Brock: Bourne Bodyguards Book 1 Read online

  Brock

  Bourne Bodyguards Book 1

  Mandy Morgan

  Copyright © 2019 by Mandy Morgan

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

  First e-book edition December 2019

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  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Mandy Morgan

  Chapter One

  Lily

  I’d always thought bodyguards only existed in books or movies. But here I was, sitting in the parking lot of Bourne Protective Services, trying to work up the courage to go inside.

  If it was up to me, I’d be at home, watching Netflix with my roomie, munching on some popcorn with one hand and petting my cat with the other. Of course, it had stopped being up to me last night.

  That’s when I’d found a creepy note on the windshield of my car. I’d freaked out, which had made Blair freak out, and she’d insisted I’d come to meet with Brock Bourne.

  “His website looks legit, Lily,” Blair had told me as she waved her phone in my face. “And you told me the cops weren’t any help when you called them.”

  My best friend and roommate was usually bubbly and fun-loving, but she could also have a seriously stubborn side, which was how she’d gotten me to cave and come to BPS to look into personal protection.

  And it’s probably all over nothing, I rolled my eyes as I climbed the steps to the BPS office. I bet this whole thing will be a waste of time.

  I’d been doing my best to convince myself I had nothing to worry about ever since I’d found that note. I had some experience with creepy guys, you see, and I’d worked hard to get over living in fear.

  Back in high school, I’d been followed home from a party, and the guy had cornered me and stolen my purse. But that wasn’t the worst part. He’d used my info to start stalking me.

  My parents had flipped out and gone from slightly overprotective to militant. They’d put me on lockdown for the rest of my teen years.

  Even though we lived in the small town of Scarlet Springs and not some big city like Denver. It had one of the lowest crime rates in the state. But I guess the guy stalking me hadn’t heard about that.

  I mean, they were just trying to keep me safe, but they’d smothered me and ended up making it hard for me to feel secure on my own.

  Which was why I’d breathed a sigh of relief when they’d decided to take an early retirement and move to Florida. They’d opened a beach bar and were loving it.

  And more importantly, they’d given me a serious “buffer zone,” of almost two thousand miles, which gave me the chance to enjoy not having someone breathing down my neck 24/7.

  That first creep had gone away eventually, and I was hoping I could handle this new one by myself to prevent Mom and Dad from freaking out yet again and come rushing back to Colorado.

  Even if that meant using some of my hard-earned money to hire a bodyguard. I just hoped this Brock guy knew what the hell he was doing. Or was at least more help than the local police force had been.

  A little bell dinged over my head and a huge dog raced toward me. I couldn’t keep from giving a small squeal of surprised fear as I jumped back a few steps. I was not a dog person.

  “Hello? Please, get this dog away from me!”

  I pressed my back up against the door I’d closed behind me. The huge German Shepherd stayed where he was and stared at me with piercing amber eyes.

  “Nitro, come.”

  I gratefully watched the massive beast pad toward the deep, commanding voice. With a shaky breath, I pulled myself upright and looked around the room to see who’d called the dog off.

  The man standing by a desk at the back of the office was as imposing and impressive looking as the wolf-like dog that now sat by his side.

  He was at least six-foot-two, had muscles on muscles, and a thin scar on his right cheekbone that made him look both dangerous and mysterious.

  In dark blue jeans and a tight white t-shirt, he seemed tough enough to chew up nails and spit them out. And look drop-dead gorgeous while he was at it.

  I cleared my throat and tried not to drool. I was here on business, after all, and on top of that, he looked utterly out of my league in almost every way.

  “Are you Brock Bourne?” I was embarrassed by the way my voice shook, but what could I do?

  He nodded and looked me up and down. I swear to God, I could feel the touch of those amazing gray eyes on my skin, and I had to grit my teeth to stay focused.

  “What can I do for you, Miss…?”

  His voice rumbled up from his chest, and I couldn’t help wondering what it must feel like to have my ear pressed up against him, soaking in the feel and sound of it at the same time. Dammit, I needed to get a grip!

  “Miller. Lily Miller,” I said as I shook my head to clear it. “I’m having a bit of a problem and heard you might be able to help.”

  Brock held my gaze for a few seconds and then pointed to the chair in front of his desk. I made my way over to him on quivering legs and sank into it.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” he commanded as he towered over me. “And don’t leave out a thing.”

  Chapter Two

  Brock

  I’d never believed in love at first sight. But when Lily Miller walked into my office, I felt something stir deep inside of me for the first time in a long time.

