A Bodyguard For The Princess (A Bad Boy Romance) Read Free Page B

night long,” she teased. “I would hate to get in the way of Dion the lady killer.”
    “Speaking of lady killers,” he changed the subject, “I saw your new body guard. He’s a piece of work.”
    “You know him?” she asked, confused, trying to forget the heat in Matt’s eyes when they had gazed at every inch of her body.
    “Not personally, but I know of him. Used to work security at the nightclubs in the city,” Dion told her. “He’s got a reputation as being a hard-ass while on the job, but when he’s not working, he’s quite the womanizer.”
    Daphne pushed herself off the couch and paced around her room. “Really?”
    Dion nodded. “Many of the ladies speak very highly of him, but as far as I know, he’s never had a relationship. Just one night stands. They say he’s pretty intense, too.”
    That she could tell after only being around him for a few minutes. Warmth spread between her legs as her mind wondered about how good he must be as a lover for all those girls to spend just one night with him and not care. Her mind drifted, picturing him in her bed…
    “Daphne?”
    “What? I’m listening.”
    “Sure you are,” he laughed. “What were you thinking about? Your face is red.”
    She turned away quickly, her cheeks burning hotter, and shook her head. “Nothing at all. So I’ll see you tonight, then? At the ball?”
    “Course. I’ll save you a dance,” he said, and she heard his steps. “Daphne, you sure you’re alright? Your mom said she thought you might be coming down with something.”
    “Nope, I’m perfectly fine,” she assured him, hoping her face wasn’t as flushed as it felt.
    His scrunched face said he didn’t believe her, but he shrugged and waved over his shoulder. Daphne wanted to hear what else her cousin knew about her new bodyguard, but that would’ve been highly inappropriate. That, and Dion had a big mouth. He would relay it all to his mother without even thinking what she would say to the queen. Her Aunt Agnes was not a woman Daphne enjoyed dealing with on a regular basis. Agnes was a spiteful woman, only tolerated because of her relationship to the late prince and her husband. Dion wasn’t so bad when he was by himself, but the second the two were in a room together, Daphne wanted to smack him upside the head.
    Daphne knew what her aunt was really after, though she would never say it out loud. It was the other reason she was in no mood to celebrate her birthday, knowing her aunt was after the throne for Dion and would keep pushing to find a way to make it happen.
    When Marie returned with a steaming cup of coffee, Daphne was seated at her large, ornate desk, shuffling through the terms for the new educational reforms she was trying to establish on the island.
    “If you continue to frown like that, you’ll get wrinkles,” Marie warned.
    “If I could get anyone to listen to me, I wouldn’t have to frown,” Daphne mused. “Thanks, Marie.”
    “Of course, but you do not have all day for that. We’ll start getting you ready soon.”
    Absently, she nodded and tried to picture herself anywhere but stuck in this damn palace for another stupid ball she did not want to attend.

Chapter 2
     
    The afternoon went by in a flurry of maps and plans Matt had to learn for his new job, but maps and plans were second-nature for him. In the military, he hadn’t dealt much with protection details. He simply treated this as any other mission, and everything fell into place.
    When he’d first arrived, Ambrose went over most of what his job would entail, but little information was given to him concerning Princess Daphne. Matt tried not to judge a person until he met him or her, but when he’d fought overseas, he’d seen firsthand how certain royals acted around those of the lower classes, and he’d waited for the haughty attitude. Add that to the rumors spreading around the city of Daphne being a shut-in, too damaged by her sister’s death to step out into the city and