When an attack is confirmed against the rich and powerful Edington family, Raider's Bodyguard Service springs into action. Jake Raider is assigned the independent but spoiled Andrea. He's protected her before but this time he's bringing the tools to tame her and make her his.There are plenty of things Andrea wants to do with Jake but none of them involve business. In the past, he rejected her advances but this time he's giving her what she wants and making her beg for more. Exploring the sexual needs they've denied, she's at his mercy and loving it.
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EXCERPT:
Raider’s Bodyguards prided themselves on handling any job. Routine guarding was fine, but they specialized in threat containment and incident intervention. Jake Raider knew his latest assignment wouldn’t be easy. He’d tangled with Andrea Edington before.
The beauty struggled and kicked in his arms. Luckily, he’d put tape over her mouth and rope around her wrists or he’d have even more trouble. She never came peaceably. It was part of her charm.
Jake tossed her in the back of a company cargo van, padded with blankets, then slammed the door. The look in her eyes sent a stab through him. Dread and desire. Andrea knew it was him. In a way, he was glad. He didn’t want to terrify her while protecting her.
Rounding the van and getting into the driver’s seat, he locked them in just to be sure. As he started the engine, she yanked off the tape. “You son of a bitch! Who the hell do you think you are?”
She’d be strangling him if it weren’t for the hard plastic mesh between the front seats and cargo area. He was safe, but the barrier gave him a clear view into the back. Pity he couldn’t get her hands tied behind her back. “Relax, Andrea. There’s a threat.”
She rolled her soft brown eyes. “Oh, is there? Please! There’s always a threat. In case you’ve lost track, I’m twenty-five not sixteen. You can’t just snatch me or invade my dorm room because my dad hires you. This is kidnapping!”
“Your father hires the firm to monitor things for the family. Any time there’s a verifiable threat or attempted attack, we take measures. Why are you giving me hell?” He pulled out into traffic.
“Because I’m an adult, and you can’t contain me because someone else pays you to. It’s illegal and wrong.” She looked out at the road over his shoulder. “Where are we going?”
“A safe house. Get comfortable.”
Her pretty face frowned. “Before, you just guarded me. At boarding school and college, you invaded my life. Now, you’re pulling me away from my life. What happened?”
Maybe he should’ve blindfolded her? The third degree was worse than her temper. Andrea was smart. She analyzed him and the situation in seconds. “Everything is fine, but this threat is credible, and there’s a plan. We need to move you. Trust me this once?” He took the back roads for two reasons. She’d never remember how they got there and if they were being followed he’d find out fast.
She glared at him in the rearview mirror. “I trust you. You’ll do whatever Dad pays you to do and treat me like a child. I promise this is the last time. I’m an adult. I have my own company. I can afford my own bodyguard who works for me. Seriously, what if I’d had a guy over?”
He glared back, unable to deny her points. He’d taken her while changing out of her work clothes to a baby-blue, cotton T-shirt. She’d never gotten into the navy lounge pants she’d pulled out of the drawer. “I’d hope the guy would understand your safety is more important than a date.”
“You and Dad don’t give anyone a chance to understand. You just decide and take over.” The anger in her eyes wasn’t the same fury as before. This smacked of humiliation. She resented him.
“If it wasn’t serious, I’d have let you dress and pack a bag. These people would do anything to get your dad to pay a ransom. You need a permanent bodyguard.” She’d always refused that suggestion. Jake had taken the first job with her when she was sixteen and he was twenty-one.
His stepdad had thought it’d be a great match since she’d slipped away from another of Raider’s bodyguards. They’d expected Jake to fail but had wanted him to learn. He’d kept her safe and caught her every time she’d tried to run. And somehow, he’d managed to resist her.
Once he’d succeeded, he’d been assigned “Andrea duty” every time the Edington family needed Raider’s services. Jake enjoyed the challenge, the view and, finally, the fact that she wasn’t a teenager anymore.
“I don’t want a full-time guard watching me everywhere I go and monitoring who I see. He’d report back to my dad. Zero privacy. That’s why I liked boarding school. They could try to keep tabs on me, but with so many girls, it never worked.” She sat back, resigned to the trip.
“If you hired someone, it would make your parents relax. That’s all I’m saying.” He forced his eyes off her long legs and back on the road.
“That’s the other thing. I have my own business now. I have plenty of money. Why does Dad feel the need to baby me like I can’t afford you?” She fought the ropes, but no amount of wiggling freed her.
“I’m sure you can. Designer shoes pay well then?”
“They make women feel sexy and men want to have sex. That’s the key.”
“Sex is the key to shoe sales?” He didn’t need to think about sex with her tied up in a van at his mercy. Jake couldn’t resist her, not now.
“Absolutely. Not like it’s the foot fetish guys buying them. It’s just how women look in the heels. How it makes them feel. Men notice it, and it’s attractive. And look at me, without even fuzzy slippers. Where the hell are we going? Are we even close?” She contorted to look at her diamond-studded bracelet watch.
“We’ve got a ways to go,” he said.
The brat was back. Jake knew she’d been given every luxury and sent away to schools. With a rich dad and beauty queen mom, Andrea had had no chance to be normal. Her mom had wanted her to do some European finishing school. Andrea had refused and gone to college before starting her own company. Her trust fund was the seed money, but Jake knew Andrea’s fund could’ve kept her in diamond watches all her life without one day of work.
He got to see the real Andrea few people ever met. No polish and designer clothes, no charity functions and good manners. It was always raw and intense when he moved in. This was going to be a hard weekend. He just prayed his stepdad and the team got Andrea’s cousin home safely.
