by Lisa Childs
How close is too close for a bachelor bodyguard and his alluring client?
As a supermodel, Teddie Plummer is used to being wanted. But a stalker? That’s terrifying new territory, so Teddie hires a professional to guard her. The moment she and Payne Protection Agency bodyguard Jordan “Manny” Mannes collide, searing attraction introduces a different brand of danger.
Former Marine Manny knows his boundaries. He’ll put his life on the line for Teddie, but won’t risk his career on a client—no matter how unbelievably sexy she is. The rules blur once Teddie ends up in his arms. He won’t hesitate to face hell itself to defend her, but will he be willing to let her walk away?
Jordan Mannes stood strong and steady now, unlike her, whose legs still trembled with exhaustion and...
She wasn’t sure what she was feeling anymore. Fear. Excitement. The adrenaline rush had yet to leave her; her pulse raced and her skin was flushed.
“You need to let me take you to the clinic,” she said. “Or at least try to wash out your eyes.”
“No,” he said. “There’s no time. I have to find the guy who grabbed you.” He touched his red face and grimaced. “Did you think I was him—coming back—when you sprayed me?”
“I didn’t know who you were,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting the bodyguard to arrive for a couple of days yet.”
“I flew here.”
Teddie’s skin chilled as a wave of doubt crashed over her. “There’s no airport for over a hundred miles, and that doesn’t take commercial flights.”
“I didn’t fly commercial,” he said. “I didn’t want to waste any time getting here.”
Which had been damn lucky for her if he was telling the truth.
If he was who he claimed he was.
Could she trust him?
* * *
Be sure to check out the previous books in the exciting Bachelor Bodyguards miniseries.
* * *
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Dear Reader,
I am so excited to bring you In the Bodyguard’s Arms, the next book in my Bachelor Bodyguards series. I love writing about the Payne Protection Agency and the Payne family. Just like the Paynes, I have a big, boisterous family. I am the youngest of seven. So I understand family dynamics very well. I especially understand this family who treats their friends and employees like family, as well. The hero of In the Bodyguard’s Arms doesn’t understand or appreciate that, though. His family is not close or supportive like the Paynes, so their loving meddling in each other’s lives makes him very uncomfortable.
This is “Manny” Mannes’s story, although I feel like he stole the show in Single Mom’s Bodyguard, even though he wasn’t the hero. He is the funniest of the former-Marines-turned-bodyguards. He is also the most determined to avoid falling in love. Of course, he has no way of knowing that the next client he will be protecting is the pinup girl of his fantasies. Supermodel Teddie Plummer has a stalker who is making her life miserable. She’s already tired of the spotlight and just wants to finish her education and build a normal life for herself. But someone’s trying to cut her life short—very short. Can Manny save her and himself?
Happy reading!
Lisa Childs
IN THE BODYGUARD’S ARMS
Lisa Childs
Ever since Lisa Childs read her first romance novel (a Harlequin story, of course) at age eleven, all she wanted was to be a romance writer. With over forty novels published with Harlequin, Lisa is living her dream. She is an award-winning, bestselling romance author. Lisa loves to hear from readers, who can contact her on Facebook, through her website, lisachilds.com, or her snail-mail address, PO Box 139, Marne, MI 49435.
Books by Lisa Childs
Harlequin Romantic Suspense
Bachelor Bodyguards
His Christmas Assignment
Bodyguard Daddy
Bodyguard’s Baby Surprise
Beauty and the Bodyguard
Nanny Bodyguard
Single Mom’s Bodyguard
In the Bodyguard’s Arms
The Coltons of Shadow Creek
The Colton Marine
Harlequin Intrigue
Special Agents at the Altar
The Pregnant Witness
Agent Undercover
The Agent’s Redemption
Shotgun Weddings
Groom Under Fire
Explosive Engagement
Bridegroom Bodyguard
Harlequin Blaze
Hotshot Heroes
Red Hot
Hot Attraction
Hot Seduction
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
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For my hero—Andrew Ahearne. I appreciate your love and support more than I can say. Thank you for all you do for us and our family! Love you!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Excerpt from Power Play by Beverly Long
Chapter 1
Fear gripped Jordan “Manny” Mannes—fear like he’d never felt before, not even when he’d been on those top secret missions with his former Marines unit.
He shook his head. “No, I won’t take that assignment. No way.”
“You don’t want to guard a lingerie model?” his boss, Cooper Payne, asked from the end of the long table in the conference room of the Payne Protection Agency franchise he owned. This room and the entire office had been repaired after a recent shoot-out. Redone in dark brick and thick wood, it was a little more bulletproof than all the glass had been.
“Really?” Cooper asked, his blue eyes gleaming with amusement.
