Page 5 of Sultry Bodyguard Summer

I shake my head. “We’re all from Florida. Blake lives in Ponte Vedra now, or at least he did until he moved to Sunbreak Harbor. I went to college in Houston and stayed there.

"Anyway, after I got back from France, Blake and I resumed talking. Shortly after, he asked if he could hire me as an escort. He said he found out what I used to do from online searching. That's preposterous. I've covered my tracks. I presume he found out from breaking into my home. I've never told anyone outside the escorting world about those years escorting, except for Darcy. And I only told her recently.

“Naturally, I refused to take him as a client. I stopped escorting, and I’ll never go back to it. Besides, I never would’ve taken a client among someone I know. Then Blake asked if he could hire me as therapist. I refused that, too. At that point, I was uncomfortable with how insistent he'd become. Then, he showed up at my house and tried to get me to let him in. I refused. After that, he lost it.”

We stop at the top of the clubhouse driveway, a few steps from the front stairs. “I'm pretty sure he went through my trash several times, and I assume he was the one who slashed my tires. He also sent me flowers and meals and clothes and a Chanel handbag. He took credit for the good stuff. But I gave all of that away. It felt icky having those things anywhere near me.”

His gaze shifts sharply and his impassive face tenses like a missile is about to fall from the sky. Only the missile is behindus. I turn to look as he grabs me by the arms and yanks me to the side.

The white BMW speeds toward us on a driveway that’s not made for speed.

Oliver lifts me over the shrubbery. We teeter. The BMW barrels towards us. Putting his body between the car and I, Oliver twists me to the side.

The BMW misses us by inches and takes out a chunk of the bushes.

Through the gap between Oliver’s elbow and side, I watch the car veer back onto the clubhouse driveway and speed away. “What…?” I’m short of breath and shaking uncontrollably. “What just happened?”

Oliver holds me by the upper arms and surveys me top to bottom.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

If he wasn’t holding me, I’d have already fallen over. Shaking, I take quick breaths. “No…. I mean yes. I mean, I’m okay I guess.” Intensity, likely fueled by adrenaline, lights up his hazel gaze. “How about you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He glances toward the clubhouse. “We need to get you inside.” Gently, he lets go of my arms and pulls me to his side in a half-hug. His body is hard with muscle.I never want to leave it.

He brings me up the stairs to the inside of the clubhouse. Staff members come by to ask how we are and give us bottles of water. Several of them go outside to check on the damage done to the bushes. We sit on a bench in the foyer and Oliver calls Darcy to come get us.

“What kind of car does Blake drive?” Oliver asks once his finished with the call.

I shrug. “A white BMW?”

“That’d be my guess.”

He asks a staff member in the lobby if she knows anyone at the club with a white BMW four-door sedan. She mentions several names. None of them Blake’s.

Through the front windows, I watch Darcy’s shiny dark Kia come down the clubhouse road. I turn to Oliver. “Please, take the bodyguard job. I need your protection.”

Chapter Three: Oliver

“Whatdoyousay?Will you take the job?” Darcy asks, pulling sunglasses off her head and resting them on her face. The mid-morning sun blazes down on the back deck of Sienna’s home.

I run a hand through my hair. On the face of it, the job’s not bad. I get paid for twenty-four-seven protection, and I get to sleep on the job. It’ll be mostly at Sienna’s house, which has a decent security situation. As far as body coverage is concerned, this is low level.

As far as work responsibility, it’s high level. Having Darcy trust me with her friend raises the standards of what I have to communicate to Darcy and the service I have to give to the client.

And the adversary is a fucking lunatic. I’m presuming it was Blake who tried to run us over at the clubhouse. Darcy said he’s rented a place in Sunbreak Harbor to keep tabs on Sienna. He’s rich. He’s obsessed. And he's fucking careful. They haven’t been able to land a restraining order on him.

As for Sienna, my possible client,fuck. I’m embarrassed at my reaction to her. First, she knocked me off my feet. Then, I realized she knocks everyone off their feet. That’s how she makes a living. What the hell is sexual wellness? Showing people how to have sex? Sleeping with them? Sleeping with couples?

Before that, she was an escort?

I’m hardly unique in having a sexually charged reaction to her. It’s what she’s programmed to do. How many men has she done it to? Hundreds? Thousands?

For that short period of time, until I found out she'd been an escort, I thought she was exactly the woman I wanted to be with. The one I wanted to lose my damned virginity to.

Not the case. If I wanted an escort to get over my virginity, I’d have hired an escort years ago.

“Are you sure there's really a job for me here? Blake’s unlocked this situation. He's got access to the clubhouse and the golf course. I bet he’s spent plenty of time lurking in that row of trees.” I nod at the pines where the yard meets the fairway.