Her Bodyguard: A BBW Billionairess Romance (3 page)

“You were right, mate. She needs help. Serious fucking help.”

It took her all of thirty seconds to go from confused and scared to pissed as hell. She hopped out of the car and poked the big jerk in the chest. “Are you fucking crazy? Is this some kind of joke to you? Scaring the crap out of people just for fun?”

Shit, the stuff she’d said. Heat crowded her cheeks. She’d told him she hadn’t had sex. She’d kill him. In fact, she’d kill them both for putting her through this.

She turned her anger on Tom. He’d very intelligently kept a distance from her. “I don’t know what the hell this was about, but if you try this kind of crap again, I will hurt you.”

But she wasn’t done. She was humiliated. Anger bubbled in her veins over the entire episode. “And you,” she turned to the hot bastard again. “Unless you like the taste of balls, I don’t think you should ever try that again. Because I will cut yours off and feed them to you.”

***

She was gorgeous when she was mad. But as much as he wanted to give in to the temptation to lean down and see if her lips were as soft as they looked, Drew wasn’t here for romance. He wouldn’t be if he even knew how. Mr. Romance he was not. A hard and dirty shag, maybe, with some tying up involved, yeah,
that
he could do. Romance, no.

Instead he cocked his eyebrow again. “Sweetheart, if I thought you’d do more than tickle them, I’d let you have a crack. But I need a…” He flicked a suggestive glance down her, letting heat fill his eyes for a second. “…firmer hand, shall we say?”

Steeling his expression, he reached out and plucked the magazine from her hand, turning it to show her the contents.

“Rubber bullets, sweetheart.” He kept his voice hard, his expression moreso. She needed to know just how much danger she was in. “One man took your building, took
you
, with nothing more than smoke grenades and rubber bullets. No casualties apart from some bruises and wounded pride.”

Her eyes widened as she looked at the bullets, but the sassy expression was still there. He resisted the urge to smile. Stubborn woman. He had to break her, or someone
was
going to take her.

“Tom brought me in to test your security, and, well, to say it failed is an understatement, isn’t it?”

He flicked a glance at Tom, who looked a little shamefaced. As he should.

“In fact, it was fucking balls-up from beginning to end. I shouldn’t have gotten past the lobby. I certainly shouldn’t have gotten up six floors, onto the primary level, and been able to take you without some form of challenge other than a couple of rent-a-cops who couldn’t find their own arses if you drew them a fucking
map
.”

He paused, aware that his voice had risen. The men around Tom refused to meet his gaze.

“You’re Tom’s Special Ops guy,” she breathed, looking from Tom back to him. “The one he wanted me to meet. He said you were top-of-the-line.”

As he watched, she marshalled her defenses and glared at him. “Which means that only someone like you could get in. Our security is good.”

Drew blinked, surprise rolling through him, quickly followed by irritation. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me, lady.”

He threw an is-she-serious? look at Tom, then looked back at her.

“Yeah. I’m good. I’m the fucking dogs. But get this…”

He crowded her personal space, almost hoping she did take a shot at him. Since he’d yanked her against him to march her across the car park, his body had been itching for the feel of hers against him again.

“I. Can. Be. Bought.” He paused to let that sink in. “So can others. And you can be damn fucking sure they aren’t gonna hit this place with rubber bullets or stop before they get you out of here.”

He shoved his face closer to hers, knowing he was scaring her and well past caring.

“And just in case you think we’re talking about normal people here. We’re not. They won’t care about you. You’re a paycheck. As long as you get returned breathing, everything else is secondary.” He added a leer. “I sure hope you like cock, sweetheart, because if you get taken, they’ll fuck you in every hole you’ve got.”

Tom stepped forward. “Dav, that’s a bit str—”

“Shut the fuck up, Tom.” Drew turned his head to snap. “She
needs
to hear this. She needs to know what these people will do to her. And…” He turned his head to glare down at her. “While we’re at it, just think about the men who’ll die to protect you, when you’re being a selfish bitch and insisting you don’t need my advice. Men with families who won’t go home again, because you think you’re fucking superwoman.”