  It wasn’t like she was a runway model. She was wearing navy blue scrubs and barely any makeup. But her blonde hair framed her face like a picture, she had eyes like melted chocolate, and her curves filled out her nursing uniform to perfection.

  In fact, just looking at her made my pants so tight, I had to sit down to hide my growing bulge. I don’t know if what I was feeling was love or lust, but I did know she had my full attention.

  Lily had blinked in surprise when I’d barked at her to tell me about what was going on. She obviously wasn’t used to taking orders, but she finally complied.

  “I’m on my way to work at All Saints Hospital, so I don’t have much time to go over my situation. But I received a creepy note last night that has me worried.”

  I sat up straight. “Did you bring it with you?”

  She nodded and pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her front pocket. “I took this to the police, but they wrote it off as no big deal.”

  My vision went red when I read the note. It was definitely something the cops should have taken seriously. But instead, they’d left Lily alone to figure it all out, and that pissed me off beyond words.

  I read it out loud in a voice that s
hook with anger and disbelief. “Dear Lily, I’ve been watching you, and thinking about how perfect you are in every way. Don’t worry, I will come for you soon, and we’ll be able to live happily ever after together. Kisses, Mr. X.”

  I looked up at Lily and saw that her lips were trembling. A surge of protectiveness shot through me right then, and even though I’d just met her, I wished I could take her into my arms and comfort her.

  “Where did you find this?”

  “In the parking garage at work. It was under one of my windshield wipers. Do you think it’s serious?”

  “Hell, yes, it’s serious!”

  Lily’s head jerked back like I’d slapped her and I knew I needed to rein it in a bit. I didn’t want to scare her off and let her down like the idiot cops had.

  “You did the right thing by coming here,” I said in a softer voice. “Protecting people is what we do here at BPS and we can definitely help you.”

  “Actually, it was my roommate who insisted I come. I wanted to just ignore the whole thing. That’s what I did the first time, and it seemed to work.”

  My hands curled into fists at the thought of Lily having to go through this before. “Last time?”

  “I had a stalker back in high school. But he went away on his own. I figured he wound up in jail or just got bored with me.”

  My fingernails dug into my palms as I battled to stay calm. “So, what you’re telling me is they never caught the first guy?”

  Realization and fear dawned on Lily’s beautiful face. “Do you think it could be him again?”

  “I think I’m going to find out.” I yanked open my desk drawer and pulled out some forms. “You need to fill these out. I want to have all of your information and to always know where you are.”

  Lily looked at the paperwork like it might bite. “I didn’t even say I wanted to hire you.”

  I held her gaze with my own until her face turned pink and she had to turn away. “Lily, you obviously need protection. I’m going to make sure you get it.”

  “But I don’t even know how much you charge!”

  “We’ll worry about all of that later. For now, I need to know everything about you, so I can do my job.”

  She still looked like she was in a daze, but Lily picked up a pen and started filling out the forms. I leaned back in my chair and enjoyed watching her.

  Once she was finished, I scanned all of the forms to make sure I had what I needed and then nodded with satisfaction. I felt more in control already, and that was the way I liked it.

  “Good, now we can get started. You said you’re on your way to work?”

  “Yes. I have a shift in the ER from ten in the morning until ten at night. What do you mean, get started? I still don’t really know what to expect.”

  “From here on out, you’ll have a BPS bodyguard within a hundred yards of you, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”

  “You can’t be serious! All of the time?”

  “Lily, I’ve never been more serious…”

  Chapter Three

  Lily

  “And then he told me he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Can you believe that?”

  Blair looked up from a patient chart. “Actually, I can believe it, Lily. It sounds like he’s serious about keeping you safe, which is a good thing, isn’t it?”

  “I guess so,” I muttered. “It just all happened in the blink of an eye. We didn’t even talk about his rates or a contract or anything. Doesn’t that seem strange?”

  Blair nodded her head over at Brock. “Maybe, but I feel better knowing you have that mountain of a man watching over you.”

  The bodyguard had followed me to work and stayed within eyeshot of me ever since. I had to admit, it was nice knowing he was there, and it wasn’t like he was hard to look at by any means.

  “Come on, let’s go get lunch,” Blair said and stretched her arms over her head. “I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a break.”

  Not only was she my best friend and roommate, but Blair Thomas also worked at All Saints as an ER nurse, and we tried to work the same shifts whenever we could.

