Rock the Bodyguard (5 page)

“Yes, Miss Raine?”

“Will you come for a walk with me?”

He glanced at his watch. It was
just past midnight. It would have been easier to say no, but there was nothing
to be gained from restricting her activities. She'd only end up sneaking out
without him and that would be far more problematic than a late night stroll
with a beautiful young woman. “Certainly, Miss Raine.”

They left the suite and took the
private elevator down to the ground floor. From there they went to the beach
where Cash took the lead, wandering through what was left of the dunes,
occasionally kicking up sand. She seemed preoccupied as she stopped at the edge
of the ocean, looking up into the moonlit sky. The stars were out in force that
night, sprinkled in the millions throughout the dark heavens. “Can I talk to
you, Miles? You know, as a person?”

“Sure,” he said, casting a curious
look in her direction.

“Why are you here?”

The question caught him off guard.
“Here, as in...”

“As in why are you working for me?”
She turned to him, looking into his face quizzically, as if there was a puzzle
she was trying to solve. “Kevin said you were a big shot in the military. You
could be doing anything now.”

“Well,” Miles said. “I wanted a
change. I needed a change. This is a change.”

“Some would call it a step down,”
she said astutely.

“There's more to life than just
trying to get ahead.”

Backing away from the water line,
Cash plopped down onto the sand. “There is, isn't there?” She asked it like a
question, as if she weren't sure of the answer.

“Of course,” he crouched next to
her, keeping an eye out for anyone coming down the beach or from the promenade.
“Is something wrong, Cash?”

“I'm just... tired,” she said
softly, casting her eyes down to her feet.

“Of course you are,” he said
sympathetically. “You've been working your behind off all day every day.”

She cast a sidelong look up at him.
“I thought you said I lacked discipline.”

“No, sweetheart,” he said. “I said
you could do with a good spanking. It isn't the same thing.”

Confusion was written on her cute
face. “It's not? Isn't spanking a punishment?”

“It can be,” Miles said. “But in
your case...” he paused. “Permission to speak freely?”

She giggled and it was quite
charming. “Permission granted.”

“It seems to me,” he said, choosing
his words carefully. “That you work very hard, and there are always people
around you, but you don't have anyone really looking after you.”

“You are, you're looking out for
me,” she said, looking at him under her eyelashes. He was struck with the same
force that had caught him off guard the first time they'd met. Her beauty and
her vulnerability made him feel fiercely protective.

“I am,” he agreed.

“So are you going to....” she let
the words trail off as she gave him a playful look.

It took a moment for Miles to
realize what she was getting at. The little minx was asking him for a spanking,
or near enough to it. He felt a stirring in his loins. She didn't know what she
was asking for, not really. As much as he would have loved to take her over his
lap, slide her panties down her slim, toned thighs and spank her cute round
bottom bright red, he didn't know if he could stop there. Especially as she was
now, smiling and sweet.

“Are you asking me if I'm going to
spank your bottom?” He rumbled the question and smiled as she broke into
giggles. He was slightly relieved and simultaneously disappointed that she
wasn't seriously asking him to take her in hand then and there.

“Thank you for talking to me,
Miles,” she said. “You make me feel sane.”

“Any time,” he said, offering his
hand and helping her to stand.

“I'm sorry I was snappy to you
after that concert the other day,” she said, recalling her first instance of
bad behavior in his presence. “I... I wanted you to like it.”

“I like you, Miss Raine, and I
think you're very talented. I think you work tremendously hard and you deserve
all the success and happiness in the world,” he paused as he drew breath. “But
those lyrics...”

“I know,” she said, keeping hold of
his hand as she began walking again. “They're not my first choice either, but
the studio controls a lot of that stuff. I've been writing my own songs for
years, but they won't green light any of them.”

“Why not?”

“They're not marketable,” Cash
sighed.

