Page 31 of The Bodyguard and the Bombshell

Her father looked like he was going to have a stroke. “You are absolutely not working for the bloody Agency.”

“Da,” she said on a gasp. “We’re not supposed to say that.”

Her da’s jaw tightened. “Listen to me, girl. You are going to get on a plane for London. We’ll leave as soon as your mother gets here.”

“She has a bodyguard and she’s not going to London, so let’s stop panicking,” a deep voice said. “And Daisy, you’re absolutely not going to become a spy. While I’m sure you would be great at it, the world would collapse. And you are not where I left you. That’s twenty. Do you want it now or later?”

Devi gasped and put a hand on Daisy’s elbow. “Holy crap. That’s Nate Carter?”

Nate. It had in fact been Nate. He was standing in the middle of the hallway in front of her Aunt Erin’s office with a bandage around his big bicep and a fierce expression on his face.

He towered over everyone. He even had a couple of inches on her Uncle Ian, and Nate was so masculine and perfect it made her heart skip a beat. Beyond that she knew how tender the man could be, but he didn’t look tender now. He looked pissed, and his growly persona did something for her, too. But she had to remember he wasn’t hers. She wasn’t sure why he was talking in an incredibly possessive way. Probably because the events of the morning were still affecting his masculine sensibilities.

“Yes, that’s him, Devi, and I appreciate everything he did for me this morning but I think we’ll handle it from here.” Had he threatened to spank her in front of her father? And uncle and aunt and best friend? And pretty much everyone since they were all watching now. All eyes were on her and the scene starting to play out. She had to bring this under control.

“You’re going to dismiss me?” Nate asked the question as though he wasn’t worried about her answer, merely curious.

“Yes, she is,” her father announced. “Your poor driving nearly got my Daisy killed. I’m going to talk to Tessa about testing your driving skills. This ain’t the outback, son.”

“No, it’s far more dangerous, and I am not your son,” Nate replied steadily. “Nor are you my uncle. There’s not a bit of blood between us, Liam O’Donnell, and you should remember that.”

Also rude. There was a lot of rudeness running around this morning.

Erin sighed and looked at her daughter. “This is way too much testosterone for this time of day. Devi, you know something I don’t?”

Devi leaned in and whispered to her mom. Daisy would have tried to stop that, but Nate was staring at her like he was going to spank her here and now if she didn’t comply. Which was ridiculous. Or she was letting her romantic dreams run wild the way she sometimes did. She was Daisy, the one with her head in the clouds. Daisy, the one with all the big dreams, the butterfly flitting from job to job with nothing to show for it.

“You listen here,” her da began. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, Carter, but you’re not getting close to my daughter. She’s a good girl, and she doesn’t have any idea how to handle the likes of you.”

“She handles me fine.” Nate seemed determined to blow up her whole world.

“What da fuck is that supposed to mean?” Her da practically shouted the question.

Naturally Aunt Charlotte showed up with a bag of microwave popcorn. “Has Liam figured out what’s going on between Daisy and Nate?”

How would her aunt know what was going on? Nate didn’t even know.

Or did he? She’d said the words out loud, but had he really heard them? They’d probably been lost in all the adrenaline and violence and gunshots.

He’d been shot. Sure it had turned out to be fine, but he could have been killed. He could have died and it would have been her fault. All her fault because she was so dumb.

“Did you know, Dais?” Nate asked, completely ignoring the rapt audience around them.

Her head was reeling. Maybe she wasn’t handling the situation as well as she thought she was. Her heart was thudding a little and she was back in the moment when she’d realized someone was shooting at them. “I didn’t know they would come after me.”

A cartel. She had a cartel after her. As adventures went, it was a shitty one. And she’d lost her job and she would probably lose her home and her da was going to ship her off to Europe where she would very likely start a land war, and she would definitely not see Nate again.

She’d pushed it all down and it was bubbling back up, a torrential storm of anxiety.

“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Devi whispered.

“He needs to get back downstairs and leave my daughter alone,” her da said. “I’ll be having a talk with my son about his choice of roommates and who he’s letting around his sister. I didn’t work this hard to keep the men off her only to lose her to the first Aussie to walk through the door.”

Nate completely ignored everyone but her. He walked past her father, staring down at her with a piercing gaze. “Did you know, Daisy? When you approached me last night, did you know who I was?”

“What the hell is he on about,” her da started and then batted something away. “Don’t throw fucking popcorn my way, Tag. This is serious.”

“Did I know the six-foot-seven-inch dude with the Australian accent was Nathan Carter?” The walls were closing in around her. Nate was pushing her and it had been a terrible day, and he seemed ready to make it worse.

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