Don’t miss BODYGUARDS IN BED,
the anthology from Lucy Monroe, Jamie Denton, and
Elizabeth Naughton, out now!
Turn the page for a preview of Lucy’s story
. . .
Danusia wiggled the key in the lock on her
brother’s apartment door. Darn thing always stuck, but he wouldn’t
make her another one. Said she didn’t come to stay often enough for
it to matter.
Yeah, and he wasn’t particularly keen
for that to change either, obviously. He’d probably gotten the
wonky key on purpose. Just like the rest of her older siblings,
Roman Chernichenko kept Danusia at a distance.
She knew why he did it at least, though
she was pretty sure the others didn’t.
Knowing didn’t make her feel any
better. Even in her family of brainiacs, she was definitely the odd
one out. They loved her, just like she loved them, but they were
separated by more than the gap in their ages. She was seven years
younger than her next youngest sibling. An unexpected baby, though
never unwanted—at least according to her mom.
Still, her sister and brothers might
love her, but they didn’t get her and didn’t particularly want her
to get them.
Which was why she was coming to stay in
Roman’s empty apartment rather than go visit one of the others, or
Heaven forbid, her parents. She did not need another round of
lectures on her single status by her baba
and mom.
The lock finally gave and Danusia
pressed the door open, dragging her rolling suitcase full of books
and papers behind her. The fact the alarm wasn’t armed registered
at the same time as a cold cylinder pressed to her
temple.
“Roman, I swear on Opa’s grave that if
you don’t get that gun away from me, I’m going to drop it in a vat
of sulfuric acid and then pour the whole mess all over the new sofa
Mom insisted you get the last time she visited. If it’s loaded, I’m
going to do it anyway.”
The gun moved away from her temple and
she spun around, ready to lecture her brother into an early grave,
and help him along the way. “It is so not okay to
pull a gun on your sister. . . .” Her tirade petered off to
a choked breath. “You!”
The man standing in front of her was a
whole lot sexier than her brother and scarier, which was saying
something. Not that she was afraid of him, but she wouldn’t want him for an enemy.
The rest of the family believed that
Roman was a scientist for the military. She knew better. She was a
nosy baby sister after all, but this man? Definitely worked with
Roman and carried an aura of barely leashed violence. Maxwell Baker
was a true warrior.
She shouldn’t, absolutely should not, find that arousing, but she
did.
“You’re not my brother,” she said
stupidly.
Which was not her usual mode, but the
six-foot-five black man, who would make Jesse Jackson Jr. look like
the ugly stepbrother if they were related, turned Danusia’s brain
to serious mush.
His brows rose in mocking
acknowledgment of her obvious words.
“Um . . .
”
“What are you doing here, Danusia?”
Warm as really good aged whiskey, his voice made her panties
wet.
How embarrassing was that? “You know my
name?”
Put another mark on the chalkboard for
idiocy.
“The wedding wasn’t so long ago that I
would have forgotten already.” He almost cracked a
smile.
She almost swooned.
Max and several of Roman’s associates had done the security at her sister, Elle’s,
wedding, which might have been overkill. Or not. Danusia suspected
stuff had been going on that neither she nor her parents had known
about.
It hadn’t helped that she’d been
focused on her final project for her master’s and that Elle’s
wedding had been planned faster than Danusia could solve a
quadratic equation. She’d figured out that something was going on,
but that was about it. This time her siblings had managed to keep
their baby sister almost completely in the dark.
A place she really hated
being.
Not that her irritation had stopped her
from noticing the most freaking gorgeous man she’d ever met.
Maxwell Baker. A tall, dark dish of absolute yum.
Once she had seen Max with his strong
jaw, defined cheekbones, big and muscular body, not much else at
the wedding had even registered. Which might help explain why she
hadn’t figured out why all the security.
“It’s nice to see you again.” There,
that sounded somewhat adult. Full points for polite conversation,
right?
“What are you doing here?” he asked
again, apparently not caring if he got any points for being
polite.
She shrugged, shifting her backpack.
“My super is doing some repairs on the apartment.”
“What kind of repairs?”
“Man, you’re as bad as my brother.”
They hadn’t even made it out of the entry and she was getting the
third-degree.
Really as bad as her brother and maybe
taking it up a notch. Roman might have let her get her stuff put
out of the way before he started asking the probing questions. Then
again, maybe not.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Then
Max just paused, like he had all the time in the world to wait for
her answer.
Like it never even occurred to him she
might refuse to respond.
Knowing there was no use in attempted
prevarication, she sighed. “They’re replacing the front
door.”
“Why?”
“Does it matter?” Sheesh.
He leaned back against the wall,
crossing his arms, muscles bulging everywhere. “I won’t know until
you tell me.”
“Someone broke it.” She was proud of
herself for getting the words out, considering how difficult she
was finding the simple process of breathing right now.
This man? Was lethal.
“Who?” he demanded, frown firmly in
place.
Oh, crud, even his not-so-happy face
was sexy, yummy, heart-palpitatingly delicious. “I don’t
know.”
