5. Kayla
“Why are you following me?” I snap as I hear Jace walk out the door right behind me.
“It’s my job.” He raises his eyebrows in a show of exaggerated shock. “Man, I thought you were one of those people who don’t preheat the microwave. But apparently, I was wrong.”
I give him a flat look at his use of my own insult. But before I can spit out my retort, he turns around and closes the door while pulling a set of keys out of his pocket. I narrow my eyes. God damn it. I had planned on not giving him any keys, but it looks like Dad anticipated my actions and gave them to him behind my back.
Shaking my head, I just spin around and stalk towards the elevator. It’s already on my floor, so I quickly push the button to open it and slip inside. Then I ram my finger into the button for the ground floor while begging the door to close before Jace can make it here.
A victorious grin spreads across my lips as the door starts sliding shut.
Right before it can close, an arm appears in the small gap.
The door immediately opens again.
I blow out an annoyed sigh.
“Going somewhere?” Jace asks with a smirk on his stupidly handsome face as he strolls into the elevator.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I shoot him a pointed look as the elevator starts descending. “You really are utterly clueless about what you’re supposed to do when a woman storms off, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am. Because no woman ever storms off when I’m in the room. Instead, they try to find excuses to stay.”
“Wow, it really is massive, isn’t it?”
“My cock?” He grins and gives me a quick rise and fall of his eyebrows. “Yes, it is.”
Heat sears through my cheeks, but I manage to keep the dismissive expression on my face as I roll my eyes. “I was talking about your ego.”
“Sure you were.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that not every woman who looks at you wants to fuck you?”
“No.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” Twisting towards him, I make a show of looking up and down his body and then towards the elevator door several times.
He gives me a befuddled look. “What?”
“I was just wondering how you fit through the door with an ego that large.”
“I turn sideways.”
A surprised laugh threatens to spill across my lips, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek hard to stop it.
The elevator door slides open with a ding.
Jace holds his arms bent out to his sides in the imitation of a gorilla and then turns around and walks sideways out of the elevator and into the lobby. I just stare at him, my mouth slightly open.
“Like that,” he says, and flashes me a grin.
Once again, I have to swallow down a laugh.
It’s immediately followed by a pulse of irritation. God damn it, he is not supposed to make me laugh. He is nothing more than an overbearing jailer who is keeping me from living a normal life. I refuse to be taken in by his dumb jokes and stupid charm.
With great effort, I wipe the mirth from my face and instead draw my eyebrows down in an unimpressed scowl. Stalking out of the elevator, I simply walk right past him and towards the glass doors that lead out onto the street.
To my great annoyance, Jace doesn’t seem bothered by my rude dismissal in the slightest. He simply falls in beside me and slides his hands into his pockets as he starts down the street.
The morning air smells of mist and car exhaust, and the pale light of dawn glints in the windows of the building next to us. A few other people are hurrying up and down the street as well, passing us on the sidewalk on their way to work. Or to Ivy River, like me. I live within walking distance, so I don’t need to worry about taking the car or finding a parking spot on campus.
“Why are you even leaving this early?” Jace suddenly asks from right next to me. With his hands still in his pockets, he glances down at me, looking genuinely curious. “Your classes don’t start until nine.”
I frown up at him. “How did you know that?”
“I memorized your schedule.”
Heaving a sigh, I roll my eyes again. “Of course you did, Sparky.”
“Don’t call me that.” He levels a commanding stare on me. “Just answer the bloody question for once.”
For a moment, I consider saying something else to piss him off. But I can’t come up with anything appropriately clever, so I just blow out a breath and shrug. “I’m meeting my friends for coffee before class.”
“See? A simple answer to a simple question. Not that hard, is it?”
“And now you’ve just ruined it.”
“Nah. I think we’re going to make a great team, you and I.”
Oh no, we most certainly won’t. Because I am going to make sure that he quits before the week is over.
When we at last arrive at the coffeeshop, my friends are already there. With a cup of coffee in one hand and Jace trailing after me like a damn puppy, I approach Jenn and Aurora’s table.
“Kayla!” Jenn calls when she sees me. “We thought you…” She trails off as her gaze slides over my shoulder and lands on Jace. Her blue eyes go wide. “Woah. Who’s that?”
Aurora’s mouth drops open as she also stares openly at Jace for a few seconds before snapping her gaze back to me. Her green eyes glitter as she grins at me. “Kayla! Did you get a boyfriend without telling us?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I reply as I pull out a chair and sit down at the table for four. “He’s my new bodyguard.”
Both of them stare at Jace as he comes to a halt next to the table. There’s a very satisfied smile lurking on his lips.
“That’s your new bodyguard,” Aurora blurts out, still not taking her eyes off Jace.
He holds out his hand as if to shake hers. She takes his, but instead of shaking it, he raises it to his lips and gives the back of her hand a kiss.
A tiny squeak slips from Aurora’s lips, and she looks like she’s about to actually swoon.
An absolutely irrational sense of jealousy flashes through me.
