Guarding His Heart Read online

  Guarding His Heart

  a gay-for-you bodyguard romance

  Amazon Kindle Edition

  Guarding His Heart © Felix Brooks & Riley Knight 2017.

  Cover design by Ravishing Romance Designs

  All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations embodied within critical reviews and articles.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  The author has asserted his/her rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book.

  This book contains sexually explicit content which is suitable only for mature readers.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Mark

  Mark’s entire being focused and narrowed on the car that was careening, half out of control as it slid toward the intersection, toward a pretty blond boy who was just stepping into the crosswalk.

  It had been a good day, before that. Mark had just finished a contract with a client, one that he had been with for years. It was one of the very rare days that he got to do whatever he want, between one client and the next. No one’s life depended on him. He didn’t have to be one hundred percent focused on keeping anyone safe.

  Or so he thought, until he saw that expensive car, rushing to turn before the light turned red, headed right for some poor kid who simply wasn’t paying enough attention.

  Mark didn’t even think. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t getting paid to take care of the blond boy. There were other people around, but they either didn’t seem to notice what was going on, or they were frozen.

  So Mark acted. He sprinted the short distance to the stranger, flung muscular arms around his chest, and pulled him out of the street and onto the relative safety of the sidewalk just as the car screeched past them. To add insult to injury, the asshole driving the car leaned on the horn as he drove past.

  Damn, there was a lot of entitlement in Los Angeles.

  Meanwhile, the young man that Mark had his arms wrapped around had stiffened up, obviously alarmed. When Mark pulled back, looking down at him to make sure that he was okay, though, the kid relaxed visibly, his eyes softening, full lips, which had been partially parted, closing.

  Remarkable eyes, Mark couldn’t help but notice. The sort of blue-gray-green that he would be willing to bet would change color with the guy’s mood, or what he was wearing, or even the weather.

  Actually, everything about him was stunning. Features pretty, but still masculine enough that he could easily be called handsome, too. Long blond waves of hair fell almost to his shoulders, golden and soft.

  Not that it mattered, of course. Mark hadn’t saved him because he was pretty. He’d saved him because his instincts had kicked in, because he couldn’t be in a situation where someone was in immediate danger and not act. His training wouldn’t allow it.

  With remarkable composure, the young man pulled himself together. He turned those beautiful eyes up to meet Mark’s, and even managed to give him a little bit of a smile, which not everyone could have managed after being through that.

  “Thank you,” he said, and wow, was his voice sexy. Slightly rough and deeper than Mark would have expected, but quiet, so that Mark had to lean in to hear him on the busy street.

  Mark nodded, and he turned away, finally, to look for the car. It was, of course, long gone. The driver had been in far too much of a hurry to care about the fact that they’d almost hurt, or maybe killed, someone.

  “I wish I’d got the fucker’s license plate number,” Mark admitted. He’d been far too busy at the time, and keeping this young man from being hurt, that had definitely been his priority. But it looked like the reckless driver was going to get away with it. Mark somehow doubted it would be for the first time.

  The blond boy nodded, and he shook his head a little, as if to clear it. As reaction kicked in, he was clearly a bit dazed, but he handled it well. No freaking out, no screaming, nothing more than a brief moment where his eyes were a bit fuzzy and he seemed to have drawn inward a bit.

  Mark was pretty impressed, honestly. Not everyone would handle this sort of thing so well, not with how close the call had been.

  “I think you just saved my life,” the kid said, and he even managed a slight smile for Mark. “Thanks. Uh … can I buy you a beer or a coffee or something?”

  Huh. That was new. He wasn’t really used to anyone offering him a reward for helping them. After all, normally it was his job. He was trained for it, and very good at it, and he got paid very well for it.

  Still, the appreciation didn’t suck. And if this pretty Californian boy wanted to go on a date, he didn’t object. Not that he actually thought that’s what this was. The kid was just grateful.

  “It’s no big deal, man,” Mark said, but then shrugged. “Wouldn’t say no to a coffee, though.”

  Because why not, really? For this one brief moment, Mark wasn’t employed. He could accept gratitude, and it wasn’t just a part of his job, that everyone assumed he would do.

  “Coffee,” the kid agreed, clearly just a little dazed. Mark was willing to bet that, if he touched the blond again, he would find that he was shaking, just a little. That was normal, of course, but it gave Mark another reason to go with him. He should keep an eye on this kid and make sure that shock didn’t devastate him.

  He didn’t think it was likely, but people reacted to danger in different ways.

  Mark nodded, a slight smirk on the corners of his lips.

  “Lead the way,” he suggested, and the blond did.

  It wasn’t like it was hard to find a coffee shop in a city like this. There was one on pretty much every block. In this downtown area, there would often be more. So they basically just turned around and walked to the nearest one.