Miles squeezed her hand
reassuringly. She was so sweet, so very trusting. “You'll work it out, Cash,
you're too good not to.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, and then did
something rather cheeky. She pulled her hand out of Miles' grasp, swatted his
behind and dashed away a few steps.

“Miss Raine,” he rumbled warningly.
“Are you trying to get into trouble?”

“I am trouble,” she said. “Haven't
you worked that out yet?”

“Cash, you wouldn't know how to be
trouble if you studied for a hundred years.”

She pouted and folded her arms over
her chest. “Come on, Miles...”

“Oh what, you want me to spank you?
Is that it?” He shook his head and lifted his hand to crook his finger at her.
“Come here, young lady.”

“What if I don't want to?”

“Come here, Miss Raine.” He
repeated himself. She edged forward, looking nervous, and a little excited too.
When she got into arm's length, he reached for her and gently drew her forward
until there was only an inch of space between them. She looked up into his
face, a timid smile on her lips as he shook his head. “I'm not going to spank
you for being playful, but I am going to be keeping a very close eye on you,
Cash. Remember that.”

She smiled and fell into a hug.
“Thank you, Miles.”

As he wrapped his arms around her
slender body, Miles felt his heart swell with a feeling he hadn't experienced
in a very long time. He was in trouble all right. It took all his self-control
to escort Cash back to her suite without slipping his hand down and patting her
pert bottom, or engaging her further in her flirtation.

Cash went to bed almost as soon as
they got back to the hotel, but Miles was kept awake by the force of his own
desire. He retired to his room and was planning on relieving his tensions, but
before he could, there was a scuffing sound outside the door of the suite, then
a clicking and slight buzz as the lock disengaged.

Moving swiftly, Miles slipped out
of bed and made his way into the main part of the suite. There was a pistol in
his pocket, but he left it there for the moment. Odds were it was just Kevin or
Raoul, though he couldn't imagine why either of them would be paying Cash a
visit at two in the morning.

He flicked on the light and for a
second, saw nobody at all. The hair rose on the back of his neck. Then he heard
an exclamation and a curse and his eyes were drawn to the leather couch where a
skinny figure in tight black jeans and a ripped vest appeared to be locked in a
life and death struggle with a couch cushion.

“Mattie?” He went toward her,
scowling and ready to give her a piece of his mind. What was she playing at,
sneaking into Cash's suite? She wasn't even supposed to have a swipe card.
Miles made a mental note to have the code on the door changed as soon as he'd
sent Mattie back where she belonged. She was making some very strange noises,
grunts of pain. As he watched, she managed to disengage herself from the couch
and flip over onto her back. When he saw her face, he realized that he wasn't
going to be able to just kick her out. One eye was almost closed with swelling
and she had a thick, split lip. She'd clearly been in a fight and come off
second best.

“Little girl, what have you been up
to?” He growled the question as he went to her aid.

“It hurts,” she mumbled as he helped
her to sit up.

“I bet it does,” he said, going for
an ice pack and the first aid kit. “Who hit you?”

“People,” she said, pitching
forward and just barely catching herself before she fell into the glass coffee
table. “People....” she lifted a finger in the air “... with arms.” She laughed
and simultaneously yelped in pain, clutching at her side.

Miles hurried back to her side and
laid her back on the couch. “Where does it hurt?”

“Everywhere,” Mattie groaned.

Miles ran his hands down her torso,
stopping when she cried out as his fingers passed over her lower ribs. “Did you
get hit here?”

“Don't know,” Mattie mumbled,
forcing him to peel up her vest. She was very slim, built on a small scale and
as he pushed up her clothing he noticed the tail of a tattoo peeking out from
under the line of her jeans. Her vest was caked with blood, sweat and alcohol,
and underneath it her pale skin was smeared with similar substances. There was
a hell of an abrasion on the left side of her ribcage, and imprints from the sole
of a boot. Someone had clearly kicked her pretty hard; the area was starting to
bruise dark black and blue.

“Stay still,” he said. “I'm going
to call you an ambulance. You need medical attention.”

