Guarding her red stone s.., p.1
Guarding Her: Red Stone Security #18, page 1
GUARDING HER
RED STONE SECURITY #18
KATIE REUS
Guarding Her
Red Stone Security Series
Copyright © 2022 Katie Reus
Cover art by Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs
Editor: Julia Ganis
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.
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Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book. This purchase allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the right to resell, distribute, print or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload this book to a file sharing program. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
She never wanted fame…
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After a video of her modeling her friend’s new clothing line goes viral, Gia suddenly finds herself thrust into the spotlight. She never wanted fame—she was just having fun and helping a friend. Unfortunately now she’s got a target on her back. Someone out there will do anything to destroy her. Someone who wants her dead.
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Now she’s paying the price…
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As his best friend’s sister, Gia is off-limits. She’s also the woman of Lawson’s dreams—and hottest fantasies. When she’s targeted by a vicious stalker, all bets are off. As a Red Stone Security expert, he’ll keep her safe at any cost. What he doesn’t know is how he’s going to keep her out of his bed, because he’s never wanted anyone as badly as he wants her. He’s all about rules—it’s why he’s such a good bodyguard—while she seems determined to test his control at every step. But if they want to survive, they’ll have to work together to stop the killer…before it’s too late.
For readers everywhere.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Epilogue
Dear Readers,
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Complete Booklist
CHAPTER ONE
Gia slid onto the barstool and grabbed Angel’s hand. “Red alert, girl.”
Angel blinked, her eyes slightly unfocused from the last couple glasses of champagne. “What?”
“Six o’clock!” Gia raised her voice slightly to be heard over the noise of the club. This wasn’t her normal scene, but it was Angel’s bachelorette party.
Angel’s head tilted slightly to the side. “It’s like eleven.”
Gia snickered slightly and weaved against the seat—realized she was a little tipsy too. Oops. “It’s actually one in the morning, but I mean Juan is here, at your six o’clock and moving in fast.”
And Juan, Gia’s older brother, had brought one of his best friends with him. Lawson Murphy. The man of Gia’s fantasies.
Not that it mattered—he barely looked at her twice. Had even ruffled her hair once in the last year. Talk about a blow to her ego. So Gia had locked down her crush tight. No one, not even her brother, knew about it, and she planned to keep it that way.
Angel let out a squeal, surprising Gia, and jumped off her seat, turning and basically throwing herself into Juan’s arms.
Gia turned back to her drink as Clarita—one of Angel’s sisters, younger by like a year—slid up next to her and threw an arm around her shoulders. “I remember those days,” she murmured, her voice barely audible over the music and laughter around them. “When I couldn’t wait to see my husband.”
Angel and Juan weren’t married yet. She so wasn’t surprised that Juan had shown up though—not after Gia had sent him a picture of Angel dancing on the bar earlier. He was such a caveman sometimes, but man, he loved Angel. Had been crushing on her since he was twelve.
“What are you talking about?” she demanded, probably too loudly. Holy hell, how much had she had to drink again? Gia looked down at her champagne glass, saw it was empty. Oh, crap. Way too much. “You’ve got, like, the perfect husband.” Gia had always thought Clarita and Carlos were “couple goals.” They were both thirty-two, so she’d never been in school with them, but they’d all grown up in the same neighborhood. And those two had been hot and heavy since they were fifteen.
Clarita made a grumbling sound and grabbed the shot glass placed in front of her, downed it in a second. She’d set it down on the bar top and started to wave their bartender over when Angel suddenly slid between them.
She threw her arms around Gia and Clarita, pulled their heads close to hers. “I’m going home to get laid!”
Gia winced at the decibel level and then mock covered her ears as she tugged back. “La, la, la! I don’t want to hear about you and my brother.” Yeah, they were both adults but whatever. Gross.
“Oh, right.” Angel cackled then, definitely more than tipsy, and it was no wonder. “Sorry!”
People had been buying them drinks all night. Instead of going down to Ocean Drive, Angel had wanted to stay closer to home so they’d hit up all the local bars near their neighborhood. With Angel’s bride-to-be sash and their bachelorette party sashes on, they’d gotten in free everywhere too. In concept, that was a good thing, but the reality—the mix of the random alcohols—probably not great.