  “You’ve got good reflexes,” the kid said, sounding impressed. He pushed the door open, and Mark walked in behind him. Immediately, without thinking about it, he scanned the area for threats, and found none.

  Not that there were likely to be any, not for this kid. This guy was just a normal guy, unlike the high ranking clients that Mark had had in the past. When did Mark ever get to just ‘hang out’?

  Actually, he found that he had very little idea what to say or do, as they walked into the coffee shop. And the stranger, whether it was his own natural temperament, or being stunned by the near accident, or both, was not particularly talkative, either.

  “Yeah,” Mark said, “I work out a lot.”

  Was it his imagination, or did the blond look him over, from head to toes? It was very quick, but it seemed to Mark that he did, and it seemed that there was some admiration in his eyes.

  Maybe his imagination, though, he decided. After all, how long had it been since he had last gotten laid? It felt like about a million and a half years. He was working too much to even try.

  “I’ll bet,” the kid said, and then glanced away. “I’m Christian. Chris, if you want.”

  “Mark,” he returned, and it
still felt strange to have a normal social interaction like this.

  There was a brief silence, and then Christian tilted his blond head toward the menu board.

  “So, uh, what do you want?” he asked, and Mark shrugged.

  “Just coffee,” he said, then draped himself over a chair, watching as the beautiful young man went to order. Christian suited him more than Chris, he decided. He would call him that.

  Not that it likely mattered, since the chances of him seeing this man again were pretty much slim to none.

  Christian came back, and Mark met his eyes. The more he was around him, the more gorgeous this young man seemed. Way, way too young for Mark, of course, not to mention that the chances that Christian would actually be into it if Mark hit on him were pretty much nonexistent.

  Especially since Mark really had very little idea how to subtly hit on anyone.

  “Here,” Christian said, handing Mark his coffee, which he nodded his thanks for. “So, you from around here?”

  Wow. This kid was really way better at small talk than Mark was. That was actually somewhat of a relief.

  “Nah, not originally,” Mark admitted. He even pulled it together enough to ask, “What about you?”

  Maybe he wasn’t as bad at this social thing as he’d thought. He wasn’t really used to feeling insecure, because he knew he was damn good at his job. And his job was most of what he did.

  “Yeah, I’m a Hollywood boy,” Christian admitted, and Mark couldn’t quite hold back a smile at that.

  “You look it. You know how to surf?” he asked, teasing just a little. Christian, with his long blond hair and that tan and those eyes like the ocean, he was pretty much the epitome of the California boy.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Christian shrugged, laughing a bit. “But I’m not good or anything. I’m more into my music.”

  Ah. That fit, too.

  “You play the guitar?” Mark guessed, and Christian grinned at him and nodded.

  There was a brief silence, which, predictably, Christian broke again.

  “So where are you from, if not from here?” he asked, and Mark looked at him thoughtfully. This conversation thing was definitely interesting. But not bad so far.

  “North Carolina, originally,” he admitted. “But I’ve been all over.” Which was true. The military tended to require that sort of thing.

  “Huh. So that’s that accent,” Christian said.

  Mark frowned, seriously surprised by that.

  “I don’t have an accent,” he said, and Christian laughed softly and nodded.

  “Yeah you do, but I couldn’t tell from where at first,” he said. “It’s very subtle.”

  The actual, honest to God conversation was interrupted then when Mark’s phone started to buzz in his pocket. There was really only one person who could be calling, and when he glanced at the call display, he saw that he was right.

  It was his boss.

  Damn it. He’d hoped for more days off than he’d gotten. But it was what it was, and he glanced at Christian apologetically.

  “I have to take this,” he said, and the other man nodded and rose to his feet.

  “Hey, no worries. Thanks for saving my life,” he said easily. The thing about this young man was that he really honestly seemed to be so laid back, especially as he started to calm down from his scare. That had never been Mark’s style, and he sort of had to admire it even as he had to admit to himself that he didn’t understand it at all.

  “Thanks for the coffee,” Mark returned, and then watched as the young, beautiful blond walked away. A hell of an ass on that guy, Mark thought to himself as Christian disappeared out of the door. Saving him had been worth it for the eye candy alone.

  His phone buzzed again, and he pressed the talk button on his phone, dragging himself back into the world of work. It was, after all, where he belonged.

  * * *

  Just as Mark had known it would be, it was his boss on the phone. He was ordered to present himself in person at the head office for the incredibly elite, expensive bodyguard company for which he worked.

  The details of his new assignment were, apparently, not the sort of thing that should be spoken about over the phone. Mark accepted that without question. It was always better to be safe, and he’d had that drilled into him for enough years that it didn’t seem odd to him.

  What was a bit odd was that his boss, a despicable human being who liked to pull power trips like keeping Mark waiting for the better part of an hour, didn’t pull anything like that this time.

