Then & Now (27 page)

“What!  No, I’m not.”  He lied with such audacity she went into a violent rage.

“Stop talking you lying peace of shit!  I had you fallowed!  I know everything! Now get the hell out of my house!”  She screamed as she started to throw her shoes.

“Leya!
  Stop it!”  He yelled blocking some of the pointier ends of her heals. “Those are designer!” 

Taking a closer look at the pair she was about to throw she paused. 
“Your right.”

He relaxed a moment dropping his guard and giving her a better aim.  “But they’re so last year.” Giving her pitching arm one good
go she got him right between the eyes.

“Holy shit!”
He squawked in pain.  “Damn it, Leya!  I have a photo shoot tomorrow.  Oh, God!  Am I bleeding?  I think it’s going to swell!”

Models
! 
What a waist
. She thought with little humor.

Instantly her Guardian Angel arrived like he always did.  Hurling the whining mess of pretty boy up, Jasper Kelley began to move him from the bedroom.  Her one and only bodyguard had little trouble removing the sniveling little nothing from the room.

“Stop manhandling me!”  Devlin demanded trying to shake the larger man off.  “It’s bad enough that the bitch just damaged my face!”

Grabbing the front of Devlin’s ghastly shirt Jasper pulled him off the floor and only an inch from his face he growled.  “Call her that again and I will ruin all chances of your precious career.”

The other man went completely limp in midair knowing that the threat was genuine.

Jasper dropped the man to the floor, waited until he got his balance then grabbed him and shoved him out the door.  He accompanied the sorry excuse for a man to the door as he whimpered and whined while he climbed into the waiting taxi that Jasper had called as soon as the man barged into the house.

When the screaming started he knew when to come in and when to wait.  In the
nine years he had been her guard he learn her quirks, which made him able to control the situation better than anyone else.  Although she only had him and her long time butler, Victor the older man had just allowed Jasper the right to handle her problems.

As he watched the taxi leave the long drive, he wondered why she got mixed up with the wrong man every time she turned around.  She didn’t deserve the shallow pretty boy type yet she kept bringing them home.

“Another one?”  Victor asked from the entry way.

“Yeah.
  But don’t worry that one won’t be back.”  He stated as he closed the solid oak door.

The older gentleman chuckled lightly.  “With you, they never do.”

Damn straight.  Though if it was up to him he wouldn’t permit them in to begin with.

“That’s why I keep him around.”  Leya’s sweet voice sang from the top of the stairs.

“Right.”  Victor agreed.  “Someone needs to take out the trash every once and awhile and I’m too damn old.”

Jasper smiled at the comment knowing the lady of the house would shake it off like she usually did.  Only when he looked up her face wasn’t amused as it typically was.  Her eyes weren’t as bright as they should be and the lines around her delicate face were more pronounced then a woman her age should have.

All these ridiculous men were starting to wear on her.  He wanted to race up those stairs and take that perfect body into his arms and show her what a real man could give her.  Though that wasn’t his place and it never will be.

Pushing the thought out of his mind he straightened his shoulders and folded his hands in front of him.  “Will there be anything else, Miss. Leya?”

She gave him a weary smile.  “No, Jasper.  That will be all.”  With that she turned back to her room leaving him standing at the bottom of the landing.

He rubbed the back of his neck while he slowly made his way into the kitchen where Victor had resumed making lunch. He wasn’t really sure when his fillings for Leya had turned more romantic then professional.  It had been in the last few years however, that he had definitely noticed more attractive characteristics about the teenager he once looked after.

He had been hired right before her parents were killed in a horrible plane crash nine years ago.  She had been sixteen, quiet and somewhat shy when he was first took the position.  But that all changed when the news of her parents finally sank in.

Nine
years of reckless behavior, random men, and rash decisions.  But from time to time she reminded him of that shy teenager who loved books and dreamed of saving the world.

He was twenty-three when he had started. 
Young and determined to make her his top priority.  Nothing had changed except now that sixteen year old was now twenty-five and he had found that she needed more protection from herself than anyone else.

Maybe that’s what it was.  His protective nature was attracted to her need to be protected.  Or maybe it was his lack of a real relationship over the last few years that
was drawing him toward her.  No, that wasn’t it and he knew it.  Whatever it was had him up at night dreaming of his boss and her exquisite body.

“If you get any deeper in thought, that vain in your head is going to pop.”  Victor advised without looking up from his sandwich stacking.

Jasper grunted in response as he took a seat at the bar.  Although he was pretty sure his friend had no idea of his feelings, he eased into the topic carefully.  “Vic, when you got custody of Leya, shortly after her parents died, did any of her family ever come to see her or express interest in having her for their own?”

“She had no other family.”  Victor answered quietly.

He nodded.  Victor and his late wife Annie were the Davis’s closest friends even though they were their employees.  They did a fine job helping to raise Leya under the circumstances.  Yet, he wondered if Victor blamed himself for her vigorous way of life.

“I think she’s getting tired of this routine.”  He finally said after a long pause between them.  “I could see it in her eyes today.”

“Yes, well…” Victor started.  “I figured she would eventually.”

He nodded again accepting the deli sandwich, the other man made for him.

“Though, to be honest. She won’t completely stop until she gets what she really wants.” 

“And what’s that?”  He asked between bites.

“You.”

Leya leaned against her bedroom door for a long moment while she stared at the mess of shoes that lay in disarray in front of her closet.  While Jasper had escorted Devlin to the door she had quickly changed into her rode and rushed to watch him “take out the trash” as Victor so eloquently put it.

