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

unannounced at his beach house—which her mother had insisted on giving him as a thank you for saving Cassie’s life, so it wasn’t like he could refuse to let her in—wearing a skimpy little sundress and too much make-up. She’d batted her eyes and licked her lips, asking him to be her bodyguard like she was asking him to go steady. Considering she was seventeen, it had been unbearably awkward and the only thing he’d been able to think of was the booked-solid excuse.
    He braced himself to have to explain more, but Max just nodded. “Fair enough.” When Adam blinked in surprise, Max went on, “I like to give my clients what they want—within reason. She’s got a crush on you because you’re her savior and the tabloids are already all over any story with the two of you because it’s like something out of a movie—completely ignoring the fact that she’s underage and that shit’s just creepy. You want to stay far away from that, I get it. I’m not running a gigolo service. Any of the clients try to treat you that way, you let me know about that shit pronto. Or if you don’t want to bring it to me, Tank’s wife is especially good at laying out what is and isn’t considered sexual harassment for any clients who might be a little confused. Some people have seen The Bodyguard too many times.”
    He couldn’t quite make Max’s words compute. After the way his Secret Service partner had thrown him under the bus after the fire fiasco, Adam had gotten out of the habit of expecting anyone to back him up. “So I don’t have to work for the Newtons.”
    “Nope. Plenty of other clients are requesting you—though I’m not sure I can keep you booked solid for the next month, I can probably come close if you want to work that much.”
    “That’d be great.” The property taxes alone on the beach house were kicking his ass. He needed all the work he could get.
    “Good. Now get back to work.”
    He didn’t wait to be told twice.
    He still had a job. That was good. And his boss had no intention of pimping him out to the highest bidder. Also good.
    So why didn’t he feel good?
    That was the story of his life these days. Ever since that damn fire.
    Life should be good. He’d saved a life. No one was hurt in the process. A movie star gave him a fancy house on the beach. He lost his job and his reputation as the Secret Service golden boy, but a much more lucrative job in private security landed in his lap and he became America’s golden boy. Whenever things started to go bad, they turned around and got ten times better.
    And it just felt wrong .
    Everything felt off. Like he didn’t know what the hell he was doing anymore.
    First world problems.
    A door popped open in front of him, spilling feminine laughter into the hall. Adam stopped so he wouldn’t run into the two women who stumbled out. Laughing, they hung onto each other and an open bottle of champagne, the blonde spinning awkwardly to shut the door as the brunette’s eyes fell on him.
    The same brunette from the dented yellow Beetle, with the Selma Hayek body and the Marilyn Monroe attitude—whom he’d recognized instantly from the one episode of Marrying Mister Perfect that would be forever emblazoned on his memory.
    “Well, hello,” she said appreciatively, dark eyes glinting. “I would say we really should stop meeting like this, but I’m so glad we do.”
    The force of her personality seemed to pulse around her like a heat wave, all sensuality and daring. The woman was hot enough to make not flirting with her a crime, but he was on the clock, so he gave her a crisp nod and a polite, “Ms. Suarez.”
    “Please. Call me Elena,” she said, somehow managing to make the request sound decadently suggestive.
    “Who’s your friend, E?” the blonde asked, momentarily tugging his attention away from the supernova of sexual charisma that was Elena Suarez.
    “How rude of me! Introductions. Samantha, this is Stud Muffin. Stud Muffin, Samantha.”
    He