The Heiress & the Bodyguard

by Ryanne Corey

“That’s because you’re way, way down there at the edge of the bed.” He gave her his pirate’s smile, wide and reckless. “Come here and I promise to warm you up in three seconds flat. Think of it as an official strip search.”

  Julie’s beautiful smile slowly uncurled, and she stretched out her legs to lie down beside him. Unfortunately, there were certain places on her body that were rather tender this morning. She couldn’t help but wince and bite her lip.

  “What?” Billy said immediately, sitting bolt upright.

  “Nothing. A little sensitivity comes along with becoming a woman, that’s all.”

  Billy slapped his forehead with no little force. “What an idiot I am. I’m so sorry. I’ll take care of you, sweetheart.”

  “You did take care of me.” Her angelic smile turned slightly devilish. “You took care of me sooo good. Wait a minute…where are you going?”

  Billy was on the move now, fueled by guilt, tenderness and protective sympathy. He jumped out of bed, giving her only a brief glimpse of his well-muscled body before pulling on his jeans. “I should be shot for being so insensitive. I’ll go start you a bath. Colin has this great Jacuzzi that should be very soothing for…any parts that need soothing.”

  He headed off to the bathroom. Julie made a grab for the belt loop on his jeans, but missed. “Hold on, Romeo. This is the morning after. You can’t just jump out of bed and tell me to take a bath. It’s too abrupt. I’ll have separation anxiety if you leave me alone in the Jacuzzi.”

  At this, Billy turned on his heel, giving her a slow-growing smile that melted her bones and turned her blood to honey. “Who said I was leaving you in there alone?”

  At breakfast, she sat at the bar with a pillow between her bottom and the wooden stool. This time she was wearing Colin’s bathrobe.

  “How’s your…granola?” Billy asked, looking anxiously at the pillow.

  “My granola is doing just fine,” Julie replied with a giggle. “Will you quit obsessing about me?”

  “Never,” he said simply. “And I’m sorry about the Jacuzzi, love. We’re supposed to be giving you a rest, and what do I do? Can I get you another pillow?”

  “Not unless you want my head to hit the ceiling. Will you stop? If you’ll remember, I didn’t want to get out of the Jacuzzi. That was your doing.”

  “We were becoming prunes.” Billy scooted his bar stool as close to her as he could get. He was wearing nothing but low-slung jeans and a smile. Even his feet were bare, toes curling happily around the lowest rung of the stool. His long hair was still damp from the bath, sticking out a bit over his ears and down his neck. His shoulders were wide and powerful, every inch defined by lovely ridges of muscles and sinew. The smile lines that etched his eyes seemed deeper this morning, lending him an aura of sweetness and charm. His hard edges were softened, the cynical amusement gone. Happiness looked terribly good on him.

  It was all Julie could do not to throw herself at him. Again.

  “We should take a nap after breakfast,” she suggested hopefully.

  Billy nixed this with a shake of his head. “We’re going to do something less…strenuous than napping. You need to be pampered, darn it.”

  “What could be less strenuous than a little nap?” she replied innocently.

  “Running a marathon.” He tried to look stern, but it was hard to keep a straight face. Julie had been a remarkable student, and after a certain point, she had even become a teacher. She had no fear of needing, no taste for games. Never had he felt so caught up in something so helplessly and devastatingly provocative. In her innocence, Julie gave without restraint, gave with all her body and soul. And the more she gave, the more he wanted.

  Though it was not wise or in keeping with his duty as a gentleman, he found his gaze locked on her lips. They were reddened and slightly swollen, like a late-summer rose in full bloom. His pulse picked up.

  “Then what would you like to do today?” she asked.

  “Wish list,” he managed, strain in his voice. “Yours, not mine. At the moment, mine is R-rated. You’re on vacation, remember? You have all of sunny California at your feet, angel. Just tell me where you’d like to go.”

  Grinning, she pointed at the ceiling, indicating the upstairs bedroom.

  “No,” Billy said firmly, while his eyes unconsciously wooed her. “Although I’d like nothing better. We must distract ourselves.” Then he offered the ultimate sacrifice. “Would you like to go bowling today?”

