Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Seth
MASON GROANS AS HE closes the blinds.
“Are they ever going to leave?”
I grimace. I thought they would have been gone already. When Mason and I went to bed last night, we both assumed we’d wake up to a peaceful, normal home, but the paparazzi haven’t budged. I swear some of them must have slept on the damn lawn.
“I’m really sorry,” I say.
Mason shrugs. “It’s not like you want this either. We just have to wait it out.”
That sounds simple enough, but this circus could disrupt our lives for days. Mason can’t get to work. Neither of us could hope to leave the house for something like groceries. Hell, we can’t even order in. How would the delivery person reach us? We are barricaded in our own home like those reporters are an invading army laying siege to some unlucky town.
My prince can’t save us this time.
Jacob has his own invading horde to worry about. Even if he didn’t, there’s no way he’d come see the guy who caused this whole mess. I pray Emmett is at least getting him some proper security.
Mason and I make a valiant attempt at having a normal morning, but it’s hard to calmly think about what I want in my coffee when shouting penetrates the walls. We take our mugs to the couch, but when we turn on the television, we go right for the safety of a streaming service. Nothing live. We learned that lesson yesterday.
I don’t realize it’s strangely easy to hear the historian describing ancient pyramid construction until the sound of paparazzi returns with a roar.
“Jesus, what was that?” Mason says.
“I have no idea.”
I leave my empty coffee mug and rise slowly, like at any moment the invaders outside my walls will bust through. The clamor takes on a new quality, a shrieking edge of wild excitement that prickles at the back of my mind. I pace toward the window like I expect a battering ram and peel aside the blinds with one finger.
It’s even worse than I thought.
A car sits at the curb, not the fanciest car in the world, but certainly one way nicer than anything Mason or I would ever buy. The paparazzi have all but abandoned my home in order to flock around it. For the first time in over twenty-four hours, I could escape if I wanted to, but escape is the farthest thing from my mind when I see the man standing on the hood of the car.
Jacob ignores the reporters below him as he screams for me.
I move without thinking, instinct taking over as I throw open the front door. Mason shouts something, but the paparazzi aren’t as quick to notice me. Focused on Jacob, it takes them an extra beat to realize I’m barreling toward them, and that’s all the time I need. I lower my shoulder and shove through them, knocking them aside to get closer to the car. Jacob reaches for me like something out of a movie, and I grab him by the waist and haul him off the roof of his car. I don’t let go when he reaches the ground. There isn’t time. The reporters are realizing what’s happening, realizing they’ve got both of us in their grasp. If we don’t move, they’ll surround us, trapping us here. So I keep an arm around Jacob’s slender waist, all but carrying him toward my house. I hold up my other arm like I’m a knight carrying a shield, sheltering us from the glaring projectiles of the camera flashes. I don’t know if it actually helps, but it’s all I’ve got.
Mason is waiting for us at the door. He holds it open, and the second I sweep Jacob inside, slams it shut behind us, securing every lock before hastily backing away.
For a moment, all of us stand frozen in the entryway, breathing hard, trying to make sense of what happened, listening to the shouts on the other side of the door. My arm is still around Jacob’s waist, but the way he clings to me makes it impossible to let go.
Mason recovers first.
“Holy shit,” he says.
He blinks several times at Jacob, who, even disheveled, is still a verifiable rockstar. He may be wearing simple jeans and a T-shirt, but Jacob has never needed makeup and glamour to light up a room. Everything about him demands your attention the second you’re within his orbit.
“You’re…” Mason says. “Oh my God. You’re…”
Jacob finally stands up on his own, slipping out of my grasp. I try not to think about how empty my arm feels without him nestled within it. He smooths his rumpled shirt, then extends his hand.
“Jacob,” he says. “Nice to meet you.”
Mason takes his hand, shaking numbly while his mouth hangs open. “Y-Yeah … nice to … meet you… Just some guy … in my house…”
I can tell Jacob is smiling that dimple-filled smile from the way Mason relaxes. He’s still awed, but Jacob has a way of setting anyone at ease, instantly turning them into his friend, making them feel special and important simply by looking at them.
“Sorry to barge in,” Jacob says. “I was hoping I could talk to Seth.”
“It’s, uh, it’s fine, I guess,” Mason says. “Do you want coffee? Or … what do famous people drink?”
“I’m fine,” Jacob says. “Thanks.”
“Right. Sure. Yeah.” Mason starts backing away, shaking his head the whole time. “Seth, this one is on you. I need to sit down.”
He mutters to himself as he heads to the living room, and Jacob spins back around to face me.
“Can we talk?”