Manny didn’t think there was anything funny about the assignment. Guarding a model sounded like a nightmare to him and should have sounded like a bad idea to his boss. His guarding a model was like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. He would be the one getting eaten alive, though.
Sweat broke out on Manny’s back, beads trickling down between his shoulder blades, but instead of feeling hot, he felt chilled. “No...”
That would be his worst nightmare: letting himself get distracted because of a pretty face and, since she was a lingerie model, probably a killer body. He knew how shallow he was, that he’d let himself mistake infatuation for something more. Then he’d wind up like the fools from his unit or, worse yet, his hapless family members.
He glanced around the table at the guys with whom he’d served. Lars Ecklund and Dane Sutton were the tallest, most muscular guys he’d ever met. Maybe that was why they had fallen the hardest—so hard that they looked brain damaged. Their eyes glazed like they w
ere drunk. They wore sappy grins nearly as big as they were. They were the “before” pictures.
He glanced farther down the table to the “after”—to Cole Bentler, who’d fallen in love and been betrayed. He didn’t look happy; he looked bitter and miserable.
Given Manny’s luck, that was how he would wind up—like the “after.” Or worse yet, he’d wind up serving like the men in his family: time behind bars.
The Mannes men were legendary for their poor judgment. In women and life decisions. His dad had left his mom for a younger woman he’d later caught cheating on him. That was how Manny had learned, at eight years old, what a crime of passion was.
Then there were crimes of stupidity, like his brother letting his pretty girlfriend talk him into robbing a liquor store. Jeremy had gone to prison while Manny had gone off to the Marines. He’d enlisted in the hopes of escaping the family curse.
He had felt safer carrying out dangerous missions overseas than he did here. He had had fewer distractions over there.
“No, absolutely not,” he said. “Send Cole.” Cole wasn’t going to fall in love with anyone ever again—not after how his heart had been crushed. “Or Nikki...”
Lars’s pale blue eyes dimmed slightly with disappointment. He’d just moved in with his fiancée a few weeks ago; of course he wouldn’t want to be separated from her.
“Or borrow a bodyguard from one of your brothers,” Manny suggested. Each of the Payne brothers had their own franchise of Payne Protection now, and when the need arose, they all worked together.
“Why would I do that when you’re available?” Cooper asked.
“I—I’m not available,” Manny said. “I’m taking that other case.”
“What other case?” Cooper asked, his brow furrowing with confusion.
“Protecting Ted...” He couldn’t think of the guy’s last name right away. He’d only heard it mentioned when he’d overheard their receptionist transferring the call to Cooper a few days ago. But as Cooper opened his mouth to speak again, he remembered the name and interrupted. “Plummer. I want that job,” he said. “I’ll protect Ted Plummer.”
Cooper shook his head. “You don’t know—”
“I don’t care,” Manny said. “I don’t need to know all the details. I know how this bodyguard business works. The guy’s in danger. I’ll protect him.”
“But the job’s in the Upper Peninsula,” Cooper said. “It’s at a very secluded cabin.”
And Manny preferred cities like Atlanta, where he’d grown up. Hot, bustling cities. He shuddered slightly. But then, maybe being secluded was a good thing. It would make it easier to protect old Ted from whatever the threat was to his safety, and it would make it harder for Manny to find some woman to fall for—like his idiot friends and family had.
“That’s the job I want,” Manny said. “I want to protect Ted Plummer.”
Cooper leaned back for a moment and studied Manny while everyone else studied Cooper. There was a strange energy in the room, but Manny figured it was because none of the guys were used to him acting like this. He was usually the easygoing one of the bunch. He did what was asked of him; he didn’t fight for an assignment.
Until today. He wanted this job. He needed to get away from River City for a while. And most of all, he needed to get away from his friends who’d fallen in love. Just a few days ago he’d helped Dane pick out a ring for the woman he hoped to marry.
He shuddered at the memory and with the concern that if he stayed too close to all this happiness, it might get to him. It might make him think that he could have what they had. And that just wasn’t possible. Nobody in his family had ever had a successful relationship.
Finally Cooper nodded. “Ted Plummer is all yours.”
Manny should have been happy, but for some reason a sick feeling rushed over him. He felt light-headed and dizzy for a moment. But then the feeling passed.
“Go pack,” Cooper advised. “You have a plane to catch.”
“I can fly myself there,” Manny said.
“Payne Protection doesn’t have planes,” Cooper said. “But it might not be a bad investment since you and Cole both have your pilot’s licenses.”
“You can take mine,” Cole Bentler almost sheepishly offered. “I have one at the River City airstrip.” Bentler had money but didn’t like to admit it.
Maybe he thought his friends would act differently if they knew. Like maybe Manny wouldn’t pay his half of the rent for the apartment they shared or something. But Manny didn’t care about money. It obviously hadn’t made Cole happy.