  “Bowling?”

  “It was on your wish list, wasn’t it? And it’s my duty to see each and every wish is fulfilled. Go upstairs and put on your bowling clothes.”

  “I don’t—hic—have bowling—hic—clothes,” Julie managed through a sudden case of hiccups. “Don’t make me laugh. I get the hiccups every—hic—time I laugh. Gosh darn it.”

  “That is so incredibly cute.” He looked at her with soft adoration, loving the way she stretched her eyes wide open and bounced on the bar stool every time she hiccuped. He was feeling so many things all at once, he could hardly identify one emotion from another. Still, the sum of it all was crystal-clear. Julie was the reason he would take each and every breath from this day on. Who would have thought an emotion as powerful as love could sneak up on him like this? The only thing that had managed to sneak up on Billy Lucas up to this point in his life had been a case of the measles. He was too damn good at protecting himself.

  Stunned, he played back his thoughts and realized he had finally said the word, if only to himself. Love?

  Love.

  “So what do people wear when they go—hic—bowling?” she asked.

  “Do you have a skirt, something fairly short?”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t wear it. I will be watching you from behind, as will probably every other male in the bowling alley. Bear that in mind.”

  “Okay.”

  “Julie?” He stared down at his bowl of cereal, feeling terribly inadequate and inexperienced when it came to expressing his emotions. He settled for humor, mainly because he didn’t want to scare her. Or himself. “Since you put an arrow straight through my heart last night, it’s only fair that I beat you at bowling. Don’t you agree?”

  She smiled, her eyes luminous. She could see how new this was to him, and nothing could have made her happier. He had no more experience with affairs of the heart than she did. Who would have guessed? “Are you telling me you want me to throw the game?”

  “You won’t need to, love. You’ve never bowled before. My point was, I’m not going to be a gentleman and let you win.”

  “Ha! Wanna—hic—bet?”

  She beat him. Badly.

  Billy threw eight gutter balls in a row. On his last two attempts, he managed to knock down two pins. He was competing with a terribly unfair disadvantage. When it wasn’t his turn, he had no choice but to watch Julie. He was worked up into a lather before she threw her second ball. She had no technique, no experience and did a great deal of grunting and groaning, but she still managed to knock down the pins. Holding the bowling ball like a watermelon, she approached the line in an awkward shuffle, dropped the ball with a thud and hopped up and down in excitement while she watched it roll. It went left, it went right, it went every which way except into the gutter. And when, by some sort of divine intervention, she actually got a strike, she whooped and hollered like a wild woman, drawing every eye in the place. She had hiccups nearly the entire time.

  With customary male assurance, Billy decided it wasn’t his fault he had lost. Staring at the south end of Julie’s northbound body was an exercise in painful masochism. She was wearing the most stunning, adorable, mouth-watering pair of jeans he had ever seen in his life. Armani or Avanti or whatever his name was couldn’t have improved upon the fit. The soft denim followed the stunning, adorable, luscious curves of her bottom with loving attention to detail, particularly around the rear-pocket area. And that was only when she was walking away from him. When she walked towards him, he was expose
d to the most stunning powder-blue knit top that dipped just low enough to reveal the slight burgeoning curves of her breasts. Her body was beautifully proportioned and her “bowling clothes” made no secret of the fact. He watched her fiercely, all too conscious of his trip-hammering pulse. His game suffered.

  Since he lost, he had to spring for lunch as their bet had stipulated. Julie chose to expose her Palm Beach tastebuds to Mexican fast food. This proved an excellent choice, far more enjoyable than the diner experience. Julie was instantly addicted to their Big Burrito Bonanza Meal. She polished off two entire orders by herself, which included burritos, potato fries and cherry empanadas.

  “But you’re so little,” Billy said, watching her finish off the last of her potato fries with amazement. “Where is it all going?”

  “I need my strength,” Julie said, munching away contentedly. “Do you want the last of your taco?”

  “Feel free. Are there any more like you back in Palm Beach?”

