Bodyguard SEAL (SEALs of Coronado Book 8), Paige Tyler [best classic books txt] 📗

Adrenaline could do that to people who weren’t used to it.

“You’re more than welcome to pile up the pillows and write in bed,” he said. “Or you can use the desk I have in the guest room. I have a home office set up in there, along with my workout equipment.”

“I think I’ll try the office,” Peyton said. “If I write in bed, I’m afraid I’ll end up falling asleep.”

Noah quickly cleaned off the paperwork scattered around the desk and was shoving his weightlifting gear aside so she wouldn’t feel so crowded when a knock at the door made him freeze. From the corner of his eye, he saw Peyton tense.

“Relax,” he said softly. “If it was the bad guys, I doubt they’d knock. It’s probably one of the guys bringing us leftover pizza. I sent them a text earlier, letting them know we’d be staying at my place.”

Her shoulders dropped down from where they’d been crowding her ears even as another knock came, this one more insistent.

“I’d better get that before whoever it is gets worried and kicks in the door,” he muttered.

Peyton flipped open her laptop with a smile and slid into the office chair, her fingernails clicking over the keyboard before he barely made it out of the room. He couldn’t imagine being creative enough to sit down and start typing like that. But that was what made her a writer and him not.

He felt the slightest twinge in his left knee as he walked across the living room. Considering how hard he’d gone after that van, he was lucky it wasn’t worse. He could have blown out his knee completely.

Not that it would have stopped him. When he’d heard Peyton scream and turned to see some asshole dragging her into the back of a van, his heart seized in his chest. He’d run after the vehicle as fast as he could, his only concern getting to her in time.

It wasn’t until they’d been lying on the sidewalk, his arms wrapped tightly around her, that Noah realized he was in trouble. At some point during the release party, he’d convinced himself that he was going to walk away when this was over. It was obvious that Peyton wasn’t suited to being involved with a SEAL and getting out of Dodge was the smart thing to do. It would save both of them the trouble—and heartache—of watching everything fall apart later.

But after rescuing her from that pair of kidnappers, he realized he couldn’t walk away from her. Not in a million frigging years. She’d already burrowed into his heart too deep to let her go.

He was still thinking about what that all meant when he yanked open the door and found his chief standing there.

Crap.

Chasen knows.

That was the only thing that made sense. Somehow…his boss had figured out he was working as Peyton’s bodyguard and was here to rip him a new one.

“Is Peyton okay?” Chasen asked, stepping past him and into the apartment.

Noah stared at him. “What?”

“The kidnapping attempt at the Bayfront was all over the eleven o’clock news,” he said, as if it should have been obvious. “Hayley’s coworkers at the Daily News were calling every five minutes hoping I’d give them inside information on the Navy SEAL who kept the city’s most famous author from getting abducted. Since you’re seeing Peyton, it wasn’t difficult to figure out you went to the signing with her and put yourself in the middle of everything, exactly like I’d expect you to do.”

Noah breathed a sigh of relief. Chasen didn’t know anything about the bodyguard gig. It sucked that word of the kidnapping attempt had made the news, though. He hadn’t even considered that.

“You could have texted me,” Noah said. “How did you even know I’d be here? I could just as easily have been at Peyton’s place.”

It was Chasen’s turn to laugh as he cocked his head to the side and listened to the sound of rapid clicking from down the hallway as Peyton typed at a furious pace.

“You know I’m not a fan of texting when something is better done in person,” his chief pointed out. “And as far as knowing you’d be here, that’s easy. Peyton was threatened. It’s only natural to bring her somewhere you consider home turf, so you can keep her safe.”

Noah considered that. Chasen had put his recent actions into words far better than he’d ever be able to do.

“Is she okay?” Chasen asked again. “I hear typing going on in there, so I assume so.”

“She’s okay,” Noah said softly, not wanting Peyton to overhear them talking about her. “A little rattled, but physically fine. She’s dealing with it a lot better than I thought she would, considering how close she came to being kidnapped.”

Chasen crossed his arms over his chest with a frown. “You think this was a one-time, random thing or an indication of something more?”

Part of Noah wanted to tell his boss about the true threat Peyton was facing. That someone—maybe Magpie—was after the manuscript of her next book and that he’d been protecting her ever since the break-in at her place. But there was no way in hell he could tell Chasen any of that. Not if he wanted to keep protecting Peyton.

“Her publisher thinks it was a one-time thing,” he lied smoothly and feeling like crap for doing it. “It’s probably because she has a book releasing next week. But I still felt better with her staying with me for a while.”

“Makes sense,” Chasen said with a nod. “But you have to admit, it’s a little quick, isn’t it? I mean, you’ve only known her for a couple days, right? It there something serious going on between the two of you?”

Noah almost denied it out of instinct, but then he realized Chasen probably already knew the answer to the question before he’d asked.

“Yeah, there is,” he admitted quietly. “On my part at least. I don’t know if Peyton feels the same way. Or whether she’s willing to