Courting Trouble (Reality Romance Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

handsome bodyguard in the room. And they want you , because you’re the All-American hero.”
    “The Secret Service asked me to avoid unnecessary publicity.” Right before they asked him to resign.
    “Which is idiotic. You’re the best PR they’d had in years.”
    “I failed to do my job,” Adam argued, feeling a certain vicious satisfaction in voicing the truth that few people knew and even fewer would acknowledge out loud. “Very publicly.” Thanks to cell phone videos and the magic of YouTube, his dereliction of duty had gone viral.
    “And in the process you saved a girl from a burning building. A very famous girl. The truth may be that you left your detail to do it, potentially endangering the life of the son of a vice-presidential candidate in the process, but the optics are all the media care about. And the optics right now are that you don’t want to be seen with the first family of Hollywood in public after you saved precious Cassie Newton from certain death. Which is pissing off her mother, who feels the need to call me at seven in the morning and yell at me. I don’t like it when my clients yell at me. And I like it even less when I’m blindsided by it because one of my guys is turning down jobs without telling me.”
    “I should have told you about it,” Adam acknowledged.
    “You should have. Especially since I’m supposedly the asshole who booked you solid for a month so you couldn’t work for the Newtons again.”
    “Understood.” He braced himself for whatever came next. The ultimatum. The line in the sand.
    This had been a good job. He would miss it. Guarding celebrities wasn’t exactly serving his country, but the jobs could be interesting and his coworkers were nice enough, though he’d never really bothered to get chummy with anyone because he’d known this was just a temporary measure. Just something to pay the bills until he figured out what he was going to do with the rest of his life now that his career had gone up in flames. Literally.
    He’d sure as hell miss the money.
    Max grimaced and rocked back on the couch, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Look, I don’t want to be a dick about this—”
    “But you will if it gets you what you want.” No point bullshitting about it.
    Max released a short laugh. He’d always appreciated the direct approach. Something Adam had liked about him. Especially after the politics and double talk of government work.
    “Exactly. I want to have your back, but I’m a businessman. Sandy Newton is offering me triple fees and you’re asking me to turn them down because you don’t want your photo taken with a beautiful young girl who hero worships you.”
    “It isn’t like that.” At least not entirely .
    “It’s exactly like that. You saved her life. You are her hero. Forever. So don’t be a dick about it just because it ended your Secret Service career.”
    Adam ground his teeth, still waiting for that ultimatum. “I won’t do the job.”
    Max sighed. “You can have a pass on this one, but if you won’t take jobs that put you in the public eye, you might want to think about another line of work.”
    And there it was. “Are you firing me?”
    “Hell, no,” Max said, lazy and completely at ease, not rising to match his aggressive tone. “You’re great for business. And believe it or not, I like you. But you have to be willing to actually work for me. And all my clients want publicity. They want flash. And they pay us very well to get what they want.” Max met his gaze, calm and unflappable. “Right now they want you. So you need to decide if you want to keep working for me, because that involves jobs where you are on display.”
    “I can do that. Just not for the Newtons.”
    “It would help if you would tell me why I’m turning down triple fees.”
    Adam shifted uneasily, resisting the words before finally admitting, “Cassie… likes me.” He ground his molars. “It felt like being asked to Prom.”
    Cassie had shown up