There didn't seem to be more than one way that Aiden gazed at people. He stared at me the same way he gazed at Blondie in the hallway. With an unflinching stare that missed nothing. I could hardly look back at him without wanting to apologize. I didn't know what I was going to be apologizing for, but I still felt the urge to do it. Those stupid blue eyes made you want to confess to crimes you didn't commit.

I ended up staring down at the tabletop, trying to talk my cheeks out of turning five shades of red for the rest of the time we were at the restaurant. It didn't work, but I still tried to keep the shades of red to a non-embarrassing level.

Sanders left Aiden with the task of driving me to the book signing so she could get caught up on paperwork, which was fair considering she had spent the last twelve hours acting like my own personal hotel. Well, if a hotel had a "you have two minutes to grab your things and make it to my car," policy.

I followed Aiden outside, after an awkward goodbye in which Brandon smiled wildly trying not to laugh as he remembered that I thought that a seventy-five-year-old man was asking to be my bodyguard. We walked down the street in complete silence, Aiden leading the way.

We reached a sleek black car and Aiden opened the passenger's door for me. I climbed inside and offered him a smile. "Thanks for what you did back there," I said rubbing the back of my neck. Without a word, he closed the door and walked over to the driver's side.

I really shouldn't have tried to start a conversation while we were getting into the car. The long pause between me climbing in, and him starting the car was WAY too long for it to be anything else but awkward. I tried again as he pulled the car out of his parallel parking job in a quick fluid motion, moving into the morning traffic with ease.

"That guy really freaked me out so... thanks for stepping in."

Aiden didn't respond. Instead, he continued to stare at the road, fingers gripping the wheel casually. The silence continued to grow, and instead of taking the hint that he clearly wasn't interested in having a conversation, I kept talking like the unfiltered, sleep-deprived jittery person that I was. "The restaurant was supposed to be closed, so I have no idea how he got in."

I shifted in my seat, adjusting my seatbelt, tugging several strands of my hair free from the strap. "It was like he was a magician or something. Well no... not a magician. Magicians tend to make people happy. Well, they make people happy when they are doing their job right, or else they just make people feel uncomfortable." Like this conversation.

"A magician can make or break a party—."

"He worked there," Aiden cut in, saving me from continuing my terrible monologue about magicians. Something was clearly wrong with my brain.

"He works there?" I asked, confused.

"Worked," Aiden corrected, his tone dark, fingers gripping the wheel tighter.

"Oh," I replied quietly. "Did you talk to the owner or something?"

He didn't respond, returning to his prior quiet status. And with that, our conversation died, leaving us to drive for another forty-five minutes in complete silence. I tried to make small talk, but my efforts pretty much died when I realized that he had no intention of engaging in conversation after he told me that he had either gotten Blondie fired or killed him. It was like sitting next to a wall. A very attractive and irritating wall.

I felt like an idiot trying to talk to someone who so clearly wanted me to shut up. It was the most awkward car ride I had ever had. Which was saying something. Especially since I shared a ride with one of Sanders's erotic novelists once who had insisted on explaining where she got her inspiration for one of her elderly love scenes. I still had nightmares.

I thought that the book signing would make things better. Aiden could stare at other people in his strange silence while I got to geek out about book stuff. But no such luck. I felt his eyes like two searing gems of perfection the ENTIRE TIME. He stood off to the left, at the ready. A statue that blended into the background, so no one else paid him any attention, but I found it hard to concentrate. Sure being stared at by fans was a norm but he wasn't a fan. And they all smiled. He just... stared with a stoic expression of eerie calm.

Aiden was a constant reminder that someone had broken into my apartment and left me a note on my mirror. After stumbling through the book signing, a little off my game considering my lack of sleep and new mystery companion, Aiden ushered me back to his car without a word.

As he opened the door for me to climb into the passenger side, I shook my head. "I'm not getting inside." He raised a brow but didn't say a word.

I shoved my hands into my pants pockets and sighed. "Look, I know you probably aren't supposed to talk but this whole..." I waved my arms around in his general direction in a flailing gesture. "Silent thing is isolating and weird."

I tilted my chin up doing my best not to get distracted as I stared into his eyes with the most serious expression I could muster. "Can we come to a middle ground or something? Otherwise, I'll talk your ear off and neither one of us needs that."

"We need to get going," Aiden replied motioning for me to get in the car. "We're on a schedule."

I crossed my arms. "I'll get in if you try to be a little more social."

He set his jaw, wrestling with the idea. "You won't get in until I agree?"

I shook my head, too tired to care if I was pissing off the one guy who could be the deciding factor between living and dying.

He searched my face, trying to decide how serious I was. So to make it clear I narrowed my eyes and stared right back, undeterred. After a long moment of silent staring, he gave one sharp nod of agreement.

I slid into the passenger seat and noticed a slightly louder door slam this time as he closed the door behind me. "There are rules," Aiden said before I could say a word as he started the car.

"A list of agreements you signed today." He ran his fingers through his black locks, drawing my attention to his face. "But considering the circumstances, I can understand why you don't remember a word of them." He paused. "So I'll remind you."

The sun was high in the sky as we hit the 405 freeway, the hot road growing fuzzy in the midday heat haze, and the car slowed to a crawl. "One. Executive protective agents are here to protect, not to fight. We are tasked with getting someone out of harm's way."

Aiden adjusted the air conditioning as the sun filled the windows with warm light. "Two. We aren't buddies, friends, or confidants. That would make us Buddyguards."

I snorted before I could stop myself. Aiden hardly seemed like the friend type. He was far too serious for that.

"And three, wherever you go, I go. I'm your shadow now. A silent shadow whether you like it or not. It makes it easier to do my job."

I turned to fully face him. "So what? That's it? You aren't gonna answer me if I talk to you?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

"That's stupid," I replied, unable to hide my irritation as I leaned my head against the glass window. I had hoped that Aiden would be someone I could talk to. Someone outside of the book world I had created. Someone that would maybe make me feel less alone. But nope. He was going to be a shadow who refused to talk to me.

I should have said no to having a bodyguard. I should have gone with my gut and told Brandon that it didn't matter if Blue Eyes was my new bodyguard. If I had known how utterly distracting it was to have Aiden watching me out of the corner of my eye everywhere I went, I would have set that contract on fire and run.

I could barely walk, talk, and function with hundreds of eyes on me at book signings, but now I had an extra pair of jaw-dropping, make you forget your name level, attractive eyes watching me EVERY. MOMENT. OF. THE. DAY. And there was no way I could act like a normal human with that kind of eye power focusing on me. And now I didn't even get to have human interactions with the one person I was going to be spending endless hours with.

It had only been six hours since Aiden and I had been sitting across from each other after he saved me from some creeper in the bathroom hallway, but it might as well have been weeks. I was alone, and in that isolation, time didn't matter. I just wished my shadow wasn't so attractive! He'd be easier to ignore that way.

---

Have you ever had a job with a rule you hated?