Rescued by my Bodyguard

Chapter Six

Alex walked around the pool and pointed towards the stone fence that led to the lawn below. 

“I’ll place a few targets there for you to aim at.” He picked up several apples from the fruit bowel on offer and looked back at me.

I always had fruit placed around the house for easy snacks and Marie had quickly made me feel like I was home. I smiled knowing she had put the light green crisp apples there. I made a mental note to thank her later. 

“We are shooting apples?” I asked. 

“Not the first time I have used apples to teach.” Alex said fitting three into his single palm with ease. 

Alex’s hand was a giant paw nearly twice as large as my own. He could easily fit his fingers around the throat of a victim. Why that makes him even more sexy to me is anybody’s clue. He is the epitome of masculine power in every move that his body makes. 

“Wait here. Remember do not point that gun upward when there is a man on the field. Accidents happen. I know you don’t like me Beth but don’t shoot me please.” He said seriously. 

Alex thought I didn’t like him. I guess my mood from the day before was clear. I was upset that I was forced to have a bodyguard. Still, I did not mean to come across that I did not like him. He was perhaps the most attractive man that I have ever met. He is not just skilled to a deadly profession; he is intelligent with a slight glebe personality that I can tell is under his surface by his jokes and sarcasm. Not liking him was impossible. 

I actually wanted to get to know him. But this is just a temporary thing, so why should I want more? The second my stalker is caught Alex will be gone, and he even told me happily so. He is paid to be here, pure and simple. He is not going to stick around and I will just have to snuffle my attraction to him until then. 

I gave a nod ensuring the gun was pointing downward, ignoring that he now referred to my favored courtyard as a field of battle, with him the man on it, because I never wanted to think of it that way. He placed the apples on the line of grey stone a few decent yards away from us. He came back in my direction and c****d his own gun lifting it in his bear sized palm to show me. 

“Safety, trigger, hammer, front sight, and back sight to take aim.” He explained the parts of the gun using his own as an example to a novice like me. “So, something I do not know about is your romantic history apart from this Richard Taylor that I will have to chat to.” 

“Previous partners you mean. And how is that relevant? I don’t even want you to get Richard involved. I don’t think that he would do this to me.” I asked.

“Even if it is not him, I would still like to get his take on the situation. Perhaps he picked up something that he decided not to mention with the stalker.” 

I doubt that Richard picked up anything, but it seemed pointless trying to argue with him. Richard was insanely angry over the letters and phone calls. Almost to the point that he was… dare I think it… jealous that another man took so much of my attention. 

“Why is my romantic history relevant?” I repeated as I took aim at the first apple, clicking off the safety with difficulty, before pulling the trigger to miss pathetically. 

The sound of the bullet made me bolt backward. This was stupid. I was never going to be a good shot. I don’t want to ever have to use a gun either. I understand why Alex is trying to teach me, but I must look ridiculous. I was glad he did not laugh at my first dismal attempt at hitting the target.

“Just wanting to ask if there is someone in your past that did not fare well with a breakup?”

I suppose that was fair to ask. 

“No psycho ex’s that I recall.” I said flippantly. 

Really, I did not have that interesting of a s****l history. I lost my virginity to my first boyfriend when I was eighteen in college. He was four years above me and far out skilled as myself in the bedroom. His name was Joseph Laurent. A gorgeous French student of architecture who was a football star and loved the outdoors just like mec. After we slept with each other for the first time, he disappeared. I thought that he regretted sleeping with a bad unexperienced lay like me and brushed me off. His body was found a week later in Lake Washington. The police said he fell when hiking. The matter was closed without it being deemed a suspicious death. Joseph was so good on his feet I thought that him slipping on a hike was impossible. 

His unexpected death shook me. I took a semester off from studying Business at Yale where we met. Every time I walked down the halls, I expected to see him. It has been so long since I thought of him. I didn’t want to discuss my dark past full of the deaths of people that I cared about. I tried so hard not to dwell on the sadness of my past. I did not want to relive it now. 

“My first boyfriend died when I was eighteen.” I told Alex shaking the bad memory. 

Alex looked up and I knew that my voice sounded sad. I have lost so many people in my life. That was why I let so few people close to me. I knew it was, even if I fought with myself over it. I also knew I would never change because of my past. I kept every new acquaintance at an arm’s length from me. Hell, its why I had so few friends apart from Danny.