“No,” she mumbled. “No 'surance.”

“Don't worry about that,” Miles
said grimly. “Kevin will pay for this.” He moved away to make the call,
muttering under his breath “...in more ways than one.”

Cursing under his breath, Miles
made his way back to his room, picked up his phone and called Kevin. It took a
good while for him to answer, but eventually his sleepy, groggy voice came over
the line. “Miles what...”

“Kevin,” Miles interrupted him
curtly before he could start complaining about the late hour. “I need you to
get up and come over here now.”

When Kevin spoke again, he sounded
much more alert. “Why? What's wrong? Did something happen to Cash?”

“Cash is sound asleep,” Miles said.
“But Mattie has been in some sort of fight. She's pretty banged up. I'm about
to call an ambulance for her. You told me she wouldn't be any trouble. Well
she's a lot of trouble – and she's in a lot of trouble. So get your ass over
here, now!”

He hung up the phone, dialed for an
ambulance, then returned to Mattie. He was horrified to discover that she was
up on her feet and trying to get a drink from the bar, clutching at her side as
she did.

“Would you cut that out!” He
removed a bottle of vodka from her hand and guided her back to the couch, which
was no easy feat given that she could barely walk straight. “You need medical
attention, not a drink. Now stay put!”

Another light went on in the suite
and Miles groaned. Cash was up. She came out of her room looking sleepy,
concerned and gorgeous in a silk robe. “What's going on?”

“Mattie's just been in a little
fight,” he said. “You can go back to sleep.”

“Mattie's been in a fight?” She
rubbed her eyes and came forward, clearly concerned. “Is she hurt?”

“Cash, baby, Cash,” Mattie slurred.
“Hey baby.”

“She's drunk,” Cash noted. “And
she...” Cash blinked as she got closer. “Mattie, what happened to you?”

“...s... Fight,” Mattie elaborated.

“I don't know what happened
exactly,” Miles said. “I'll patch her up a little and hand her off to the
medics when they get here. We'll find out the full story tomorrow.”

Cash went to Mattie's side, a look
of horror on her sweet face. “Mattie, what happened?”

“Just d' s... was... a fight...”
Mattie repeated.

“You're not going to get anything
out of her until she sobers up,” Miles said. “Go back to bed, you need your
sleep, there's no sense in you being tired.”

“What is wrong with you?” Cash
exclaimed. “I'm not going to go back to sleep and leave her bleeding on the
couch.” She turned to Mattie with a deeply sympathetic expression. “Don't
worry, I'll stay with you.”

“You mean until the ambulance comes,”
Miles said, deftly cleaning a few of the superficial grazes on Mattie's exposed
arms. Her forearms were a mass of bruises, they looked like defensive injuries.
Someone had definitely gone to town on her. “She's going to need x-rays on
those ribs.”

“No, I mean I'll go with her to the
hospital,” Cash said, giving him a dirty look. “She can't go alone.”

“I called Kevin, he'll take her.”

By the time the ambulance arrived,
Miles had already cleaned and bandaged most of Mattie's minor cuts. The only
thing of real concern was the injury to her ribs. Mattie, of course, refused to
get on a stretcher and be carried down, and she couldn't be forced, lest her
ribs be further injured in the attempt. Kevin showed up in the midst of tying
to convince Mattie to get onto the stretcher and promptly went to pieces. “Oh
god,” he said, palming his face. “What... Mattie...”

Miles groaned inwardly. He'd
wondered how Kevin was doing. Cash's reference to him avoiding concerts because
they were 'too loud' was an indicator that he was still struggling with PTSD.
Clearly, seeing Mattie in a state of distress was too much for him. He was
trying to hold it together, but his hands were trembling and his voice was
tight. Miles realized that by calling Kevin all he'd really done was add another
unstable variable to the situation. It was like trying to herd cats. Kevin was
almost hyperventilating, Mattie was refusing medical treatment and Cash was
insisting on playing a very misguided nursemaid, cooing reassuringly at
Mattie's every drunken mumble.

