บททั้งหมดของ Celebrity Bodyguard : บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

Chapter 1: The Prima DonnaBackstage smelled like burnt coffee and fear. Kael Thorne breathed it in and hated it.He’d worked warzones. He’d worked embassies under threat of gunfire. None of that had prepared him for this. The bass from the soundcheck thumped through the concrete floor, up through his boots, into his chest, like a second heartbeat that wasn’t his own.He straightened his cuffs and watched the crew run past him, clipboards in hand, panic on their faces. Nobody looked at him twice. Good. That was the job. Blend in, watch everything, stay invisible until you’re needed.Apex Security had sent their best for this one. Which was exactly why Kael was standing outside VIP Dressing Room A, wondering how his career had led him here — to guarding a twenty-two-year-old pop star with the temper of a spoiled king.Julian Vance. Three platinum albums. A sold-out world tour. A face on every billboard from LA to Tokyo. And, according to his terrified management team, the target of a s

Chapter 3: The Crimson LetterThe next morning, Julian made it his mission to be as annoying as possible.At 7 AM he blasted loud, discordant jazz through the penthouse speakers. At 8:30 he ordered a ridiculous breakfast — three kinds of caviar, waffles, and one unpeeled grapefruit — just to keep the hotel staff running back and forth.Kael didn’t react to any of it.He sat at the glass table in a fresh suit, drinking black coffee, scrolling through the hotel’s security feed on a tablet. When Julian walked through the living room in nothing but a thin green robe that barely closed at the front, clearly trying to get a reaction, Kael just flipped to the next camera angle. But his eyes lingered half a second longer than they should have on the open collar and the smooth line of Julian’s chest before he forced them back to the screen.“You’re unbelievably boring.” Julian dropped onto the sofa and crossed his legs, letting the robe slip a little higher on his thigh. “Are you a robot? If I

Chapter 5: UnpluggedBy the second evening in the safehouse, cabin fever had set in hard.Julian’s whole life ran on notifications, cameras, and people telling him yes. Cut off from all of it felt like torture. He paced the living room half the morning. He tried an old spy novel from the shelf, gave up after three pages, and spent exactly three minutes trying to talk Kael into letting him check his phone.Kael handed him a deck of cards instead and went back to cleaning his rifle.Now it was 2 AM. The rain had softened to a steady drizzle against the windows.In the bedroom, Kael slept in his usual spot — arms crossed, chair facing the door, breathing slow and even. He slept the way soldiers do: light, ready to move, but still. The soft rise and fall of his chest under the black t-shirt drew Julian’s eyes more than once.Julian wasn’t sleeping at all. He stared at the ceiling, still buzzing from the last two days — the canceled shows, the red ink on that letter. The quiet of the fores

Chapter 7: First AidThe SUV skipped their old safehouse entirely and pulled into the garage of a secure corporate tower downtown. Apex kept a private floor there. Within ten minutes Kael had Julian inside a bare, sterile suite that smelled like bleach and leather.The second the steel door locked, whatever had been holding Julian up gave out. He slid down against it, chest heaving, like he’d just run for miles.Kael didn’t stop moving. Torn jacket, blood still drying on his neck, and he swept the apartment anyway — checked the windows, pulled the shades, tested the comms panel.“Perimeter secure.” His voice was rough but steady into the wrist mic. “I have the principal. Nobody comes up without my say.”He tapped the earpiece off and turned to look at Julian.“You hurt? Did anyone grab you? Trample you?”“No.” Julian’s voice came out thin. He pushed off the door, eyes fixed on the side of Kael’s head. “I’m fine. You shielded me the whole way. But you’re bleeding. That camera hit you h

Chapter 9: Breaking ProtocolThe penthouse sat in shadow, lit only by the grid of Los Angeles spread out through the windows. Almost 2 AM. Neither of them was going to sleep.The air still felt heavy from the closet. Every time Kael walked past, Julian remembered the weight of him against the metal panels — the heat of his chest, the shake in his arms, the almost of that unfinished kiss. Every time they looked at each other, the silence stretched a beat too long, full of everything they hadn’t said.Julian paced. He’d showered and changed into a black silk shirt and gray sweatpants. He crossed to the wet bar, poured two glasses of whiskey, and carried them over to where Kael stood by the windows.Kael hadn’t moved much — hands clasped behind his back, clean black t-shirt stretched across his shoulders, the city lights catching the hard line of his jaw. He looked as unreadable as ever. But Julian knew better now. He knew what his breathing sounded like when it wasn’t steady. He knew th