Her Bodyguard Read online

  "What is this, a condom for my beer can?"

  He laughs. "Keeps it cold. I'm giving you the full Kentucky experience here." Then he strips off his shirt and stuffs it in his bag. "Strip, princess."

  I slip out of my clothes and hand them over so he can shove them in his backpack. Then I grab my inner tube, which is bigger than I am. "I've never seen anyone float down this river, ever," I tell him.

  "I know. I don't know what's wrong with you people," he chides, stepping down into the water and reaching out his hand to take mine. "I had to order these tubes from the United States. I couldn't even find floats here. You have a perfectly good, slow-moving river and you don’t tube on it."

  I step into the water and squeal. "It's not even warm! It's cold!"

  Max laughs. "Drink more beer," he advises. "You'll warm right up."

  "That sounds like sage advice," I note, laughing.

  Despite the chilly temperature, I quickly get used to the water. I just mimic what Max does, getting into my tube and kicking up my feet and lying back with my head against the rubber. He grabs the side of my tube and we float along, drifting slowly and lazily along in the sunshine, drinking our beer out of cans.

  Somewhere along the way, it becomes something awesome. The sunshine warms me all the way to my toes, the bright greens of the countryside seem to brighten the longer we drift around, and I'm so damned happy being with him that my heart aches.

  Who knew I had a heart, let alone that it could feel the way it does now, like it's going to burst?

  Still, there's that nagging little thought in the back of my head, the expectation that everything is going to go wrong. It can't last, because happiness doesn't last. A princess and a bodyguard cannot be together. I'm not naïve enough to believe in fairytales and happy endings and relationships and love.

  Love.

  That word comes to mind and I think it might trigger a panic attack as my heart pounds at the thought.

  No. This is not that. It's only sex. That's all.

  Then Max takes my hand in his and it jolts me out of my fearful thoughts. I look over at him, kicked back in his inner tube wearing his swim trunks, a wide grin on his face. "What did I tell you, princess?" he asks. "This shit is fun, isn't it?"

  He's in his element right now, and I want more than anything to see him back in his hometown, to see the way he grew up and the people who love him.

  I want it so badly, my heart aches.

  I smile. "Totally fun."

  Fun, and that's all, I remind myself. Nothing more than fun.

  38

  Max

  We float on our tubes down to the place I scouted earlier. Hopping out, I pull both of our tubes to the riverbank and help Alexandra out of the water.

  She brushes a stray lock of hair away from her face as she looks around. "What is all of this?"

  "Lunch," I answer with a shrug like it's no big deal. I mean, it's not a big deal, compared to all of the expensive stuff that surrounds the princess on a daily basis. "I drove out here with a blanket and a cooler, then left the car out here and came back to get you."

  "You did all of this for me?"

  "It's not much," I tell her, suddenly self-conscious. "I just wanted to show you a little non-royal fun." I leave out the part where I wanted to have something more like a date with her – an actual proper date that didn't involve me tying her up or handcuffing her to anything or fucking her in a room full of people.

  If I told her that, I think she'd run. Hell, I know she'd run.

  But the way she looks at me right now, I think she just might want the same thing. She just can't admit it.

  I clear my throat and gesture toward the blanket. "Here, sit."

  "That's really…" Her voice drifts off and her hand goes to her mouth. "You went to a lot of effort. No one's ever done anything like this for me before."

  I laugh as I sit down beside her. "Well, that much I can believe. I definitely don't think anyone's ever taken you tubing."

  "That's not what I mean."

  "Okay, well, before you get too impressed, what's in the cooler isn't exactly the kind of fine dining you're used to. It's just barbeque. That's what we eat in Kentucky, but it's nothing special. The chef let me use the kitchen to make it for you."

  "You cooked for me?" she asks, her voice squeaking.

  "You think that's a good thing, but you might change your tune after you taste it."

  Honestly, though, I'm not entirely sure if the weird face she's making is because she's impressed or because she thinks this whole thing is corny as hell.

  "That swing wasn't there before this morning, was it?" She nods in the direction of the swing I fashioned out of ropes and a plank and attached to a large branch of the tree closest to us.

  "I was going to make a rope swing, but the river isn't deep enough and there wasn't a tree close enough to the riverbank to do a proper one, but –"

  "Shut up," she says, her voice strained.

  "Excuse me?"

  "Stop talking," Alexandra repeats. Her voice catches in her throat as she straddles me, pressing her lips to mine in the softest of kisses. Her hair falls around her face, the ends of the strands wet from the river. My hands go to her back, drawing her against me as my mouth tastes hers.

  When her tongue finds mine, it's not the way it usually is. She's not warring with me or settling an argument by kissing me. The kiss is slow and languid and easy, exactly the opposite of the way everything with her has been up to this point.

  She sits on my lap and moves against me as my cock flexes through my swim trunks. As her legs wrap around me, I think to myself that I'll never be able to get enough of this woman. I slide my hands over her arms, touching her, wanting her. Pulling the material on her bikini top to the side, I dip my mouth to take her breast. As I suck her nipple, she arches her back, pushing her pussy harder against my cock while she lets out a loud moan.

  Then she breaks away suddenly in order to kneel just above me so she can undo my swim trunks. When I arch up, she pulls them over my hips and down my legs, and I kick them away so there's nothing between us except those tiny swimsuit bottoms as she straddles me. Then they're off too, discarded beside us on the blanket in seconds after a quick tug of the strings on her hips. I don't bother to even undo her top; I just push aside the other scrap of fabric still covering her breast and cup them in my palms.

  Her mouth is on mine as she takes my cock and guides it straight to her entrance, sinking down onto me. She's warm and wet, and I could stay inside her forever. When she moans into my mouth, I think it's the sexiest sound I've ever heard. I grab her ass cheeks, pulling her deeper and deeper as she rocks against me.

  She doesn't stop kissing me. Her lips are locked on mine as she wraps her legs around my waist tightly so that I'm inside her as deep as I can go. We're melded together, skin against skin, with no barrier or space between us.

  "Fuck, I love being inside you like this," I groan as she rides me. When she arches her back, I take one of her breasts in my mouth, my tongue rolling over the nipple, and she moans loudly. Her pussy swells around my cock. "Your pussy is so tight, so wet for me. It's like it was made to fit me."

  Her hips rock against me faster. "I love the way you feel inside me."

  My hands on her hips, I push her down on me over and over until I can hardly hold out any longer. I watch the base of my shaft as it slides in and out of her. "Fuck, you're so wet you're dripping all over me. I love the way your pussy looks with me fucking it."

  Her moans come faster and faster, and then I'm groaning and there's no longer any more dirty talk. When she closes her eyes, I pull her tighter against me, telling her to look at me as she rides my cock. "I want you here with me. I want to see the look in your eyes when you come."

  I can tell by the way she flutters inside that she's close. She whimpers as she grinds her clit against me, bringing herself higher and higher. "Oh, God. I'm so close. I'm so close," she whimpers.

  "Come for me, Al