  That was strange. The man, a grizzled old veteran who had been alive too many years to continue to bodyguard himself, and who was bitter about it, who normally had no issues with sharing that bitterness with everything else, actually smiled a little at Mark when he came into the room.

  “This one’s big,” the man said.

  Mark arched an eyebrow. He thought, but didn’t say, that it was sort of funny that the man was so excited about something like this, considering all the high profile clients they already had.

  He didn’t need to say it. Mark knew that the man got the idea. When Mark wanted to, he could radiate his thoughts pretty clearly without having to say anything.

  “Sit down, Stuart,” he said irritably, using Mark’s last name, like most people he was around did. “Stop hovering like that. You don’t have to be a dick about it.”

  Mark let his lips tug up in the slightest smirk, the sort of thing that not everyone would notice. But for his boss, who had the instincts of a bodyguard still, he knew it would be loud and clear.

  He did sit, though, even as amused as he was. It was funny to him that he didn’t even have to say anything, and he could still piss this man off.

  “You’ve been with us, what, two years or so now?” he asked, as though he didn’t know the answer. He did, of course. This man had an amazing memory, and he would have checked with Mark’s file even before he had picked up the phone to call him..

  “Yes,” Mark commented, not that he needed to, but his boss was waiting for his answer. “Since I retired.”

  The man nodded.

  “I’m not going to bullshit you. A lot of people would think I was insane to be considering you for this client, at your age. But you’re one of our most experienced guys.”

  Mark looked at him impassively, waiting. He knew that he was older than some of the bodyguards that were working for the same agency, but that was because he’d stuck it out the full twenty years in the military that were needed for retirement benefits.

  Yes, he was far closer to forty than he was to thirty. Far, far closer, since this year would mark his big four zero. But he was also in top shape, so he just arched an eyebrow at the man and waited for him to continue.

  When he didn’t, when he kept simply staring at him, Mark smirked a little more obviously.

  “Any idea when you’re going to be getting to the point?” he asked, and the man barked a laugh, and it was only then that Mark realized that he’d been being tested. Of course, that was hardly surprising. The man was a dick, but he was damn good at his job, and he made sure all of the people who worked for him were, too.

  “The guy I’m assigning you to, your new client, he’s young. Young and getting famous, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that young and famous is a bad combination.”

  Mark shrugged. He knew that already, and he just stared at him, waiting for more.

  “But he’s headed to the top, and that’s just what we need. Most of our clients are older.” Mark’s boss shrugged. “So that’s why I said, this is big. It is. We need someone who can keep up with the kid, but also someone who is steady enough to stabilize him a little bit.”

  Mark sighed softly, then shook his head.

  “Sounds like what you want for him isn’t a bodyguard. You want a damn babysitter.”

  The man shrugged.

  “No, you’re wrong. What we want is a bodyguard who is also a babysitter. We want this kid to survive, and not only
that, but we want him to be grateful to us for making it happen. Understand? We want him to depend on you completely.”

  Mark gave him an impassive little shrug right back.

  “Fine, no problem,” he said. He liked a challenge. This sounded like a little bit more than the typical guard detail, and that could be interesting. God knew his last job had been typical enough, protecting an aging politician who had finally let Mark off the hook when he’d retired.

  “There’s other young clients we have, but this guy, my instinct is, he’s heading to the top. We need that to stay relevant. So don’t fuck this up, got it?”

  * * *

  Mark stared at the Beverly Hills mansion, frowning a little. Jeez. At twenty five, this guy already had a mansion. It seemed that Mark’s boss might just be right about the potential of this young man.

  Of course, plenty of young celebrities burned bright, but crashed early. The fact that Mark’s boss thought this guy wouldn’t, that meant something. Well, it wasn’t Mark’s job to decide, anyway, so he straightened his broad shoulders and headed up the walk, which was pleasantly shaded by trees.

  Yeah, parts of this job were really, really not going to suck. Getting to hang out at this house for large parts of his time, for instance. Of course, the real question was going to be how much of a pain in the ass this young, rising star musician was going to be, but whatever he was, Mark could handle it.

  Though the part where he was supposed to not only protect the man’s body, but also provide a steadying influence on him, he had no idea how he was going to do that. That part, he was going to have to figure out as he went.

  Oh well. At least it was a challenge. His last job definitely hadn’t been. The old politician that he’d been guarding had never done much that was exciting at all. He rarely traveled, and other than work, he’d spent a lot of time at home with his collection of exotic birds.

  Not exactly high drama.

  Maybe this would be different. In fact, it seemed impossible that it wouldn’t be. Mark took a deep breath to settle himself as he walked up, and noticed several places where security would need to be beefed up. That tree, for instance, shouldn’t have branches growing so close to the window. Someone could crawl right in. That sort of thing.