Chapter Five #2
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” As he spoke, Asher stroked his fingers idly across the top of Cameron’s left foot. “If you tell me what you need, I can send someone to pick it up for you.”
“It’ll be fine.” Despite the upheaval to his routine, he couldn’t just put his life on hold until things blew over. Plus, he really didn’t like the idea of a stranger rummaging through his underwear drawer. “I won’t be gone long. ”
Asher stared at him, his gaze penetrating and searching. Eventually, he must have found whatever he was looking for, because his posture visibly relaxed, and he even smiled.
“When do you want to leave?”
His meaning wasn’t immediately clear until he leaned forward as if to rise from the sofa. Jerking upright, Cameron grabbed him by the wrist to keep him in place.
“What are you doing?”
“There is no way in hell I’m letting you go by yourself.”
“Then, I guess we’ve reached an impasse, because you are not leaving this house.”
Talon and Becca would both murder him if he stepped foot outside his front door, and Cameron would not be responsible for the bloodshed.
A shiver worked down his spine as he envisioned Becca’s reaction to Asher’s face being splashed across another tabloid.
There was only one person on the planet who scared him more than Asher’s agent, and that person had given birth to him.
Instead of the witty comeback he expected, Asher sighed and carded his fingers through his hair, the move stretching his powder-blue shirt across his chest. “Fine, I won’t leave the house, but I still don’t want you to go alone.”
Cameron frowned as he felt the headache building in his temples. “Oz and his team have enough on their plate without babysitting me. ”
“No, not them.” He ran his hands through his hair again and looked fixedly down at his knees.
Cameron tilted his head as his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Asher answered a little too quickly.
A moment later, he released a long breath that puffed out his cheeks, then finally lifted his head to meet Cameron’s gaze.
“I might have hired security agents to follow Natalie, Luke, and Nico around for the rest of the week.” He glanced down again, and added in a mumbled whisper, “And you.”
Cameron stared as a hard knot lodged in his throat. It would be a lie to say he was surprised by the admission, but he hadn’t expected to be so touched by the gesture.
“You hired my sister a bodyguard?”
Continuing to stare down at his lap, Asher rolled his right shoulder in what might have been a shrug. “Oz has someone checking in on your parents a couple of times a day as well. He says that, so far, everything has been quiet.”
Cameron had never seen him so unsure, so…
lost. Obviously, he had expected a negative reaction, and maybe Cameron should have been mad that Asher hadn’t told him sooner.
Instead, all he felt was relief and a warm rush of affection.
With slow, deliberate movements, giving Asher plenty of time to push him away if he wanted to, he climbed into his lap and straddled his thighs.
“Is this okay? ”
After being used and assaulted as a teenager, it was understandable that he would find certain situations triggering.
With his past so close to the forefront these days, Cameron could only imagine that those feelings of being trapped, scared, and vulnerable were even closer to the surface.
He didn’t know all the rules yet, didn’t know exactly what kind of touches Asher would find uncomfortable, but he was learning.
Asher tensed, and his hands twitched defensively at his sides before coming up to rest on Cameron’s hips. “Yeah,” he answered after a moment, his fingers kneading Cameron’s flesh as he stared up at him. “This is good.”
Cameron dipped his head, bringing their mouths together in a soft brush of lips. “Thank you.” While he didn’t bring in nearly the income Asher did, he could afford security for the people he cared about, and he felt guilty for not thinking of it sooner. “I’ll pay you back.”
At first, it looked like Asher would protest. He certainly looked like he wanted to, but instead, he gave Cameron a wicked grin and arched up to claim his lips again. “Okay,” he said, pulling away and leaving Cameron gasping for air. “Now, we’re even.”
That wasn’t at all what he’d meant, and Asher damn well knew it. Before he could say anything, however, two fingers came up to cover his lips.
“We’ll argue about it later, okay? ”
Cameron deflated. For now, he could let it go. Once some of the stress and uncertainty lifted, though, they were going to revisit the conversation. As much as he appreciated Asher’s desire to protect his family, they weren’t his responsibility.
“I still need to go back to my place.” He grinned when Asher grumbled under his breath. “Call whoever you need to call. I’ll be ready to leave in half an hour.”
~
“You might want to duck down, Mr. Stone.”
Cameron nodded to his new personal bodyguard as he slid down in the passenger seat of the sleek black Escalade without protest.
