The Bodyguard: King Family, Book Two

by S Doyle

  “I was scared,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. “So damn scared to want someone again. To love someone again. I’ve spent this last week kicking myself in the ass, trying to figure out how to fix this and being desperately afraid that I can’t. But tonight I realized that I can’t not try to fix this. I can’t let her go. I love her.”

  “She’s in Dallas,” Clayton said. “At our condo. Give me your cell and I’ll send you the address.”

  “Clayton!” Ronnie looked at him. “I don’t know if that was the right thing to do.”

  “Ronnie, I spent five years in hell. Loving you, wanting you back, desperate to fix what I had screwed up. Garrett screwed up, too. You going to make him wait five years? You going to make Sabrina wait that long? You promise me you love her?” This he said to me.

  It was easier to say now. Easier to let myself feel it. Because I wasn’t scared anymore.

  “I love her. And the best thing about my whole life has been that Sabrina King has loved me back. I just didn’t know it until now.”

  Clayton nodded. “There is an extra key in the planter when you get off the elevator.”

  I rattled off my cell phone number as Clayton pulled his phone out. A second later I knew were Sabrina was. A second after that I was headed back to my ranch to take a quick shower and pack a bag, and then I was off to Dallas.

  SABRINA

  Dallas—The Next Morning

  “You have got to be kidding. Are you bottle-feeding that cat?”

  I looked up at Bea’s horrified face and smiled. “Romeo is my baby. Why wouldn’t I feed him?”

  “I thought you didn’t like animals.”

  “No, I just didn’t like that hundred pound beast you call Thelma drooling over my Gucci shoes.”

  “I’m going to head to Starbucks. You want anything?”

  “Yes! A triple shot venti latte with two and a half pumps of sugar-free hazelnut, soy milk, extra hot, no foam.”

  “You’re getting black coffee.”

  I pouted. “You have to be nice to me. I was a kidnap victim and I have a broken heart. I can’t do that on black coffee.”

  “Fine,” Bea sighed. “Don’t move.”

  “Don’t plan on it.”

  I had Romeo and coffee was being delivered. I had all I needed. It had been late when we got back to the condo. Walking had been a bitch, but once we were inside Bea had cleaned my feet with antiseptic and wrapped them up. When she’d asked me what I wanted to do with Garrett’s shirt, I told her to burn it. I knew if she put it in the trash I would just take it out of there and sleep with it under my pillow. So I could at least smell him.

  God, I was so pathetic. I wasn’t sure what actually happened to the shirt, which was probably a good thing. Now I was settled on the couch, feeding Romeo, and planning to spend all day doing absolutely nothing except feeling sorry for myself.

  I heard the door open and shut.

  “I knew you were going to forget it,” I called out to Bea. “You need to write it down. Triple shot venti latte...”

  My voice trailed off when Garrett walked into the living room.

  “Brin, I said we were going to talk and I meant it.”

  I don’t know what stunned me more. That he was standing here or that Ronnie had betrayed me. “She wouldn’t have done that to me,” I whispered. “She wouldn’t have let you come here…”

  “Technically it wasn’t Ronnie, it was Clayton. And I think the reason he did it is because he knows what it’s like to fuck up, and he knows how hard it is to come back from that. Especially with a King sister.”

  I pulled the tiny nipple out of Romeo’s mouth and he yowled, but then he settled down and went to sleep on my chest.

  “I don’t have anything to say to you,” I said.

  “Well, I’ve got plenty I need to say to you.” He sat on the couch, super careful not jostle me. “Brin, I fucked up. I was scared and I didn’t like what I was feeling and how you were changing things in my head. So I yelled at you and said I couldn’t be the man you wanted me to be when the truth was the opposite. I already was that man. The man who would worship at your feet. The man who loved you. Who loves you.”

  I shook my head. I couldn’t let myself believe it. “You’re here because you feel guilty.”

