Page 50 of The Bodyguard and the Bombshell

“There’s coffee?” Daisy came running in. Not running, exactly. She looked like a princess skipping through some meadow. Except she had crazy sex hair. “Please tell me you got…”

Brianna held out a covered cup. “White mocha nonfat with extra foam. And I got Nate a regular old coffee because I didn’t know how he took it. There’s also a flat white if you prefer, and I brought a bunch of ham and cheese croissants because I figured the big guy could eat. I asked Mrs. Ward to give us whatever she thought her husband would eat. It was a lot.” She gave him a smile. “Hi. You look way different than when you were fifteen, and I kind of thought you were hot then.”

“Bri,” Devi said.

Daisy waved her off. “No, it’s okay. He’s a work of art. Look all you like. I can share.”

Nate raised a brow.

Daisy blushed. “Not like that. You’re pretty and stuff. I don’t want you to dim your glow because I might get jealous. We’re not going to be like that. Now I told you not to hurt Da. He’s delicate.”

“I’m not delicate.” Liam closed his eyes. “Except when it comes to this. For the sake of all the heavens, girl, put some clothes on.”

“She is perfectly covered for a young woman who had her sleep horribly interrupted,” Avery argued.

“Well, she needs to get dressed because we’re finding another bodyguard. One who doesn’t take advantage of her,” Liam shot back.

“That room is sacred,” Ian said with a shake of his head. “It is a temple to my marriage.”

“Then you should have locked it up.” Nate didn’t see the problem.

“And from what the twins have told me, we suitably honored your marriage, Uncle Ian,” Daisy said with a sparkle in her eyes. She’d secured the sheet, and it honestly looked like any number of formal gowns he’d seen. It draped over her gorgeous body. Of course most of those gowns wouldn’t smell like sex.

Damn, he wanted her again, and they were standing in a room full of her relatives. His brain was all Daisy all the time.

“The twins have told us many tales,” Devi said, her nose wrinkling. “Like whenever they hear that old band playing, they know their parents are going at it. It’s horrifying.”

Ian’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve got two words for you, niece. Taylor Swift.”

Devi gasped. “No. That’s just because Dad likes her. It’s not…ewww. It ruins so much music for me.”

“Ian, everyone’s used the jukebox room,” Alex pointed out.

“I’m not getting another bodyguard.” Daisy got in the middle of her parents. “Nate did a great job. He made me hide, and then I thought it might help him if I called Aunt Charlotte and told her Uncle Ian was about to get sniped. I knew Uncle Ian would be here because he is always in the middle of drama. I was going to call the cops. Bringing in the authorities would have caused more chaos, but Aunt Charlotte begged me to give her a couple of minutes. And then I went to check and I saw that Da was being an asshole.”

“Daisy, language,” her father admonished.

Daisy shrugged. “Well, you’re already mad at me for having a sex life. I don’t have to pretend to be some perfect princess so you’ll still love me. I can be me. I can be honest. Nate did an excellent job.”

There was one problem with what she was saying. He appreciated the support, but she’d disobeyed. “Which you shouldn’t have seen because you are supposed to be locked in the bathroom waiting for me to give you the all clear.”

“Well, I couldn’t hear anything. I think those rooms are like noise canceling or something,” Daisy complained. “We should get whatever it is at The Hideout. Sometimes the privacy rooms get real loud, if you know what I mean. Also, do you think we could ask the board to get a room with a jukebox? Because it’s the exact right height.”

Ian put a hand to his heart. “Not my jukebox.”

Alex snorted.

“Right height?” Her father had gone pale. “You shouldn’t have been in dat room at all. You were supposed to stay in the apartment, which has two bedrooms.”

“I mean, if you think about it, he can probably protect her better if they stay in the same room,” Brianna offered. “A lot of my mom’s books fall into the only one bed trope.”

“I assure you there are plenty of beds in this place, and this ain’t one of Serena’s romance novels,” Liam shot back.

“I don’t know. Let’s see. Childhood friends take one look at each other after a decade apart and fall madly in love,” Avery began. “Sounds like a romance to me.”

Liam wasn’t finished. “How about this scenario? Asshole can’t handle the military and comes to America to find an easier life and takes one look at an innocent girl and sees a meal ticket.”

Ian groaned and looked to his best friend. “We can’t save him. You want to break into the Scotch? It’s going to be a long day. The twins finally dug Zach out of the rubble and they’re on their way back, so I have to sit in on them complaining all afternoon. Have you ever listened to a whiny captain yell about how a bomb exploded and he got caught for days in the inevitable landslide it caused? It’s a lot, man. And it’s not like Lou didn’t invent an extremely long straw to keep the fucker hydrated. Kids are soft these days.”

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