“Jace Hunter,” he says, smiling at her while still holding her hand.
“Hi,” Aurora breathes.
“Jesus Christ, Aurora,” I groan. “Don’t feed his ego.”
However, before either of them can respond, Jenn speaks up.
“Wait,” she says, and blinks at Jace in surprise while he straightens and releases her sister’s hand. “Jace Hunter. As in the Hunter family?”
He winks at her. “The one and only.”
“Wow.” She turns to me and gives me a knowing look. “This is just getting more and more interesting by the second.”
“Not really,” I try to deflect. Without even turning to meet his eyes, I flick my wrist at Jace. “You don’t need to stand so close. You can guard me just fine from three steps away.”
I can feel his eyes burning holes in my body, and the Carlisle sisters glance hesitantly between me and him. But in the end, Jace just takes two steps back. Not three. Two. But still, I consider it a win.
Once he has turned around to scan the coffeeshop, both Jenn and Aurora lean forward across the table and drop their voices to a whisper.
“Damn, Kayla,” Jenn says. “He’s hot.”
“Yes,” Aurora adds. “Smoking hot.”
From the corner of my eye, I can see Jace’s mouth quirk up in a satisfied smirk. So I make sure to keep my voice loud enough that he overhears me as well when I tell them, “You think? I have to admit, he’s really not my type.”
I can feel Jace shift his gaze back to me and see him drawing his eyebrows down, but I don’t turn to face him. Instead, I just pick up my coffee and take a sip.
For the next twenty minutes, I try my best to ignore Jace’s hulking presence right behind my shoulder while Jenn, Aurora, and I chat and drink our coffee. At least he blends in better than all the other bodyguards I’ve had. Marginally better, anyway.
All the others have been middle-aged men in dark suits who stand out like damn signaling beacons on campus. But Jace in his jeans and white t-shirt, and with his messy brown hair, looks like he’s just a normal student here. If normal students also looked like they were carved statues of ancient Greek warriors, that is.
“Oh, by the way,” Aurora says in an excited voice as she leans forward. “I think I’m going to ask Nichlas out for coffee tomorrow.”
Jenn smirks and gives her a playful shove. “Then why were you flirting with Kayla’s bodyguard just now?”
“Because I’m not a nun.” She grins back and wiggles her eyebrows. “Like a certain someone.”
“I’m not a nun! I just didn’t want to date Henric Gutman.”
“Oh come on, he has a nice smile.”
“He has a pet lizard and a porn addiction.”
“True. And that is never a good combo.”
“Told you.”
With matching grins, they raise their cups and clink them together.
My heart twists painfully.
I wish I had that.
I mean, we’re friends and we have fun together. But I know that my relationship to them will never be what their relationship to each other is. Jenn and Aurora are sisters, with Jenn being only one year older. And since Jenn went to France for a year to work as an au pair, they are now in the same year at Ivy River.
And they’re inseparable. They joke and laugh and tease each other and have each other’s backs in a way that only siblings do. I only got to experience that for a short time.
Some people would say that I’m lucky that I got those years at least. But I’m not lucky. Having known what it’s like is a fucking curse and it makes me feel even more lonely now that I’m all on my own.
A bang echoes through the room.
I leap up from my chair and whirl around as the sound of rattling silverware follows the bang.
Stunned shock pulses through my skull as I stare at the scene behind me.
“Ow,” a miserable voice groans. “What was that for?”
Shaking my head, I blink to clear my vision. But the scene before me remains the same, which means that it is indeed happening.
Jace has slammed a guy down over a table. He has one hand on the back of the guy’s neck and the other around his wrist as he bends the guy’s arm up into the air behind his back.
All around us, the other people in the coffeeshop are staring at us with wide eyes. The barista is holding a cup towards a customer, but it’s just hovering in the air because both of them are looking at us.
Embarrassment floods my cheeks.
I quickly shift my gaze back down to the guy who is bent over the table with his cheek pressed against the pale wooden tabletop. Recognition flits through me.
“Uhm… Kayla,” he croaks from his awkward position.
Oh God, it’s that guy from the party. Lionel Henderson.
I snap my gaze to Jace and throw my arms out. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“He was sneaking up on you,” Jace replies, scowling down at Lionel.
“He’s a friend!”
Jace clenches his jaw in annoyance, but then finally releases Lionel. He doesn’t step back, though. Instead, he remains standing there right behind Lionel, towering over him like the grim reaper himself.
Embarrassment and a hint of pain shine in Lionel’s eyes as he straightens from the table and rolls his shoulder back into its proper position. And because Jace is standing so close, he has to carefully edge around him to get away from the table. I shoot Jace a glare. He just shrugs.
Lionel scratches the back of his neck and gives me a sheepish smile. “That was not how I had planned to say hi.”
I chuckle. “Well, to be fair, all our meetings do seem to be a bit unconventional. Given that last time I saw you, I was straddling you on a living room floor.”
Jace’s gaze snaps to me.
It makes smug satisfaction ripple through me, and I don’t bother suppressing the grin on my lips.