A moment later, the guy spoke again. “Okay, we’re past the gate, Mr. Stone.”
“Please, call me Cameron.” He pushed himself back up, adjusted his shirt where it had bunched around his waist, and secured his seatbelt. “It’s Ryder, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir. Ryder Frost.” The corner of his bow-shaped mouth quirked upward, and he glanced over at Cameron with piercing blue eyes. “Most people don’t bother to learn our names.”
“Most people are dicks.”
Ryder’s smirk morphed into a full-blown grin. “True enough. ”
“Okay, so explain something to me.” Cameron loosened his seatbelt a little so that he could shift in his seat. “Oz and his team are guarding the house, right? No offense, but why couldn’t one of them take me to Mission Grove?”
“No offense taken.” Slowing to accommodate the car in front of them that was going well below the speed limit, Ryder reached for the radio, turning it to a country station at low volume.
“First off, Mr. Dare has a fairly substantial property that requires the entirety of his security team to patrol it.”
“I guess that makes sense.” It was a pretty massive place.
“Second, we all have different training levels,” Ryder continued. “So, Oz and his team are what we call EROS, Escort and Residential Occupancy Security. Basically, they’re trained for residential security and low-level escort gigs.”
“Security for private parties and around-the-clock work like they’re doing now?” Cameron asked, determined to keep up with the conversation.
Ryder nodded. “Exactly.”
A frown pulled at Cameron’s lips, and he could feel his brow wrinkle. “Okay, so what qualifies as a low-level escort?”
“Jobs like escorting businessmen to the airport or following socialites around town while they shop. ”
“Or keeping a celebrity author from getting into too much trouble in his own house,” Cameron mumbled.
His bodyguard laughed. “Something like that. Really, it just means they handle the low-risk jobs since they’re not as extensively trained in all areas of security.”
“And I take it you’re not an EROS.”
The SUV lurched forward as Ryder pressed the gas to pass the slow-moving sedan in front of them. He didn’t speak until he’d safely maneuvered back into the proper lane. “Correct. I’m part of the ARIES team. We’re trained in everything. Kind of the elite of the elite.”
There was pride in his words, but his tone lacked the boastfulness Cameron would have expected from such a statement. He was liking the guy more and more by the minute. “I still don’t get it,” he confessed. “I’m nobody. Why do I need elite security?”
“I assure you that Mr. Dare does not consider you nobody. He was very descriptive about the bodily injury that would be inflicted upon my person should anything happen to you.”
Cameron ducked his head and turned away to hide the smile that stretched his lips. God, that sounded exactly like Asher, and despite the threat of violence to Ryder, he found it incredibly sweet. Excessive and slightly deranged, but sweet, nonetheless.
“Wait.” He jerked back around, his mouth hanging open.
“What about the others? Are they all elite guards?” Luke, Natalie, and Nico all had personal security assigned to them for the foreseeable future.
Surely Asher didn’t think they all needed elite bodyguards in Mission Grove.
“Do I even call you guys guards? Bodyguards? Security agents? Men in Black?”
“Technically, we’re considered PPOs—personal protection officers—but bodyguard works,” Ryder answered around another laugh. “And, yes. Everyone guarding your friends and family are certified ARIES team members.”
It was official. Asher had completely lost his mind.
“He really does care about you,” Ryder offered, his tone almost reverent.
Cameron could only nod.
The drive into Mission Grove seemed to take half the usual amount of time. Before he knew it, the vehicle slowed, and the rhythmic clack of the turn signal jarred him out of his thoughts.
“Oh, we’re here,” he said when Ryder turned onto Main Street. “Um, so, just follow this street past downtown, then make a right on Lake Park.”
“I know.”
Of course, he did.
“How opposed are you to having your picture taken?” Ryder asked a couple of minutes later.
“I don’t know. Why do you—oh, shit.” Cars and news vans littered his little street, and at least a dozen reporters and cameramen paced up and down the sidewalk in front of his house. “Are they waiting for me?”
“Looks like it.”
“And they’ve been here all weekend?”
“There’s no way they could have known you were coming, so that’s my guess.”
“Christ.”
Women and men dressed in smart suits threw themselves at the Escalade as Ryder pulled into the driveway and shifted the transmission into park. Microphones, cameras, and recorders were thrust at the windows while reporters shouted over each other to be heard.
“So, about being photographed?”