Protection by Carla Blake

sergeant easily, but apparently I lacked some of the finer points when it came to the social side of things.”
    â€œMeaning?”
    â€œMeaning that unlike the other potential candidates, I wasn’t willing to frequent the bar every night and get seriously bladdered. Nor was I prepared to screw every bloke in sight.”
    â€œAnd you seriously think that’s why you didn’t get promotion? That’s terrible! It’s also discrimination!”
    Andrea shrugged. “I know, but that’s the way it is and forgive me if I’m out of order here, but I bet you’ve had guys coming on to you promising you all kinds of great things if only you’d sleep with them. It goes on everywhere, but no one ever does a thing about it. Not if they want to keep their jobs.”
    Carrie nodded. “Tell me about it! I met this producer once, a real charmer. Promised me I would get a part in a major movie project if I gave him a blow job.”
    Andrea raised an eyebrow. “I take it you didn’t.”
    â€œNo way! I blew him a raspberry instead and told him to stuff his ‘movie project.’ The little toe-rag. What did you do after leaving the force?”
    â€œI enrolled in an intensive course in personal protection, together with instruction in both judo and kick boxing. I also took up swimming to lifesaving level, plus advanced driving lessons. I’ve got all the certificates with me if you want to take a look.”
    â€œI’ll look at them later. But I have to say I’m impressed. You sure don’t believe in letting the grass grow do you?”
    â€œWell, I had to do something to fill the void and I didn’t want all that experience in the force to go to waste. Being a bodyguard just seemed a whole lot more interesting than becoming a security guard and as it turns out, I was right.”
    â€œGood for you, but what about family and friends? What do they think about you doing all this?”
    â€œMy parents live in Wales, so I don’t get to see much of them, but they’re fine with it. I don’t have any brothers or sisters and my friends think I’m nuts. I also don’t have a boyfriend.”
    â€œI see. One final question then. What do you think of me?”
    That caught Andrea on the hop. In her experience, most employers didn’t give a toss what you thought of them, so long as you got the job done, so why was Carrie so interested?
    â€œWell.”She began. “As far as your work goes, I have to be honest and say I hated the soap opera stuff. It’s nothing personal, I just don’t like them. I loved your films, though, especially the second one. It made a nice change to see a girl in the kick-ass role. As for the third one, well, I haven’t actually seen it yet.”
    â€œThat’s okay.”Carrie smiled. “It’s not compulsory. But what I really wanted to know is what you think of me as a person?”
    â€œI don’t really know you.”Andrea replied, conscious that she was entering prime foot in the mouth territory. “I mean, part of me thinks it does because you’re on TV and in films and all that, but I presume a lot of what I read about you is just paper talk. In ‘real life’ you seem a genuinely, nice person.”She hesitated, then added, “God, that makes me sound such a creep!”
    Carrie laughed. “No it doesn’t. I’m sorry, I was just trying to gauge how well we would get on. But let me tell you a little more about what the job entails. For a start, I’m not into the traditional bodyguard thing, which means I don’t want you hovering at my shoulder dressed all in black and wearing sunglasses. What I do want is someone who can dress in a way that’s fitting for the occasion, and keep a fairly low profile. By the way, a complete wardrobe will be provided for such events. It would be nice,too, if you could give the impression that we’re