Sighing heavily she made her way to her bed and then threw herself into the pillowy haven.  She snuggled as deep as she could before letting out a frustrated squeal.  It was official; her teen crush on her sexy bodyguard was never going away.

She remembered the day he first walked into her home.  He was so magnificent she could hardly breathe when her father introduced them.  Although, she had been shy and reserved she couldn’t stop thinking about him and those arms and lips and God, those eyes.  His eyes held the power to stop her dead in her tracks.

After her parents death she wanted to run into those arms and never come out.  But he remained professional, allowing Annie to console her.  Then when Annie died only three short
years later, he let Victor and her console each other.  Staying in the corner and remaining the strong protector her parents hired.

She never understood why her parents hired him to begin with.  Victor claimed that there had been no death threats, no real danger of any kind.  Yet, at the time of her mother’s death she distinctly advised that Jasper stayed on as her guard with a substantial paycheck.

Maybe her parents wanted their little girl to always be safe.  She remembered them being highly protective of her.  Or maybe they figured she would come out of her shell and become havoc on society. Whatever their reason she found herself on countless occasions blaming them for her torture.  She doubted there was anything more suffering then wanting something you can never have.

The phone on her vanity rang and she ignored the first few rings, until curiosity got the best of her.  Jumping off the bed she rushed to her privet line.  “Hello?”

“Did you hear about Sophia?”  Alethea asked excitedly.

“Oh, god!
  Don’t tell me she’s been eaten by an ape! I won’t forgive myself for that.”  She teased, remembering her friend’s morbid fear of gorillas.  With good reason, thanks to Ella’s cousin who nearly killed them playing dress up.

“No.”  Thea giggled.  “She ran away to
Scotland with that sexy Scot, leaving John behind.”

Now that was interesting.  “Good.  I’m glad she took my advice. I hated that prick. Though, when I told her to explore the better side of
Scotland I didn’t mean the country.”

“Apparently, the best way to explore anything is going the whole way.”  Thea laughed.

“This coming from the once recluse.”  She playfully pointed out.

“Yeah, well my friend dragged me out and showed me what I was missing.”  Thea countered as a male’s voice rumbled in the back, reminding Leya of Thea’s new man.  Her friend giggled at whatever Jace said.

Even though she was completely happy for her long time friend and was utterly shocked that Jace Kamber, “Bracey Jacey” had bulked up to be a real hunk, her heart sank at the sound of true happiness radiating from her friend’s laugh.

Jealousy was an ugly monster.  And it was pent up on driving her crazy.  First Maddie, then Amelia, then without forgetting Alethea and now Sophia, her heart was at wits end.

“Anyway,” Thea said getting them both on subject.  “Ella told me that Sophia will be back on Saturday and they’re going to throw a dinner party at his house.  She wanted to know who you’ll be bringing.”

Who indeed.
  “Jasper.”  She answered without thought.  If only.

“Well yeah. 
And?”  Her closest friend asked without any indication of what Leya was going through.

No one except Ella knew of her longing over her bodyguard.  She kept it pretty close to the chest.  The only reason Ella knew was from one really drunken night that her friend had driven her home and took care of her.  The next morning she swore Ella to secrecy, and her friend hadn’t let her down since.

“And no one else.  Just Jasper.”

“Okay then. See you later.”

“Bye.”  She figured that Thea didn’t ask about Devlin, because Devlin was like all the other men she ran through.  He was nothing more than a diversion from what she couldn’t have.       

Leya wanted to scream.  She knew her face was red and her nerve was wavering.  Some of her male friends could really throw a wild party.  And just as she had expected, this party proved to be as reckless as the last four. At this point she could hardly wait for Sophia’s dinner party, knowing that it wouldn’t be so boisterous.

While she took random sips of her drink, she watched as one of the drunken members of the night try to surf with a couch cushion as his board and the stairs as his waves.  Of course, it ended in failure with the idiot landing on his face. The drunken dupe was up and laughing, causing her to move to the other side of the room. 

If she had to put up with one more suicidal drunk she was going to lose it.  She wished she could’ve come up with a good excuse not to come tonight.  This was ridiculous.  There was no reason to be there.

“Hey.”  A deep voice came at her side. 

Unsure if whoever was speaking to her, she gave a casual glance over her shoulder, to Mr. Gorgeous himself.  She tried—unsuccessfully—to stop the warm sensation that washed over her. 

“How are you holding up,
Sweetheart?”  Jasper’s asked nonchalantly.

Sweethear
t
, he always used the endearment with her and her body always reacted to it.  Smiling she turned to him fully. “Why do you call me that?”

“Sweetheart?”
  He shrugged casually.  “Because I think you’re very sweet.”  He flashed another one of his attractive smiles and in that moment she realized he meant what he said. 

She found herself utterly speechless.  Glancing away she nervously toyed with the empty glass in her hand. 
“Really?”

He nodded.  “Since the day I met you, I have lost count on how many times you’ve made me smile.  And it is all the cause of your beautiful mouth.”

“Th-thank you.”  Embarrassed at the tremble in her voice she desperately thought of something else to say. He wasn’t usually so relaxed with her.  It was “Miss” this and “Lady of the house” that.  She wanted to keep him laid-back, but was unsure how.

She had to laugh at herself.  Attractive men hit on her all the time and she was able to keep her cool.  But the moment Jasper even so much as smiled in her direction she would become that shy little teenager.

Something crashed behind them, and he instinctively guarded her from whatever landed at his feet.  “Would you like to go outside? I think there are fewer idiots out there.”