MY EX IS THE MAFIA HEIR. NOW I'M HIS BODYGUARD.

Translator's note: This translation follows the supplied Chinese manuscript and retains its section numbering. Section 11 was not included in the supplied text. Clear transcription errors have been resolved from context.

I worked as a bodyguard for a crime boss.

When his son returned from overseas, he stared at me as though he'd seen a ghost.

His father asked, "You two know each other?"

"Not well," I said.

That night, Felix tore open my shirt.

"Not well, Eric? I know your body better than I know my own."

1

I leaned against the wall with a cigarette between my lips, eyes lowered, and let him crowd me against it.

Five years apart. He'd gotten taller. Broader, too.

The little bastard pressed his hips closer and still wouldn't behave. His hand kept slipping lower.

Any farther, and we were going to have a problem.

I narrowed my eyes, caught his wandering hand, and warned him quietly, "Enough."

Felix didn't fight me. His palm rested against the ridge of my stomach. He tucked his head against my shoulder and smiled.

"Your body's telling me you missed me, Eric. A lot."

He sounded very pleased with himself.

There was a brazen confidence to him.

I'd spoiled him into it.

I pulled his hand away and fastened my belt with deliberate care.

"Anyone touching me like that would get the same reaction."

I lifted his head from my shoulder and took a good look at him.

Still beautiful.

Still wearing a face that could ruin me.

But I'd already fallen for that face once. Falling for it again would make me a fucking idiot.

I patted his cheek and smiled.

"You? You're nothing special."

2

Once bitten, twice shy.

Felix was the snake.

He'd just turned eighteen when we met. White shirt, navy school trousers. He looked almost painfully respectable.

He played drums in a bar band. Among all those glittering, shameless creatures, he was the one you noticed.

Something about that mixture of innocence and filth got under your skin.

I'd just gotten out of prison and found work as a bouncer. Seven fights in a single night, and every one of them was over Felix.

All the boy had to do was toss a ring or a bracelet into the crowd, and people started fighting over it.

He liked starting fires and leaving other people to put them out. Eventually, a few drunks cornered him on his way home.

I happened to be passing through the alley and saved his life.

His collar had been torn open. Someone had slapped his face. While I fought for him, he leaned against the wall and cheered me on.

I remember thinking, How the hell can this little shit still be flirting?

I put two of the drunks down. Felix sauntered over and stamped on one man's hand.

"Still want to fuck me now?"

The man howled.

I sucked in a breath and caught Felix by the arm.

"That's enough."

Felix instantly put on a sweet smile.

"Thanks for tonight, Eric."

Then he kicked the other man and stuck his tongue out at me.

"One each. It's only fair."

I laughed despite myself, turned, and walked away.

Should've minded my own business.

Felix followed me all the way to my apartment building.

"I've got nowhere to go," he said. "Let me stay with you tonight?"

I asked where his parents were.

"Both dead."

I looked at that pretty face and softened.

That moment of weakness got him more than a place to sleep. It got him into my bed.

Felix knew how to tempt a man. For him, it was practically effortless.

He cornered me in the bathroom.

"All those men want to play with me, Eric. Don't you?"

He tipped his face up and kissed my chin.

"I won't let them. I'll only let you."

Who was supposed to resist that?

The truth was, the first time I'd seen him on that stage, I'd already imagined getting my hands on every inch of him.

Now he was standing in front of me, saying things like that.

I certainly wasn't going to resist.

Later, in bed, Felix lay across me and said he was afraid it would hurt. I felt sorry for him. He was young. So I indulged him and let him turn me over instead.

The trouble with indulging someone is that once is never just once.

When he got carried away, he'd pin me against the wall in the bar's stairwell, bite the back of my neck, and say, "No one else gets to kiss you."

The music was so loud that nobody could hear us.

Felix liked it that way. He liked the risk. I liked giving him what he wanted.

Once or twice, I could still tell myself it meant nothing. Keep doing it, and things change.

When I realized I'd fallen for him, I told him, "Either we're actually together, or we end this."

Felix looked at me and smiled beautifully.

"We already are together, Eric. You were my first. What more do you need?"

He was eighteen then, repeating his final year of high school.

He was too young to think much about his future. I couldn't afford not to.

I had a criminal record. My life was already fucked. Felix still had his whole life ahead of him.

I couldn't let him follow me into this mess and waste it on street corners and back alleys.

I started keeping him in line, telling him to study.

Felix behaved. He stopped running wild and worked hard to prepare for college admission.

To give him some stability, I quit the bar. Cooked three meals a day. Supported him while he studied.

Back then, I handed him my whole heart.

Kept nothing for myself.

But Felix had lied to me.

When an old coworker said he'd seen him at a private club, I didn't believe it.

Then I saw him walk out of that club with a group of rich boys.

I followed them and heard them talking.

"Hey, aren't you bored with your little meal-delivery boyfriend yet? Dump him already. Though I guess he's good at making you feel loved."

Someone else chimed in.

"As if Felix Sterling needs to worry about college applications. He's leaving the country in July."

"So, Felix, what's the muscle guy like in bed? Any good? I've never had one like that."

Felix glanced at him, blew on the glowing tip of his cigarette, and said, "Open your mouth."

Then he pressed the cigarette against the man's tongue.

"If you can't say anything worth hearing, shut up."

I wanted to march over and beat the shit out of Felix. Instead, I took out my phone and called him.

He looked at the screen and didn't answer.

The man beside him asked, "Why aren't you picking up?"

Felix frowned. Irritation sat plainly in the corners of his eyes.

"He's too controlling."

The ringing stopped. I called again.

Felix sighed, put on a different face, answered, and called my name so sweetly I almost laughed.

What a performance.

He could change faces in a heartbeat.

The little bastard could really act.

"Felix," I said. "Turn around."

3

Pain shot through my arm and dragged me back to the present.

Felix had my wrist in a crushing grip.

"Who's touched you? Who are you comparing me to?"

"Have you slept with a lot of people these past few years?"

His voice was soft. His lashes trembled.

He looked as though he'd burst into tears right there if I said yes.

I gave him a light, mocking laugh.

"None of your fucking business."

"Of course it's my business." Felix lifted his face, eyes reddening. "You're mine. Just mine. You don't get to try anyone else."

Idiot.

Suddenly, something smashed downstairs.

Then came Finn's trembling voice.

"Where's Eric?"

"I want Eric. Get him here. Right now! Tell him I'm scared. Tell him to come!"

Finn was my boss Frank Sterling's favorite son. Felix's younger brother.

Four years earlier, enemies of the family had abducted him. He'd almost died.

I'd happened to save him. He'd survived, but he'd lost the use of his legs.

That was why Frank had hired me as a bodyguard.

Maybe because I'd saved Finn under such terrifying circumstances, his dependence on me had become something almost pathological.

When they first brought him home, he wanted me beside him twenty-four hours a day. Otherwise, he'd become frantic. Sometimes he'd lose control completely.

I pushed Felix away and rushed downstairs.

Finn had already broken everything within reach. He gripped the wheelchair, agitated and struggling for breath.

I strode over and knelt in front of him.

"Finn. I'm here."

The moment he saw me, tears spilled down his face. His body loosened.

"Eric, where did you go? I couldn't find you. I had a nightmare. I couldn't find you anywhere."

"I'm here. You're safe."

I lifted him out of the wheelchair and carried him upstairs.