Chapter Eight
Hayes
“Luna—” I called after her.
Fuck.
Too late. Faces were already swiveling in our direction.
I jumped from the truck and ran to catch up. I settled my hand against the small of her back as I always did. That little point of contact was so I wouldn’t lose her in the crowd, and more and more just because I wanted to.
“You could have warned me,” I said out of the corner of my mouth, trying to keep my face even.
“I did,” she whispered back, smiling tightly for the cameras like a politician caught in a scandal.
“Yeah, five seconds ago.” My gaze flicked toward the influencer, then back to her.
“I’ll apologize later,” she said sweetly, teeth clenched in a fake smile. “But for now, pretend you adore me.”
“Not a problem,” I muttered, wishing my words were as sarcastic as they sounded.
A woman who couldn’t have been more than twenty-five smiled at us as we approached. She had one of those little clip-on microphones attached to the front of her sweatshirt, which said Even though I Dust Them, My Book Shelves are Still Dirty.
“Luna Darling and the book boyfriend, thanks for agreeing to an interview.”
“Hayes,” I said, reaching out a hand to shake hers. She seemed a little taken aback but ultimately returned the gesture.
“I’m Jenn, a.k.a. The Book Boyfriend Dealer, and this is my cameraperson, Darren.”
The man behind her nodded but didn’t make a move to shake my hand.
Much like at the book signing, the woman turned her back to us, and the person with her pointed the camera at her face.
He nodded, and she started to speak. “Hey, Addicts, it’s me, The Book Boyfriend Dealer, standing in front of a Luna Darling book signing in Waco.
I have Luna Darling and the real-life book boyfriend here with me, ready to answer your questions, so stick around. ”
Darren panned the camera to focus on Luna and me.
It took a lot to rattle me, but being the center of attention wasn’t something I was used to.
“Luna, everyone loved your speech about the perfect man, and then you showed up to a book signing with Hayes. Fans went crazy with speculation that he was who you were talking about in your interview. What do you say to that?”
She froze up for a moment. I moved my hand to her back and rested it there again, hoping the camera was too focused on our faces for anyone to notice. Luna recovered and answered. “Uh, well… I can understand why fans are curious about Hayes.”
Less unhinged than some of the things I’d heard from her mouth. We were off to a good start.
Jenn laughed. “Luna, that doesn’t answer the question, which is all the answer I need.” She turned to the camera and gave it a significant look. “One quality that readers love in a book boyfriend is protectiveness. Hayes, you seem to have that in spades.”
I blinked. It wasn’t really a question, but I answered anyway. “That’s my job.”
Jenn turned to the camera again and spoke as if we weren’t even there. “Addicts, he is so freaking alpha, leave a heart emoji in the comments if you are swooning right now.”
I glanced toward Luna. I was out of my element here and couldn’t tell if we were doing well or not.
Her eyes were too wide for me to read.
“I polled the readers to find out what questions to ask you, and the number one request was to ask you, Luna Darling, if you are dating your bodyguard?”
Luna had been taking a sip of her giant coffee but choked when the question came out of Jenn’s mouth.
I patted her back as she composed herself. “Easy,” I murmured. I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and handed it to her. “Here you go, Darling.”
“He calls you Darling! That is so sweet.” Jenn clutched her hands in front of her chest.
“It’s just my last name,” Luna rasped, dabbing coffee from her chin.
Jenn’s smile sharpened, and I wondered if I had underestimated just how in-depth this interview was going to get. “But you two seem pretty close. There’s a lot of trust there, huh?”
She scrunched up her face, clearly as annoyed with the questions as I was. “Well, yeah, he’s literally paid to keep me alive, so trust seems like a good start.”
Jenn laughed at that determined look that didn’t leave her eye. “Hayes, keeping someone safe is a big job. It must be a lot of pressure to take care of Luna.”
My jaw tightened. I knew I had to present a certain persona to keep the production company happy, but I had a hunch she was about to bring up something from my past that was better left unsaid. “I take care of all my clients.”
“I’m sure you do. Think of what would happen if you made even one little mistake.” She drew out the last four words.
I stepped a little closer to Luna, hand still resting against her back. “We’re done here.”
The woman’s eyes gleamed. “So protective. Just like your books, Luna. A man haunted by his past, guarding the woman who makes him forget.”
She gaped at Jenn. “That’s not—”
“That’s all from me, Addicts,” Jenn said, turning her back to us and talking to the camera. “Tune in tomorrow when I attend the grand opening of a new bookstore in Bellmead.”
The camera was finally lowered.
“Thanks for the interview. It was nice to meet—”
“I have to talk to you.” I took Jenn by the elbow and stepped away so Luna couldn’t hear, but she was still in my line of sight. “What the hell was that?”
“What?” Jenn asked, blinking innocently at me.
“You know damn well what. You were hinting at something from my past.”
A smile spread over her pink-stained lips. “I may have researched you when I saw you going viral. The story is easy enough to find. I had a little talk with Luna’s agent, and she said she’d get me an interview if I kept my mouth shut about what I knew.”
My nostrils flared, and I let that sit for a moment. “If you agreed to keep it quiet, why bring it up at all?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t say a thing, just stirring up some conversation in my comments. Your secret is safe with me.”
Then they got into a car and drove away. I still had a whole book signing to get through, and I was reeling from the idea that the world of romance books could be so cutthroat.
“What was that about?” Luna asked as I rejoined her.
“Just asking her not to tag the location until after the event for security purposes,” I lied.
Luna nodded, and we headed through the side entrance into the bookstore.
I could hear Luna’s phone buzzing in her purse, but she made no move to answer it.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I almost drowned in coffee during a live interview,” she muttered. “I didn’t exactly play it cool.”
I smirked. “You did fine, Darling.”
Whether it was her last name or not, the influencer was right.
I didn’t just call her that because it was her name.
I might not spend as much time at the ranch or decked out in boots and a Stetson as the other guys at Lone Star did, but I was still a cowboy at heart.
And calling my woman Darling made me think of a simpler life.
My woman.
Where did that come from? Luna wasn’t mine, and even if I wanted her to be, I had a code of ethics that did not include getting my clients naked. I knew what happened when a guard got complacent or distracted.
She had the potential to be the biggest distraction I had ever met.
For a long second, we stood there in the quiet of the store hallway. My job was to be between Luna and the world, but the interview had changed that. Now it was us against known and unknown threats, and I felt closer to her than I should.
The space was small, and we were standing close, too close maybe. I could smell her shampoo, the same industrial citrus stuff I’d used in the hotel, but it smelled better on her.
Every instinct I had screamed to step closer, to tuck that loose strand of hair behind her ear, to let myself want her for just one damn second. But wanting her was the one thing I wasn’t allowed to do.
My attention had to be on keeping her safe, not whatever it was my heart had in mind.
Then I cleared my throat and stepped back. “Let’s get you ready for the signing.”
Professional. Cool. Totally unaffected.
That was what I needed to portray. Ideally, that was what I needed to be, but my body wasn’t getting the memo.