Chapter 3
1653 Words
URSULA
I WAITED until the bathroom door shut and then in case Knight had super hearing, I made a point of closing a random stall door with a loud bang. Not wanting to make a move too fast, I stood in the middle of the bathroom holding my breath and trying to hear everything coming from the other side of the bathroom door where I left my guard.
He'd stuck to me like glue for weeks and I just wanted a night away. After years of Secret Service detail, I'd grown good at ditching the guys for a few hours here and there, but I hadn't yet found the c***k in Knight's armor. He never visited the bathroom, ate food without me, or even tucked his head low to his cell phone exchanging texts with a significant other.
Darrell, one of my favorite guards from the Secret Service was so easy to lose. He always showed me pictures of his son playing soccer and we'd chit chat about life outside the ranks of my guard duty. Every time his wife called to complain, I'd get a few hours of quiet time riddled with guilt by causing them another argument while he was too busy calming her to pay attention to where I snuck off to at that particular time.
It wasn't the case with Ferris Knight. No matter what I did or where I went, his eyes were always on me. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was trying to see into my very soul with the way my body held his attention.
But I refused to miss the chance to meet two of my best college friends for an impromptu concert at The Mailbox, Paradise's underground nightclub. No way Knight planned to let me out of the building if I told him. Hence I had to break out the best escape plan.
Woman problems.
When I was mostly satisfied he wouldn't break down the door to drag me back to my apartment, I slipped the screwdriver from my purse and used it to pry open the painted-shut window lock. The metal twisted, and I ground my teeth together hoping he hadn't heard.
With the lock disengaged, I propped the window open and used upper body strength I didn't know I had to propel myself out the opening. Halfway through my shoulder stuck on a corner and I wedged it free, causing a sharp pain to slice across my skin.
"Ow," I whispered through gritted teeth, still refusing to give away my position.
I breathed past the pain as I landed on the other side of a small embankment. My knees hit the ground, covering the bare skin with small pebbles from what my office building considered landscape. A slight trickle of blood ran down my shoulder and I slapped my hand over the wound to save my outfit.
There must have been a loose screw on the inside of the window, but at that point I only hoped it hadn't been rusty because I couldn't recall the last time I had a tetanus shot.
"Shit." The minor scratch on my arm continued to bleed as I scrounged around in my purse and found a Kleenex to lay over the top of it.
Now that I had escaped the confines of my work building and the purposeful eyes of Ferris, there was no turning back. I'd be in trouble either way for giving Knight the slip, so the best way to use the time included a dinner date and concert with two of my favorite women in the world.
It may have looked ridiculous for a twenty-four-year-old woman with a job and an apartment of her own to sneak away like a teenager, but alas it's what my life had become over the years. Once you had a parent as a president, the odds of being a regular civilian got flushed down the toilet.
Now I had escaped, and it was time to leave the evidence of my departure behind me. I pushed the window lower and then darted across the open yard of the office building until I hit the sidewalk. The best part about having a job right downtown Paradise included how close it was to everything else. I picked up my pace, my high heels slapping against the cement as I walked in the direction I needed to go for our meet.
My arm throbbed as my heart rate picked up in excitement over making a clean break. In the past I'd been able to lose my detail once or sometimes twice a week and nobody became the wiser. As long as I didn't end up dead on the side of the road and get someone fired, they considered me nothing more than a rebellious teenager.
Ferris Knight had me off-kilter. Nothing I did fazed him and regardless of how much pleading and arguing to make my case, he hadn't swayed on anything. Two nights ago when I tried to order a batch of fries from my favorite sports bar, he'd cancelled the order moments later because the fries happened to be cooked in the same fryer as the restaurant's seafood and he'd been aware of my allergy.
I wasn't even aware the bar served seafood. Nevada didn't make the news for its oceans or other bodies of water unless you were talking about the Bellagio fountains.
Knight asserted himself as a cold unmoving jackass - a static piece of granite who didn't care about my needs or desires, but there were touches of more. Little glimpses of a soft man hiding underneath his outer hard core.
That dinosaur cup.
And the way he brought me coffee in it every morning. Not just regular coffee, but with my special creamer. No one besides family knew about my lactose intolerance and I couldn't decide if it ticked me off my parents gave away so much of my private information or relieved me somebody was looking out for me.
I hated to admit it, but Ferris caused warm fuzzies to pop up inside my stomach every time he was around doing something sweet for me. My body wanted him and that royally pissed me off like nothing else. It was my luck that the first man I had fallen for could never love me back because I was a job to him. Just another warm body to keep safe.
He hadn't even told me anything about his personal life. He was probably married and had fifteen kids or something, and I spent most of my evening fantasizing over a man who'd never be mine. Did having the woman's equivalent of a wet dream starring a married man - even if I wasn't aware - make me a cheater?
I thought when I became an adult, someone would answer life's questions, but the older I got the more kept popping up without Wikipedia pages to help navigate them.
"What the hell, Yuri?" a rough masculine voice yelled further down the sidewalk.
I twisted around and horror grabbed my features. "No." How did he find me and why did I love the fact he used my actual name rather than calling me Ms. Pane? Right then wasn't the time to be befuddled in by his good looks and male possessiveness. I did not love how the man made me all warm and squishy on the inside and in my heart. As if I wasn't in control of my emotions.
"How did you find me?" I asked as Knight ate at the distance between us and came to stand by my side, his eyes falling to my hand, which cupped the wound on my shoulder.
"You are on the street in broad daylight."
I moved to the side of the sidewalk, slipping into a short alley, and stomped my foot in dismay. It did nothing to deter him. In fact Knight smirked as if he found it funny.
"Now you're laughing at me?"
His eyes fell to my lips, and he took a step closer, boxing me up against the brick wall of the building we'd stopped next to in my attempt to get off the sidewalk. "Never, but I am here to keep you safe."
"Well what do you want?" There was no way he'd let me attend the concert with my friends. I was familiar with the rules. No going anyplace public until security checked it out and the other people vetted it. When you lived my life, you couldn't pop into the corner gas station and grab a Snickers bar.
I leaned back against the brick wall sighing in defeat and waiting for Knight to chastise me and my stupidity. He stepped closer, putting his chest against mine, so close we were almost touching. I looked up into his eyes wondering what he planned to do as heat creeped up my body with our proximity.
"You," he said, tilting his head and hovering his lips a hair's breadth away from mine. "Just you."
Life ticked away between us as Knight waited, and I threw caution to the wind before smashing my lips against his in a passionate kiss that connected us soul to soul.
His lips were soft yet firm, and they caressed my mouth while his tongue pushed past them to gain dominance between us. My hand fell away from the Kleenex against my arm, and I wrapped both around his neck as I pushed my body against his, my n*****s pebbled as they rubbed against the material of my clothing and his chest.
I moaned and pulled back to grasp air into my lungs, confusion over my needs stealing my breath.
Knight's attention fell to my shoulder where the deep red gash in my arm ached in pain.
"You're bleeding," he said, removing his body from mine and reaching out to cradle my arm with his thick hands.
- Writer