Love hadn’t made him happy, either.
So Manny wasn’t going to take any chances. Somebody else could protect the lingerie model. He was going to be perfectly happy with old Ted.
* * *
The door closed behind Manny with a sharp snap as he rushed from the conference room. But Cooper was the only one watching the door. Everyone else was still staring at him.
“You’re not going to tell him?” Cole Bentler asked.
Cooper snorted and then called him on his hypocrisy. “You volunteered your plane but no other information.”
“But you’re the boss,” Cole said.
Pride swelled in Cooper’s chest. Yes, he was the boss—of his own security agency. But just because he was the boss didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun. The laughter he’d been suppressing escaped.
Lars and Dane erupted, too—deep chuckles filling the room.
Cole just shook his head, but he was grinning as he warned, “He’s going to be so pissed.”
“It’s his own damn fault for not knowing her name,” Dane remarked. “When we started boot camp, he had a pinup picture of her that he was going to put in his locker.”
But boot camp wasn’t like high school; there were no lockers. Just stiff cots and scratchy blankets and muscle-aching, soul-breaking hard work.
“I don’t think he was interested in her name,” Lars remarked with another guffaw.
“It’s not like he ever expected to meet her,” Cole said. He shook his head again.
“But how can he not know that Ted Plummer is really Teddie Plummer, the supermodel?” Cooper asked. “Even though her career has slowed down recently, her name is still in every tabloid.”
The guys stared at him again like they had during the meeting—silently—until Lars asked, “How the hell do you know that?”
Heat rushed to Cooper’s face, but he just shrugged. “My wife reads the tabloids. They’re always lying around the house. I’m surprised Manny wouldn’t know.”
Manny was notorious for not being able to keep a secret except the ones that would endanger all their lives if revealed. Those he kept.
Cole snorted. “We don’t have any tabloids lying around our apartment.”
He and Manny shared an attic apartment in some old downtown house. They were the ultimate odd couple. Manny talked incessantly while Cole was reticent. Manny had grown up in poverty while Cole had money. Cooper certainly didn’t pay him enough to afford a private plane.
“He has no idea who she is,” Cole added.
“He’s going to find out soon,” Lars warned him. “You’re going to have to send up someone else when he turns around and flies right back.”
Cooper shook his head now. “You all heard him. He demanded the assignment. So he has to protect her and find out who the hell’s stalking her.”
Teddie Plummer was in danger. And protecting her would put Manny in danger, too. Even though he was an excellent bodyguard, he should have been briefed. But he had been so anxious to leave, he really hadn’t given Cooper the chance.
Or at least, that was what Cooper wanted to believe—that Manny hadn’t given him the chance and he and Teddie Plummer would be safe.
The supermodel had called the Payne Protection Agency because someone was stalkin
g her. He’d escalated from sending her threatening notes to breaking into her penthouse and trying to grab her in the park. This person was obsessed with her, so obsessed that he wasn’t likely to give up until one of them was dead.
* * *
She was dead.
Teddie had never been so tired. Not even after twelve-hour photo shoots had she ever been this exhausted. She had hiked miles through the pine trees and rock formations of the Porcupine Mountains Park. Then she’d kayaked across the clear blue surface of the Lake in the Clouds. The muscles in her arms burned. The muscles in her legs burned. She ached all over.
But as exhausted as she was, nervous energy filled her. The snap of every twig along the trail had her jumping. And despite seeing no other hikers for over an hour, she felt as if she was being watched.
She glanced around but could see no one through the thick branches of the pine trees lining the narrow trail. This wasn’t part of the park anymore; it was the trail that led from her property to the park.
She would be back soon to the cabin. She would be able to lock herself inside and pull all the blinds to make sure nobody could see her.
Another twig snapped, and a startled cry slipped through her lips. The noise was too loud for it to have been a squirrel or chipmunk. Something bigger was out there.
Something human?
She shivered and quickened her pace. Her legs ached with each step, but she ignored the pain. She ignored everything but the fear.
The fear had kept her alive the past several weeks. She’d been able to outrun her stalker before—in Central Park. But that had been on neatly paved running trails. And he had nearly caught her then. He’d grabbed her arm.
She could feel his crushing grip even now. The bruises from his fingers had turned yellow on her forearm. If she hadn’t kicked...
If she hadn’t screamed...
What would he have done to her?
All those things he threatened in the letters he sent her? All those damn letters with cut-up images of her face—of her body...
She shivered despite the sweat that had dampened her clothes, or maybe because of it. The temperature had begun to drop along with the sun. Dusk had begun to gather on the trail, casting ominous shadows. Of the trees? Or of the man who always found her no matter where she hid?