Seducing the Bodyguard Read Free

eggs—scrambled, two pieces of turkey bacon, four blueberry pancakes, one piece of sausage and a glass of grapefruit juice.”
    “You forgot the oatmeal.”
    “You didn’t have oatmeal today. That’s your Thursday breakfast.”
    “How the hell do you know all of this?” She was right about everything and on some level that scared him. Maybe she was his stalker.
    “I make it my business to know everything about a potential client. It’s how I decide if I care enough to invest my time in keeping them safe.”
    “You interview your client? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
    She shrugged. “At the end of the day, Mr. Sinclair I have to be willing to put my life on the line for my client. I have to be willing to take that bullet. And if I don’t believe in my client; if I don’t think my client is worth that, then I don’t take the case. Is that understood?”
    It was. She had been interviewing him and the whole time he thought he was picking her. He could have agreed to protection and she could have walked away—just that simple. At the end of the day his decision didn’t make a world of difference because if she didn’t think he was worth it she would have left him standing there. “Understood,” he mumbled.
    “We’ll leave you two alone to talk,” Drake pulled on Geneva’s hand as he urged her to give the two some time to pull together their strategy.
    Once the door closed Harrison set about getting answers to his own questions. She wasn’t black. He could tell that, but she had some black in her and with a last name like Mishoto he wanted to know her lineage.
    “So what are you?”
    “Human,” she said as she sat down in the leather chair and motioned for him to take the chair across from her.
    “You know what I mean. What’s your lineage?”
    She shook her head. “I’m Hawaiian, Japanese and black.” She flipped through her folder.
    “Elaborate.”
    “My father is Japanese. My mother is considered seventy-five percent Polynesian and twenty-five percent black given her lineage. Is this really important?”
    He shrugged. Just knowing that he seemed to be getting under her skin made him push forward. “You ever try to pass.”
    “Pass what?” She narrowed her gaze. “Pass math class, pass science, pass the butter…what?”
    “For black,” he stated.
    “Why should I?” She flipped through the dossier again. “Listen,” she looked up, her eyes cold as ice. “In Hawaii I don’t have a huge problem with racism from the locals. Everybody knows my family and so they know my heritage. Mostly, they know I’m a native Hawaiian and I respect our land, our customs and honor our traditions. On the mainland,” she kept her tone level. “I run into idiots all over the place who make themselves appear dumber than dirt by making assumptions about me. I’m either not black enough because of my hair, or I’m black with fake hair. If my lineage bothers you, Mr. Sinclair, feel free to hire another bodyguard.”
    He held up his hand in surrender. “I’m sorry. I was just curious. You have beautiful brown skin, but your features are very exotic. I hadn’t seen a woman who looked like you before now. I mean you’re not quite brown sugar, but you’re smooth, like honey—at least you look smooth.” He had really only had limited contact with her skin, outside of her hands. Those hands, though smooth, had been strong and had seen work.
    “Perhaps this will be a problem for you.”
    “I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said quickly as she started to get up. He knew she was ready to walk out on him.
    “Sure you did,” she said smoothly. “Don’t let it happen again.”
    He nodded. “Noted,” he sat back in his chair. She was nothing like the women he was used to, not in looks and certainly not in temperament. He may have meant to goad her a bit. He, of course, wanted to get back at her for practically eviscerating his manhood in front of Drake and Geneva, but he hadn’t meant to