Bodyguard: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance (Snake Eyes Book 1) by Tabatha Kiss Page A

mean?”
    “It means…” I lean down, “go cut your damn hair off or I’ll tie you down and do it myself.”
    “No!” She stands up off the bed, challenging me. “If you want me to do this , then you have to tell me what the hell is going on.”
    I hesitate. “It’s a really long story, Dani. We don’t have time.”
    “Start with the current events then.” She crosses her arms, practically swimming inside the thick arms of my shirt. “You broke into my apartment today, didn’t you?”
    Shit. “I didn’t—”
    “Tell me the truth, Fox, because I sure as hell didn’t open those blinds.”
    I sigh. “Yes. I did.” She opens her mouth to shout, but I talk over her. “I had to make sure I could watch you from across the street, so I broke in and opened your blinds after I left the house earlier.”
    She frowns. “How long exactly were you watching me from across the street?”
    “Since the moment you came home.”
    “Even when I was—?”
    “No.” My eyes fall to the floor but I pick them back up quick. “I looked away while you were… undressing.”
    “You little pervert!”
    “Dani, come on. I looked away. Your bodyguard was picking his teeth and playing Candy Crushers.”
    “Oh, please .” She rolls her eyes at me. “ Smith was playing Candy Crushers?”
    “Yes.”
    “You expect me to believe that?”
    “I’m not lying to you, Dani.” I hold her eyes, hoping that she’ll believe me. If I can’t get her to believe me about this then she’ll never trust me at all.
    Finally, she sighs. “Who are these Snake Eyes people?”
    “They’re an elite group of highly-trained agents,” I say, choosing my words carefully. “Snipers, soldiers, hackers, you name it — pretty much the best there is, making them the most deadly people on the planet. They work in squads, each agent performing a different task to plan and finish a job.”
    “What kind of job?”
    “Assassinations.”
    She shakes her head. “That’s ridiculous. People would know if something like that existed.”
    “No. There’s only a handful of people in the whole world that know about it and they’re all powerful enough to keep it quiet. The President included.”
    “Then how do you know about it?”
    It’s the question I’ve dreaded since I set foot in Los Angeles again. I knew I’d have to tell her about Snake Eyes but I debated how much truth to include in that. No matter what I came up with, it meant lying to cover up a piece of the truth and now, looking into her perfect blue eyes, I know I can’t lie to her. Not about this.
    I reach for the top of my shirt and I flick the buttons free all the way down.
    Dani gasps and holds up a hand to block her view. “Fox, what are you—”
    I raise my undershirt and wait for her to look again. It only takes a moment for her curiosity to peak and her eyes fall on my chest. She steps forward, drawn to me with bewilderment on her face, and reaches out to touch the black ink traveling up my abdomen. My entire body reacts to her touch, spiking several degrees in less than a second. Her fingertips glide up the cobra’s tail, starting at the bottom near my navel and curling upward until they reach its head tattooed between my pecks.
    “Because I used to be one of them,” I say.
    “Fox…” Her whisper buzzes the hairs on the back of my neck. “You…”
    I drop my shirt back down and her hand falls to her side. I step back and lean against the waist-high dresser across from the bed. She takes my lead and sits down on the mattress, her little eyes flickering in the dim lamplight. The lull between us is loud, almost deafening, but her thoughts tumble out of her eyes. She’s scared and confused, but she has every right to be.
    I move across the dresser and reach down to pull open the mini-fridge by the floor. Several tiny bottles of alcohol line the bottom shelf. I grab two random ones and look back to see her holding out a hand. I smirk and grab two more to pass off to