Page 24 of Riding Hard

“Justice, wait,” he growled. The words were out of his mouth before he could even think them over. She was right—he was acting like a child and that wasn’t how he wanted things to play out between him and Justice. “I was an idiot back in high school,” he admitted. He was too. Justice was the prettiest girl in the whole school, and she liked him. His problem was, that she told him that she liked him, and his stupid mouth got in the way of him giving her the words back. In fact, Steel had made up some stupid lie about not liking her and liking her best friend, Julie, instead. He took things too far by asking Julie out to prom and that was about the time that Justice had quit talking to him. He graduated, watched his mom die from cancer, joined the Navy, and he didn’t look back. Steel stayed away from home for as long as possible, letting his twin brother, Maverick, and his little brother, Owen, handle everything on the home front. He wasn’t the kind of guy looking to put down roots and Justice was the kind of girl who would have required that commitment from him.

“Wait for what, Steel?” she asked. “Wait for you to break my heart again? Wait for you to take off again when things get too hard to handle. What am I waiting for now?” she asked. He deserved that from her. She had every right to question him and the reasons why he was asking her to wait.

“I’m sorry about all of that, Justice,” he insisted. “I should have never asked Julie out. I lied about even liking her and took things too far.” He had admitted all of that to Julie at prom, ruining their whole night together, but he just couldn’t help himself. Self-sabotage was his go-to move, and he was pretty damn good at it.

“Yeah, Julie told me all about what you said to her and how you hurt her. How could you do that to her at prom?” she asked.

“Because I’m an ass,” he said. “But you already knew that. I’m sorry for all of it,” he said. “I should have been honest with you from the beginning, but I wasn’t.”

“Yeah, and what would that have looked like, Steel?” she asked. “You know—you being honest with me.”

“It would have looked like me telling you that I liked you too, but I was too afraid to say those words out loud. My mom was sick, and we didn’t know how sick until Mav and I graduated. Watching her fade away was a lot for teenage boys to handle. I guess I was afraid that if it told you how I felt about you, you’d disappear too, just like she did. It’s why I’ve been away from home for so long now.” The only reason he had come home was to be closer to his brothers. It didn’t hurt that Justice was still in town and still single, but he wasn’t holding out hope that she’d ever forgive him for how he treated her back in high school.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that, Steel. I wish you would have let me in to help you, but that’s not what I need right now,” she said. “I’m not standing here telling you that I like you,” she said. “I’m asking you to let me hire you. I need someone to go with me on the rest of my book tours this year, and I was hoping that you’d want the job. I don’t trust a lot of people, but I trust you, for what it’s worth.” Hearing her say that was worth more than she’d ever know. There was no way that he’d let her down again.

“I’ll take the job,” he quickly agreed.

“Wait—what?” she asked.

“I’ll take the job,” he repeated.

“You will?” she asked again.

“Yep,” he said.

“It’s going to be a lot of travel,” she said.

“I’m okay with travel, as long as you’re good with paying my travel expenses,” he teased.

“Um, yes,” she said. “I will pay for everything. Thank you, Steel,” she said. Justice held out her hand to him and he walked around his makeshift desk to shake it.

“You are welcome,” he said.

“Oh—just one other thing,” she quickly added. “I don’t want anyone knowing about my stalker—especially not my publisher.”

“Okay, can I ask why?” he asked.

“Because the guy who’s stalking me used to work for my publisher and I don’t want to lose my contract with them. Can you make me that one promise?” she asked. “They can never know.” Well, that solved the mystery of how he got her number and how he seemed to know where she was going to be and when. All Steel had to do now was figure out why this asshole was going after Justice and then, he’d be able to keep her safe.

“Deal,” he agreed. “No one will know about your stalker.”

“Or that you’re my bodyguard,” she said. “If my publisher finds out that you’re my bodyguard, she’ll start asking questions that I don’t want to answer.”

“What are we going to tell them?” he asked. “I mean, if I’m traveling from town to town with you, won’t your publisher become suspicious?” he asked.

“Well, I’ve thought about that and maybe we could tell her that you’re my boyfriend,” she squeaked out the word boyfriend and her cheeks turned the cutest shade of pink. Yeah, taking this assignment was going to be a whole lot more fun than he originally thought, and watching Justice squirm was going to be the best part.

Justice

Justice Hanks wasn’t sure how she was going to convince Steel to pretend to be her boyfriend, but she had no other options. Sure, she had left out the part about her stalker not only working for her publisher but also being married to the head of the company.

She reported directly to Janine McDermont and her husband was the biggest slimeball in the industry. Everyone knew it—well, except Justice, but she quickly picked up on that fact when the guy stuck his hand down her skirt and said some of the dirtiest things she had ever heard. Devin McDermott was the foulest human she had ever met, and that was saying a lot. Janine had booked her a six-month book tour with a European extension if all went well with the US portion. She was finally living her dream but Devin showing up at her signings wasn’t part of the plan.

At first, she thought that Janine had sent him to check up on her at her first signing, but she quickly found out that wasn’t the truth when Janine told her that Devin had quit the firm. He had accepted an offer at another publishing house and Janine was livid. She said that she couldn’t believe that her husband would betray her that way, and Justice knew that telling her about Devin’s other betrayals wouldn’t end well for her. How could she kick a woman while she was down? The truth was, she couldn’t. The longer she let things go, and the more Devin showed up at her signings, the more she knew that she was in trouble.

He started sending her those disgusting text messages and that’s when she started to really worry. The last few were raunchy and suggested that he was going to show up at her home. That was her last safe haven and Justice knew what she had to do. She had to go to Steel, of all people, and ask him for help.

“Wait—you want me to pretend to be your boyfriend?” Steel asked.

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