“You...asshole.” Tears filled her eyes. She obviously hadn’t thought about that. “That was low, even for a jerk.”

His lips compressed. “No sweetheart, I’m a bastard. There’s a difference. And believe me, I’ll go lower if it gets the message through to you.”

“Well, what the hell do you suggest I do then?” She turned to glare at Tom. “You brought him in to help? Was scaring the shit out of me part of the process, or does he only do that for fun?”

“Scaring you, sweetheart, was necessary.” He eased away, gave her some space to breathe. “From what I hear, Tom’s been telling you this could happen. Better it happens with me than someone who wants to take you for real. Or perhaps you’d have preferred me to be the real deal?”

He reached in his pocket for his cell. “If so, give me a moment, and I’m sure I can find a buyer for the CEO of a…” He looked at Tom. “Fortune 100 company?”

She gasped as Tom nodded. “You really are a bastard! And how do you propose to help me? So far all you’ve done is piss me off.”

He left his cell in his pocket. “Pissed off is better than taken or dead, sweetheart. As in help you? Let’s get one thing clear from the outset. I’m not helping you. I don’t work for you. I’m doing this for a mate.”

He folded his arms and looked down at her. “So this is the plan. We’re going to go up there. You, Tom, and I are going to go through every step of my actions this morning, and he’s going to arrange to fix the fucking big security holes you’ve got here. Which will take time. Until then, you just got a new shadow. I hope you don’t snore.”

“Snore? You’re not seriously proposing...” She stared at him wide-eyed. Her gaze raked down his body in a swift caress. She cleared her throat and turned to Tom again. “He’s kidding right?”

Tom shrugged. “He’s British. He doesn’t have a sense of humor.”

***

“This is really not the way I expected to spend my day, Tom,” she grumbled.

“I told you he was the best.”

Yes, he had. So far she’d found out a few things about Drew. Jerk even had a nice name. Andrew Davidson. He really knew what he was doing when it came to security. Thanks to his sexy accent and habit of looking directly into her eyes as he spoke, she’d been lost in his explanations within thirty seconds, mainly because her mind kept straying from the conversation to play images of him stripping for her. It was not the time for that. She needed to focus on what he wanted to do with the overall safety. He had some great ideas on how to amp up security in her building without calling the damn SWAT team. Why the hell did he have to be such a bastard and hot too?

Tom held Drew’s bag while they waited for him to change to discuss his new employment. She would have preferred to send him to hell and give Tom another tongue-lashing for hiring a bodyguard against her wishes, but dammit he was right. She did need him. She wasn’t stupid.

“Was he seriously saying he’ll be with me all the time?” She gulped, thinking of her very girly bedroom. That would not be fun at all.

“He takes his job seriously,” was all Tom said.

After a few quiet moments of her daydreaming of Drew getting up close and personal with his guard duties, the door to the bathroom attached to her office opened.

“Holy shit!” She didn’t realize she said that out loud until Tom tried to cough to hide his laughter.

Drew was...hot. No, not hot. Panty-dropping gorgeous. What the hell had he done in her bathroom? He’d clearly showered, changed, and shaved, but with all that came a man so sexy she had a hard time keeping her jaw from dropping open.

He wore a suit like he’d been born in it. And though she’d found the scruffy look sexy, the clean-shaven face allowed her to see his features with a lot more detail. Heck, even his hair moved out of the way to show off piercing eyes. Yeah, wow. To make matters worse, he smiled.

Could she get away with hiring him for sex? God. When had she stooped so low?

“Well, I’ve been called both in my time. Not usually at the same time.” He strode toward her, and it was like Tom wasn’t even in the room. Drew stopped a pace away, close enough that she could practically feel the heat of his body, and spread his arms. “So, do I pass muster? Or would you like me to do a twirl as well?”

She bit down her tongue before she told him to turn so she could check out his butt. Not a good way to start any employee on the job. “You’ll do.” She tried and failed to stop staring him up and down. “So now what? You’re the expert here.” She lifted a brow and licked her lips. “School me.”

He shot a look at Tom. “She always like this?”

Tom didn’t say anything, just nodded, a look of affectionate resignation on his face. She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him.

