The Bodyguard: A BWWM Bad Body Romance(51)

The dark-skinned woman nodded slowly, her gaze never leaving his. “Do you want to hear it?”

Fuck, now he knew he couldn’t be hearing her right. “You wanna sing...for me?” He wasn’t sure if he should throw her over his shoulder and hurry to her room before she could change her mind or if she was just messing with him. The last time he checked, however, Juliet didn’t joke about her craft.

“Do you wanna hear it?”

Ok, option one then. Without another word, Hank pitched Juliet over his shoulder, smirking at her squawk of surprise before he hurried towards her room. In the space of a minute, he plunked her down on the edge of the bed and situated himself in her desk-chair before grabbing her guitar. When he held it out to her with an anticipatory grin, Juliet couldn’t help but return the gesture, rolling her eyes at his obvious enthusiasm.

“Don’t act like you don’t sneak around listening to me practice. I can hear you, you know.”

Hank chose not to address that particular accusation at the moment. He had bigger fish to fry. “Let’s hear it then.”

Juliet’s smile slowly faded as she took the guitar from him. She settled on the bed with the instrument in her arms before strumming a hesitant chord. She looked so reticent that, for a few seconds, Hank wondered if he should give her a pass. Maybe she wasn’t ready. Maybe she needed more time.

But he stood firm. The Juliet he knew could handle this, and he wasn’t going to let her take the easy way out. So he waited.

It took a few minutes of Juliet toying with the guitar and building herself up. He could see the effort it took for her to sing those first few notes, and he felt an odd sense of pride in her, though he had done absolutely shit all.

But when she started, he forgot everything else.

“Fire Fire in you.

Fire I feel fire in you.

I can’t escape fate that’s bound us Flames are growing all around us And you lit them That Fire in You.”

The sound was deep, bluesy and soulful. From the very first note, Hank was utterly transfixed. It wasn’t until the second stanza that he noticed, with no small of surprise, that she was singing about him. Him.

“Fire Fire for you Fire I feel fire for you You show me how to feel alive You got me tangled up inside With this fire Fire for you.”

Hank didn’t realize that he was holding his breath until his chest started to burn. When he finally exhaled, it was long and unsteady. He’d never felt like this - not once in his entire fucking life. Heart full, eyes open...like that moment was ripe for any and everything that could have been.

“Fire Fire in us.

Fire Fire burns in us.

Though our time is soon done You still showed me the sun And this fire Fire in us.”



Hank wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t an emotional person - knew the importance of shutting away said emotions before they could come and bite him in the ass. But, somehow, he couldn’t shut this away. This was too enormous, too overwhelming to bury and ignore.

Juliet had given him what was most precious to her - something she had almost lost when she was caged away. He’d have to be a fucking idiot to simply throw that back in her face - and while Hank was many things (most of them bad), he wasn’t an idiot.

For almost a full minute, he simply stared at her. Eventually, Juliet’s cheeks colored and she dropped her gaze, setting her guitar aside. “Don’t just look at me like that. Say something. Do you like it?”

Somehow, Hank thought “like” might be a bit weak for how he felt about what she’d just shown him. For once in his life, he put in the thought it took and did the best he could to express his feelings, complicated as they were.

“Julie...that was...that was fucking amazing.” Rising from his seat, he went to join her on the bed, tipping her chin up gently to meet his earnest gaze. “You have a ridiculous talent, woman, and you’d better know it. You’re going to do amazing.”

When her eyes unexpectedly filled with tears, he pulled her into his arms. He was stretching the boundaries of his emotional wherewithal today, that was for sure. But, just for today, Hank didn’t think he minded so much.

When had he stopped being so preoccupied with fucking her and learned to care about her well-being? Christ, it was almost like...fuck it was like Morgan. He’d let his sister die, but he’d be damned if he saw Juliet in such danger. He would put an end to this once and for all.

And no one else would suffer like they had.

“Hank.” Juliet murmured his name softly and when the heat of her breath warmed his shirt, his cock stirred - emotional or not. Ultimately, he couldn’t avoid the effect she had on him. He had to wonder if another woman would ever manage to get to him like Juliet did.

It was something he simultaneously wanted and feared. “Hm?”

“Promise me you’ll be fine.” Juliet raised her head to look up at him, her gaze entreating. “That you’ll come back perfectly fine.”

At her request, Hank snorted. “It’d take more than a fucktard like Solomon to take me down. We’ll have guns in every corner, Julie. It’s going to be fine...and then you’ll be free. You hear me? Free.”

She kissed him. Though he’d been expecting it, a low groan of sensation worked its way up from Hank’s chest. He crushed her against him, lying back against the coverlet beneath them as Juliet’s arms wound around his neck.