The Author and Her Bodyguard

Chapter 11

His eyes were staring down at a notebook, scanning a set of scribbles that were too small for me to see from where I stood. After a moment of silent staring, he spoke without looking up. "The view is better over here."

My entire body blushed. I didn't even know that was possible. I had been caught openly staring at him, like a kid with a hand in the cookie jar. But he wasn't some cookie for me to have, and that feeling was somehow FAR WORSE.

Looking up, Aiden lifted his notebook. "You wanted to see what I was looking at, you can read it over here."

Oh my gosh... the dude is oblivious. He had no idea I had been ogling him. I had never been so thankful for this level of cluelessness in my entire life. Laughing, I offered up a shrug. "I'm gonna get myself something to drink first."

Aiden pushed a second mug across the counter as I reached the kitchen. It was filled with hot chocolate. "You didn't strike me as a tea person," he said over his own cup. "Anyone who willingly picks Pop-Tarts as their choice breakfast seems to land more in the world of sweet and creamy than in the world of spices and leaves."

I laughed, picking up my mickey mouse mug and enjoying the warmth that filled my forever frozen fingertips. "I didn't even know I had tea."

He took a long sip, adam's apple bobbing as he did. "You don't. I carry some."

"Seriously?" I asked, moving over to my plush chair in the living room. Tucking my legs underneath me, I settled down, finally comfortable for the first time that day.

"The hours are long," Aiden replied sitting down on the edge of the couch across from me. "You learn to have a few things on hand." I took a large sip of my hot chocolate, enjoying the familiar warmth that filled my belly.

Aiden set down his mug on a side table. "When did you start getting the notes?"

So the game of stalker twenty questions begins...

I took a large breath, steadying myself. "Six months ago."

Aiden nodded, "Anything significant about that time?"

I blushed again, staring down at the pattern of black and yellow that made up my warm flannel. I didn't want to talk about myself. "It was right after my second book started to do well." Aiden stayed silent, waiting for me to continue. It was like he knew there were things I hadn't said. Details I was omitting.

"Right after my second book hit the New York Times Best Sellers List. Everywhere I looked, someone was reading it."

I tugged on a strand of my blond hair self-consciously. "It was weird seeing what I had written scattered across LA like that." It had been a strange out-of-body experience. Hearing people discuss it, eyes light up as they read it. Seeing it in bookstores.

It was amazing and terrifying because I was so afraid that every head would eventually turn, eyes angry, and tell me how much they hated it. Tell me I had wasted my life and theirs by tricking them into reading it.

"What did the note say?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "Can I ask you something?"

Aiden leaned back, picked up his mug, and nodded before taking a sip.

I took a moment to think through the millions of questions I had for him and started with the one I thought I would have the best luck getting answered. "Have you always been a bodyguard?"

"I don't see how that's relevant to the conversation."

I finished my hot chocolate, because yes I drank the entire thing in twenty seconds. That's what chocoholics did. They loved chocolate to a passionate degree and needed to have it all. Then I put my mug down and stared at Aiden, my face serious. "Well, that's just it. This doesn't feel like a conversation. If I am going to be spending endless hours with you—.