by Paige Tyler
Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.
This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Cat Johnson. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Hot SEALs remain the exclusive copyrighted to dgp and/or trademarked property of Cat Johnson, or their affiliates or licensors.
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My SEAL Bodyguard
by Paige Tyler
Cover Design by Gemini Judson
Dedication
With special thanks to my extremely patient and understanding husband, without whose help and support I couldn’t have pursued my dream job of becoming a writer. You’re my sounding board, my idea man, my critique partner, and the absolute best research assistant any girl could ask for!
Thank you.
When someone breaks into romance author Peyton Matthews’ Virginia Beach home to steal her newest manuscript, her publisher hires Noah Chase, a former Navy SEAL and the newest member of GAPS to be her bodyguard.
Peyton thinks the idea of needing a bodyguard is ridiculous, but she can’t help appreciating how gorgeous Noah is. And while she thought that having a stranger hanging around 24/7 would mess with her creativity, the Navy SEAL definitely comes in handy when she’s choreographing fight scenes. All that hand-to-hand action and rolling around on the floor with him gets her pulse racing, but while Noah is falling for Peyton too, he doesn’t act on it. He needs to keep his head in the game and focus on the job or he could end up getting her killed. She might not think she’s in danger, but his gut tells him differently.
The threat to Peyton is closer to home than she realizes however, and it will take all of Noah’s SEAL training to save her life.
Chapter One
“Maybe it was simply a random break-in. That does happen, you know.”
Peyton Matthews could tell from the unamused look on her agent’s face he wasn’t buying it. Ben Fuller was too smart for that. Or maybe too paranoid. She hadn’t decided which. Regardless, he’d caught the first flight down from New York City to Virginia Beach after she’d called this morning and told him someone had broken into her house last night.
“Right,” Ben said. “Someone went to all the trouble to break in and the only thing they took were your desktop computer and your laptop? They left behind the TV, didn’t ransack your closets and drawers looking for valuables or touch your jewelry armoire? I don’t think so. They wanted your book, and you know it.”
Peyton dropped her head in defeat, her long blond hair falling around her face. She’d been hoping against hope there was another answer here, but she knew Ben was right. Someone had been trying to steal her manuscript, plain and simple.
The next book in her new adult series was due to her publisher in less than two weeks, and it seemed like the entire world knew it. Everywhere she went, people asked her if it was done yet. The funny thing was, the book she was working on now—the one someone had tried to steal—wouldn’t hit the bookshelves for months. Heck, the book right before it in the series wasn’t due out for a few more days.
Peyton couldn’t understand why someone would try to grab a book when the preceding story wasn’t even out yet, but apparently someone had decided they wanted it so badly they were willing to do a little breaking and entering to get it. Not only had she been up most of the night watching the cops and crime scene techs dust for fingerprints and look for clues, but she’d had to run to Best Buy this morning to buy a new laptop and a desktop computer. Worst of all, she hadn’t gotten in her usual yoga workout. This close to a book deadline, yoga was the only thing keeping her from stressing. No doubt about it, no yoga and too little sleep were making her cranky.
She picked up her mug and Ben’s and walked over to the counter to get them refills. This side of the house faced the beach and she gazed out at the waves gently lapping the sand for a moment before pouring the coffee, hoping it would have its usual relaxing effect.
“Even if no one has ever tried to break into my house before, this isn’t the first time someone has tried to get a look at the book early,” Peyton pointed out as she carried the mugs back over to the table.
“No, it’s not.” Ben picked up his mug and took a swallow, clearly not caring the coffee was practically hot enough to burn off his tongue. “So it’s a good thing you decided to follow all those safety precautions your publisher insisted on or we’d all be screwed right now.”
Peyton couldn’t argue with his logic as she stirred sweetener into her coffee. Not only did they require she write on a desktop computer with no Internet connection, but she had to store all her notes as well as the book manuscripts themselves on an external hard drive she took everywhere she went. It seemed like overkill to her—until last night.
“I still can’t believe a reader would go to this extreme to get an early peek at the book,” she said as she added cream to her coffee.
“I’m not convinced it was one of your readers.” At her look of confusion, he added, “I think it was pirates. Those damn jackasses are stealing books right and left these days. Every time you turn around, there’s another book on the black market. You put one pirate site out of business and there’s another to take its place. They’re like zombies.”
Crap. “I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“Well, I did. And so did your publisher,” Ben said. “Which is why they’ve hired a bodyguard for you.”
She blinked at him over the rim of her mug. “A bodyguard? You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m not kidding. In fact, I agree with them. There’s a guy named Jon Rudnick who runs a personal security company called Guardian Angel Protection Services right here in Virginia Beach. He’s a former SEAL and so are all the guys who work for him. They know what they’re doing.”
