Seducing the Bodyguard (12 page)

“Dad didn’t call me. Mom called, and the second she did I swapped shifts with Billy and took the chopper over here. There was no way in the world I was going to miss this.” He laughed long and hard.

“Shut up,” she snapped as she got up to attend to the man slowly walking up to the door.

When she disappeared around the corner Harrison took the opportunity to get comfortable and get a little more information on the family dynamics slowly unfolding in front of him.

“I was serious about you being dead if you hurt her,” he said. “And seriously, I’d be more worried about my dad than me if I were you.” Leo sat down and stretched his legs out in front of him.

“She told you about him too? Well hell, she must really like you.” He looked Harrison over in a way that made Harrison realize this man could and would kill him if he hurt his sister. There really wasn’t a humorous bone in Leo’s earlier statement. Something about that made him admire the man in front of him, being willing to kill for his sister…a family so close they would probably die for each other. That was nothing like his family…except maybe Geneva. She was only his half sister and somehow he felt a stronger connection to the woman he had recently come to know as blood kin to him than he did his own siblings.

“I won’t hurt her,” he promised him. “I think I’m falling in love with her.” And that admission shocked even him. He was falling in a way he had never fallen before, in a way he wasn’t sure he would be able to recover from if she never reciprocated the feeling. Every other woman he had kept at a reasonable distance from his heart, even if not from his body. He had blamed it on work, on the insane schedule of creating, producing, managing his operas, but really it came down to not knowing if the relationship could work. Look at his father. The man had fathered at least one child with another woman when he was married to Harrison’s mother. If he, the man he had practically worshiped as his father, loved and adored, couldn’t be faithful when he had a family at home waiting for him then what hope was there for relationships? Would all relationships end up in pain? He never wanted to take the chance on finding out…until now. Now he wanted to see just what he and Valencia could have, where they could go, how long they could survive with each other, within each other, consumed by each other. He wanted this woman. Never before had he wanted this, and now that he did he didn’t want to lose it. He didn’t want to lose her.

She reentered the room. “Well, I hope you’re up for a family dinner tonight, Harrison because we’ve been summoned. I told JJ to let my dad know you’re my client so you should avoid some of the interrogation tactics at least.”

“I’m up for it,” he said. And he meant that he was up for all of it. “I think it’s good that I’m meeting the family now. When we decide to get married at least they’ll already know who I am.”

“What?!” She stopped in her tracks. He was so glad he could unnerve her on at least one level. She might have the upper hand when it came to kicking butt, but he could knock her off her feet with a few well placed words.

“Married,” Leo said. “You do remember the meaning of that word, right sis? You know, mom and dad are married. That should jog your memory,” he grinned.

“Why do I get the feeling the two of you bonded while I was gone.”

Leo shrugged. “Seems like this guy has plans to be more than just a client. He hasn’t run away with his tail between his legs yet so I guess I’ll put up with him for a while.”

Valencia laughed. “No comment on the tail between his legs thing,” she said. “Now, if I’m summoned to dinner tonight I need to get ready. The parents have formal dinner, Harrison so you’ll need a suit and tie.”

“Sis, try to leave the weapons to at most ten. Dad has plenty on hand if you need them.”

“Go home, Leo,” she said as she walked away. Harrison shook his head and laughed. They were close and that was one of the things he loved about her. Family was important to her. She would guard her family with her life, die for them, love them forever. He wanted to be a part of this family. He wanted to be a part of her life.

Dinner wasn’t the easiest occasion he had ever been to. He knew from the moment he walked into the house, no, from the moment he and Valencia drove up to the gates, that he was being sized up. His name, title, career and success meant nothing here. He was, for all inclusive purposes, the enemy. He was the man after someone’s daughter, sister and friend. Even the men he assumed to be guards walking around the property were sizing him up. Any other place, with any other group of people, and he would have smooth sailing. He had never had an issue fitting in, taking charge, and being the “top man,” in his life. But here, here he was the outsider, the unwelcomed threat to this family dynamic, and he had been warned, in not so subtle terms that if he hurt Valencia he wouldn’t live to regret it. If he thought that threat seemed potentially lethal when Leo uttered the words, he had no doubt to the finality of that statement when her father, in plain and simple terms, took him aside for cognac and some tropical night air on the veranda and told him he wouldn’t stand for anybody breaking his daughter’s heart. He had seen it once before, seen the devastation it caused and the pain she was still recovering from and he wouldn’t let a repeat performance of heartbreak go unpunished. When he looked at him sternly and said, “I will kill you,” Harrison had no doubts to the seriousness of the man or the promise. This family was lethal. For a brief moment he started to wonder did he want to be a part of this; was she worth it? And not even a second after the thought entered his mind he had his answer, yes to both. He wanted to be a part of her world, even though that meant being a part of a family he wasn’t sure was completely on the legal side of the fence. And yes, she was worth it. She was more than worth the struggle and the hardship he would have trying to win the trust, respect and love of the people she cared most about.