Drew folded his arms again, his feet a little more than shoulder width apart. It was the stance he seemed to use when he was thinking, but she was admiring the way the fabric pulled against the heavy muscles of his arms and shoulders. He had to work out with trucks as weights or something.

“Okay. Tom will go through all my recommendations for the building here and bring them up the spec. He’ll also be looking into hiring some guys with more of the experience we need. Meanwhile I’ll be checking out your routine and your place.” He gave her a hard look. “You
will
be making changes if I see fit. After that, we’ll start with the self-defense lessons.”

“You mean I can’t defend myself with my sharp wit?”

He gave her a look she was becoming familiar with. As though he couldn’t work out whether to laugh or simply throttle her.

“Well,” said Tom brightly. “I have my orders, so I’ll leave you two to get on. Good to have you aboard, Dav.”

She watched Tom head for the door and almost begged him to stay. What if her hormones got the best of her with Drew at arm’s length? She couldn’t be responsible for her actions if she was left alone with him.

“Did you want to...?” Go to bed? No! No bed. This was going to be a long day. “Go over anything or go home? Not my home. There’s, like, no reason for that.”

Wow. Talk about making an ass of herself. Who knew she’d lose brain cells over a hot body. Dios mio. If her father were alive, he’d slap her upside the head and tell her to get her shit together.

He smiled, a slow expression like the sun breaking over the horizon. The effect was devastating. “Oh no, sweetheart. You don’t get off that lightly. When I said I was about to become your shadow, I meant it. Explain it to your friends and family however you want, but where you go, I go.”

“I don’t think that’s really necessary. I mean I had a short shopping trip planned, and they close the place down for me. One of the perks of being friends with the owner.” She glanced around the room, anywhere but at him or she’d say some new nonsense. “Feel free to take the day off. I don’t need your help where I’m going.”

He sighed. “Okay, I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”

Reaching inside his jacket, he withdrew a handgun she hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t the one he’d used earlier, and she knew without asking that this one didn’t have rubber bullets. Cocking it, he handed it to her. A smile started to spread over her face. Perhaps he
was
going to be sensible about this.

Then he pulled the muzzle around and placed it against the middle of his chest. His gaze caught hers, as sharp as a scalpel.

“All you have to do is take the safety off and shoot. If I disarm you before you do, I do what I want to you.”

What the hell was a safety? And where was it located? She tried to ignore her excitement over his words, but her brain stopped when he said he’d do anything he wanted to her. She was an intelligent, well-educated woman. She’d figure this out even if it killed her.

She eyed him while feeling the gun for something, anything, that screamed safety. Why didn’t anyone think to put a label on the damn safety so it could be easily found?

“This isn’t really fair. I don’t know anything about guns,” she muttered, frustrated. The stupid thing was bumpy, and she saw nothing special to it.

“It’s the button on the side,” he offered with a wink. But before she could even think, let alone touch anything that looked like a button, he moved.

Her arm was knocked to the side, the gun removed from her hand with the precision of a surgeon on speed. She gasped as she was propelled backward, half-staggering, half-falling, until her ass met the edge of her desk. Then her back hit it, and he was over her.

The air was knocked out of her. “I guess you win. You proved your point,” she mumbled. His body was rock hard, and she had to curl her nails into her palms to keep from digging them into his shoulders. “You...uh...you can get off me now.”

He grinned, and the look in his eyes stole her breath. Darkness ate the bright blue all up until she couldn’t breathe.

“Oh no, sweetheart,” he said softly. “That wasn’t the deal. The deal was if you couldn’t shoot me, I’d get to do whatever I want to you.”

He captured her left wrist while she was still processing his words, the right a second behind it. She was forced to stretch as he pulled both arms above her head, parting her thighs with a hard knee between them. Her eyes widened; that was no gun.

“Whatever. I. Want,” he breathed, dropping his head so the words were whispered along her neck. Holding her wrists with one hand, he used his free one to sweep up the outside of her thigh, pulling her knee up against his hip.

“And how are you going to stop me?”

Stop him? The only thing she could think of to do was encourage him. “It’s...um...unethical?”

He barked a laugh. “Fuck ethics.”