“Is this safe house in Canada? I don’t have my passport. I don’t have my purse!”
Close. Connecticut, but she couldn’t know that. Nor could she have her cell phone or wallet on her. He’d left it all behind. Jake had grabbed only a few personal items to help her pass the time but nothing to help her escape, contact anyone or be tracked by others. “Relax, you don’t need any identification. We’ve probably only got the weekend so you don’t need to rush back for things. It’s a nice, quiet area. No press. No one for miles.”
“I’ve got work to do.”
“So this will be a good creative time for you. No dates you’ll be standing up?” he asked.
“Please, men only want my money. I’m not interested in being a trophy wife for looks or cash. I’d end up with five ex-husbands because that type of man cheats. If my parents try to set me up one more time…” She finished the threat by kicking the air.
Jake knew better. Small talk with her had ugly landmines built in. When she’d been sixteen and then nineteen he’d tangled with her. It’d been six years, and he’d missed her. On some level, they’d always been connected. “How are your aunt and cousin?” Those were the family members she actually liked. She’d spent her summers with them, traveling.
“Fine last time I heard. I can’t check now. You know more than I do, obviously. You’re sure everyone is safe, right?” Concern slipped into her voice.
“Hey, I’m the best. If someone got taken, I’d be after them. You’re the prime target. No security, roaming free around New York City.” He hadn’t exactly answered the question with the truth, but if he had, she’d tear a hole through the van to escape. She cared for her family no matter how much she complained. That passionate streak was what would do her in if she wasn’t careful.
“I’m flattered. I get the great Jake Raider.”
He felt her gaze on him. “Take a nap. I’ll get you there safe. And the fridge is stocked so we’re fine.”
“Internet? Computer? I need to email my assistant.”
“Neither and no phones, either. Any messages go through me.”
“I’m in prison.” She elbowed the mesh between them.
He had one ace up his sleeve to shut her up. He’d pay for it, but somehow, the comment slipped out. “You could spend the weekend trying to seduce me. It’s been almost ten years since you tried that.” He hadn’t fallen for her tactics when she’d been underage. Only five years separated them, but he was too smart to fall for jailbait. At nineteen, she’d kept her distance. But she’d never know how hard it had been to resist her then.
Not just the sexual side of things. She haunted his dreams. The pushy side and the vulnerable side both turned him on.
She laughed with a deliberate snort. “I was sixteen in an all-girl boarding school. Men under thirty were scarce. Don’t worry, a week after you left my roommate’s older brother came to visit for the weekend.” Andrea gave him a Cheshire smile.
“With his sister around?” Jake didn’t buy it.
“No. She went off to spend the weekend with her boyfriend. Boarding school sex is tough, but there are ways around the system. I wanted to ditch the virgin crap, and her brother pitched in. Not bad. He was nineteen.”
A virgin. Shit! “Glad that worked out for you. I got paid to protect you, not be a stud service. I’m an ex-cop, no stranger to jailbait ploys.”
“You’re too noble to be a stud anyway.”
“Noble?” He looked at her in the rearview mirror. If she only knew.
She nodded. “You’re a good guy. Do your job and never give in to temptation. Never lie or cheat.”
“Thanks. Life is all about choices.” His real father was in prison, not a good guy. His stepdad set the example, and Jake did everything to resist bad choices.
“Want to know what my dad says about guys like you?” Those eyes of hers went dark, and the smirk on her lips told Jake that he didn’t really want to know.
“Nice guys finish last?” he guessed.
She shook her head. “Those who act really good are hiding something really bad. It’s what he said the first time I caught him with some mistress. He and mom both have their friends. They said I had to appear good for the public, but I’d make my mistakes and the family image machine would cover it up. They probably think my shoe business is a rebellion.”
“Starting your own company is rebellion?” Jake gave Mr. Edington credit for trying to protect his stubborn daughter. He knew business, and business boiled down to people. Andrea would lunge for trouble given the chance. If Jake didn’t keep himself in check, he’d be in the back screwing Andrea right now, keeping her tied up and showing her just how bad he could be. But her safety came first. They’d come later.
“Starting my own business and not going to work for him, sure. Even if you had slept with me at sixteen and he’d found out, he probably would’ve blamed me or looked at the big picture—better you than a random college guy.”
“Daddy’s little angel?” Jake laughed to himself.
“Please. He spent more time making money than parenting. Mom wanted to travel—hard with a kid in school so away I went. As long as I avoided bad press, I was free. Until you showed up!” She rested her head on the side of the van.
Only one way to handle a seething and sexy heiress. “I missed you, too. You’ve got my full attention.” He only wished it wasn’t focused in his pants.
“Dad must pay you a lot of money.” Andrea shook her head.
“You think I’m full of crap? I like protecting people. Your version of bad isn’t really bad; it’s just bratty. I know real bad guys. They’d hurt you and enjoy it. I won’t let that happen.” He meant it deeper than any other client. She’d been sheltered. A smart woman, no doubt, she possessed strong survival instincts. However, outsmarting boarding school matrons and escaping a bodyguard were very different than avoiding a dangerous criminal who wanted money and would rape and torture her to get it. The idea made Jake sick.
“How is such a good guy going to protect me from the really bad ones?” she mocked him.
“Maybe your dad is right? Maybe you’ve just never seen my bad side?” Jake had always fought the urge he’d had since they’d first met, screw and spank her. The order depended on his mood, but that woman needed some grown up discipline.
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