Bodyguard: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance (Snake Eyes Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

stirring in my breast.
    “Show me,” Cora says, standing up and following Smith outside.
    “Let’s not get too excited now…” my father warns. “It could be a prank.”
    He’s right. Lamb announced in front of dozens of cameras that my stepbrother was killed in action. That video hit one million views in less than an hour. There are plenty of people out there willing enough to toy with someone’s emotions like that.
    Hey, look, Roxie! It’s me! Fox! I’m home!
    I stand back and wait in the front hall while they all pile outside. My lips twitch, unable to forget the last time I saw him. It was my eighteenth birthday. The party was long over and all my friends had gone home. Fox and I were alone upstairs, standing in the hall outside his room. I said goodnight and started to walk away, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him. I’ll never forget the rush of blood to my cheeks or the feel of his thumb sliding across my bottom lip.
    A kiss. Just one kiss. That’s all it was but I was hooked.
    He enlisted in the army the next morning and I never saw him again.
    I jolt out of my trance as Cora’s blood-curdling scream strikes my ears. I rush to the front door and throw it open to look outside. Cora’s on her knees in the circle drive. My father’s doing everything he can to bring her back up but she’s sobbing way too hard. Smith stands near them with his hand lingering above the gun strapped to his hip. They’re all looking forward at the car parked in the drive and the man standing in front of it wearing a jet black suit with no tie.
    Fox.
    He looks up at me and I tremble in my shoes.
    “Get back inside, Roxie,” Smith says at me, holding up a hand.
    I ignore him and walk down the concrete stairs to get a better look at him, pulled down by curiosity’s strong grip. My father gets Cora to her feet and I pause near them, staring up into the brown eyes of a dead man.
    “Hey, Dani,” he says to me. His voice is deep, much more than I remember. He never had a beard either. His skin was smooth as butter back then. Now, it’s calloused and gray with wrinkles on the edges of his eyes. There’s a darkness in them that wasn’t there five years ago. That playful twinkle has completely vanished. Wherever he’s been… I’m honestly a bit scared to find out.
    Cora stumbles towards him. “Fox?” She reaches out and cups his shaggy face. “My Fox?”
    “Yeah, Mom,” he says, his eyes soft. “It’s me.”
    Tears stream down her face and she leaps up to throw her arms around him. “You’re home!”
    He hesitates for the briefest of moments before returning the embrace. His eyes wander back up until they fall on me again. “We need to talk.”
    Fox. The stepbrother that kissed me and bailed without saying goodbye. Back from the dead.
    You bet your ass we need to talk.

Chapter 5
    Fox
     
    Bennett stares down the dining room table at me with his arms tightly wound across his chest. This hostile reaction to my homecoming isn’t the least bit surprising. He and I never exactly threw the old pigskin around together.
    My mother sits across from him with a stack of used tissues in front of her and Dani is across from me — just like our old family dinners, with the obvious exception of the middle-aged ex-cop lingering in the doorway behind me.
    “How is this possible?” Bennett asks me.
    “It’s a long story,” I answer.
    He shakes his head. “Better be a good one…” Dani’s eyes twitch in his direction, but she says nothing to argue with it. I don’t blame her. “Well, let’s hear it…”
    I look at Dani again and my eyes fall to the bandage covering her cheek. Snake Eyes could be on their way here right now. They could even be out front, wolves in paparazzi clothing. If that’s the case, it’s a possibility that they recognized me outside. I lean forward. “I’m sorry, but… it can wait.”
    “Like hell, it can wait , Fox,” Bennett snaps. “Do you have any idea what you’ve put