  His jaw tensed, like it did when he got angry. “I’m here because when I come inside of you, do you know what I think about? What I have thought about every time I did it? That maybe you forgot to take your pill that day. Or that you weren’t on any birth control at all. That I was filling you with myself so that we could make a baby together. That I could watch you get round with my son or daughter inside you. Every time.

  “When Betty left, you know what I cared about? The humiliation. That was the number one thing I felt. Humiliated. Not crushed. Not devastated. But that humiliation…it broke me. I just knew I was never going to get over that. I certainly wasn’t going to put myself out there again. Then you came back to town and I started breaking every rule I made for myself. You turned this thing back on inside me. I wanted you, and I wanted babies, and I wanted your damn love. I wanted that so freaking badly, I panicked.”

  “But why? You’ve always known I…had feelings for you.” My heart was pounding and it was like I was struggling to breathe. This couldn’t be real, right? This couldn’t be Garrett Pine saying all these things to me.

  “Because I thought if I let myself go down that road with you and you left me waiting at the altar…”

  I cupped his face in my palm. “I would never do that to you.”

  He smiled and it felt so good under my hand. Like I could feel his happiness. “I know you wouldn’t. Because you always put me first. But I thought if I let myself love you, if I took that risk again and the real me didn’t live up to the fantasy me you’ve had in your head most of your life, I would be crushed. I would be devastated. And all that crazy fear just came spewing out. Just like it did that day five years ago when you told me the truth about Betty.”

  “You were mad then.”

  He nodded. “I was. You want to know why?”

  “I know why.”

  “You don’t. I wanted you, Brin. I walked into that high school office and saw you, and I thought, holy fuck that is the sexiest, most beautiful woman in the world. And then you smiled at me and everything about you came through that smile and I thought…shit. That’s Sabrina King and I want her. I’m not allowed to do that because I’m engaged. So, yeah, you made me mad because you made me doubt myself.”

  I smiled then. I really had put a lot of work into my outfit for prom night!

  “I’m sorry she did that to you.”

  “I’m not. I’m not sorry for one damn thing that has brought me to this moment. I love you, Brin. I’m going to fix what I broke and maybe someday you’re going to feel a quarter for me the way I feel about you. In the meantime, we’re going to start making babies so you can care for them as well as you do that cat.”

  Garrett’s babies. With his green eyes and my sense of shoe fashion.

  “Is this really happening?” I whispered. I was afraid if I was too loud I would wake myself from this dream I was in. I didn’t want to wake up.

  He leaned down, careful again not to disturb a sleeping Romeo, and kissed me. And it was like he said, the thing that had died in me the day I walked out of his house, suddenly it was back beating in my chest.

  “Seriously,” Bea squawked. “Are you kidding me? Garrett Pine you leave me no choice. Because my sister is obviously addicted to you and can’t help herself. So I’m going to have to take a baseball bat to your thick skull.”

  I laughed as Bea stood there with two Starbucks cups in her hands and a look of murder on her face.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Turns out he loves me.”

  “I do. Even though I know for a fact I’m not good enough for you.”

  “We’ll have to see about that,” I said, and he kissed me again.

  “Well I’m not ha
nging around here all day to watch you two make dove eyes at each other. One cup is Sabrina’s concoction, and the other cup is black. Have fun.”

  “I plan to,” Garrett said, except he was giving me that look. That look that said he wanted to eat all of me.

  “And watch her feet,” Bea said.

  “They’ll be fine,” he called out to her as she left. “No harm will come to them when they’re draped over my shoulders.”

  “Garrett!”

  “Let’s go, future Mrs. Pine. I told my deputy he’s in charge for the day. If I couldn’t get you to listen to me, Plan B was to sex you into forgiving me. I’ve decided we’ll do that anyway.”

  He took Romeo off my chest and settled him into his cat bed, and then he did exactly as he’d stated and gave me enough orgasms to make me forget the last week ever happened.

  And my feet never touched the bed once.

