The Heiress and The Bodyguard. Ryanne Corey

pathway to the guesthouse. She walked slowly, as if she had no place to go and all the time in the world to get there. Her head was down, her hair obscuring the expression on her face. Even her posture looked different, more brokenhearted than cool and composed. Her small figure looked incredibly defenseless, a little blond angel framed on either side by hedges of vibrant tropical blooms.

      Something was wrong.

      Change camera. She walked slowly to her front door, motion-sensitive lights keeping her well-illuminated. She punched in a security code beside the door, then disappeared inside. The windows of the cottage lit up one by one.

      Shirtless, his longish dark hair tumbled, he sat up on the edge of the bed. His heavy-lidded blue eyes took on a new intensity as he kept them on the camera. He might not be able to predict Julie Roper, but he knew when trouble was brewing. That talent had kept him alive and almost in one piece after working the gang unit in Oakland for eight years. Three puckered scars on his back from bullet wounds gave witness to his survival instinct. Another jagged scar on his abdomen above his low-riding jeans was a memento of his one and only stab wound. It was a sad fact, but most everyone on the streets, good guys and bad, had guns these days. His third trip to the hospital had resulted in a medal of valor and an early retirement from life as an undercover cop. He hadn’t minded. He’d known for some time he was pushing his luck. Besides, he liked the idea of setting up a little security business for himself. There was very little chance of being shot while baby-sitting the rich and the paranoid.

      Billy watched Julie’s shadow crossing back and forth behind the blinds of the bedroom window. Suddenly, she was moving quickly, as if now she had a purpose. Billy shrugged on a flowered shirt and started putting on his runners, never taking his eye off the cameras for more than a few seconds at a time. What are you doing, little sister?

      And then he had his answer. The garage door opened, spilling a square of light on the driveway. Billy stood up and grabbed for his wallet, watching as Julie’s Porsche backed out at thirty miles an hour, tires squealing. The lady was in a hurry. This was no midnight visit to the beach.

      Billy knew his Rent-a-Wreck would have a tough time keeping up with the Porsche, particularly with an emotional blonde driving the fancy car. He grabbed his cell phone and sprinted out of the apartment like a bat out of hell, with no time to obey Harris Roper’s number-one rule of little sister surveillance: Call me immediately if anything unusual happens.

      Billy could take the time to call Harris and risk losing his charge, or follow Julie and call Harris ASAP.

      Some decisions practically made themselves.

      For Julie, it had started out as an ordinary, yawn-stifling evening. Harris had thrown one of his exclusive parties, inviting the few acquaintances he deemed suitable to associate with his sister. Her brother had terribly high standards, and none of his friends were particularly outgoing. Still, they could all trace their ancestry back to the May-flower, and each and every one was on the Forbes 500 list of wealthiest people. As usual, the party had turned out to be very small and very subdued. The ladies congregated on the sofa, keeping their legs crossed and their hands folded modestly in their laps. The gentlemen were gathered at the mirror-backed bar, drinking little but gazing often at the splendid figures they made in their designer tuxedos. The one exception to this was Beauregard James Farquhar III, a Palm Beach trust-fund baby who sat next to Julie, stood next to Julie and walked beside Julie the entire evening. He was a long-time friend of the family, a man Harris deeply respected for his financial acumen, impeccable manners and doggedly patient character. He looked like a tennis pro, with tanned skin, a perfectly trimmed blond crew cut and a square face that always reminded Julie of a young Ted Kennedy. Beau had returned from a wine-and-spirits tour of Europe that very day, a good ten pounds heavier than when last she’d seen him. He’d proclaimed himself “frightfully happy” to see Julie; indeed, he had been frightfully happy to see her on each and every occasion since Julie could remember. He was completely devoted to her and had been since she was eighteen. She had managed to keep him at arm’s length until she returned home from college a few months earlier. Prior to his leaving for Europe, he’d been constantly underfoot, rather like a co-dependent housepet. Julie knew it was only a matter of time before Beau asked her to marry him. Her twenty-third birthday was hanging on the horizon like a dreadful storm cloud. Beau had hinted that this year her special day would be truly a monumental occasion. He had also asked her ring size. Julie had suffered from a nasty case of hives ever since.

