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"Tell me your name" I smiled "That’s all Just your name"

The words came out so softly I couldn’t hear hiled noise

"Repeat that, please?"

"Junior Ta’ala But everyone calls ht I only had to tell youthe knot It had been way too long since I’d had soe

"Samoa," he said in a rush

I raised my eyebrows

"Island in the South Pacific? Similar to Hawaii in landscape but less touristy?"

"I knohere Samoa is," I said "So you’re Polynesian?"

"Afatasi Half My mom’s from New Zealand"

"How did you end up here?"

"I needed a job, and I had to do soestured to his big body

My shtly predatory I had some ideas about what he could do with it

"Are we done?" he asked, regaining coet to your father’s library"

"We’re done For now"

I let the robe fall off ood bit of back before I closed the door tohi to be fun

Dad wanted , which was the equivalent of a dangling carrot I wanted to play with the bodyguard, but cabin fever was getting to me

It was nice to have options

I dressed in a bustier and a pair of red leather pants, pulled my hair back in a slick ponytail, and then climbed down the side of my house, courtesy of the decorative pattern of horizontal bricks I didn’t put onfor the waiting cab I pluirls a little soed my eye color to brown I topped it off with a tiny, and definitely perky, button nose

The cab dropped me at the corner of Bourbon and Saint Philip I slipped into Lafitte’s Blacks the rush

I loved Lafitte’s because it was dark; the tourists always put on a good show, and I appreciated the colorful pirate history Built in the 1720s, it was the oldest bar in the country Jean Lafitte had buried treasure under the open fireplace, and on occasion, he’d been known to show up in the flalare to scurvy knaves interested in his loot I ordered a cherry lime mojito and took a table in the corner by the bar

Once my drink arrived, I pulled out the plastic sword loaded with fruit and popped a cherry into uard pulled away -sleeved shirt, a chocolate brown vest, and an ivy cap Surprisingly delicious

"You can’t have that"

"The hell, you say" I tried to take the drink back, but he held it over ave you the slip I’ain?"

"Dune" He sniffedthe fruit away froin"

"Says who?"

"I was talking about the drink" He slid lass back onto my table