“A friend, huh?” Jace says.
“Yeah.” I lift my shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. “We met at a party this weekend.”
His gaze sharpens. “So you don’t actually know him.”
At the table, Aurora and Jenn watch the verbal sparring match with rapt interest while Lionel edges a step away from Jace.
Anger sears through me at Jace’s demanding tone. No one speaks to me like that. And certainly not my bodyguard.
“We need to have a talk,” I declare, locking hard eyes on him. “Come with me.”
Before he can even reply, I turn around and stalk towards the small, secluded corridor that leads towards the kitchen and the back rooms. The walls here are made of black tiles, and there is a fake plant in the corner to make it look a bit fancier. But the staff barely use this corridor at this time of day.
Once we’re halfway down it, and away from the prying eyes of everyone in the coffeeshop, I spin around to face Jace.
“You listen to me and you listen well.” I stab a finger into his annoyingly hard chest. “You do not treat my friends like that.”
He stares right back at me. “If you met him at a party this weekend, he’s not your friend. He’s an acquaintance at best.”
“It doesn’t matter. You should not have done that to him.”
He crosses his arms. “I don’t like the look of him.”
A frustrated sigh rips from my lungs, and I rake my fingers through my hair in annoyance. “Oh, so that’s it, huh? It’s because he’s a guy.”
“I never said that.”
“Then why didn’t you do the same thing to Jenn and Aurora?”
“I’ve already told you, I got a bad vibe from him.”
I give his chest an angry shove, which unfortunately isn’t enough to push him back. But he does uncross his arms and raise his eyebrows in silent question. Fury courses through me, and I shove at his chest again, trying to slam him up against the wall. It doesn’t work.
So instead, I raise my hand and hold up a warning finger. “I will not tolerate this kind of macho bullshit. If you think that just because you’re my bodyguard, you can stop other men from touching me, you’re wrong.”
“I never said that. You can fuck whoever you want.” A devilish smile curls his lips. “As long as I’m there.”
Heat sears through my veins. Embarrassment or anger or… something else.
I take a step forward, trying to back him up against the wall. But the bastard doesn’t step back, so I’m forced to settle for glaring up at him instead.
“Let’s get something straight,” I say, infusing my voice with steel and unflinching authority. “You work for me. So when I give you an order, there is only one acceptable response. And do you know what that is? Yes, ma’am.”
His eyes glint, and he takes a step forward. And because of his sheer size, he actually succeeds in doing what I tried to do. Backing me up against the wall.
I try to stop before I reach it fully, but he plants a hand against my collarbones. With a firm shove, he pushes me up against the wall.
My heart leaps into my throat as my back connects with the black tiles.
Jace doesn’t remove his hand.
While keeping one hand on my collarbones, pinning me to the wall, he presses closer until he can brace his other forearm against the tiles next to my head.
His intoxicating, masculine scent fills my lungs as he leans down, getting right into my face.
“I don’t work for you,” he says, his warm breath dancing over my lips with each word. “I work for your father.”
My heart pounds in my chest as I look up into those gleaming brown eyes. I can’t even feel the cold tiles behind my back anymore. All I can feel is his strong hand on my collarbones, his breath on my skin, and the warmth from his body.
I drag in an unsteady breath, trying to center myself again.
Then I raise my chin and shoot him a threatening look. “I would choose my next words very carefully, if I were you.”
A wicked smile plays over his lips as he cocks his head. “Threatening me now, are you, little demon?”
My pulse flutters at the nickname and the dark promises and threats in his voice. But I keep my chin jutted out defiantly and give him a stare full of challenge. “I can have you fired any time I want.”
“No, you can’t. Because if you could, you would’ve done it already.”
I draw in shallow breaths and lick my lips, because he’s right, of course. I can’t have him fired. Which means that I don’t actually have any power over him at all. None of my other bodyguards ever realized that. But somehow, Jace did. In less than a day.
“You—” I begin, but my retort is cut off abruptly as shock pulses through me instead.
My heart skips a beat as Jace slides his hand from my collarbones and up my throat. Drawing in a stunned breath, I just stare up at him.
A strange throbbing sensation pulses through my clit as Jace flexes his fingers around my throat before settling his hand there. He’s not choking me, but there is still no mistaking who holds the power here now.
My pulse hammers and heat pools at my core.
“So, when I give you an order,” Jace begins, echoing my words from earlier, as he holds my gaze with commanding eyes. “There is only one acceptable response. And do you know what that is? Yes, sir.”
My clit throbs and I have to press my thighs together.
Fucking hell. No one has ever spoken to me like this before. No one has ever treated me like this before. Because of who I am, everyone always jumps to obey my commands. No one ever gives me orders.
And my confused body doesn’t seem to know how to react. I know that I should be angry. Or at least indignant. But with lightning flickering through my veins and my pussy throbbing, I can’t deny that I’m also a bit turned on by this.
Fuck.
Maybe dealing with Jace is going to be a little more difficult than I had anticipated.