  “Like me? What do you mean?”

  “The ladies of your social circle. I have this vision of anorexic, well-preserved and self-conscious ladies who do lunch but never eat. You have ketchup on your chin.”

  Unfazed, Julie swiped at her chin with a napkin. “Obviously we’re not all that way, or I wouldn’t be sitting here making a pig of myself. I guess if I had to characterize most of my friends with one word, it would probably be relentlessly bored.” She made short work of her last potato nugget. “That’s two words, isn’t it? Anyway, you get the idea. I don’t remember much about my parents, but it seems to me they were pretty happy. My father was always laughing, always picking me up and twirling me around in the air. And my mother…she was truly the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. She was full of light, her eyes, her smile, her hair. I do remember that.”

  “What happened to them?” Billy asked, painfully aware he already knew and feeling like a louse.

  “They were killed in a sailing accident when I was seven years old. I wish I could remember more about them, but at least the memories I do have are good ones. What about your parents?”

  “Gone, too,” he said shortly. “My mother died a few years ago from cancer. She was a strong lady, a fighter till the end. And my father…he never…he wasn’t…” Then, abruptly, “He’s gone, too.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Julie said softly. “What happened to him?”

  Billy opened his mouth to change the subject, make a joke, anything but tell her the truth about him. He was truly astonished when he heard himself tell her the truth. “There’s no need for pity. I was only two years old when he left, so I don’t even have a face to put to him. From what my mother told me, he was a heavy drinker with a short fuse. She never married again after that, so I imagine the experience was less than wonderful for her. Whenever anyone asks about him, I just tell them he’s dead. He might be. Who knows?”

  The sudden silence was jarring to Billy. He was painfully conscious that his heart was cracked wide open and bleeding in public. For whatever reason, Billy had always felt somehow responsible for his father’s desertion. Immediately, he was sorry he had told her the truth.

  Until he looked into her eyes. He saw no pity. He saw other emotions—empathy, understanding and regret for the boy Billy had been. Julie might be an innocent, but she had a great deal of experience in loss. And when it came right down to it, that was precisely what had happened to both of them: one way or another, they had lost the emotional security of two loving parents. They each had scars, some more visible than others.

  “Who would have thought,” Julie ventured thoughtfully, “that two such different people could have so much in common? Life is so unpredictable. Just when you figure you’ve got a handle on it, something new happens.”

  “At least you’re not relentlessly bored.”

  “Heavens, no. I used to be, but that was B.B.”

  “B.B.?”

  She grinned. “Before Billy. Then fate brought you to me on a dark road in the middle of a cypress swamp. I’ve been anything but bored since we met, Billy Lucas. I’ve been anything but unhappy, I’ve been anything but dissatisfied. Amen to the dissatisfied part.”

  Billy’s eyes lost a bit of their sparkle. Still, aware his precious time with her was limited, he slammed the door on his whimpering conscience. “Thank you. I try.”

  She smiled at him, fluttering her eyelashes with exaggerated flirtatiousness. “While we’re on the subject, what are the chances I could talk you into going home and taking a nap?”

  “A nap,” Billy said slowly, “or a nap?”

  Julie yawned. “What on earth do you mean? I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. I just exhausted myself beating you at bowling. I need to sleep.”

  “Oh.” Billy’s face fell comically. “Okay. Of course.”

  “Billy?” She kissed him on his cheek, then put her lips next to his ear and whispered, “Take me home so I can ravish you.”

  Her lips brushing his ear tickled. Her words more than tickled. “Are you sure? You don’t need…you know, a rest?”

  “Resting is relentlessly boring. I gave that up, remember?”

  “Amen.”

  Life continued to be anything but boring.

  Colin was waiting when they returned to the condo, slumped on the sofa, both legs propped up on the coffee table. He was eating a giant-size candy bar.

  “Where have you two been?” he complained. “I’ve been waiting all morning. Do you know there is a convention of Shriners in town? I’m not kidding. There isn’t a room to be had in fifty square miles.”