Peyton shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around what she was hearing. A Navy SEAL for heaven’s sake, as in the kind of Navy SEALs who’d taken down Bin Laden. To protect a new adult manuscript? That was insane. She couldn’t imagine how much this was costing her publisher.
“Ben, I keep the book on an external hard drive I take with me everywhere I go and lock in the safe at night. Don’t you think you’re overreacting?”
“No, I don’t.” Ben sighed. “Peyton, people are willing to pay a small fortune to get their hands on that book. Sooner or later, they’re going to stop playing nice and grab you. With the release party for the previous title coming up in a few days, we can’t be too careful.”
“Ben, I can’t write with some guy I don’t know hanging around the house,” she protested. “It’ll mess with my creativity.”
He gave her an imploring look, his blue eyes earnest under his bushy, graying brows. “Humor me on this, okay? I promise…you won’t even know the guy’s around. He’ll blend right into the background.”
It was her turn to sigh. She wasn’t going to get him to back down. “Fine.”
“Good, because he just got here,” Ben said as the doorbell rang.
Nice of her agent to give her a heads up before the guy showed up. Peyton was surprised Ben didn’t wait to spring the whole thing on her after her new bodyguard walked in the door.
Bodyguard. How crazy was that?
She told herself that she should have waited in the kitchen and made them come to her, but curiosity wouldn’t let her. Besides, this was her house. She could do whatever the heck she wanted. Setting down her mug, she followed Ben into the living room, stopping short of the door. She didn’t want to look too eager.
Peyton
wasn’t exactly sure what she expected a Navy SEAL to look like, but the guy standing on her doorstep definitely wasn’t anything like she pictured. For one thing, he was younger than she thought he’d be. When Ben said he was a former SEAL, she assumed he’d be in his forties. But this guy couldn’t be more than twenty-eight, if that. For another thing, he was the poster boy for male perfection. Tall and broad shouldered, he had thick, dark hair, eyes the color of her favorite chocolate bar, and a chiseled jaw with the perfect amount of stubble. And if the way the dark blue T-shirt he wore was molded to his chest, she was pretty sure he had muscles in all the right places, too.
He held out his hand to Ben. “Noah Chase from GAPS—Guardian Angel Protection Services.”
Noah Chase. Even his name was dreamy.
Peyton gave herself a mental shake as Ben introduced himself and invited Noah inside. Crap, with the way she was staring, you’d think she’d never been around a hot guy before. She had…really. It had been a while, that was all.
“Noah Chase, Peyton Matthews,” Ben said, making the completely unnecessary introductions.
She got herself together just in time to smile and hold out her hand. And if she felt a spark when he shook it, she told herself it must be a static charge from the carpet. The floor in the living room was hardwood, so that excuse probably wasn’t a very good one.
Peyton stood there, and probably would have remained standing there gazing into his eyes like a doe-eyed deer for an hour if Ben hadn’t glanced at his watch and announced he needed to be going if he was going to make his flight back to New York.
That snapped Peyton out of her hunk-induced trance and she walked Ben out, promising to let him know if anyone else tried to get their hands on the book. Closing the door behind him, she turned around to find Noah regarding her with those beautiful dark eyes of his.
She reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, suddenly self-conscious. “I just made coffee, if you’d like some?”
He nodded. “Maybe later, thanks. I’d like to get a feel for the house and check out the layout first.”
“Oh.” Duh. He was there to protect her, not hang out with her. “I’ll show you around.”
As Peyton slipped by him to begin the tour, she caught sight of the gun in the holster at his waist. Why hadn’t she seen it when he first walked in? Because she’d been too busy taking the looks off him, as her grandmother would say, to pay attention to anything else. He could have been carrying a whole arsenal of weapons on his person and she probably wouldn’t have noticed.
She was extremely aware of him behind her as she led him through the house. Since the downstairs was an open-concept design, it was all one big room, so there wasn’t much to point out other than the bathroom. The second floor was more traditional. In addition to her bedroom and en suite, there was a guest room, workout room, home office, and another bathroom.
“Do you live here by yourself?” he asked as his dark gaze surveyed her bedroom.
Her pulse skipped a beat as his eyes lingered on the king-sized bed with its soft blue paisley-print blanket. Was he thinking the same thing she was?
“Yes,” she said. “Why do you ask?”
He swung that gaze back to her. “It’s a big house for one person, that’s all.”
Okay, so he hadn’t been thinking about rolling around in the sheets together. She blushed. Crap, she really did have a writer’s imagination. “I wanted a house on the beach, but I didn’t want to live near the tourist part of town, so when I saw this place, I jumped on it.”
“Did the thief break in the front door?” Noah asked when they got back downstairs.
Peyton nodded as she turned to face him. “Yes. I was at a friend’s place only glad they didn’t get the book.”
He frowned. “It wasn’t on either computer?”
“I put everything on an external hard drive I either lock in the safe or take with me when I go out.”