Juan wrapped an arm around Angel’s middle then and pulled her into his arms. And even though Gia so didn’t want to think about what her brother and Angel were going to do later, she’d never seen him so happy before. Knowing that he’d finally gotten the woman of his dreams warmed her from the inside out. Because he deserved it more than anyone she knew. Hell, so did Angel. Several years ago, she’d married an asshole of a man who’d cheated on her and gotten his mistress pregnant, but thankfully she’d kicked him to the curb. Now she and Juan had a chance at happiness and they were living their best lives.
“Go, have fun.” Lawson slid up and put his arm casually around Gia’s shoulders as he spoke to Juan. She nearly jolted in reaction to his touch, but didn’t move at all. “I’ll make sure Gia gets home.”
Like she needed a chaperone? She frowned and turned toward him to tell him exactly what she thought about his statement when she realized… Oh. He was watching her with a different sort of intensity tonight. One she’d never seen before. And sweet mangoes, he smelled delicious, all masculine and earthy and she wanted to bury her face against his chest. But she hadn’t had that much to drink, thankfully. Playing off doing something like that would be hard to do.
Right about now she was regretting the blinking penis necklace she’d opted to wear. But maybe she would let him take her home. “Why did you guys show up?” she asked, taking the drink that Mila—another of Angel’s sisters—slid to her. She wrapped her lips around the straw, took a sort of perverse pleasure when Lawson’s eyes dilated and focused on her lips.
Ooh, this was interesting.
That was when it registered how close they were, her body nearly pressed up against his. And the man was tall and broad. Not quite as tall as Juan, but Lawson was at least six feet and his arm muscles should be illegal. Gia forced herself not to look at them, not to undress him with her eyes. Instead she met his gaze, staring into deep blue eyes, and tried not to fall even harder. Too late.
“What did you think would happen when you texted Juan that picture?” His tone was dry, but she noticed he now was looking anywhere but at her—though he hadn’t moved away from her. Nope, he was still right next to her, sort of caging her in against the bar without actually touching her. But those gorgeous blue eyes were looking right above her head, at some invisible spot.
Very, very interesting. Unless she was making all this up in her head and just projecting. Ugh.
“I thought it would be funny to mess with him.” That was what little sisters did after all. And if she was being honest, she knew it was time for the night to start wrapping up. It was now after one and time to go home. She wanted to be in bed—preferably Lawson with her.
Lawson snorted slightly and ordered a bottle of water from the bartender. “Well, you did a good job of messing up our night.”
“Messing up your boring-ass bachelor par
“The party was over a couple hours ago.”
She laughed lightly and booped him on the nose. “Like I said, boring.”
Lawson just looked down at her with a mix of surprise and something else she couldn’t quite read. Whatever it was, it had her insides turning to mush. “Did you just bop my nose?”
“No. I booped you.” Then she giggled, probably a little manically. She was definitely done drinking tonight.
His mouth curved up, turning his normally hard expression into something poets wrote about. Oh, sweet mangoes indeed. He was absolutely stunning. Just a hint of boyishness peeked through that hard exterior when he smiled like that.
Gia waved at Mila as she and Clarita started to leave with Mila’s fiancé—who was also super overprotective. She motioned that she was fine and getting a ride home with Lawson.
Zamira, another of Angel’s sisters, had left an hour ago, claiming a headache, and Gia was pretty sure she’d been telling the truth. Two of Angel’s other friends, including Ivy, waved at her as they pushed off from the bar and headed out. Well, the party was truly over.
“If you want to stay, I’ll hang out with you.” Lawson’s gaze dipped slightly to her cleavage then and she saw the flush of red on his tanned cheeks as he glanced away. They’d been out on the boat all day, deep-sea fishing—that was what Juan had wanted for his bachelor party.
She stilled for a moment, digesting the fact that Lawson had actually checked her out. “Seriously? This doesn’t seem like your scene.” If she was being honest, it wasn’t hers either, but it had been a fun night. Angel’s only rule had been no strippers, so Gia had respected that—and been grateful for it—when she’d planned the party.
He lifted a shoulder and dropped a bill on the bar for the water. “It’s not.”
She snagged the bottle from him and gave him a cheeky grin. “It’s not mine either. Let’s get out of here.” Turning her back to him, she wondered if he was checking out her ass, then was immediately annoyed at herself for caring. Just because he’d noticed her cleavage didn’t mean a thing.
Once they were outside, she sucked in the fresh air, glad to be out of the stifling club. She’d just met her bar quota for the year in one night.
