Confined with the CEO and the Bodyguard

not hiring.”
He looks at me for confirmation. I nod. Sadie just looks confused.
“But you said there was housing and three hundred dollars a week,” Sadie pleads. She rakes her hair back and inhales, resigned.
“I said if we hired you—” interjects Beau. He doesn’t look at me.
I’m annoyed with him. This bait-and-switch was a cruel thing to do, and he knows it. I’m sure Beau is just doing what he thinks I want. I don’t much appreciate the position he’s put me in.
“Your text messages made it sound as though there was at least a possibility of that happening.” She’s fuming. In her shoes, I would be too. “What about just housing for the first month? I’ll quarantine for two weeks. I won’t even leave my room. And then I’ll work for two weeks for free as a trial.”
It’s a ridiculous thing to offer. Now I know she’s desperate. Sadie could be the worst massage therapist in the world and I’d still be tempted to let her stay here. Right this moment, the only part of my body that aches to be stroked is my cock.
“You don’t have anywhere else to go?” I ask, imitating Beau’s slow drawl. I’ve picked up this manner of speaking ever since I moved here from Chicago.
Sadie shakes her head once, stubbornly mute. After a beat of silence, she says, “I’ve been living out of my van.”
In the middle of a pandemic.
I know she isn’t the only one, but until this moment it’s been an abstract problem. Aw, hell.
I catch Beau’s eye. “Let her stay.”
Crinkles pleat his brow. “Are you sure?”
“You’re the one who brought her here,” I mutter. “I bet she can’t even afford enough gas to get back to the city.”
Sadie, standing ten feet away, must have overheard me. She scowls and kicks a rock into a cactus.
“All right, Miss Banes. Let’s get you settled in,” Beau says with resignation.
Her head jerks up. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he says. “You can stay for a month. Once you’re done with quarantine, we’ll give you a two-week trial to win us over. Deal?”
“Yes. Sure. Thank you, Mr...”
“Beau Reed.” He doesn’t offer to shake hands. “This is Dakota Wilson.”
I notice he doesn’t identify me as the CEO. While I’m sure my friend has his reasons for the oversight, it makes me wonder what game he’s playing. It’s his job to protect me, and belatedly, he is trying to do that. I’d say he does not entirely trust our guest.
Maybe I don’t, either. But I’m a softie for a damsel in distress, which Beau knows damn well. Sadie has the attitude of a stray dog who’s been kicked around—wary, but still hopeful for a treat or a friendly pat. It takes a lot of courage to get through this world when nothing ever seems to go your way. I can’t just kick her to the curb when she’s come all the way out here.
“Put her in the cottage,” I tell Beau quietly. I pick up my tools and cast a glance at the line of fence posts still needing to be reset after a recent rainfall washed them out. “Get her settled in and come back to get me.”
“The cottage?” Beau asks. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” It’s our best guest lodging. It’s a private building with two bedrooms, two baths, a galley kitchen and a washer-dryer. There’s even a courtyard with a firepit. Sadie will be comfortable there. Besides, it’s not like we have any paying guests who might want it.
Beau tosses me two water bottles. He hops behind the wheel of my red pickup truck. It starts easily. Sadie’s van grumbles before turning over. It pulls out after him, making a high-pitched whine, leaving me alone with the wide blue sky, a fence post digger, and a desert cottontail eyeing me from a distance.
“Yeah, so what,” I tell it. “I’m a fool. It’s only a couple of weeks, though. You’ll be lucky to avoid being eaten by a rattlesnake for that long.”
Clouds puff and gather overhead. Even a full hour of hard manual labor isn’t enough to make me stop thinking about Sadie’s gorgeous body and green eyes. By the time Beau comes back to get me, purple stains the horizon. We ride home in silence.

3
Beau
The new girl parks her van behind the cottage. It’s a freestanding gray adobe building with a walled courtyard. Ordinarily Dakota rents it out for a tidy $400 a night; stay for a week and he’d discount the rate. It was always booked months in advance—until the world went on lockdown and guests vanished like ghosts at daybreak.
Now a homeless girl—woman—is living in it for free. I feel a lot of ways about this.
I totally fucked up by inviting Sadie out here. First off, I know perfectly well that Dakota’s heart is as soft as his head is hard. As soon as this chick got out of her decrepit Chevy, I knew he was going to let her stay. Dakota is the best human being I’ve ever met. That’s why he needs me.
Not that he listens to my advice very often.
For example, last year we found out that the administrative assistant who had been managing our bookings had bilked him out of nearly twenty thousand dollars. Dakota chose not to press charges—a decision I did not agree with. He reminded me, gently, that I’m not his business manager. I admit I’m still salty that he didn’t take my counsel.
That’s between him and his accountant now, I guess.
I still feel I ought to have protected him better. My job here is to keep him safe physically. Frankly, this has been harder than I’d like ever since I took a fall from that devil horse Dakota rides. Never should’ve tried to clamber up on that horse’s back. Thought I could hack it, but I’m eight years older and decades less experienced with horses than he is.
“’Scuse me, Mr. Reed,” Sadie asks. She gestures to the keypad. “Is there a code to the door?”
Right. I shake my