Seducing the Bodyguard by Capri Montgomery Page B

he was okay. He was losing his mind with near obsession over this beautiful woman, but he was okay...about as okay as a heart attack. Fortunately for him Latricia had called and she wouldn’t be around until eleven, which meant he could force a noon lunch break and conveniently not come back to the venue afterwards. He didn’t really need to be there right now. He had a stage manager for a reason. But he had invested a lot of himself into this production and being there felt like a necessity for him. He needed to make sure everything went according to plan. He didn’t want any surprises come opening night.
    “Yeah,” he mumbled as he realized he had yet to answer her question. “Do you have any siblings? Parents? Husbands?” He shook his head trying to figure out why he cared this much.
    She laughed. He loved the sound of her voice when she laughed. She hadn’t done that before, and now he wished she would do it all the time. She was too serious. Even at dinner last night she was on constant vigilance. This obsessed fan wasn’t a real threat. He knew she wasn’t a real threat and he honestly wouldn’t have accepted a bodyguard if the bodyguard hadn’t been so knock down drag out gorgeous. When he first saw her he had all sorts of plans for what he could do with her body. She, of course, was putting a damper on any plans he thought he might have.
    “No, to the husbands question; more than one wouldn’t be legal anyway.” She laughed again. “But I’m not married at all, never have been. My parents are both still alive. They live in Hawaii. And I have a brother. His name is Percileo. Everybody calls him Lucky Leo.”
    “Yeah?” His eyebrow arched upwards. She laughed again and shook her head.
    “Leo’s on the bomb squad. They call him Lucky Leo because he’s one of the best when it comes to diffusing bombs. He’s gone in on some very tough calls and he manages to walk out with all his body parts in tact when nobody thought it would be possible. So, they call him Lucky Leo. I just call him Leo.”
    He could tell she was proud of her brother. The adoration in her voice assured him of that. “I have family,” he said. “I guess you know about what my mother and sister did.” He looked at her, studying her face. He was sure she knew. There was no need to elaborate on the details. “I guess with Geneva being my father’s child from an extramarital affair my mother had no issue trying to kill her—ordering the hit herself, just for money. But I’m her son and you would think she would know that killing Geneva would have destroyed me too. But how could she know that?” He shook his head. “My mother was too wrapped up in herself to realize that I cared about Geneva. She’s more of a sister to me as a half sister than my whole blood sister.”
    Valencia nodded. “It’s hard to make sense of things sometimes—the bad that happens can never really be explained. We try; but we can’t—not really.”
    “Yeah,” he mumbled. “But some good came out of it. Geneva and Drake got closer. They got married. She found happiness after all. I never thought I would want what they have—until now.” He looked at her trying to study her reaction.
    “Harrison—”
    “I’m early,” Latricia’s voice interrupted whatever Valencia was getting ready to say. Perhaps he didn’t really want to know. Perhaps she would have once again told him that they needed to keep things business only. But if she had he would have been sure to tell her, in no uncertain terms, that he had no intention of doing that—no intention at all.
    Harrison stood as Latricia approached them. “I can see that,” he said without any hint of fondness in his voice. He thought he had at least another hour alone with Valencia.
    “I thought I could get here and see what you’ve done so far,” she smiled as she wrapped her arms around Harrison’s neck and pulled him in for a hug. He patted one hand between her shoulder blades before