Read Bodyguard: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance (Snake Eyes Book 1) for Free Online Page A

snub-nose I thought about kissing a thousand times.
    The curtain pulls back even further. She knows I’m looking at her. We stare at each other for a few seconds and for a moment, I imagine her racing down the stairs and out the front door. I’d get out of the car and run to her and we’d hug and kiss. Cameras be damned.
    But happy endings are only for movies.
    She shakes her head and drops the curtain down.
    I still can’t go back to Iowa. I won’t leave her, no matter what the great Bennett Roberts and his team of moderately-trained cop monkeys want. There’s no way I will be able to live with the guilt if anything happens to her — although, it’d just be the cherry on top of everything else I’ve done in this life.
    I drive slowly out the front gate, curbing the urge to take out one or two paparazzi as I go.
    I won’t go far.

Chapter 6
    Dani
     
    “Wait here.”
    I roll my eyes and lean against the wall as Smith enters my apartment alone. “I’ll bet you a thousand dollars there’s no one in there!” I call out. He passes by the door, traveling in and out of rooms with his pistol locked and loaded at his side. I heave a sigh of impatience. All I want to do is get in there, strip naked, and soak myself in a bath for two days.
    Fox . He’s alive. He’s home. And he’s even more handsome than he was when we were younger.
    I shove the thought away. He’s also bat-shit crazy.
    Snake Eyes? What the hell is that supposed to mean? They hurt me to send him a message? It’s a fucking cut. The guy turned around, recognized me, and thought it would be funny to mark up my face. That’s all. And what kind of name is Mercer Black anyway?
    “All good, Roxie.”
    I push off the wall and walk inside. “See?” I say, kicking the door closed. “I told you. Now gimme.” I hold out my hand for the money he owes.
    “I never agreed to that,” he says. He slides his gun back into the holster and pulls his jacket around to conceal it.
    “Lame,” I say. “Whatever — you probably don’t even have a thousand on you right now.”
    “Honey, no one has that kind of money on them at all times.” He raises an eyebrow. “Except entitled rich kids, of course.”
    I laugh. “Because I’ve never heard that one before.”
    Smith steps around me into the kitchen and plants himself at the table. I wait for a few moments, hoping it’s just a temporary rest of his feet, but he leans back with his phone in his hand.
    “What are you doing?” I ask him.
    “Go about your business…”
    “Why aren’t you leaving?”
    He barely glances up. “Because your father is paying me to be here.”
    “You’re staying the night?!”
    “Yep.”
    “No, you’re not.”
    He sets the phone down. “Look, kid. I don’t like this either. I got a family, too, ya know. But mine doesn’t have a crazy, bearded, dead guy running around that’s obsessed with me.”
    “He’s not…” I pause, realizing that I have no reason to defend Fox. “He’s just a little confused.”
    “Well, ‘pretty starlet found strangled in her own bed’ is the last thing I want to read about in the morning, so I’m staying here. Daddy’s orders.”
    I sigh. “Fine. I’m sure there’s plenty to eat in there.” I point to the fridge. “Just stay in this area. I’m going to take a bath.”
    “Don’t take too long.”
    I pause in the door frame. “Why not?”
    “Because you’ll get all pruney .” He peeks at me once before his eyes fall back to his phone.
    I walk away and I feel my stress spike a little more. Great. Not only is my hot stepbrother back from the dead, I now have to spend my evening alone with a middle-aged man haunting my apartment.
    I pause in the living room, sensing a bit more light than usual. My eyes fall to the windows and I notice the blinds are open. I usually like to leave them closed, but the maid must have opened them. Or Smith did. I shrug my shoulders and continue on into my bedroom, then into my en suite bathroom.
    I