  You’d think we’d get sick of each other, but we didn’t. In fact, we were so close, people thought we were sisters. It didn’t hurt that we had similar coloring and both wore a size fourteen.

  Our only real difference was our hair—Blair had long, chestnut curls and I kept my straight blonde locks cut to just beneath my shoulders.

  My bestie linked her arm through mine and we headed for the cafeteria. I was looking forward to some peace and quiet, but after we got our food, two of our co-workers waved us over to their table.

  Amelia Clark and Luna Walker were both lab techs at All Saints and lived in the same neighborhood. But that was pretty much where their similarities ended.

  Amelia had short dark hair and wore glasses, while Luna had long auburn waves. Amelia was on the quiet and serious side, where Luna was much more talkative and inquisitive.

  “Hello, ladies! What’s new with you two?” Luna greeted us with a smile and pushed her tray to the side to make room for us at the table.

  “How about him, for starters?” Blair pointed to Brock and I jabbed her with an elbow.

  “Dammit, can’t you keep a secret?”

  But it was too late. Amelia and Luna were both craning their necks to check out my bodyguard. They gave appreciative whistles and I groaned with dismay.

  “Don’t encourage him, please! He’s already way too full of himself, by the look of things, and thinks he’s the end all and be all of personal security.”

  “What did we miss? Give us all the dirt,” Luna said as she and Amelia leaned in eagerly.

  I filled them in on the situation, expecting Blair to join me, but she was busy on her phone. I was just starting to wonder what she was doing when she piped up with a glint in her eyes.

  “I told you this guy was good, Lily. Check out what I found about him on Google.”

  Blair turned her phone toward the rest of us, and we proceeded to learn about Mr. Brock Bourne. Turns out, he hadn’t always been a bodyguard.

  Before he’d started BPS, he and his three other team members had all been Army Rangers, and had served together for almost a decade. Brock had won more awards and commendations than I could count.

  “Dude is a badass,” Luna said with admiration. “I think you made the right choice with him, Lily.”

  I turned to sneak a peek at Brock. He was leaned up against the wall and watching us all intently. But it was me that he stared at the hardest and longest.

  My cheeks flamed up and I whipped my head around before he could see the reaction he’d caused. I didn’t want him getting the wrong idea about where this was all going.

  I might not have any choice in having him around all of the time. Not if I wanted to stay safe. But that didn’t mean things would go past the professional. I had enough trouble with men already, after all.

  “He could guard my body any time he wanted,” Amelia said with a shy smile, and surprised the rest of us into a bout of laughter.

  “He’s just so controlling,” I said once we’d all quieted down. “All he’s done so far is bark orders at me and tell me what was happening, like it or not.”

  Blair shrugged. “According to Google, he’s been a leader is whole career, both in and out of the Army.”

  I risked another look at the sexy but bossy Brock Bourne. “But should that mean he’s in charge of me?”

  Chapter Four

  Brock

  Watching Lily all day was both pleasure and torture. I loved seeing her juicy curves work as she moved. But I hated not being able to reach out and touch them.

  When her shift was finally over, Lily and the other nurse she’d spent so much time around approached, and I greeted them with a professional nod. I’d worked too hard at hiding my longing for Lily to blow it now.

  Lily introduced the other woman as Blair Thomas, her best friend and roommate. I thanked Blair for pointin
g Lily in my direction in the first place.

  “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here to watch over your friend.”

  Even though I was speaking to Blair, I never took my eyes off Lily, and she squirmed under my gaze. I cleared my throat and forced myself to break eye contact with the face I was rapidly becoming so enamored with.

  “Right, well, it’s nice to meet you and you’re welcome!” Blair was obviously trying to not feel like a third wheel. “We’re off to get an after-work drink, if you’d like to join us, Brock.”

  Lily shot her friend a sharp look. “I don’t think he wants to drink wine with us, Blair.”

  “I actually prefer beer, but I’m not about to let you go to a bar by yourself, no matter what’s on the menu.”

  Lily looked at me like a parent who’d just scolded her. “I can’t even go out with my friend without you?”

  “I told you, from here on out, you were going to be protected every minute of every day. No matter where you go, Lily.”

  Her bottom lip stuck out in a pout and I had to fight the urge to lean in and suck it in between mine. I didn’t know what this woman was doing to me, but it was all too real, which both terrified and thrilled me.

  “We’re just going the Cloud Nine Tavern down the street,” Blair said, trying to relieve the thick tension in the air, and remind us she was still there. “I mean, this is Scarlet Springs, and it’s super-safe here.”