Master Unchained (Stealth Guardians Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

office and the event and wouldn’t have to waste any time by stopping by at home and getting changed.
    Tessa pulled out her compact and perused her reflection. Did her cheeks look a little red? She shrugged. So what if they did. She wasn’t going to the event to win a beauty contest.
    Her stomach growled. No wonder. She’d skipped lunch in order to receive several concerned constituents who had family members embroiled in the recent riots downtown. They’d been beside themselves, begging her for help, claiming their sons had nothing to do with the fights that had taken place at a demonstration. After two hours of listening to the same story over and over again, she’d been exhausted and close to tears. Something had to change in this city.
    Switching off the light on her way out, she closed the door and locked it. The antechamber, which was shared by four assistants, all working for one council member or another, was empty. She was crossing the room when she heard a noise behind her. Spinning around, she instinctively gripped her handbag tighter, hoping to use it as a shield against an attacker. She froze. There was nobody behind her, just the closed door of her office and Collette’s tidy desk a few feet to its left.
    Heart beating into her throat, she cast frantic looks in every direction, but she was alone.
    “Shit!” she cursed under her breath.
    She was definitely losing it. She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it until now, but the death threat two days earlier had rattled her, and the arrival of the bodyguard had driven the reality of her situation home. She was in danger because somebody didn’t like her political agenda, when all she wanted was to bring peace and prosperity back to this city. The people of Baltimore needed her, and therefore she needed to win this election. And that’s why—even though she didn’t like Hamish’s macho attitude—she would just have to play along with her overbearing bodyguard.
    And her bodyguard was already waiting for her when she reached the lobby. He’d changed clothes and was now wearing a dark blue suit with a lavender-colored tie. But even the elegant attire couldn’t disguise his muscular physique or the fact that he looked like he could overturn a tank singlehanded. To her surprise he smiled at her as she approached him, and when she reached him, he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
    “You look great, Tessa.”
    Shocked at the physical intimacy and the compliment, she froze, unable to form a coherent sentence. She felt him lean even closer, his hand on the small of her back now, his mouth near her ear.
    “This is where you say, thanks for picking me up, Hamish,” he whispered.
    He wore no aftershave that she could detect, and he smelled more masculine than any man she’d ever been near. Trying to get her rapidly beating heart under control, she pulled back a few inches and stepped out of his almost-embrace.
    “Hi, Hamish, I hope you didn’t have to wait long.”
    He offered his arm, and she had no choice but to accept it, allowing him to walk her past building security to the large double doors leading out of the building.
    “You’re worth waiting for,” he said.
    She cast him a sideways look and lowered her voice to a whisper. “You don’t have to lay it on that thick. Nobody’s watching us.”
    He graced her with a devastatingly charming smile. “You never know.” Then he winked at her. “Besides, I need the practice. We both do.”
    She had no comeback for this.
    At the bottom of the stairs, he let go of her arm and opened the passenger door of a black Mercedes and helped her in. She slunk into the elegant interior. Moments later, Hamish got in on the driver’s side and started the engine.
    He motioned to the controls. “If you want the air condition on, feel free. Or if you’re too cold, I can switch on the seat warmer.”
    She raised an eyebrow. “Why so friendly all of a sudden?”
    He pulled away from the curb and eased into the