Into You

Chapter 7

They sat and ate the Chinese takeaway in stony silence. Dinah and Normani had just left, leaving Lauren alone in the flat with the ice-maiden. She hadn't said a word to her since Dinah's little announcement, hadn't even moved from her spot on the couch, in fact; hadn't even looked at Lauren when she passed across her food.

Their meal finished, Lauren took the dishes from the table and started clearing up. With all the shit that had gone on, it was now nearing ten o'clock and she was starting to feel tired; it had, after all, been an early start and a pretty exhausting day.

So it's now Wednesday night and she had just discovered that she's going to be working for Miss Camila Cabello for at least the next couple of days.

'Fucking great!'

She's glad of the work, don't get her wrong; and she suspects now that this kind of escort duty is exactly why Dinah wanted her in the company, why she wanted her to go and see Alejandro Cabello in the first place. Here was Lauren thinking that they all recognized her talent and thought that she'd be able to get the big deal with Alejandro himself, and then it dawned on her; all they really wanted, was to provide a female bodyguard to his fucking daughters.

That's one way to shatter a girl's ego.

Still she'd done well today, she knows I had. Forget about keeping Miss Cabello alive, that's standard protection work. No, she'd managed to impress Alejandro Cabello; she knows she had. She suspects that there's a crack in the doorway that Dinah is going to plant her size ten boot into and kick open. She's hoping that they'll win some serious business there, let them know how valuable she can be.

"Do you want to stay here tonight or are we going back to my place?"

Lauren's mind snapped from its playback of applause and cheering in the office, celebrating their massive new contract and back onto the brunette that had graced her with her attention.

"Sorry?" she asked, sort of distracted by her comment. Lauren has got a sound bite of Lucy going through her head, asking her pretty much the same question on that drunken night in Ibiza; and it's kind of disconcerting because what happened after that was pretty fucking amazing.

"I said, do you want to stay here tonight or are we going back to my place?" Miss Cabello shook her head at her as if she was stupid. "Seeing as my father decided to put you in charge of my fucking life."

"Miss Cabello," she replied, a little snottily, "I don't know what you father or anyone else may have told you, but if I'm protecting you; that's all I'll do. I'm not your babysitter, your servant, your mother or your guardian. I can assure you I have no interest in being in charge of your life. My only concern is your safety and unless you do something that trespasses that safety, you can do what the heck you like."

She stared back at her. Was Lauren imagining things or were those eyes a little softer?

"So if I wanted to go back to my flat, I could?"

"If you insisted on it, Miss Cabello, yes. However, as I said earlier today, I think it would be stupid to go back there today. If those people are serious, and it seemed they were, that would be the first place to try and pick you up."

She yawned, covering her mouth as she did so, "That's what I'd do anyway, stake out your home or your office and wait for you there."

Miss Cabello's eyes narrowed, "So I'm stuck here, with you?"

"If you don't want to put yourself at risk, then yes. Maybe the risk will be lessened after the negotiations Dinah mentioned tomorrow; and things can go back to normal. I don't think it was a coincidence that that attack happened today."