The Bodyguard's Return Read Online Free Page A

doing here?”
    “Joshua!” Meredith shot her brother a dirty look. “Where are your manners?”
    “I lost them when she kicked me in the shin hard enough to half cripple me yesterday.”
    Warmth swept up Savannah’s neck as she remembered the kick she’d delivered to him. “I thought you’d killed Charlie.”
    She’d recognized in the brief time she’d seen him the day before that he was handsome, but his attractiveness today hit her like a kick from a horse.
    She hadn’t noticed yesterday just how thick and shiny his dark hair was, or the amazing green of his eyes. She hadn’t paid attention to his raw masculinity that today screamed from him.
    Clad in a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved knit shirt that pulled tautly across broad shoulders and a flat stomach, he was blatantly male and sexy as hell.
    Winnie had said he was a charmer, but there was nothing charming in the look he shot her. He looked irritated and tense and just a whisper away from dangerous.
    “If you’ll excuse me, I’m heading to the shower,” he said.
    Savannah popped out of the chair. “Actually, I’m here to talk to you. Would it be possible for us to speak somewhere alone?”
    “I can’t imagine what we’d have to talk about.” He started out of the kitchen and with a glance of apology to Meredith and Smokey, Savannah followed Joshua.
    “Of course we have things to talk about,” she exclaimed, unable to help but notice that he had a perfect butt for jeans. “We were both at a crime scene. We should compare notes and see if we can help the investigation.”
    His long strides carried him down the hallway toward the master bathroom. “There’s no notes to compare. The investigation is over. I spoke to Ramsey early this morning, and according to him there’s no reason not to think it’s anything but a suicide.”
    “Ramsey is an overweight, lazy, incompetent jerk who is just biding time until his retirement at the end of the year,” she protested.
    She jumped in surprise and stumbled a step backward as he unexpectedly twisted around to face her in the bathroom doorway.
    “And he told me you were an overeager, conspiracy theorist who was desperate to find a story that will take you away from writing silly gossip columns and gain you some real respect.” He yanked his shirt over his head and threw it to the bathroom floor behind him.
    Savannah tried to maintain focus as she was presented a broad, bare, muscled chest that would make most women weak in the knees. “That’s not true.Ramsey doesn’t like me because I’m questioning his investigation skills.”
    Joshua’s hands went to the waist of his jeans where they unfastened the first button on his fly. A lazy smile curved his lips upward. For just a moment there didn’t seem to be enough oxygen in the area.
    “Unless you want to discuss this while I scrub your back, I suggest you take a hike,” he said.
    For just a brief, insane moment the idea of this sexy man washing her back was infinitely appealing. But she reminded herself why she was here and why it was important to get Joshua West on her side.
    “All right, I’ll take a hike right now, but sooner or later you need to hear what I have to tell you. Something isn’t right in this town, and somebody needs to do something about it.” Hoping she sounded mysterious enough to pique his interest, she turned on her heel and stomped back to the kitchen.
     
    Joshua walked toward the white tent that had been set up in the cemetery for Charlie Summit’s funeral. When he’d parked, he’d been dismayed to see so few cars here. It appeared that Charlie was going to go out of this world much like he’d spent most of the past eight years of his life…alone.
    Joshua knew all about feeling alone, although in the year and a half he’d spent in New York City, he’d rarely been alone.
    He’d worked hard and had played even harder. He’d thrown himself into the Manhattan single life-style, serial-dating sharp, beautiful