Page 7 of Daddy's Bodyguard

I go back out to the couch and feel her following me. She shakes her head again. “No. Hell no. I’m not going to have you following me around constantly. What would I tell people?”

“We’re dating,” I suggest with a shrug.

Her face goes red, and her full lips pull tight as I say it. It takes effort not to smile. I love how she wears every bit of frustration on her face. “No.”

“Which is why we’re together so often.”

“Jasper!”

“It started out as an online thing. But not Tinder. We’re too good for that.” I rub my chin. “I mean a year of talking, video chats, you being convinced I wouldn’t relocate to be with you, and then, just like that, I decided to surprise you.”

“You’re killing me.” She slumps down onto the couch next to me.

I gently nudge her shoulder. “So, what do you say, lover? Do you think our relationship can survive in the real world?”

“You’re insane.”

“So, you’d rather have me in full uniform, gun out and on display, letting everyone know you have a bodyguard?”

Her head falls against the back of the couch as she releases a conceding breath. “Fine. But you’re just a friend. No, a cousin. Absolutely nothing more,” she says.

I just smile. Despite how uptight Sofia behaves, I have a feeling she could be fun if she wanted to be. And this assignment could be fun if she’d let it be. I’d prefer that. I’m tired of the brutality of life, of counting the days since my last nightmare and never making an entire week before another one assaults my mind again.

“If you’re alive, then fucking live like it.” That’s what Lieutenant Ryan Jackson had said before he’d gone down in action. I promised him I would, just like I promised I’d tell his wife – my sister – that he loved her. I promised him I’d take care of her and their young daughter. And I’ll keep doing it until the day I die.

My sister Daisy will love this story. A willful, spoiled rich daughter who’s forced to live with a bodyguard because a mobster wants to take her out. It’s just like those romance books she loves to read.

Sofia pulls out a book, dragging my attention to her. She looks at it, then sets it on the coffee table. Before I can even look at the title, she corrects it – lining it up perfectly with the edge of the table.

I tap it out of place, and she bites her lip before pushing it back again. I chuckle, and she glares at me. “Is this really necessary?”

“The book?”

“You.”

I turn on the couch to face her. I see dozens of dead men instead of her face. The same men who could only wish for protection, who would have been willing to sit still in a foxhole if it meant they’d get to go home and continue living.

I make myself focus on the moment. “Did you miss the bullets at your house?”

“No, but I-”

“Based on the fact that I’ve already bled for you, yes.” I take her small hands between mine. “It’s necessary. Which means you have to put up with me, bad taste in movies and all.”

I flash a smile, and she groans, pulling away to slump into the arm of the couch. “Worst. Day. Ever.”

I chuckle and get up to order pizza. “Just think of it as an adventure, princess.”

“A horror story.”

“At least you will be alive.”

Chapter 3

Sofia

As we wait for the pizza, I glance over at Jasper again. I’ve been with him for almost an hour, he rescued me, and yet I haven’t really taken him in. It didn’t seem important until he was assigned to me. And then there was the fine print to wade through. Now that the adrenaline has worn off, I can take stock of the man I’m stuck with for the foreseeable future.

Jasper’s hair is faded at the sides, but I could run my fingers through it at the top. It’s dirty blonde and messy. He’s clean-shaven, revealing his sharp jawline and his amazing cheekbones that lead to gorgeous blue eyes. A slightly crooked nose, and he’s just a hunk with a few scars to prove he’s battle ready.

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