Beauty And The Bodyguard. Lisa Childs
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eyes, the darker blond stubble on his jaw...
Just how badly had the veil distorted her vision? Who was she mistaking for a dead man?
Her hands trembling, she fumbled with her veil, pulling it back so she could focus on the apparition. She whirled around to face him.
It couldn’t be...
Gage was dead. He had died months ago, his body lost in some foreign country. But that hadn’t stopped her from seeing him everywhere, every time she’d closed her eyes and tried to sleep.
She shouldn’t be seeing him here—not on her wedding day to another man.
“No...” she murmured. Her knees trembled and weakened, threatening to fold beneath her. “No...”
“So what do I think?” Gage repeated her question. He thought he’d been punched in the gut. The minute he’d opened the door and seen her—sparkling like a vision in white—all his breath had left his lungs. His chest burned, his ribs ached. He felt like he was getting the life pounded out of him all over again.
Her usually honey-toned skin was pale except for the dark circles beneath her enormous eyes. With her sharp cheekbones, small pointed chin and wide dark eyes, she appeared fragile—vulnerable. He knew she was tougher than she looked, though. She’d been tough on him when she’d broken up with him. Then she swayed on her feet, as if she were about to faint.
Instinctively, he reached out to catch her, closing his hands around her waist. She was thinner than she’d been when he’d seen her last. Maybe she was one of those brides who’d been starving herself to fit into her gown, to look good for her wedding photos and her groom. Maybe that was why she trembled in his grasp.
From starvation...
He preferred the sexy curves she’d had over her new svelte figure. She’d been perfect as she was.
Her breath escaped in a gasp. “You’re real...” she murmured. “You’re alive...”
As he realized what she’d thought, he chuckled. “You’re not seeing a ghost.”
“I thought—everyone thought—that you died in Afghanistan.”
“I was presumed dead,” he said, “but I was just missing.” Missing everyone back home, but most especially her. She had obviously not been missing him at all, though. She’d been dating, getting engaged.
Anger coursed through him, making him shake like she was. His hands tightened around her tiny waist. “So what do I think,” he mused again. “I think you make a beautiful bride, Megan Lynch.”
He had once planned on asking her to be his; he’d even bought the ring. But he had never gotten the chance to give it to her before she’d broken up with him, before she’d broken him.
She flinched as if he’d insulted her. But she’d never been able to accept a compliment as anything but a lie. She’d actually accused him of lying to her, of using her.
His blood heated. This was why he couldn’t protect her—because he wanted to hurt her—like she had hurt him, like her marrying another man was hurting him all over again. “So let me be the first to kiss the bride...”
He gripped her small waist and dragged her up so her feet dangled above the floor. She gasped in shock, her breath whispering across his lips as he lowered his mouth to hers. Her lips were as soft as he remembered, her taste as sweet. He had missed this so much. He’d missed her. He deepened the kiss. Pressing his lips tightly against hers, he slid his tongue into her mouth.
A moan rumbled in her throat. And her hands clasped the back of his head, her fingers sliding over his short hair. She stilled as she touched one of the scars. Those wounds hadn’t hurt, though, at least not in comparison to what she’d done to him.
Remembering the pain she’d caused him, he dragged his mouth from hers. Then he lowered her until her feet touched the floor again. When he released her, she swayed and her palm pressed against his chest. His heart leaped beneath her touch, and she must have felt it because she jerked her hand away.
“Gage,” she murmured, and she stared up at him as if she still couldn’t believe he wasn’t an apparition. Then her gaze scanned him, over the tuxedo he was wearing, the damn bow tie choking off his breath.
“Why are you here?” She looked both fearful and hopeful, and he realized what she thought.
A chuckle of bitterness slipped through his lips. “Don’t worry,” he assured her, “I’m not here to stop the wedding.”
“Then why are you here?” she asked.
“I work for a security firm now,” he said. “The Payne Protection Agency. Penny hired me to make sure nothing stops this wedding from happening.” Actually, he suspected just the opposite—that she had imagined some romantic reunion between him and Megan. Since she was a wedding planner, she probably believed in romance and happy endings and all that stuff Gage had given up on nearly a year ago.
There would be no happy ending for him.
* * *
Like she had so many times before, Penny tugged the dress over Nikki’s head and zipped her into it. “Thank you, honey, for helping me out.”
Nikki grimaced. Like she had a choice...
Like anyone could say no to Penny Payne. Even Gage Huxton hadn’t been able to, and he could have come up with more excuses than Nikki had.
Her small hands gripping Nikki’s shoulders, Penny spun her around to face her. “You look beautiful.”
After having three boys, Penny must have been very happy to finally have a girl so she could dress her up like a doll. But having three brothers, Nikki hadn’t wanted anything to do with dresses or dolls. She’d wanted to play the sports her brothers had played. She’d wanted to wrestle and fight. She couldn’t do that in the dresses Mom had constantly tried to zip her into then—or now.
“Mom...”
Penny’s palm cupped her cheek. “I know you don’t want to be, but you are beautiful.”
Her face flushed, but she couldn’t deny that she was beautiful—not without insulting her mother. She looked exactly like Penny.
“I want to be taken seriously,” she said. And that was hard when she looked like the doll her mother treated her like she was. She was petite and delicate looking with big heavily lashed eyes. And now her mother had zipped her into a blue satin dress so she looked like a curly auburn–haired Barbie doll.
“I want you to be happy,” Penny said.
“I am,” Nikki insisted.
But her mother just gave her a pitying smile. Penny didn’t think it was possible for Nikki to be happy unless she was all in love like her brothers were. Her brothers had been lucky to find their perfect mates. Nikki didn’t think there was anyone out there who would be perfect for her.
She’d once thought another man had been perfect—her father. Of course she only had a child’s memories of him, since he’d died when she was nine, so she’d idealized him. When she’d learned that he had cheated on her mother, Nikki had been more upset than Penny had been. Her mother had been able to forgive him. Nikki couldn’t.
Nor could she trust any other man.
“Well,” Nikki amended her statement, “I’m not happy to be here.”
“I appreciate your helping out,” Penny said.
“What happened?” Nikki asked. “Why did a bridesmaid get tossed out of the wedding party? Did she sleep with the groom?” And the stupid bride had forgiven him but disowned her friend?
Penny shook her head. “The matron of honor. She’s