His frown deepened. “Who knows you carry it with you?”
“Ben, my editor, and my publisher.”
Noah’s considered that. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but it seems kind of crazy for a fan to steal something that’s going to be in stores soon anyway.”
“My agent and publisher don’t think it was a fan.”
When he lifted a questioning brow, she quickly filled him in on the world of digital book piracy.
“Huh,” he said. “I knew people pirated movies, but I didn’t realize they did it with books, too. Regardless if it’s someone looking to make a quick buck or some crazy fan, your publisher was smart to hire us.”
Maybe, but it still seemed excessive to her. “So, how does this whole bodyguard thing work?”
“You do whatever you usually do,” Noah said. “I go where you go and guard you 24/7.”
He grinned. “You won’t even know I’m here.”
Um, okay. She seriously doubted that. A guy who looked like him was hard to miss.
“Don’t worry,” he added. “I’ll make myself scarce when your boyfriend stops by.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said quickly.
A little too quickly.
Peyton thought she saw something flicker in his chocolate-brown eyes. Or maybe she’d imagined it. This was what happened when she didn’t get enough sleep. She started seeing things that weren’t there.
She cleared her throat. “Um, I’m going to get some writing done. Feel free to grab something to eat or drink if you want.”
“Thanks.” He jerked his head toward the door. “I’m going outside to do a quick perimeter check. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Peyton stood in the center of the living room long after he walked out. If she was going to be spending the next few weeks round the clock with Noah, she needed to keep her inner romance heroine in check or she was going to wear out her vibrator. But it wasn’t her fault. She’d dated some in college, and had been in a relationship for a while after graduating, but she hadn’t been involved with anyone seriously since her writing career took off. Hell, she hadn’t even been out on a date in months.
That still didn’t make it okay to lust over her bodyguard. No matter how much of a play on words the job title was.
Shaking her head, she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, then jogged up the stairs to her office.
* * * * *
Noah slipped on his sunglasses as he stepped off the pavers and onto the front lawn. Peyton Matthews wasn’t what he expected. When Jon told him he’d be protecting an author, he pictured an older woman who wore glasses and her gray hair back in a bun. Boy, was he wrong. Tall and slender with sexy curves and long, blond hair, she had the bluest eyes he’d ever seen, not to mention some seriously kissable lips.
She was also completely off-limits.
But forgetting how good she looked in the tank top and the skirt she wore while he was checking the perimeter was easier said than done. He’d never realized such a simple outfit could be so enticing.
Noah forced himself to stop thinking about her long legs and focused on the grass, checking to see if any of it had been trampled recently. Chances were the person who’d broken into Peyton’s house had probably spent some time casing the place first. Maybe he’d get lucky and find a discarded cigarette butt or something else with DNA on it that might tell them who this lowlife was.
Unfortunately, after two complete circuits of the property, Noah didn’t find anything that made him think the thief had ever watched Peyton’s house to learn her routine. That meant the guy had broken in without caring if she were there or not. That was a scary thought. There was no telling what he might have done if Peyton had been home. Noah had seen a lot of things when he was on the Teams, but the idea of that son of a bitch hurting her to get his hand on her book sent a surge of fury through him. He hated guys who messed with women. It made him prone to violence.
Noah blew out a breath, his gaze wandering to the gentle waves lapping the shore. The sound of the ocean never failed to calm h
im whenever he was riled up, and it didn’t let him down now. Peyton obviously must feel the same draw since she lived on the beach. But while her house was beautiful, it was also indefensible. A person could access it from all directions, including the beach. And the low retaining wall marking her property on the side facing the ocean was a joke. That thing wasn’t going to keep anyone out. Heck, if anything, it gave them a place to hide so they could get closer to the house.
But none of those things was as disconcerting as hearing that Peyton carried the hard drive containing her book with her everywhere she went. If the guy who’d stolen her computers didn’t know that before—and he obviously hadn’t since he’d taken them—he’d soon figure it out. And when he did, he’d go after Peyton next.
Noah was going to have to stick close to her if he intended to protect her.
Chapter Two
Noah grabbed his Navy-issue duffel bag from his SUV, then let himself inside. Figuring he should probably tell Peyton that he was back, he dropped the bag on the floor beside the sectional couch and headed upstairs to her office. He expected to find her at the computer tapping away at the keys, but instead she was standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips, staring down at the carpeted floor. Whatever she was studying so intently, it must be pretty damn interesting because she didn’t even notice him standing in the doorway.
He knocked on the open door, then immediately felt like crap for making her jump. He offered her a smile with his apology. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. Just wanted to let you know I was back.”
“Oh,” she said, clearly still preoccupied. “Thanks.”
Noah wanted to ask if everything was okay but figured it was none of his business. Giving her a nod, he took in the comfy-looking couch along one wall with framed posters of her book covers above it, then turned to head downstairs.
