All Chapters of My Bodyguard’s Secret Vow : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Roman’s povI moved forward, my voice beating him to the punch. “Enough,” I said, snapping half the room to silence with the volume of my voice alone.All eyes swiveled to me. The flashes intensified on my face. I didn’t give a fuck.“You’re not here to unearth a familial corpse,” I snapped. “You came here because you want to write a story and he’s standing before you to give you something but that’s not enough. For once he’s himself and you people only care about getting a dollar or two worth of promotion. If you can’t see that this man is aging his soul out here, then you should not be in this room.”There was a ripple of whispers. Someone at the front attempted to ask, “And you are—?”“I’m the man he chose.” I said in a stern voice. “And I’m here to protect the man I love from leeches and vultures like you.”The room shifted. Some of the reporters looked down, others repositioned their camera equipment, but no one asked another question. The heaviness of my statement settled in.Ca

Roman’s povI didn’t fight it. I let him press, let him burn through it, my hand finding the back of his neck before either of us realized it. For a second, the whole room disappeared.Then he shoved me back, breathing hard, his cheeks red.Adam clapped slowly. “Beautiful. Married at last.”The lawyer snapped his case shut, not the least bit concerned. “Congratulations, gentlemen. You are now legally wed.”Claim sat at the edge of his bed as Adam came to stand by my side.“Well… this is going to be fun.”With that, Adam and the lawyer walked away to finalize the marriage as it was just me and Callum in the room. For the first time, the absence of sound wasn’t good. It was awkward.I put my hand against my neck. It was stiff; so were my shoulders. And there was still that tightness in my chest - I hadn’t taken a complete deep breath since they’d handed us those papers and said this would fix everything. My own stupid idea—my brilliant stupid idea—and here I stood looking at an empty f

Callums povThe drive back was silent. I looked at Roman who was pressed against his arm on the window. He was staring at the city lights like he’d rather be elsewhere than here with me. I wanted to start a discourse but then held back from doing so.Instead, I grumbled out what needed saying.“We have a party tonight.”He hummed, not even looking at me. Then after a pause he asked, “Partner… or bodyguard?”“What?” I looked at him.“Do you want me there as a partner or a bodyguard?”He said it like he was insulting me. I looked at the driver ahead of me and sighed.“Don’t do this,” I told him.“Don’t do what?”“You’re not making this easy, Roman. Just step out when we get there. We both need to change.”He nodded, no fuss. But I could tell he was fuming within.When we got down from the car, I started walking to the house while throwing orders at him.“Listen, when we walk in, you need to match me. Shoulders back, head up. Don’t just…” I cut myself off when I realized he wasn’t even b

Callums pov“I don’t know how you’ve put up with this your whole life.” Roman said while sipping his drink.I downed the rest of my glass, the burn hitting harder this time. “You get used to it,” I said, though the truth was I never had. And standing here, his hand brushing mine, his words lingering, I wasn’t sure I ever would.The glass of wine in front of me was warm by now. I swirled it lazily when a board member… Harold, or maybe Henry, I could barely recall… came to where I was sitting and said he wanted to talk to me. Roman nodded and left as I sat in a chair with the board member across me having a look on his face like he’d swallowed a bug. His face had that nicey nice corporate smile plastered on like he was trying so hard not to piss me off but every word out of his mouth had been an insult.“What do you want?” I asked as he nodded.“The company bird isn’t happy with all of what you’re doing.”I reclined in my chair a little. “So let me see if I understand you,” I said level

Callums povI pushed through the crowd, looking around. I brushed off polite nods and curious glances. People whispered. I could feel it. Yes it made my skin crawl but who cared.I looked around for him before seeing him at the bar alone.Walking over to him, I grabbed his drink and downed before looking at him.“You okay? What’s wrong?”“Nothing,” I said too fast, too sharp. My hands itched. “Just board nonsense. Same old crap.”He didn’t believe me. He was about to ask for more details when I heard Harold’s voice again, calling from behind, “Callum, please…” and that was it. I spun back around.“For the last time no,” I growled. People turned. “I don’t need to explain myself to you or anybody else in here. Got that? You don’t like who I married, that’s your problem. Not mine.”The whole place seemed to go quiet for a second. Like the party paused, holding its breath. Harold stood frozen, face pale, mouth opening and closing. And me? Well I felt exposed if you could call it that.I