Free Ex-Con: Bad Boy Romance by Shiloh Walker, M. S. Parker

saying another word.

Chapter 6
    I argued with them the whole damn way to the hotel. Up the elevator to the F. Scott Fitzgerald suite, and for a good forty-five minutes after we got into the room.
    When Carly pushed a tumbler of bourbon into my hand, I just thumped it down on the closest table and ignored it. She rolled her eyes at me and threw herself down on the couch. That successfully distracted me for maybe thirty seconds, because that short skirt of hers wasn’t designed for her to be sitting like that. So much naked thigh was bared, it just about drove me crazy. She smiled, a hot, sexy gleam that made my dick stand up and beg for attention.
    Fuck.
    She knew exactly what she was doing.
    “You can find somebody better than me for this job. Hell, I don’t think you even need me. Broken arm or not, Jake seems to have everything under control and you said he’s got a replacement coming in soon.” I felt like an idiot staring at the bookshelf in front of me, but if I turned around, I’d go back to staring at her, and I didn’t think that was a good idea.
    “You already agreed,” she reminded me. She’d said that a good five times.
    Or was it eight? Ten?
    I lost track at some point.
    “Yeah, well, I’ll just un -agree. You don’t need Dale Mitchell giving you grief.” Neither did I. He could make my life a nightmare, and unlike Carly, I would be stuck here when this gig was up. She was my first concern, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t thinking of me at all.
    “Dale isn’t an issue.”
    I turned around just in time to see her leaning forward to unzip her boots. Before my eyes could laser in on her hands as she performed that task, I shifted my attention to Ryan and glared. “Are you really a fucking lawyer?”
    “Yep.” He flashed me a grin. “I don’t practice much, but I specialized in criminal justice for a few years before realizing it wasn’t for me. I went into police work and was happier with that, then I got into private security and voila’… here I am. Better pay.” He grinned at Carly. “Sometimes the clientele sucks...”
    “Hey!” She stuck her tongue out at him.
    He winked at her.
    She lobbed a boot at him, and then looked at me. “Ryan actually worked...well.” She sighed and pushed a loose curl back from her face. “When I was in high school, I was dating this guy...” Her voice trailed off.
    Ryan moved to sit beside her, taking her hand. She leaned against him, and the gesture was so natural that it was clear she’d done it before. It was impossible not to see the bond between them, all three of them.
    “Anyway, I met Ryan when he was still a cop. He was working a case. Jake had already been my bodyguard for forever.”
    Jake snorted at that. “Forever?”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Well, it seems that way. I was like eight when Josie found you.”
    “Who’s Josie?”
    “She was my aunt.” A sad, wistful smile curved her lips. “My dad’s sister. The only normal person in my life. My mom, my step-sister...you know.” She shrugged. “Anyway, there were a few things that happened when I was a kid and Josie decided I needed a bodyguard. I was eight when she hired Jake. There’ve been others, but Jake’s stayed with me. He’s like my big brother. So’s Ryan.”
    I had no desire to be like her brother. She looked up at me just as the thought went through my mind and her lashes drooped low.
    She looked away, her fingers toying with the hem of her skirt. “Please don’t quit, Bobby,” she said softly. “He wins if you do.”
    “Dale has a right to hate me.” My own voice was quiet as I said it and she looked back up. Swallowing the knot of guilt, fighting the wave of shame, I made myself say it. “That guy I killed? The reason I was in prison? That was Dale’s older brother.”
    ***
     
    I told myself I should just quit. Walk away. I’d already spent too much time telling them I should, that they should find somebody else. But she’d asked me not to. Even