  SABRINA

  The King’s Land—The Next Day

  “You know, I used to think I hated this place, but it’s kind of growing on me,” I said to Garrett as we approached The King’s Land.

  “Will you miss it very much?”

  I looked over at Garrett. We had spent the day in Clayton’s condo, but I’d received a direct order from Ronnie to return as soon as possible so I could update her on our relationship progress. Given the love bites I was gleefully sporting, it wasn’t going to be too hard to figure out what we had been doing all day yesterday.

  “Nope. Because you know what your place will have that this big old house doesn’t? You. And that’s all I need.”

  He growled under his breath. “Stop being sweet. I’m going to want you again and I swear, after the fuck fest we had yesterday I thought it would be at least three days before I could get hard again.”

  I giggled and then I reached into my Kate Spade cat purse to give Romeo a cuddle.

  “You shouldn’t talk like that in front of the baby.”

  Garrett parked and came around to pick me up. My feet were better, but if I walked on them I broke open the scrapes and they started bleeding again.

  Once inside I called out. “Hey, everyone I’m home.”

  “Oh, thank goodness,” Ronnie said, coming out of the ballroom into the living room. “I imagine they’ll be descending upon us again now that you’re back.”

  Garrett set me down on the couch. “Who will be descending?”

  “Well, I’m sure you two were too busy yesterday…uh, making up…to notice. But the story of your kidnapping was reported the night of the party, and of course all day yesterday was about your rescue. They find out you’re back here, they are going to want your story.”

  “Uh-oh,” I said. “Reporters.”

  “Lots and lots of reporters,” Ronnie said, agreeing with my assessment. She had her cell phone in her hand and set it down on an end table next to me.“They are going to want an explanation of what happened. I’ve got Madison on speaker. Madison, can you hear us?”

  “I’m here,” Madison said over the phone. “Obviously, I’ve been following the reports on the news. Talk to me, Garrett. What was this guy’s deal?”

  “He said it was when Hank died,” Garrett explained. “He’d been cyber stalking you since high school. You were this legend to him. Apparently he’s got some beefed-up software to do that kind of thing. Then you showed up on TV and he started to get even more obsessed with you. His dad found out what he was doing and kicked him out of the house, but when Danny heard Hank was dead, he thought it meant you needed him now. With his dad working in Wyoming, he came back to Dusty Creek to…well, to propose to you. He was at the funeral. Then he followed you back to LA, then to Dallas, and finally back here.”

  “So, he really was crazy?” I asked.

  Garrett nodded. “And very delusional when it came to you. He thought he was going to convince you to love him back.”

  I shrugged. “Wasn’t going to happen. I’ve only ever loved you, and turns out I’m a one-man woman.”

  Garrett did that growling thing again and my toes curled.

  “Uh, we’ve got bigger problems than the press.” Madison said to the room. “Sabrina, I’m glad you’re safe. Ronnie thought it would be a good idea for me to serve as your official spokesperson. I’ve been putting some remarks together. I hope that’s okay.”

  “Awesome,” I said. “I’ve spent enough time in front of the paparazzi. If I never have my picture taken again it will be too soon.”

  “What’s a bigger problem than the press?” Ronnie asked.

  “Uh...So…” Maddie stammered through the phone. “I just got word. It appears your brother has also seen the story about the kidnapping…and, well, he’s decided to come home.”

  I blinked. “Did you just say what I think you said?”

  “I can’t believe it,” Ronnie said, shaking her head. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m always serious,” Madison replied. “It’s true. Dylan is coming home.”

  Epilogue

  SABRINA

  Dusty Creek—One Year Later

  “Garrett what are you doing?”

  “Come on. You know you want to.”

  I didn’t want to do anything other than go home and take my pants off. I’m pretty sure they were cutting off circulation to my head. However, because I was such a sucker when it came to my husband, rather than protest even more, I let him lead me by the hand around to the other side of the bleachers.