The smile is gone, the dimples receding. All I want to do is cup his face and kiss him until he’s so overflowing with joy that they reappear, but I hold myself back and nod. I turn, putting my back to him so I can lead him upstairs to my room. With Mason downstairs and my door shut, we have about as much privacy as we can hope for.
Sunlight filters into the room from the window at the back. The glass looks out at our narrow slice of backyard and the tree overhanging corner of the house. The light limns Jacob, like stage lights but softer, more intimate.
He takes in my room. There isn’t much to see. Plus, he’s been here before. The bed with its dark sheets; the dresser with its few framed photos on top; a closed door to a closet. No decorations on the walls. No photos of family or friends. As tidy as an army bunk. I haven’t yet found a compelling reason to put any of “me” into this space while I’m drifting through life with no idea what I’m doing or where I’m going. Jacob’s presence is like a piece of fine art in the middle of a dirty alleyway. He’s too beautiful to belong here; he stands out like a gilded frame.
“Been a while since I was here,” he says, dredging up the memory of the time I invited him in to save him from the paparazzi surrounding his own apartment. A lot more happened that night than should have, and everyone seems to know it. Those paparazzi outside my house were already flinging those sorts of questions at me; now they’ve seen Jacob walk right into my home.
“What are you doing here?” I say.
“I wanted to see you.”
A white hot flash of anger startles me. “Those paparazzi could have eaten you alive. They saw you come in here.”
I leave the rest unsaid. Jacob’s been getting the same sort of questions. He must have known before he arrived what his showing up would imply.
All he says is, “I know.”
He steps closer, and my room shrinks around us. I freeze, standing rigid and balling my hands into fists to control the itch in my palms. All I want to do is run my fingers through his hair, tug his head back as I suck on his neck, touch him until that song only I know spills from his open mouth.
He sets one hand on my chest as he gazes up at me. “Seth, I don’t care what they think. They’re already assuming it, aren’t they? So who cares?”
“Your career…”
“Will be perfectly fine. I’m allowed to have a life too, aren’t I?”
“Sure, but not with someone like me.”
“Why not?”
Peering down into his hazel eyes, all the logical reasons I’ve been clinging to abandon me. “Because I am, I was, your bodyguard. I was supposed to protect you. And I couldn’t. Because…”
He tilts his head, lips softly parted. Dark lashes frame his eyes. One dimple peeks out when he smiles up at me.
“Because what, Seth?”
I’m helpless in front of him. No amount of bulk or military training is worth a damn when Jacob turns his full attention on me like this. He clings harder to my shirt, and despite all my size he could drag me around like a dog on a leash in this moment.
“My knight in shining armor,” he says. When did his voice lower? When did our mouths get close enough that every word puffs against my lips? “Always so virtuous, so chivalrous.”
“Nothing that I’m thinking about right now could be called chivalrous.”
Both dimples peek out at last, and any hope I had of standing firm crumbles like wet sand. He pulls me down a little lower, so close the heat of his lips buzzes against mine.
“Seth,” he breathes against my mouth, “I love you, and I don’t give a fuck who knows. I don’t care if they post it on social media. I don’t care if they print it in every headline. I don’t care if they camp outside my apartment for the rest of my life. I’m not losing you for the press or the fans or the whole God damn world. You think I’m some high and mighty prince who’s too good for you? Then I’ll strip off my crown and put it on your head instead. You’re all I want, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than a bunch of vultures to stop me.”
My hands go to his waist, partially because I feel like I’m falling, crashing down from some unfathomable height.
“Jacob, I’m nothing compared to you. I’m just a bodyguard.”
“You’re everything.”
“That can’t possibly be true.”
He pulls away a little, and what blazes in his eyes is the sort of stuff that has forged every king and conqueror in history. That look is hard as steel, sharp as a blade, gleaming with the light of some divine mandate.
And it’s focused entirely on me.
Stronger men than me have crumbled before that look, so I feel no shame when I sink onto one knee before him, still holding him by the waist. Jacob’s hand goes from my shirt to my hair, like he’s a king about to bestow a knighthood.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I … I was afraid. This is too much. I was supposed to work for you. Feeling like this, how could I possibly be objective?”
“I don’t need you to be objective. I just need you to be mine.”
“I am,” I say, and it feels like a truth that’s been waiting far too long to escape. “I’m yours, body and soul. Tell me what you want, and I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.”
“Get up and take me to bed,” Jacob says. “Forget about the rest of the world and stay with me. Give me you , Seth. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
I respond like I’ve waited my entire life for this one order.
When I rise from my knee, I leave all my armor behind.