“Nice headband,” Lawson murmured as they fell into step along the sidewalk.
She giggled as she took a swig from the water bottle, savored the coolness as it rolled down her throat. “I forgot about this.” Angel had said no way was she wearing two pink penises on her head for the night so Gia had opted to wear it. She shook her head slightly, making them jiggle, and Lawson just laughed.
“Glad you guys had a good time. So how was the stripper?”
“Angel said no stripper!”
“I kind of figured you ignored her rule.” He nodded right as they reached a crosswalk. “I’m this way.”
“Hell no. And why would you think I’d ignore her? I don’t want some half-naked sweaty guy I don’t know dancing all up on me, so I understand why she didn’t want it either.”
He didn’t respond, just motioned that they should cross the street to the nearby parking garage.
“So how’s work been going?” she asked because she felt the need to fill the silence. They rarely spent any alone time together. Gia had been going with Juan to Angel’s mama’s house for dinner on Sundays—and Lawson had come to the last few as well. It gave her time to sneak looks at him and they talked occasionally, but never really one-on-one or for long.
“Good.”
“How was the fishing trip today?” she asked as they reached the elevators. The flashing in the reflection was annoying so she turned off the penis necklace.
He was glancing around, as if looking for danger. Juan was the same way, and while it sometimes annoyed her, she understood it was just the way they were wired. They were both in professional security. “Good.”
“You’re a man of so many words today,” she said as they stepped into the waiting elevator.
He blinked down at her as the doors closed. “Sorry, just paying attention to our surroundings. Saw some guys loitering around earlier.”
“Ah.” She nodded and faced the reflective doors as they started upward. And saw him glance down at her, do a long sweep of her body.
Gia grinned to herself, glad she’d opted to listen to Clarita and wear one of the woman’s creations—a cobalt blue bandage-type dress with a deep V that wrapped around her like a second skin. Normally shorts and T-shirts or simple, loose dresses were her daily “uniform,” but when she went out she loved to get dressed up.
“I could have just grabbed a rideshare,” she said once they were in the comfort of his truck. It was September, and the Florida weather was slightly cooling off. But it was by no means a real fall, so she was grateful when he turned the air-conditioning on.
“I don’t like the thought of you taking one of those.” His forearms flexed slightly as he steered his way out of the parking garage.
She tried not to stare at the way his muscles flexed. Failed. “I do it all the time, but thank you for taking me home. Do you know where to go?”
He nodded, clearly not giving up more words than was necessary.
She leaned back against the cushy seat, thankful for the relative silence. Tonight had been fun, but an overload of noise and scents. She worked from home, had for the last couple years, and was used to her own company a lot of the time.
“Is Angel ready for the big day?” Lawson’s question took her by surprise a couple minutes later as he pulled onto a main street.
“Oh yeah. Probably just as ready as my brother. He doesn’t even care about the actual wedding, he just wants to be married to her.”
“They’re perfect for each other.” Lawson’s mouth curved up slightly, the Miami lights outside highlighting his face in a kaleidoscope of colors as they passed a strip of tattoo places. “Not like last time.”
“I forgot that you knew him then. That you knew her.” Juan had been very briefly engaged to a woman when he’d lived up in North Carolina. Gia had never even met his former fiancée. Juan and Lawson had served in the Marines together and Juan was five years older than Gia so she’d still been in high school then.
“He got it right this time.”
“So Angel’s nothing like his ex?” Juan had never brought the other woman home so Gia had no idea what she’d been like—couldn’t even remember her name.
“Nope. She wasn’t a bad person, they just didn’t fit. Probably because Juan was in love with Angel even then.”
She laughed lightly as he took another turn. “No doubt.” She settled against the seat as businesses turned into homes, the familiarity of this area soothing every part of her. This was where she’d grown up, where she’d just bought her first house. It wasn’t huge, but it was hers and she loved it—loved the possibilities she could see. Plus it was close to Juan and Angel and that mattered. He was her only family now, and being close was important to her.
“So are you bringing anyone to the wedding?” His question cut through the quiet interior, taking her by surprise.
“Nah.” She hoped she sounded casual as she suddenly realized that…he could easily bring a date. Hell, he likely was. A man who looked as good as Lawson had to be dating. He just never brought anyone to their Sunday dinners so she’d never really thought about it. A surprising slash of jealousy cut through her. “What about you?” Gah, did she sound casual, or like she cared too much?