  It was a Friday night in the fall in Dusty Creek. That meant football. Garrett said he thought the sheriff should be there, which is why we went every Friday. I think he just liked watching high school football. And since I loved spending time with him, I tolerated it

  “Watch your step,” he said as we carefully made our way through the debris left over after the football game. Mainly hotdog wrappers and popcorn boxes.

  “I might be able to do that if I could see my feet. Which I cannot because I’m so fat!”

  He turned around and glared at me. “Are we going to have a discussion?”

  Garrett didn’t like it when I called myself fat. But there was no other word for the size of my belly. It had gotten so bad I hadn’t even been able to wear heels tonight. Which was probably good since Garrett had picked tonight to take me behind the bleachers.

  “Are you being serious?” I asked him.

  “Tell me you didn’t have fantasies about making out with me here.”

  “Of course I had fantasies about you making out with you under here! But you were too busy making out with Caroline. Who was not good enough for you, by the way.”

  He chuckled and brought us to a stop. The crowd was gone, the field now quiet.

  “You’re right. She wasn’t good enough for me. You know who is?”

  I put my arms around his neck and pressed as much of my body against him as I could, but I still felt a million miles away because of my massive belly.

  “Me?”

  “You,” he said and kissed me.

  “Even now when I’m soooo fat that I can’t wear high heels.”

  He growled a little and put his hand on my stomach. “Stop calling my baby girl fat.”

  I rubbed my hand over my belly where said baby girl seemed to be comfortably resting for now. I’d had a hotdog during the game, and that might get her hopping all night, but it was worth it. Hotdogs were delicious. Besides, Garrett loved it when she moved around and he could feel it happening.

  “I’m not calling her fat. I’m calling me fat. I didn’t know it was possible for a person’s body to get this big.”

  “Only one more month to go. You can do it, baby.”

  One more month where it was just me, Garrett, and Romeo. I was all sorts of scared about becoming a mother, not having had much of a role model in my own. But there was Ronnie to help show me the way. And Romeo was thriving so I couldn’t be too bad at it.

  Also, Garrett would always have my back. So, besides being an amazing father, which I knew he was going to be
, I knew he would make sure I had what I needed to be a good mom. It was just one of the thousand reasons I loved him.

  He nuzzled my neck and I giggled with a sense of giddy joy.

  “Is this what you did with Caroline?” I couldn’t help asking. Not that I was jealous. Garrett Pine was one hundred percent all mine.

  “You should know. You were watching the whole time,” he muttered.

  What could I say? I was.

  But that was then and this was now. Now I was the woman who got to kiss Garrett Pine under the bleachers.

  Thank you for reading The Bodyguard. Hope you enjoyed it. Ready to find out what happens when Dylan comes home? Click here for his story now!

  Turn the page to read Chapter One of The Bastard!

  Excerpt from The Bastard

  The King Family Book Three

  Chapter 1

  DYLAN

  When it rained in Brujas, Panama, it got harder to throw the drunks out. On a clear night I could toss a drunk man out of the Yaviza Bar and he’d sleep it off on the beach, listening to the water. But when it rained—thick sheets of rain, hot and heavy and nearly black—they’d fight me. They’d throw punches, or curse my mother, or—if truly shit-faced—cry. It wasn’t a fun job on the best of days, but in the rain it truly sucked.

  There was only one drunk I’d thrown out tonight: a man who made an ass of himself in here at least once a week. There weren’t many others in the bar this evening, and it was relatively empty. I walked back to the bar, listening to the rain pounding on the roof, and took a seat on a stool. The bartender, a black-haired woman named Maqui, poured a shot of tequila and put it in front of me.

  I wasn’t the official bouncer at the Yaviza. That is, I wasn’t on the payroll. But I was strong, I’d been in the military, and when I came here to drink I sometimes made myself useful. I got free drinks in return, along with the gratitude of the owner, the occasional offer from Maqui, and a room in the back to sleep it off on the nights I’d had too much. I could throw out the other drunks, but there was no one big enough—or dumb enough—to throw me.