“My next partner was Jackson Miller. A wealthy son of a United States Senator.”

Jackson and I were together for a passionate year where I learnt a lot more in the bedroom. How to please myself as well as my partner was most of my university studies. It was a rough lesson to find out that our relationship was only physical. He cheated on me and the second that I found out I ended things. Later, I learned it was not the first time. He was a complete playboy and not faithful to any woman alive. It was easy to move on from him. He dated me because of my name, nothing more. He didn’t even try to deny it when I broke things off. 

“He was not loyal to me. So, I don’t think that he would care enough about me now to become obsessed with me. Then there was Richard Taylor.” I said. 

Three boys in my past was it. Plenty of men tried to hit on me. I was a wealthy heiress to a Fortune Five Hundred company. At twenty-five and the face of my father’s company with the board also put me on the cover of exclusive magazines, including most recently Forbes. That socialite profile came with an equal amount of distrust for every single new acquaintance I was introduced to. Not that my uncle really ever allowed anyone to get close to me. Xavier was more suspecting of anyone that I met then I was, especially men who could try to manipulate me. 

Looking at Alex I wonder what he thinks of my lack of experience in relationships. I bet he has had a harem of past women given that he is as gorgeous as he is in what I think might be thirties. 

“What about male friends?” He then asked. “Is there anyone who has shown an interest in becoming more and been upset that you were not interested?”

I considered about telling him anything about my friends. I didn’t have many that were close any more. No one was really ever that close. Over the last year I have severed ties with almost everyone. The only friend I ever truly had was my best friend Danny Louis who was completely flamboyantly gay. Danny was also in several of the photographs that the bastard out there took of me. So, he could not be considered a suspect. 

“My best friend is Danny Louis and he is a homosexual. He was also questioned by the police which was hard on our friendship. He was in the photographs that you were looking over this morning so I know it could not be him. He would not hurt a fly. So, what are you supposed to do? Just follow me around everywhere and wait for this psycho stalking me to show up?”

“Hopefully finding who is before he shows up would be better than just waiting for him to.” Alex joked. 

I liked the fact the man actually had character and was making light of the situation. Everyone that had spoken to me about the stalker was so somber about it. Alex was as well, but was still able to make me laugh. Still, I know that I am in danger. I think I am using laughter to try to dim how dire the situation actually is. Making jokes is my only defense against how much danger I feel that I am in. My smile quickly turns into a frown. I want to finally be honest with how I feel about someone stalking me with both myself and Alex. 

“I hate it.” I say which draws his attention back from the gun in his hand. “Knowing that I am being watched. It is not like the paparazzi. I have gotten used to them since I was a child. This is so much different. I just feel…” I tried to search for the right words as I knew I was finally admitting this information to myself and saying it aloud for the first time. 

“Like your privacy is violated?” He answered for me and it was a perfect definition that I was searching for. 

“Exactly.” I admitted. 

“Well, we are going to get him. If you just let me do my job that is.”

“Your saying I am stubborn?” I asked with a grin openly aware that I have been nothing but stubborn with Alex up to point. 

“Yes, very. And I only just met you yesterday.” He said unashamed with a smile. “But not the first stubborn client I have worked with, trust me.” 

“Great. Thanks for the compliment.” I huffed with sarcasm, but did agree.

I was always a stubborn woman. Even if money was not an issue, I hate to admit I usually got my way. It is not the case with this Alex Hayes. He has put any argument I have attempted to an end swiftly with his intelligence and that is something I am far from used to; letting a man boss me around. 

“Here. Hold it with both hands.” Alex instructed placing his own gun in the back of his vested holster and stepping behind me.

I gasped as I felt him take hold of my waist and his hot breath on the back of my neck sent an instant jolt to the pit of my stomach with flutters. 

The gun was heavy. I had never held one before. It was far easier now with two hands. 

“Now line up your shot with one eye.” He whispered to me and I wish I did not feel my stomach bounce with a rush of excitement in the sound of his low commanding voice, “Good, now all you have to do is point, aim, take your time with a steady breath, and upon exhaling you squeeze the trigger.” 

I did as he instructed. The bullet rang in my ears and my arm fell back with a thud from the force of the gun bouncing into my hand with a recoil. A splash of apple sauce fell around the stones. I smiled not able to hide my excitement as I actually hit the apple! 

“Have you ever killed someone?” I asked lifting my hands to take aim at the second apple.