Bodyguard/Husband Read Online Free PDF

slid his arm around her.
     
    J ACK FELT THE RIGID SET of Holly’s shoulders. He squeezed gently. He’d pulled her close to demonstrate their relationship, but her brittle tension made him want to give her something—he wasn’t sure what. Not reassurance. At this point he didn’t have any for her.

    “I’m Holly’s husband,” he said, watching the sister’s reaction.
    “Husband!” Debi repeated, her jaw dropping. She glanced from Holly to Jack and back. “Husband? You’ve got to be—”
    As the concept sank in, her features changed from shock and interest to resentment. Her face shut down and anger flashed in the brown eyes that were so much like Holly’s.
    Jack raised a brow. Her reaction seemed a little over the top. Where had that anger come from? And why?
    “Um, y-yes,” Holly stammered. “Jack O’Hara, this is my sister, Debi McCray. Debi, Jack.”
    Debi stared at her sister for a beat, then turned to Jack. “So you go out of town for two weeks to a seminar and come back with a husband, and a hunky one at that.” She held Jack’s eye but spoke to Holly. “Don’t you think that’s kind of dangerous?”
    Jack released Holly and leaned against the door frame with his arms folded. “Dangerous?” he drawled, giving Debi a bland half smile as he analyzed her body language and her tone of voice. “Come on. I’m nice, once you get to know me.”
    Debi laughed uneasily and rooted around under the couch, fishing out a pair of Birkenstocks and a nearly empty microwave popcorn bag. She tossed the bag onto the coffee table and slid her feet into the shoes. Grabbing a book from between the couch cushions, she headed toward the door.
    “I don’t mean dangerous for her,” she tossed back at him.
    He straightened.
    “Debi…” Holly’s voice held a note of warning, but her sister ignored her.

    “I mean dangerous for you,” she said to him, flashing a dazzling smile. “You should’ve checked things out before you jumped into marriage with both feet. My sister seems to have a bad effect on men.” She opened the front door and paused dramatically.
    “They die. Watch your back, Jack.” She waved at Holly. “Glad to house-sit for you, Hol. Anytime.”
    As the front door slammed, Jack glanced at Holly, curious to see her reaction to her sister’s hostility.
    Her face was set, her lips pinched. She looked at the door, a worried frown on her face. When she realized Jack was watching her, she drew her mouth into a crooked grin and sighed.
    “Little sisters, what are you going to do?”
    “She doesn’t know about your stalker?”
    “No!” She gave him a warning look. “I don’t want to frighten her.”
    “I take it she doesn’t know about us either.”
    “Of course not. Uncle Virgil told me not to tell anyone.”
    Jack nodded, satisfied. She took instructions seriously and literally. That would make his job easier.
    She picked up the popcorn bag and a glass with one hand and straightened the remote control and a couple of magazines with the other, then headed for the kitchen.
    Jack followed and found her fumbling with the garbage bag ties, her hands shaking.
    “Give me that,” he said. He took the bag out to the garage. When he came back in, she was putting a stack of dirty dishes into the sink. She looked up, her amber-brown eyes glimmering with a touch of the sadness he’d seen in her photo. It tugged at a place inside him that he thought had turned to stone years ago.

    Holly was different from many stalking victims he’d dealt with. For one thing, she was alive, he thought wryly.
    Most stalking victims were all too aware of the danger that followed them everywhere. Holly’s stalker had deliberately not revealed himself. Consequently she was trying very hard to pretend her life was normal. From the little he’d seen of her, she obviously spent a lot of energy hanging on to all the control she could grab.
    As much to wipe the sadness from her face as to gather information, he asked