“Look Kevin, go home, I'll deal
with this,” he said. “There's no point all of us being up at this hour.”

“We will deal with this,” Cash
added, a look of determination set on her face.

“Yes, fine, we will deal with
this,” Miles relented.

“As long as you're sure?” Kevin was
already halfway out the door, his visage still pale. Miles waved him off and
focused his attention back on Mattie. By a small miracle, Cash had managed to
convince her to get onto the stretcher and they were soon off to the hospital.

An hour later Mattie was beginning
to sober up and with sobriety was starting to feel the pain. Unfortunately for
her, the doctors were refusing pain management on account of her intoxication,
so she was suffering quite a bit. It wasn't any less than she deserved, but
Miles still felt some sympathy for her. He knew what it was like to be injured
without pain management – it wasn't pleasant.

“What happened, Mattie?” Cash asked
the question for the umpteenth time.

“I don't know,” Mattie groaned. “I
did this gig; afterward, some assholes decided to jump me. Never saw who it
was.”

Keeping silent, Miles leaned
against the wall next to the door with his arms folded across his chest. He was
listening, but not getting involved in the little discussion. Mattie trusted
Cash, she'd probably tell her a lot more than she'd tell him. It must have been
a hell of a fight, the bruising and swelling along the knuckles of her right
hand indicated that she'd gotten a few decent swings in at the very least.
Sighing to himself, he lifted his eyes to the fluorescent lights and said a
silent prayer for all their sakes.

*
* * * *

It had been an exciting night for
Cash. First the walk on the beach with Miles, then Mattie showing up all beat
up. Now that was real rock n' roll. Cash had never so much as broken a
fingernail. Deep down, she wished she was more like Mattie. Especially as
Mattie was going to be fine, just a couple of cracked ribs to show for her
troubles, and a damn good story that Cash was definitely going to pry out of
her as soon as possible.

She couldn't help but notice that
Miles was not in a good mood. He seemed tense and terse on their way back to
the suite. Cash knew why, it was because he'd wanted her to stay behind. He'd
wanted them both to stay behind and he'd wanted Mattie to go to the hospital
all alone. But that wasn't how Cash had been raised, and she wasn't going to
apologize for having wanted to help a friend.

They were almost back at the suite
when Miles stuck out his arm, preventing her from getting any closer.
“Something isn't right,” he whispered. “The door is open.”

“We probably forgot to close it on
our way out,” Cash shrugged, ducking under his arm. Before he could stop her,
she'd pushed open the suite door and uttered a cry of dismay. The suite had
been ransacked.

Everything was broken and smashed
up and there were curse words, terrible, foul words smeared on the walls. She
couldn't believe what she was seeing. Miles had to hold her back to prevent her
from rushing into the room. She felt his arms wrap around her waist. Her feet
left the floor as she tried to lunge inside anyway. All her things were in
there, all her personal effects, all the things that had sentimental value.

“You're not going anywhere, Miss
Raine,” Miles growled in her ear. “The intruder could still be in there.” He
drew her away down the hall, ignoring her struggles.

“Everything I own is in there!”

“I'm protecting you, Miss Raine,
not your belongings.”

Caught in a rage at having her
personal space so violated, Cash continued to struggle in his arms. Tears began
leaking from her eyes and ran down her cheeks as Miles hauled her back into the
elevator.

“Listen,” he said, taking her by
the shoulders. “You can go back in there after the police have been and after
it has been cleaned up.”

“You mean when the police have
finished poking about in my things after whoever was already in there?” Cash
tried to break free, but it only resulted in Miles grasping her even tighter.

“Cash,” he snapped. “Behave and do
as you're told.”

“No!” After a long, dramatic night,
Cash was not in the mood to do as she was told. She wanted to make sure that
nothing had been taken – though she was sure all her belongings had probably
been ransacked. If she wanted them back she'd probably have to look on E Bay. Using
all her strength, she squirmed until Miles could no longer keep a hold of her
without hurting her, then broke free and ran back toward the suite.