  “So try a hundred square miles,” Billy said crossly. He’d been very much looking forward to his “nap.” In fact, they had actually managed a thirty-second make-out session on the motorcycle while stopped for a red light. Julie had claimed it was one of her wishes, and a damned fine wish it was. “You promised you would go away.”

  “I saw them come into town this morning,” Colin went on, completely ignoring Billy’s comment. “They’re all on motorcycles, I swear to you, motorcycles. Every single one, and they all wear these funny little hats you wouldn’t believe. The kind of hat an organ-grinder’s monkey would wear. Anyway, my point is, they are giving motorcycles a bad name. They need to get themselves some Shriners’ leather jackets.”

  “Hello, Colin,” Julie said, amused despite the lingering sexual buzz thrumming through her body. She had never enjoyed a red light so much. “How are you?”

  Colin wiggled his chocolate-stained fingers at her. “Hello, polite and beautiful woman. I’m just dandy, thank you. And you, Billy? Did you sleep well last night?”

  “I wish I had my handcuffs,” Billy said darkly.

  “Let’s have none of that kinky talk around here,” Colin admonished. “There is a lady present. Where have you two been all morning?”

  “Bowling,” Julie said. “My very first time, and I won.”

  Colin blinked, his gaze swinging to Billy. “What?” he barked. “What? Lucas, you went bowling? Oh man, this is going to kill your reputation.”

  “If I pay you, will you go away?” Billy asked.

  Colin’s sunny smile gave his answer. He didn’t need to say a word.

  “If I pay you a lot?” Billy persisted.

  “As amusing as the two of you are,” Julie interrupted, “I’ve got to visit the powder room. Besides, if this keeps up, I’ll get the hiccups again. Excuse me.”

  After she left, Colin looked inquiringly at Billy. “Hiccups? Do devastatingly handsome men give her the hiccups?”

  “Never mind what gives her the hiccups.” Billy’s keen gaze saw something in his best friend’s expression Julie had not. There was a reason he was here, and judging from Colin’s plastic smile, it was serious. “What’s happened?”

  “How do you know something’s happened? Never mind, I forgot who I was talking to for a minute. The undercover psychic.” Colin took a deep breath, looking down at his half-eaten candy bar. “Someone’s looking for you, Lucas
.”

  Oh boy, here it comes. Billy sank down on an overstuffed chair, his chin drooping to his chest. “Hell. Not now…”

  “You knew it was bound to happen sooner or later,” Colin replied quietly. “You told me as much last night, that you were living on borrowed time.”

  Billy closed his eyes, trying to steady himself. “I didn’t know it would run out so fast.”

  “The captain paged me this morning. He’d had a visitor who asked about you. Claimed he was a detective hired by the beautiful lady’s brother. He’d found out she had purchased tickets to California, and he was visiting your old haunts and talking to everyone who would talk to him. The captain didn’t give him much information, but you know as well as I do it’s only a matter of time before someone sends him down here. Everybody knows you spend a lot of time here. I’d say you have another twenty-four hours at best before he comes knocking.”

  So much for living in a dream. This was far worse than Billy had imagined it would be, a million times worse. His throat was tight and burning, his stomach was tied in a hard knot and his clenched hands were white-knuckled. He had almost convinced himself his precious time with Julie would last forever. “I need to tell her before the walls come tumbling down.”

  “There’s more,” Colin went on reluctantly. “Harris Roper left a message for you with the captain in case he heard from you. He said to tell you he was going to press kidnaping charges if he didn’t hear from you immediately. We both know it wouldn’t stick, but the publicity would be huge, and that wouldn’t do your new career any good. Call the guy.”

  “I don’t give a damn about my career.”

  “That’s what friends are for. Call. You’ve taken this thing as far as it can go, man.”

  Billy said a bad word and picked up the phone, keeping a wary eye on the stairs. Harris Roper answered on his private line halfway through the first ring.

  “This better be you, Lucas,” Harris snapped by way of greeting.

  “It’s me,” Billy replied quietly. “I’m trying to get her home without letting her know you were having her watched. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”