Chapter- 3

BRIDGET POV.

ONE OF THE WROST THING ABOUT HAVING A ROUND- THE-

clock bodyguard was living with them. It hadn’t been an issue with

Booth because we’d gotten along so well, but living in close

quarters with Rhys put on me on edge.

Suddenly, my house seemed too small, and everywhere I

looked, Rhys was there.

Drinking coffee in the kitchen. Stepping out of the shower.

Working out in the backyard, his muscles flexing and his skin

gleaming with sweat.

It all felt strangely domestic in a way it hadn’t felt with Booth,

and I didn’t like it one bit.

“Aren’t you hot in those clothes?” I asked one unseasonably

warm day as I watched Rhys do push-ups.

Even though it was fall, the temperature hovered in the high

seventies, and a bead of sweat trickled down my neck despite my

light cotton dress and the ice-cold lemonade in my hands.

Rhys must be roasting in his black shirt and workout shorts.

“Trying to get me to take my shirt off?” He continued his

pushups, not sounding the least bit winded.

Warmth that had nothing to do with the weather spread across

my cheeks. “You wish.” It wasn’t the most inspired answer, but it

was all I could think of.

Honestly, I was curious about seeing Rhys shirtless. Not

because I wanted to sneak a peek at his abs—which I grudgingly

admitted had to be fantastic if the rest of his body was anything to

go by—but because he seemed so determined not to be shirtless.

Even when he left the bathroom after a shower, he was fully

dressed.

Maybe he was uncomfortable getting half-naked in front of a

client, but I had a feeling not much discomfited Rhys Larsen. It

had to be something else. An embarrassing tattoo, maybe, or a

strange skin condition that only affected his torso.

Rhys finished his pushups and moved on to the pull-up bar.

“You gonna keep ogling me, or you got something I can help you

with, princess?”

The warmth intensified. “I wasn’t ogling you. I was secretly

praying for you to get heatstroke. If you do, I’m not helping you. I

have…a book to read.”

Dear Lord, what am I saying? I didn’t make sense even to

myself.

After our moment of solidarity at The Crypt two weeks ago,

Rhys and I had settled right back into our familiar pattern of snark

and sarcasm, which I hated, because I wasn’t a typically snarky

and sarcastic person.

A shadow of a smirk filled the corners of Rhys’s mouth, but it

disappeared before it blossomed into something real. “Good to

know.”

By now, I was sure I was beet red, but I lifted my chin and

reentered the house with as much dignity as I could muster.

Let Rhys bake in the sun. I hoped he did get heatstroke.

Maybe then, he wouldn’t have enough energy to be such an ass.

Sadly, he didn’t, and he had plenty of energy left to be an ass.

“How’s the book?” he drawled later, when he’d finished his

workout and I’d grabbed the closest book I could find before he

entered the living room.

“Riveting.” I tried to focus on the page instead of the way

Rhys’s sweat-dampened shirt clung to his torso.

Six-pack abs for sure. Maybe even an eight-pack. Not that I

was counting.

“Sure seems that way.” Rhys’s face remained impassive, but I

could hear the mocking bent in his voice. He walked to the

bathroom, and without looking back, he added, “By the way,

princess, the book is upside down.”

I

slammed the hardcover shut, my skin blazing with

embarrassment.

God, he was insufferable. A gentleman wouldn’t point

something like that out, but Rhys Larsen was no gentleman. He

was the bane of my existence.

Unfortunately, I was the only person who thought so. Everyone

else found his grumpiness charming, including my friends and the

people at the shelter, so I couldn’t even commiserate with them

over his bane-of-my-existence-ness.

“What’s the deal with your new bodyguard?” Wendy, one of the

other long-term volunteers at Wags & Whiskers, whispered. She

snuck a peek at where Rhys sat in the corner like a rigid statue of

muscles and tattoos. “He’s got that whole strong, silent thing

going on. It’s hot.”

“You say that, but you’re not the one who has to live with him.”

It was two days after the upside-down book debacle, and Rhys

and I hadn’t exchanged any words since except good morning

and good night.

I didn’t mind. It made it easier to pretend he didn’t exist.

Wendy laughed. “I’ll gladly change places with you. My

roommate keeps microwaving fish and stinking up the kitchen,

and she looks nothing like your bodyguard.” She tightened her

ponytail and stood. “Speaking of changing places, I have to head

out for study group. Do you have everything you need?”

