Wanted: Bodyguard

Not that it mattered. Even though he was flirting with her, he wouldn’t lose sight of the fact that he had a job to do here and that his time with her was strictly temporary.

Stifling a yawn, he turned out the kitchen lights and headed for the guest room. Haley’s door was open and on impulse he stopped in her doorway and gazed at her.

He didn’t want a wife and he certainly had never considered having a family, but he had to admit that Haley was one of the cutest kids he’d ever seen.

He left her doorway and glanced down the hall to Lana’s door. He’d only guessed that she occasionally wore an old shirt of her dead husband’s to bed. He’d heard somewhere about widows doing things like that. On the nights she didn’t wear that to bed he guessed she was probably a nightshirt or pajama kind of woman.

He frowned, wondering what in the hell he was doing even speculating on what she wore to bed. He went into the guest room, and after checking the cameras to make sure everything was on autopilot, he shucked his clothes and got into bed.

His day had begun at the crack of dawn with a meeting in the field office to get this all set up. Now, even though it was just after ten, he was exhausted. He knew that part of it was because his body was still healing from the bullet that had slammed into his shoulder three months ago.

He’d grab a couple of hours of sleep, knowing that the agents in the neighborhood would cover Greg’s house. He rubbed his aching shoulder as he tried to get comfortable in the unfamiliar bed.

Who knew that the creep he’d gone to interview would suddenly pull a gun and start firing? If it hadn’t been for the quick thinking of Agent Morrel, Riley wouldn’t be alive.

Fortunately, the near-death experience hadn’t changed his views on life or love. He hadn’t had a sudden epiphany that made him want to jump into a relationship or make babies to ensure the survival of his lineage.

He closed his eyes and almost immediately fell asleep and began to dream and in his dream, he was back in that place and time where the nightmare resided and horror called to him.

He watched himself enter the house and immediately smell something odd, something underneath the faint scent of baked cookies. The unusual smell caused his stomach muscles to knot. Bad. He knew something bad had happened. He called out to her, and when she didn’t answer the anxiety inside him grew stronger.

Even when he saw the bloody handprint on the wall next to the kitchen it didn’t make sense, and he had no warning of what he was about to experience.

He walked into the kitchen and the first thing that struck him was the blood. It was everywhere. Splashed on the walls, streaked across the floor. His brain began to scream at that moment.

He found her on the other side of the kitchen island, sprawled on her back on the floor, her eyes staring unseeing and a knife protruding from her stomach. It was only then that the scream that had been trapped inside him released.

“Riley! Wake up!”

He jerked awake and winced against the hall light that spilled into the room.

Lana stood next to his bed. “You were having a nightmare.”

He sat up as embarrassment washed over him. “Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. You just scared me. You were yelling.”

He raked a hand through his hair and glanced at the clock. It was almost midnight. “Did I wake up Haley?”

“No. Thankfully, she sleeps like a log.”

As his eyes adjusted to the light in the room, he got his first good look at her. A pleasant surprise coupled with a faint heat filled him as he saw that contrary to his initial speculation she didn’t wear pajamas to bed but rather wore a sexy black silk nightgown that skimmed her lush curves.

She must have seen something in his eyes that made her uncomfortable, for she backed away from his bed and to the doorway. “Good night,” she said, and then fled from his view.

A moment later the hall light went out. Knowing that sleep would be difficult to achieve immediately, he got out of bed and walked to the window. He checked the cameras to make sure everything was working properly and then stared out at the darkened house next door, but his thoughts weren’t on Greg Cary. Rather, he was thinking about Lana in her hot black nightgown.

Contrary to the impression he had given her, he hadn’t been with any woman for a long time. Before the shooting he’d been working long hours, and after the shooting he’d discovered that most of the women he knew weren’t particularly interested in hanging out with an invalid.

His initial impression had been that Lana was more than a little bit uptight, but that sexy nightgown had made him think there might be something more to her.

He got back into bed and closed his eyes, willing away the vision of her. It would be the height of unprofessionalism for him to get involved in any way with her. More than that, it would be completely unfair to her.

She’d already told him that she wanted to remarry, and he would never let anyone close enough for him to want that kind of a relationship.

As he remembered the nightmare that had brought her into his room, a knot fisted tight in his chest. He might welcome her into his bed if given the chance, but there was no way in hell he would ever welcome any woman into his heart.

Chapter Three

“Surprise!”

Lana stared in shock at the familiar woman who stood on her front porch. “Rachel. This is a surprise.” Her heart dropped to her feet as she eyed the large suitcase that set next to her sister’s feet.

The past two days had been difficult enough without her sister showing up unexpectedly on her doorstep. “Jason and I were on our way back from France and he was going directly to New York for a couple of business meetings, so I told him it was the perfect time for me to drop in and spend a couple of days with you. Oh!” Rachel’s eyes widened at the same time that Lana felt Riley’s presence behind her.

“Hi,” he said. “I’m the new husband, Riley.”

Rachel’s blue eyes widened even farther as she looked from Riley to Lana. “Uh, I’m the older sister, Rachel.”

“Lana, why don’t you take your sister into the kitchen to do a little catch-up and I’ll take her suitcase into the guest room,” Riley said smoothly.

Lana stared at her sister, then back at Riley, her mind struggling to figure out how this was all going to work.

“Yes, Lana, let’s go into the kitchen. It appears we have a lot to catch up on.” Rachel linked her arm with Lana’s and pulled her toward the kitchen while Riley stepped out to grab the suitcase and then disappeared down the hallway.

It wasn’t until Lana had poured her sister a glass of iced tea and they both sat at the table that Rachel began with her questions.

“New husband? When did this happen? Where did you meet him? Why hadn’t you mentioned him before, and where is my niece?”

“Haley is down for a nap,” Lana replied, deciding to answer the easiest question first. She knew that this would be the first big test for her.

As much as she hated doing it, she had to convince her sister that her marriage to Riley was real. She’d figure out later how to smooth out all the lies she was about to tell.

In two days’ time she would be introducing Riley to her neighbors at a backyard soiree she and Riley were throwing to announce her big news, but at the moment she had to get over this more personal hurdle.

As she told Rachel their official story she tried not to worry about how this was all going to work. Having Rachel in the house over the next couple of days was definitely going to be a challenge.

When she was finished telling Rachel how she and Riley had met, where they’d gotten married and how happy she was, Rachel leaned back in the chair and eyed her curiously.

“There’s no question he’s one hot hunk of man, but this is so unlike you. It seems so impulsive. Internet dating? A Vegas wedding? That’s so not your style.”

“It was crazy and impulsive,” Riley said from the doorway. “But getting married was also the right thing for us to do. We just couldn’t wait any longer to start our lives together.”

He deserved an Academy Award. The look he gave to Lana was so filled with love and with a simmering passion that if she didn’t know any better she would have bought into it herself.

“Sit down, Riley, and let me get to know you better,” Rachel said. “I need to assure myself that you’re a good fit for my sister and my niece.”

“He’s a perfect fit,” Lana replied, and smiled at Riley. He walked behind her chair and gave her shoulder a little squeeze, then sat down next to her.