When They Beg I Rise (Lemira) novel Chapter 880

Lemira smiled. "Don't say thank you. We're best friends."

Stella looked at Orion. "Thank you too, Orion."

"No need to thank me. I am your best friend's boyfriend, after all," Orion replied in a perfectly calm, matter-of-fact tone.

Stella burst into a teasing laugh. Beside her, Lemira kept her head glued to the table, her face entirely flushed.

After breakfast, Stella checked the time. "I've got morning classes. I'm going to head to campus."

Lemira was worried. "I feel like Mrs. Waverly is going to figure out the contract is fake very soon."

Those vultures would definitely hunt Stella down again.

Stella let out a cold laugh. "I won't let them win again. I hired an extremely capable bodyguard."

"Just one? Are you sure that's enough? Should you hire a few more?"

Lemira was still anxious.

Stella blinked. "One is more than enough. And I trust him completely."

Orion narrowed his eyes slightly. "He's back?"

Stella lowered her gaze and nodded. "Yes."

"Then he's definitely all you need."

Lemira felt like the two of them were speaking in riddles, but she didn't push it. It wasn't until Stella opened the front door to leave that Lemira spotted the towering silhouette waiting in the hallway.

The man was dressed in all black, a baseball cap pulled low over his face.

His massive frame was undeniably intimidating, and his rolled-up sleeves revealed powerful, heavily muscled forearms. It was glaringly obvious that he was incredibly lethal.

Unfortunately, he was standing in the shadows, making it impossible to see his face clearly.

But Lemira would bet money that the bodyguard was strikingly handsome.

Orion shut the front door and murmured darkly, "Done staring?"

Her curiosity piqued, Lemira tried to step forward to peek through the peephole, but Orion blocked her path. "What is there to look at?"

Looking at her sweet, upturned face and her swollen, glistening lips—which he had just thoroughly kissed—Orion fought the overwhelming urge to crush his mouth against hers again, harder and deeper this time.

Instead, he scooped her into his arms and carried her over to the sofa.

He sat down, keeping her firmly in his lap, and stared down at her. "I don't usually gossip. Unless I get a little sweetness out of it."

Sweetness?

Lemira remembered him asking for candy last night. The worst that could happen was making out with him for a bit. She didn't mind that at all.

She nodded immediately. "Deal. As long as you tell me."

Seeing her agree so readily, Orion let out a low chuckle. "He is an old high school classmate of mine. He grew up extremely poor. After graduation, he went overseas and became an elite mercenary to pay for his grandmother's medical bills."

"But if he's this hardened, lethal mercenary, why would he willingly come back to be Stella's bodyguard?"

There had to be a crazy backstory!

Orion dropped his gaze, staring intensely at Lemira's lips. His voice dropped into a dark, seductive murmur. "Because in high school, Stella chased him... and they slept together."