Miles was forced to push the
closing elevator doors open and give chase. He overhauled her in a few short steps
and caught her before she got back into the suite. One arm wrapped around her
waist and she was swept up off the ground, her slender frame pressed against
his muscular body as a series of loud slaps echoed down the hall. He slapped
her backside, not once as he had before, but several times, each additional
slap compounding the heat and sting several-fold. Cash took in a long sucking
breath as his hand landed hard and fast, then squealed like a suckling pig. It
hurt like blazing hell, and she couldn't believe he was smacking her, not when
she'd just been burgled.

“I told you,” he said, slapping her
bottom yet again. “You need to do as you are told, now are you ready to settle
down and deal with this calmly?”

Cash was not ready to settle down
and do anything calmly. Caught in his grasp and dancing around in a very
unbecoming manner as he swatted her yet again, she felt small and angry and
sore.

“Cash, I need to call the police,
the longer you fuss, the more likely it is that whoever did this will get away.
Now quit making me wrangle you.”

“I'm not making you wrangle me!”

He let her go and she rubbed her
backside furiously.

“Call the damn cops then.”

Cash pouted as Miles dialed for the
police. She pouted as he ushered her into the elevator and she continued to
pout as he took her to the hotel bar and ordered her a non-alcoholic drink
whilst the police came and investigated the break-in. Hotel management was
incredibly apologetic, but Cash wasn't mollified by their apologies. Even
though she was sitting on a heavily padded bar stool, she could still feel the
sting and heat from Miles' treatment. She was angry. Angry at the break in and
angry at being spanked like a brat when all she'd wanted to do... all she'd
wanted…was to go running into a room that could have been dangerous. As she
began to calm down, she started to see his point. It didn't make her bottom
hurt any less.

When Miles finished dealing with
the police, he returned to her side and told her that they were going to be
changing rooms.

“I don't want to change rooms,” she
said simply.

He frowned slightly at her. “You're
tired, so I'll give you a pass for the moment, but you're starting to try my
patience, Miss Raine. I told you at the outset that having me as your bodyguard
meant doing things my way.”

“Your way seems to get my rooms
broken into,” she said, knowing the minute the words left her mouth that it
wasn't Miles' fault that there had been a break in. If they hadn't been at the
hospital with Mattie there probably wouldn't have been.

He responded to her accusation with
a mild question. “How many people have room keys?”

Cash's stomach tightened. She had a
vague memory of Miles telling her not to give out any room keys, and the way he
was asking the question told her that she was in trouble. The tingling in her
bottom seemed to grow as she blushed and focused on her glass. “Nobody I
think,” she lied.

“Mattie had a key,” Miles said
softly. “I'm going to assume she didn't steal it. Or did she steal it, Cash? Do
I need to take her to task for that?”

“No,” Cash admitted. “I gave her
one.”

“Who else have you given a key to?”

“I don't know,” she said. “I
figured you had the cards changed anyway.”

“I did,” he said. “But if Mattie
has one, you could have given one to someone else.”

Cash glanced at him out of the
corner of her eye. His stern, hard gaze made her stomach flip. She was in so
much trouble. She could feel it emanating from him. “I don't know,” she said.
The truth was that she'd lost a couple of suite keys since Miles had taken
over. She hadn't told him because she hadn't much wanted to see him scowl at
her. It was easy enough to get a replacement from reception, it wasn't as if
they didn't know who she was.

“You don't know if you gave a card
to someone else? Or you don't know how many people you gave cards to?” He
pressed the point.

“I don't know!”

“Cash. Are you sure?”

“Yes. I'm sure.” Three times she
lied. The silence that followed her third lie was heavy and seemed to make the
air thicker so it was harder to breathe. She could feel him looking at her,
seeming to grow larger with every passing moment.