I nodded. I’d taken over Wendy’s shift enough times by now to

have the routine down pat.

After she left, silence descended, so thick it draped around me

like a cloak.

Rhys didn’t move from his corner spot. We were alone, but his

eyes roved around the playroom like he expected an assassin to

pop out from behind the cat condo at any minute.

“Does it get exhausting?” I scratched Meadow, the shelter’s

newest cat, behind the ears.

“What?”

“Being on all the time.” Constantly alert, searching for danger.

It was his job, but I’d never seen Rhys relax, not even when it was

just the two of us at home.

“No.”

“You know you can give more than one-word answers, right?”

“Yes.”

He was impossible.

“Thank God I have you, sweetie,” I said to Meadow. “At least

you can carry on a decent conversation.”

She meowed in agreement, and I smiled. I swore cats were

smarter than humans sometimes.

There was another long stretch of silence before Rhys

surprised me by asking, “Why do you volunteer at an animal

shelter?”

I

was so startled by the fact he’d initiated a non-security

related conversation I froze mid-pet. Meadow meowed again, this

time in protest.

I

resumed my petting and debated how much to tell Rhys

before settling on the simple answer. “I like animals. Hence,

animal shelter.”

“Hmm.”

My spine stiffened at the skepticism in his voice. “Why do you

ask?”

Rhys shrugged. “Just doesn’t seem like the kinda thing you’d

like to do in your free time.”

I didn’t have to ask to know what types of things he thought I

liked doing in my free time. Most people looked at me and made

assumptions based on my appearance and background, and yes,

some of them were true. I enjoyed shopping and parties as much

as the next girl, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care about other

things too.

“It’s amazing how much insight you have into my personality

after knowing me for only a month,” I said coolly.

“I

do my research, princess.” It was the only way Rhys

addressed me. He refused to call me by my first name or Your

Highness. In turn, I refused to call him anything except Mr. Larsen.

I

wasn’t sure if it accomplished anything, since he gave no

indication it bothered him, but it satisfied the petty part of me. “I

know more about you than you think.”

“But not why I volunteer at an animal shelter. So, clearly, you

need to brush up on your research skills.”

I

He flicked those steely gray eyes in my direction, and I thought

spotted a hint of amusement before the walls crashed down

again. “Touché.” He hesitated, then added reluctantly, “You’re

different from what I expected.”

“Why? Because I’m not a superficial airhead?” My voice chilled

another degree as I tried to cover up the unexpected sting of his

words.

“I never said you were a superficial airhead.”

“You implied it.”

Rhys grimaced. “You’re not the first royal I’ve guarded,” he

said. “You’re not even the third or fourth. They all acted similarly,

and I expected you to do the same. But you’re not…”

I arched an eyebrow. “I’m not…?”

A small smile ghosted across his face so fast I almost missed

it. “A superficial airhead.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed.

Me, laughing at something Rhys Larsen said. Hell must’ve iced

over.

“My mom was a huge animal lover,” I said, surprising myself. I

hadn’t planned on talking about my mother with Rhys, but I felt

compelled to take advantage of the lull in our normally

antagonistic relationship. “I got the gene from her. But the palace

didn’t allow pets, and the only way I could regularly interact with

animals was by volunteering at shelters.”

I held out my hand and smiled when Meadow pawed at it like

she was giving me a low five. “I enjoy it, but I also do it

because…” I searched for the right words. “It makes me feel

closer to my mom. The love for animals is something only we

shared. The rest of my family likes them fine, but not in the same

way we do. Or did.”

I didn’t know what prompted my admission. Was it because I

wanted to prove I wasn’t volunteering as a PR stunt? Why did I

care what Rhys thought of me, anyway?

Or maybe it was because I needed to talk about my mom to

someone who hadn’t known her. In Athenberg, I couldn’t mention

her without people shooting me pitying looks, but Rhys was as

calm and unruffled as ever.

“I understand,” he said.

Two simple words, yet they crawled inside me and soothed a

part of me I hadn’t known needed soothing.

Our eyes met, and the air developed another layer of

thickness.

Dark, mysterious, piercing. Rhys had the kind of eyes that saw

straight into a person’s soul, stripping past layers of elaborate lies

to reach the ugly truths underneath.

How many of my truths could he see? Could he see the girl

beneath the mask, the one who’d carried a decades-long burden

she was terrified to share, the one who’d killed—

“Master! Spank me, Master!” Leather chose that moment to let

loose one of his notoriously inappropriate outbursts. “Please

spank me!”