      Although it was not yet 10:00 p.m., Julie was wrestling with an overriding urge to take a nap in the middle of Harris’s party. The pianist her brother had hired for the evening was like a musical sandman, playing “Somewhere over the Rainbow” ever so softly. She sat on the sofa next to Beau and tried to appear interested in his detailed description of a smooth yet complex little cabernet he’d discovered in Italy. Unfortunately, Beau knew his wines, and could go on forever rhapsodizing about the subtle integration of aromatics and tannins. Julie had fallen asleep twice, her lolling head connecting painfully with the carved sofaback. Finally she’d pleaded a headache and politely excused herself from the festivities.

      The urge to sleep left her the moment she walked into the small guesthouse she called home. Away from Beau, the pianist and all talk of financial dealings, she was suddenly wide-awake and positively smoking with restlessness. She decided to take her Porsche out for a spin before bed. She didn’t bother changing from her evening dress, although she did lose the panty hose and exchange her high heels for a comfortable pair of high-top sneakers. She looked utterly ridiculous but felt more comfortable than she had all evening. Besides, no one would see her. More than likely, Harris wouldn’t even know she had left the grounds.

      She drove mindlessly, enjoying the cool air on her flushed cheeks and pondering the strange culture of the well-bred and confused. She’d mingled with Palm Beach’s finest families sporadically throughout her life, yet she always felt like a stranger in their midst. Six months earlier, she had graduated from a private women’s college, and now poor Harris didn’t know what to do with her. The two jobs she’d had since then had lasted four weeks and four days, respectively. First, she’d given in to Harris and accepted a job on the board of Roper Industries, doing what seemed to her absolutely nothing for an obscene amount of money. She had traveled to work with Harris, had lunch with Harris and traveled home with Harris. By week four she was bored to tears and told Harris she thought her destiny lay elsewhere. On her own, she had found a job as a personal shopper at a terribly chic oceanside boutique. It wasn’t something she wanted to make a career of, but she thought it might keep her occupied while she tried to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. Unfortunately, the self-absorbed clientele, set hours and lack of challenge was worse than working at Roper Industries. She was “voluntarily unemployed” after only four days. Harris was becoming more and more concerned about her future, and he made no secret of that fact. He was a dear soul, but a chronic, intense, agonizing worrier. Julie had been seven years old and Harris only twenty-one when their parents had been killed in a sailing accident. Julie thought of them often, remembering sparkling, beautiful people full of love, laughter and spontaneity. She had no idea how two such oddball personalities as Harris and herself had emerged from the family gene pool. Harris had done his best for her through the past sixteen years, but his responsibilities had been terribly heavy for one so young. He obsessed over her welfare as he obsessed over the management of the family fortune. Julie hadn’t realized just how much it had all worn on him until she’d returned from college. Suddenly he looked far older than his thirty-seven years, with shadow-rimmed blue eyes, pale skin and shoulders that hinted at weariness. Julie had tried to make him understand she wasn’t his responsibility any longer, but Harris continued to worry himself to death when it came to her safety and security. The Roper mansion might have some forty-odd rooms, but Julie was plagued with overwhelming claustrophobia. Harris was here, there and everywhere, forever anxious and apprehensive. It had taken Julie months to talk him into allowing her to move from the main house to the guesthouse. Two weeks earlier he had positively stunned her by finally giving his permission. This had given her hope that someday she would be able to actually move off the grounds…until Beau had made it clear it was only a matter of days until he popped the big question. Julie had listened with barely disguised horror, visualizing a helium balloon going boom.

      Seeking