LITMIR.BIZ

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myself to your level, Mr. Dalton,” she said icily. “Stay if you choose but I am not going to my room like some child. I have people to entertain.”

      “Ah, yes, the nip-slip hasn’t quite occurred yet, right? Don’t want to miss out on that.”

      She glared. “Screw you.”

      “No, thanks. I don’t mix business with pleasure.”

      Her blood boiled but she wasn’t about to make a scene. Lifting her chin, she turned on her heel and deliberately left him behind. She had to get away from that man. What was her father thinking hiring a thug like him?

      She went straight to the bar and ordered a whiskey sour. She’d just managed to down it when Stella sidled up to her, nearly falling down drunk. “Who was that hottie you were talking to in the kitchen?” she slurred. “He’s the freshest meat in this place. I call dibs!”

      “You can have him,” CoCo muttered even though she knew Stella wouldn’t remember a thing they were saying. She was nearly at puke level.

      “Have you seen Drake? He was looking for you. You two are so cute together...”

      “Drake is a slime,” she said, her thoughts still centered on Rian and how she’d like to wipe that smirk off his smug face. Stella giggled and CoCo wished her friend were at least halfway sober so she could tell her what’d happened, but she knew it was pointless to try to get Stella to focus right now. “Are you staying here tonight?” she asked.

      “Only if I don’t get lucky,” Stella answered with a drunken giggle, swiveling around to survey the crowd with bleary eyes. “Now, where did Mr. Hottie run off to?”

      She ought to sic Stella on Rian. That ought to keep him busy for a bit. But even as the uncharitable thought raced through her mind, she discarded it. The last thing she needed was Stella hooking up with the man her father had hired to protect her. It was bad enough he was here at all, no sense in making things worse.

      Besides, if CoCo wasn’t getting lucky—neither was her jerk of a bodyguard.

3

      HE PROBABLY SHOULDN’T have come down so hard on her—she was the client’s daughter after all. If Kane were here, he’d knock him in the head for running his mouth when he ought to keep it shut, but there was something about the woman that unhinged his jaw.

      He wasn’t a stranger to spoiled heiresses but CoCo Abelli took the ever-loving cake. The girl wouldn’t know how to be grateful if someone had saved her life, which is exactly what her father was trying to do. Personally, Rian thought Enzo ought to cut his losses with this one, because she was clearly ruined beyond repair. The only thing CoCo cared about was herself or the next party. Maybe it would do her some good to have a little scare. But that wasn’t his place. Maybe with some luck CoCo would convince her father that his services weren’t needed and he could go on with his life. One could hope.

      Throughout the night he kept an eye on CoCo as she partied until the wee hours of the morning, as if purposefully thumbing her nose at him, and by the time the sun rose and everyone had left Rian felt as wrung out as he had during a night watch in Afghanistan. Watching over this girl would be no picnic.

      CoCo, her eyes red from a night of hard alcohol and who knew what else, ignored Rian and stumbled to her bed. He rounded up the rest of the stragglers and booted them from the house, finally able to breathe a little easier. The Malibu beach house wasn’t the most secure location. Too many points of entry to defend. If someone were looking to kidnap CoCo, they could practically waltz in and snatch her without breaking a sweat. So that meant they weren’t staying here for the next few days. He figured that news was going to go over like a turd in a punch bowl. He kind of relished the idea of giving her that news. He got the impression not many people told CoCo what to do and when. That was her problem. She’d been indulged way too much in her life. Time for a reality check. The fact that she didn’t believe she was in any danger went to show just how naive she was.

      He did another perimeter check and secured all the doors and then decided to take a catnap. He was a light sleeper by nature but his years in combat had trained him to sleep with one eye open. If anyone tried to get past him, he would know it.

      He rarely dreamed or if he did he didn’t remember the details. Sometimes when he woke he was left with a hazy idea that he’d dreamed of something but most times it was just a blank canvas. So why did he have the most vivid dream of CoCo? Sun-bronzed skin, a tiny bikini and that achingly beautiful body—correction, it wasn’t a dream, it was a nightmare. He didn’t want to be dreaming of CoCo like that. He didn’t want to think of her in any way except as an annoying client. It was bad business to mess around with the clients.

      After about two hours Rian’s cell phone jerked him awake and he saw that it was Kane.

      “Yeah, what’s up?” he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

      “I wanted to check and see how things are going with our newest client. I figured you were on the job last night. Everything cool?”

      “I guess you could say that. She’s a nightmare just as I expected. I chased off some guy mauling her in the kitchen and did I get an ounce of thanks? No. She’s an ungrateful bitch and frankly, I’m thinking that giant payday wasn’t nearly enough. Maybe I can tack on a handling fee for my pain and suffering.”

      “I thought you said that you tried to refuse the job.”

      “I did. I’m just cranky from getting two hours of sleep.”

      “You always were grouchy if you didn’t get your full eight hours. You’re such a prima donna. Do you have a plan for the next couple of days?”

      “Try not to kill the woman myself?”

      “Come on now, I’m serious. The Abelli account is a pretty big payday. Just treat it like any other.”

      Rian didn’t need his big brother lecturing him. “This isn’t my first rodeo. I know what I’m doing. If I need your help, I’ll ask for it.”

      “Well, aren’t you a bowl of cherries this morning? Get yourself together. Act professional. So what if she’s not the kind of person you want to go have lunch with. That’s probably a good thing—I’ve seen pictures of her. She’s not hard on the eyes. The last thing I need is you messing around with a client because she’s pretty.”

      Rian scowled. “Now you’re just talking out of your ass. You know I don’t do that. If you don’t have anything worthwhile to add, I’m going to go.”

      “Go get some coffee, you mean grouch. It’s just for a few days. You can handle this. Laci says hi,” he added and Rian grumbled but replied in kind.

      His brother had married country superstar Laci McCall, but they’d known her before she’d hit it big and he’d always thought Laci was the best of people. How his brother managed to snag that diamond, he’d never know. Aw, hell, he was just being a surly jerk. Kane and Laci were the real deal and he knew it. If he weren’t in such a foul mood, he’d admit that Kane was the luckiest son of a bitch alive.

      “Do you need any help with this case?” Kane asked, breaking into Rian’s thoughts.

      “No, I’m good. Like you said, it’s just a few days. I think I can handle Miss Sassy Pants for that amount of time. Anything longer and I might need backup.”

      “You got it.”

      Rian clicked off and sighed. His head throbbed and the sunlight stabbing him in the eyeballs wasn’t helping any. He needed coffee and he needed it fast. After a quick check on CoCo, he found her dead to the world, lightly snoring and drooling on her pillow. Ha! If he were an asshole, he’d snap a pic of that and post it to social media. Instead he returned to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee.

      Of course, as luck would have it, no simple coffee machine around. Just one of those fancy single-cup coffee things that

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