Single Mum's Bodyguard
A pretend relationship between a bodyguard and single mum turns all too real! Emilia Ecklund’s either losing her mind – or someone wants her to think she is! She hears her child crying when he's smiling. She sees intruders where there are none. She's desperate, so she asks her brother's best friend, former Marine and professional bodyguard Dane Sutton, to investigate. But the only way is for him to move into her home…and then her bed!Dane's secret mission is to pose as Emilia's boyfriend while watching every door and window like a hawk. He vows to keep things purely professional, but he's severely tempted as his feelings intensify. And as the threats escalate, the guarded loner realises he has everything to lose…
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A pretend relationship between a bodyguard and single mom turns all too real in the latest Bachelor Bodyguards romance
Emilia Ecklund hears her child cry when heâs smiling. She sees intruders where there are none. Sheâs either losing her mindâor someone wants her to think she is. Desperate, she asks her brotherâs best friend, former Marine and Payne Protection Agency bodyguard Dane Sutton, to investigate. But the only way is for him to move into her home...and bed.
Daneâs secret mission: to pose as Emiliaâs boyfriend while watching every door and window like a hawk. He vows to keep things purely professional, but heâs severely tempted as his feelings intensify. And as the threats escalate, the guarded loner has everything to lose.
Emilia blinked and stared up at him, the fear still in her pale blue eyes.
âWhatâs wrong?â Dane asked her.
Clasping her baby son tightly against her with one arm, she gestured with her other hand at the window. âSomeone was thereâtrying to get in.â
He glanced at the window. âNobodyâs there.â
âThere was,â she insisted, her voice tremulous. With fear or doubt?
He glanced around the room, at the teenage girls who struggled to comfort crying babies and toddlers. One of the girls shook her head. âI didnât see anyone.â
Emilia reached out now and clasped Daneâs arm. His skin tingled beneath her fingers. âThere was someone thereâtrying to open the window.â
He nodded. âIâll check it out.â But she held tightly to his arm, so he couldnât pull awayâso he couldnât escape her and all those crying children.
If he didnât leave soon, he might do something stupidâ¦like reach for her again, like try to hold her.
* * *
Be sure to check out the previous books in the exciting Bachelor Bodyguards series.
Ever since LISA CHILDS read her first romance novel (a Mills & Boon story, of course) at age eleven, all she wanted was to be a romance writer. With over forty novels published with Mills & Boon, Lisa is living her dream. She is an award-winning, bestselling romance author. Lisa loves to hear from readers, who can contact her on Facebook, through her website, www.lisachilds.com, or her snailmail address, PO Box 139, Marne, MI 49435, USA.
For my family. Thank you all so much for your unwavering love and support!
Contents
The crying awoke Emiliaâas it always did. But it sounded as if it were coming from a great distance instead of just down the hall. Why did it seem so muffled?
She knew better than to put anything in the crib with the infant. She wouldnât take any risk with him ever again. âBlue...â she murmured as she jerked fully awake.
Throwing back the blankets, she jumped from the bed and ran from her room, hitting her shoulder against the jamb as she exited. Pain radiated down her arm.
This was real. This wasnât a dream like all the times before sheâd heard that faint cry, when she had reached for her stomach, for her childâonly to find her womb empty, her baby gone...
Except that hadnât been a dream, either. That had been the horror sheâd lived for weeks until she and her son had been rescued.
Her feet slipped on the hardwood floor as she hurried down the hall toward the bedroom on the other side of the bath. She banged into that jamb, too, while rushing into the nursery. A breeze rustled the wispy blue-and-white-striped curtains and rattled the blind pulled over the window.
The open window.
She hadnât left that window open. She was always so careful to make sure that it was shut and locked. She wouldnât have...
She could barely hear the crying now. It was far in the distance. âBlue...â
Was he gone, too?
Her legs trembled, nearly folding beneath her, as she walked toward the crib. Dread gripped her. She was afraid to look, afraid that it was happening all over again.
She had lost her little boy once. She couldnât lose him again. Her hands shook and she wrapped her fingers around the top rail of the white-painted crib. And finally, she forced herself to look.
Her heart lurched, swelling with love, as it did every time she gazed upon her child. He lay on his side, his eyes closed, his little fist clenched as if he was ready to start fighting bad guysâjust like his uncle.
Relief slipped from her lips in a long, shuddery breath. He was fine. Blue was fine, sleeping peacefully. There were no tears on his cheeks, which had finally begun to fill out. He looked happy and healthy.
And sheâd thought she was, too, now that she had him back. But she could still hear the crying. Maybe it was coming from another house. But it hadnât sounded that way when sheâd first heard it. It had seemed to come from down the hall.