“He’s a client, mom.” Valencia shook her head. She knew the second her father took Harrison out on the veranda that her family wasn’t going to let the “he’s a client” thing stick. Dinner had already been awkward enough between Leo giving Harrison the third degree about his life and her dad giving him the death stare, she figured she would have no problem with Harrison realizing just how much he didn’t want to be with her as anything more than bodyguard-client relations.

“No. I don’t think so. I see the way you look at him,” Patience sat across from her daughter in the smaller social room. This was the room where her parents held post dinner conversations with family. There was usually tea or drinks, and a lot of conversation. Depending on which family member was over that conversation was either lighthearted and focused on family, or it was business that needed to be discussed with those in the family. She had been privy to the business conversations since she was seven. She, just like her brother, had been being groomed to take over the duties of the family. She knew everything about who the family had been, who they still were, and how much her dad was trying to keep them on the straight path. “Legal,” he had said, “unless I need to do otherwise.” Those words from her father told her he had no problems breaking the law if the occasion called for it. It wasn’t her place to judge, and even if it was she wouldn’t be able to. She had killed people, of course it was under the sanction of the U.S. government, but what she had done was still killing, assassinating people, and honestly now that she was older and thinking clearer she wasn’t so sure the government had been completely honest with her on just how necessary each of those kills had been.

“After what? After what Darryl did? It’s been ten years and you haven’t recovered. I’ve watched you throw yourself into your work. I have watched you take assignments that have increased in danger from one to the next. Each one being deadlier than its predecessor and you jumped right on the chance.” She didn’t hold back her words, maybe because she knew she didn’t have to. Valencia never had a problem hearing things told as they were, no sugarcoating needed. “Then you came back from that last trip and I knew something had changed. I hoped it was something that would help you mend that heart of yours. Then you quit the business of hired killer and started a new course in your life. You wanted to protect and save and I can’t tell you how happy I was for you because I knew that what you were doing wasn’t what you wanted to do. It was what you did because it was what you had always done and because you felt some sense of duty to this family, to your father. You thought if you left that things would come down on your father, but you had to know it wouldn’t. You had to know he would have been okay. He would have been happy because you were happy.” She leaned forward and placed her hand on Valencia’s crossed leg. “And when that man showed up—Thomas McGregor,” she smiled. “Wow, I thought, my girl has found herself a good man. You two would have made beautiful babies together.” Her father had a photo taken of Thomas before he even managed to board the return flight to the mainland. Her parents were, and would always be, highly observant of who came and left the island, especially anybody who came within range of one of their own.

“Mom.”

“Oh I know,” she held up her hand. “I thought he was going to be yours when I first saw him, but after I saw the way you looked at that picture your dad showed you, like he was your brother, well…I gave up hope on that one.”

“Are you this pushy with Leo? Seriously, he’s older you know,” she leaned back in the chair and shook her head. Her mother the matchmaker was trying to get her married off so she could produce decedents to the Mishoto throne.

“Yes, but the difference between you and your brother is that he wants to be married someday. He wants to find love. You, on the other hand shut your heart off to it like every man out there is going to be another Darryl.”

“Mom.”

“No,” she said. “Let me finish.” She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. Her body language mirroring Valencia’s, but with less tension in her body. “Leo is just waiting for what your father and I had at first sight—that instant attraction that split second acute awareness that we belonged together. He is looking for that kind of love. And I pray that he will find it. But you, you run away from it. Right now you look at Harrison the way I looked at your father when I first met him, only difference is I didn’t fight so hard to hide it. You look at that man as if you wish you could have that happily ever after with him.”

“Happily ever after doesn’t exist,” she said. Although she was certain it did. Her parents had found that. Of course they had their moments. They were both adults who had their own personality, but even when they clashed on some topic, they always found a way to work through it, to never stop loving each other. They were happy and in love and in her book making it work, wanting it to work and still loving each other at the end of the day was a big happily ever after. “For some of us,” she amended her statement.

How could she? Her mother had been a government agent herself. She was used mostly for fact finding, but she had gone undercover herself from time to time. That changed when she married into the Mishoto family. She gave it all up to take on a role within the family, one that made her more lethal than she had been working for the government.

“But when I see him look at you I can tell he’s ready to let love in. I just hope that my beautiful baby can open her heart before she pushes a good man away for good.” With those words she patted Valencia on the knee and then stood. “Now, speaking of a good man I think it’s time we go rescue Harrison before your father makes him wet his pants.”

Valencia laughed. “I don’t know, Mom. I think Harrison has a lot more backbone.”

“I’m sure he does. But I’ve seen your father break stronger men.”

“True,” she shook her head. “I guess I should get him back to my place anyway.” She could tell from the look in her mother’s eyes that she was concocting her own interpretation of the events that would unfold once she and Harrison did get back to her place. “He’s my client, Mom. And I just need some rest—so does Harrison. We haven’t had a second to just adjust to the time change and the surroundings since we stepped off the plane.”

“I knew I loved your father after the first week of being with him. Wouldn’t have slept with him if I didn’t know that.”
“Mom!” She didn’t want to think about her parents having sex. Sure, she knew they did it, but she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Oh, I wasn’t a virgin, but trust me I knew this family and I knew once a man staked his claim with a night of numerous orgasms and hot sex that he wasn’t going to walk away.”