach his mouth.
She kissed him and didn’t have to work at getting him to respond
this time. His mouth meshed with hers, as hot and hungry as it had
been last night. Already, his movements and the taste and feel of
his mouth were becoming familiar. She loved the way he kissed, the
long, slow strokes that made her think about what else he might do
with that tongue.

Melting against him, she gave herself over to
the pleasure of his mouth and the strength of his arms. If they did
nothing but stand here kissing all day, it would be fine with her.
But she felt his cock pressing against her and she wanted to
examine it as she hadn’t taken the time to last night.

She pushed him onto one of the rattan chairs.
“Sit.”

He obeyed without protest, dropping onto the
wide seat and pulling her onto his lap. She kissed his forehead,
eyelids, cheekbones, and jaw. She kissed all over his face and then
his neck as she loosened his tie. “You really need to stop wearing
these things.”

She would’ve taken off his shirt, but he
stopped her unbuttoning hands. “This isn’t the place for that.”

“Is it the place for this?” Slipping off his
lap to kneel before him, she reached for his waistband. Before he
could stop her, she had his cock out.

He sucked in a breath. “
Shenje
! You
can’t do that here.”

“Yes, I think I can.” She pushed his knees
farther apart and moved between them. “You’re the guard. Keep a
lookout for people, and I’ll tend to this.” His erection was thick
and hard in her encircling fist. It slid smoothly against her palm
as she stroked it. She bent her head and licked across the soft
head, sampling the musky flavor before engulfing it in her
mouth.

“
Shenje
,” he cursed again under his
breath, but he didn’t push her away.

Her pussy felt swollen and tender, clenching
with desire. She enjoyed giving blowjobs, liked the power it gave
her over a man, liked watching him go helpless with pleasure from
her touch. She loved the groans and gasps men made when she brought
them off with her mouth.

She sucked hard while pumping his shaft. Then
she pulled off, releasing his glistening, wet length. She looked up
into his face and extended her tongue to lick his length while he
watched. Ja-hun’s eyes were darker than ever, and narrowed to mere
slits as he gazed at her. His lips parted, and he exhaled harshly.
He reached out to touch the side of her head.

“You’re so beautiful.”

His softly spoken words made a fresh gush of
juice well from inside her. She smiled and resumed sucking,
swallowing him as deeply as she could. She reached between his
thighs and fondled his sac, rolling his balls lightly.

His hips lifted as he thrust into her mouth,
and his fingers tangled in her hair, cradling her head more firmly.
He groaned, and his cock swelled even more. She recognized the
signs of a man about to come and stroked him faster, sucked harder
to bring him to the edge.

He gripped her head and his hips bucked as he
released. Leelah swallowed and pumped a few more strokes until she
was sure he was finished before letting his depleted cock slip from
her mouth.

Ja-hun’s head fell back against the chair.
His chest rose and fell, and he mumbled foreign curses under his
breath.

She smiled as she tucked his cock away and
zipped him up. Straddling his lap, a knee on either side of him,
she took his face between her hands. His eyes opened and gazed into
hers.

“I just knew you weren’t as cold as you
pretend to be. In fact, you’re quite passionate,” she teased, and
kissed his lips. “Isn’t this a whole lot better than keeping your
distance? Better for your mental health, too.”

He hugged his arms around her back. “What am
I going to do with you?”

“You really want to know? I have some ideas.”
She wiggled against him. “Maybe you could return the favor.”

He glanced past her at the sunny garden
beyond the shade of the tree. “In your room.”

She pictured him pulling away from her again
by the time they got into the house. “No. Right here. It feels a
little dangerous and adds an edge, knowing someone might catch us.
Do me here.”

“Then you have to keep an eye out.”

“Like you did?” she scoffed, knowing he’d
completely lost himself in the blowjob and hadn’t once checked for
interlopers.

He rose from the chair with her in his arms
and set her on her feet. “If I’m going to do this, I want you to
stand over here, reach behind your head, and hold onto that
column.” He positioned her against one of the supports of the
gazebo with her arms above her head.

He stepped back and looked at her elongated
body and thrusting chest. “Yeah, like that.” Then he crouched
before her and moved her legs shoulder width apart. “And like
that.”

She felt like a prisoner tied to a post, but
in a sexy, good way. She arched her back even more, pushing her
breasts further forward.

After taking a glance at the garden, Ja-hun
lifted the hem of her skirt and tucked it into the waistband,
revealing the scrap of emerald green underwear covering her pussy.
He pulled the panties down her legs, and she stepped out, before
resuming her spread position.

Her pussy had been pulsing steadily
throughout the blowjob. Now, exposed to his intense study, it ached
even more, clenching and releasing until wetness rolled down her
inner thighs. The sight of Ja-hun kneeling before her, his gaze
fixed on her sex sent a powerful wave of lust through her. The
anticipation of being touched and licked made her tremble, and the
helpless feeling of having her arms pinned above her head added to
the excitement.

Her hips thrust forward invitingly. Slowly,
Ja-hun leaned in and pressed a kiss to her pussy. She sucked in a
breath and resisted the urge to push against his mouth. Holding
perfectly still, she waited to see what he would do next.

He licked the inside of one thigh then the
other, savoring her juices. His finger traced around her pussy,
then brushed between her lips with teasing delicacy until her body
quivered.