The spell shattered as quickly as it had been cast.

Rhys flicked his gaze away, and I looked down, my breath

gusting out in a mixture of relief and disappointment.

“Mas—” Leather quieted when Rhys leveled it with a glare.

The bird ruffled its feathers and hopped around its cage before

settling into a nervous silence.

“Congratulations,” I said, trying to shake off the unsettling

electricity from a moment ago. “You might be the first person

who’s ever gotten Leather to stop mid-sentence. You should adopt

him.”

“Fuck no. I don’t do foul-mouthed animals.”

We stared at each other for a second before a small giggle

slipped from my mouth and the iron curtain shielding his eyes

lifted enough for me to spot another glimmer of humor.

We didn’t talk again for the rest of my shift, but the mood

between us had lightened enough that I’d convinced myself Rhys

and I could have a functional working relationship.

I

wasn’t sure if it was optimism or delusion, but my brain

always latched onto the smallest evidence things weren’t so bad

to cope with discomfort.

The wind nipped at the bare skin on my face and neck as we

walked home after my shift. Rhys and I had fought over whether

to walk or drive, but in the end, even he had to admit it would be

silly to drive somewhere so close.

“Are you excited to visit Eldorra?” I asked. We were leaving for

Athenberg in a few days for winter break, and Rhys had

mentioned it would be his first time in the country.

I’d hoped to build on our earlier flash of camaraderie, but I’d

misjudged because Rhys’s face shut down faster than a house

party raided by cops.

“I’m not going there for vacation, princess.” He said there like I

was forcing him to go to a prison camp, not a place Travel +

Leisure had named the ninth-best city in the world to visit.

“I know you’re not going for vacation.” I tried and failed to keep

the annoyance out of my voice. “But you’ll have free ti—”

The high-pitched squeal of tires ripped through the air. My

brain didn’t have time to process the sound before Rhys pushed

me into a nearby alleyway and pressed me tight against the wall

with his gun drawn and his body covering mine.

My pulse kicked into high gear, both at the sudden spike of

adrenaline and the proximity to him. He radiated heat and tension

from every inch of his big, muscled frame, and it wrapped around

me like a cocoon as a car sped past blasting music and leaking

laughter out of its half-open windows.

Rhys’s heartbeat thumped against my shoulder blades, and

we stayed frozen in the alleyway long after the music faded and

the only sound left was our heavy breathing.

“Mr. Larsen,” I said quietly. “I think we’re okay.”

He didn’t move. I was trapped between him and the brick, two

immovable walls shielding me from the world. He’d braced one

hand protectively against the wall next to my head, and he stood

so close I could feel every sculpted ridge and contour of his body

against mine.

Another long beat passed before Rhys re-holstered his gun

and turned his head to look at me.

“You sure you’re okay?” His voice was deep and gruff, and his

eyes searched me for injuries even though nothing had happened

to me.

“Yes. The car took a turn too fast. That’s all.” I let out a nervous

laugh, my skin too hot for comfort beneath his fierce perusal. “I

was more startled by you throwing me into the alley.”

“That’s why we should’ve driven.” He stepped back, taking his

heat with him, and cool air rushed to fill the void. I shivered,

wishing I’d worn a thicker sweater. It was suddenly too cold.

“You’re too open and unprotected walking around like this. That

could’ve been a drive-by.”

I almost laughed at the thought. “I don’t think so. Cats will fly

before there’s a drive-by in Hazelburg.” It was one of the safest

towns in the country, and most of the students didn’t even own

cars.

Rhys didn’t look impressed by my analogy. “How many times

do I have to tell you? It only takes once. No more walking to and

from the shelter from now on.”

“It

was literally nothing. You’re overreacting,” I said, my

annoyance returning full force.

His expression turned to granite. “It is my job to think of

everything that could go wrong. If you don’t like it, fire me. Until

then, do what I say, when I say it, like I told you on the first day.”

Any trace of our semi-truce from the shelter vanished. I wished

I could fire him, but I didn’t have a say over staffing decisions and

no good reason to fire Rhys other than we didn’t get along.

I’d been so sure our shelter interaction marked the beginning

of a new phase in our relationship, but Rhys and I had taken one

step forward and two steps back.

I

pictured us flying to Athenberg with nothing except our

familiar icy silence keeping us company for hours and grimaced.

It was going to be a long Christmas break.

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