Her Bodyguard by Michelle Jerott

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The Rich Girl

Why would someone try to kidnap Lili Kavanaugh? She's a shoe designer, for heaven's sake! It was just a fluke — she certainly doesn't need a bodyguard, despite her overprotective family's opinion.

Enter Matt Hawkins: tall, dark, and dangerous bodyguard extraordinaire. A man who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. A man who makes Lili shiver — and not from fear. And a man who refuses to see Lili as more than a job, even though she's seen the heat in his eyes when he looks at her. Well ... she'll just have to fix that!vs. The Big Bad Wolf

All Matt wants is the fee he'll collect from this job to finally start his own agency. But Lili's zest for life points up how tunnel-visioned he's become. So when she demands to know if he doesn't want more out of life, what can a strong man say... except I do?

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Chapter One

"Damn good thing I wore my best silk undies today, because if I had to go and faint in front of three people, at least I did it with style." Lili Kavanaugh stopped her barefoot pacing on the carpet of her posh suite at the Drake Hotel and briefly closed her eyes. "Three hundred people...my God, I could just die of embarrassment."

"You nearly died for real," said a male voice from behind her, the tone sharp. "Embarrassment is the least of your worries right now, Lil. Are you sure you didn't hit your head when that cop knocked you down?"

Resuming her restless pacing, Lili glanced over her shoulder at her business manager, who was also her sister's boyfriend. Jared Sayers reclined on the pastel striped love seat: brown-haired, lean, and wholesomely handsome, but the lines of stress etching his face betrayed his casual sprawl.

Of course he was right, but he'd missed the point. Embarrassment she could handle and deal with, what she couldn't handle was that only a few hours ago a man had rammed a gun against her neck and almost dragged her out of the Morton Auditorium at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she'd been lecturing.

"Well, it's my guilty secret that I'm totally spineless." She smoothed the skirt of her red shantung silk dress. Damn, her hands were shaking again. "Fainting certainly doesn't do much for my suave and sophisticated image, does it?"

Jared didn't answer, and with a sigh, she gazed out her window at the grand viewof Lake Michigan and the Oak Street beach. The sky was a cheery turquoise blue, sunlight streaming down and sparkling off the water. Although it was early October, the beach still swarmed with sun-worshippers, joggers, children, and people walking their dogs. She watched with a frustrated longing.

"Jared, do we really have to do this bodyguard thing?"

"Yes" he said with flat finality. "In case you've forgotten, somebody tried to kidnap you today."

As if she could forget. Lili rubbed her arms, wincing as her fingers reached the painful spots where her assailant had grabbed her with such vicious force. By tomorrow, she'd have a lovely collection of bruises.

And here she was, without anything in her suitcases to accessorize purple or yellow.

She continued to stare outside at all the people and activity, at the bright colors and endless blur of motion, and the suite she'd found so charming and spacious that morning closed around her, growing smaller and duller and ever more suffocating.

Lili glanced at the small knot of suit-clad detectives and uniformed officers talking by her door, including the off-duty cop who'd been in the auditorium and chased off her assailant. Outside her suite, hotel security stood guard. She wanted nothing more than five measly minutes to herself so she could wallow in a good bawl, but the police insisted on hanging around until this bodyguard person arrived.

Bodyguard. Images of a grim-jawed G-man in black popped to mind, and she gave a shiver of dread.

In all her thirty-one years, she'd encountered nothing more troublesome than the occasional jerk. Ever since the attack, she'd asked why anybody would want to harm her. No one had an answer, but at the moment it didn't appear that it was a onetime, random event.

A knock on the door cut across her thoughts, and Lili turned as the serious-faced young man in charge of hotel security poked his head into her suite. "Professor Kavanaugh? The gentleman from the security agency is here."

Lili stiffened, her breath catching, but when the tall, dark-haired "gentleman" walked into the suite, her apprehension eased into surprise.

The man coming her way with an easy, self-assured grace had a strong, angular face with the faintest hint of a cleft in his chin. He wore his hair cut short, and was one of those men who, no matter how often they shaved, always had a shadow of a beard. While not particularly handsome, he had pleasant, attractive features.

He was no thick-necked brute, anyway, and while Lili wasn't sure what a bodyguard should look like, she hadn't expected someone resembling an executive.

"Matt Hawkins," the man said, walking forward, hand extended. "You must be Professor Kavanaugh."

"Mr. Hawkins," she said as he took her hand in a firm, warm grip.

Standing so close, Lili couldn't help notice the color of his eyes — light gray, almost silver in the strong afternoon light — and that an incredible pair of broad shoulders filled out his suit.

The man discreetly cleared his throat, and Lili realized she still held his hand. She released it with a rueful smile, and quickly sized up the rest of him, Hawkins wore an expensive, conservative suit — the steel-gray color did wonders to enhance his silvery eyes, and she had a feeling he was well aware of that. Armani, most likely, with a Breuer tie and a fine cotton shirt.

Gaze moving lower, she eyed his shoes. She didn't recognize the designer, but these were definitely pricey and Italian.

Obviously, guarding bodies paid rather well. And with an outward package like this, she'd bet the Kit Kat in her purse that he wore silk boxers, too.

A sudden heat stung her cheeks, and Lili looked back up, meeting the bodyguard's unwavering gaze.

Wonderful. She'd been threatened with a gun, manhandled, dragged across a floor, and had keeled over in front of a packed auditorium — yet she was speculating about the underwear of a man she'd met fifteen seconds ago.

Well, really...in a day rife with aberrations, what was one more?

Jared stepped up beside her and took Hawkins's hand in a quick shake. After introducing himself, he said,

"Thank you for coming. Dan..."