Chapter 57 CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN

Chapter 57 CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
Ares

I walked into her home office, finding her lost in thoughts as she stared deeply at the paperwork’s informer of here.

It’s been three days since th incident and she hasn’t been able to wrap herself around what had happened, it’s like the adrenaline had faded leaving behind a pale shaken version of Alyssa White.

She snapped out of her train of thoughts as her sharp intelligent eyes went straight to my bandage on my arm.

She was still worried about me I could see a flicker of something like worry, fear crossed her face before it was replaced by a careful neutral mask.

“How’s your arm?,” she asked her tune was quiet.

“It’s better,” I replied sounding. “I told you it’s just a graze. It’s been handled.”

I stayed by the door refusing to move closer. The space between us felt like a mile-wide canyon.

I could still feel the ghost of her body against mine when I pulled her to my arms, her innocent scent.

Fuck!

I’ve never wanted something so bad yet I couldn’t have it.

“The security detail has been doubled,” I stated looking at a point on the wall behind her. “You will have two men with you inside the house at all times and four outside. Your travel routes will be randomized. You will not go anywhere without my explicit prior approval. Is that clear?”

She blinked thrown by the cold professional delivery. “Ares… what’s going on? Who were those men?”

“That’s not your concern,” I said finally meeting her gaze I forced my eyes to be empty. “Your only job is to follow the new security protocols, my job is to keep you alive. That is how things are going to be from now on.”

She took a step forward a frown creasing her brow. “What is this? Why are you talking to me like I’m a client? After everything that just happened… after what happened between us before…”

I know it was going to hurt her but whatever that had happened should be in the past.

If Robert ever finds out that I’m fucking hus daughter, he’ll have my head feeded to dogs.

“What happened between us was a mistake,” I said each word feeling like a shard of glass in my throat. “A serious lapse in my judgment I was your bodyguard and I am your bodyguard, that is the only relationship that can exist between us.”

Her face went from confused to stunned. “A mistake?” she whispered.

“Yes.” The word was final. Absolute. “It should never have happened It was unprofessional It compromised my focus so let’s all prented that none of what happened had happen and move on.”

She let out a short disbelieving laugh. “It compromised your focus? You took a bullet for me Ares! How is that compromised?”

“It’s my job!” I snapped the control in my voice cracking for a second. “That is what you pay me for, to take a bullet and It doesn’t mean anything beyond the contract i signed!”

Alyssa’s eyes narrowed turning sharp and cold but then deep inside of them held hurt, she was hurt by my every words but it was the right thing to do.

“Of course,” she said her voice dripping with a sudden icy sarcasm. “Of course it doesn’t mean anything. Why would it? After all you’re just following the protocol just doing your job. Just like you were just ‘doing your job’ when you lied to me about being divorced.”

“Alyssa,” I started but she cut me off.

“No don’t! You’ve made yourself perfectly clear.” She took another step forward, her posture straightening. “You stand there bleeding from a wound you got protecting me and you have the audacity to call what we had a ‘mistake’? You held me at night. You told me things you said you’d never told anyone. You told me that I belonged to you, was that all just part of the job description? A way to keep the principal compliant?”

“It’s not like that,” I growled my own anger rising to match hers an anger mostly directed at myself.

“Then what is it like Ares?” she challenged, her voice rising. “Enlighten me becaus from where I’m standing, it looks like you got what you wanted and now you’re running scared. You’re hiding behind your job and your lies because you’re too much of a coward to face what it actually means!”

“There can never be anything between us and you know that” I roared finally closing the distance between us. I loomed over her and I didn’t miss the way she didn’t flinch as her chest heaved. “Do you understand? Never I am your bodyguard. You are my Boss and that’s it. That’s all it can ever be. We will forget what happened. We will forget everything.”

The air crackled with the unsaid things with the memory of his lips on hers, the taste of her essence.

Crap!

I had done that.

I had put that pain there.

It was better this way.

Safer for her.

Even if it killed me to see it.

I turned my back on her knowing I had to get out of that room before I broke, before m I grabbed her and told her every truth I was hiding about her father about the mission I was on and about the fact that I loved her so much it felt like a sickness.

I walked to the door every step feeling like I was walking on knives.

I had my hand on the doorknob when her voice stopped me.

It wasn’t loud but rather low, venomous and filled with a final shattered contempt.

“Fuck you Ares Collins”

I didn’t turn around or respond to her, ijust opened the door and walked out closing it softly behind me.

No matter how much I wanted to be with her, i couldn’t… she was safe from me.

Now I just had to keep her safe from everyone else.