His Christmas Assignment Read online

  Return to Payne Protection for the latest scandal in this brand-new Bachelor Bodyguards series

  Once a bad boy, always a bad boy. At least that’s what Candace Baker tells herself after being scorned by fellow bodyguard Garek Kozminski. And her hot Payne Protection coworker hasn’t just returned to his lawless ways…but his old girlfriend, too! Heartbroken, Candace is determined to send Garek back where he belongs—jail.

  No one—even sexy Candace—can know Garek is faking his criminal comeback to bring down a mobster. But when a curious Candace almost blows his cover, Garek must come clean to her—risking both their lives. Now the bodyguard duo is forced to keep their enemies close…and the danger closer.

  “So you came back to pick up strange men in bars?”

  She glared at him. “You say that like you doubt I can.”

  He hadn’t meant to challenge her. He knew she could pick up any man she wanted. Even him…

  And he had no business letting her affect him. But his body ached with wanting hers. “I say that like I wonder why you’d want to,” he clarified.

  “I think it’s safer picking up strangers than taking a chance on a man I know.” She sighed. “The men I know always disappoint me.”

  “Maybe you didn’t really know them,” he said.

  She met his gaze and held it for a long moment before nodding. “Maybe not…” She wriggled down from the stool, and her body pushed against his.

  He remembered that night—remembered how close they’d been, nothing between them as skin had slid over skin.

  She leaned closer, her lips brushing his ear, and murmured, “Or maybe I’ve known them too well…”

  Dear Reader,

  I am so excited to be writing for Harlequin Romantic Suspense. I’m even more excited that I will be bringing my sexy bodyguards from the Payne Protection Agency to Romantic Suspense with me. I first introduced the Payne Protection Agency in The Shotgun Weddings series with Harlequin Intrigue. While the Payne brothers were getting their happily-ever-afters, fun new characters joined the Payne Protection Agency. CEO Logan Payne hired his two new brothers-in-law and former outlaws, Garek and Milek Kozminski.

  Payne Protection bodyguard Candace Baker was not happy about the new hires. She doesn’t mind the nepotism as much as she minds how much Garek Kozminski teases and flirts with her. Just when she finally begins to believe she may have misjudged him as an outlaw, he goes back to his former criminal associates.

  Garek had all but given up on ever making Candace fall for him when an FBI agent recruits him to help bring down a major crime boss. As a teenager, Garek had been too afraid of the man to stop him when he’d had the chance. He’d worried then about what the crime boss would do to the people Garek loved. But his sister has Logan to protect her, and Milek can take care of himself now. So Garek accepts the undercover assignment. But someone must have figured out who matters most to Garek because Candace is in danger. The female bodyguard needs a bodyguard, and Garek is just the man for the job. More than his undercover job, keeping Candace alive becomes His Christmas Assignment.

  Happy reading!

  Lisa Childs

  HIS CHRISTMAS

  ASSIGNMENT

  Lisa Childs

  Ever since Lisa Childs read her first romance novel (a Harlequin story, of course) at age eleven, all she ever wanted was to be a romance writer. With over forty novels published with Harlequin, 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, lisachilds.com, or her snail-mail address, PO Box 139, Marne, MI 49435.

  Books by Lisa Childs

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  Bachelor Bodyguards

  His Christmas Assignment

  Harlequin Intrigue

  Special Agents at the Altar

  The Pregnant Witness

  Agent Undercover

  The Agent’s Redemption

  Shotgun Weddings

  Groom Under Fire

  Explosive Engagement

  Bridegroom Bodyguard

  Harlequin Nocturne

  Taming the Shifter

  Mistress of the Underworld

  Witch Hunt

  Haunted

  Persecuted

  Damned

  Cursed

  Visit the Author Profile page at

  Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Special thanks to Patience Bloom for bringing the bodyguards of the Payne Protection Agency to Harlequin Romantic Suspense!

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Agent Gemini by Lilith Saintcrow

  Chapter 1

  Voices rose in anger, penetrating the thin walls of Logan Payne’s office. Garek Kozminski closed the outside door so softly that it made no sound. He probably could have slammed it and they wouldn’t have heard him enter. But he was used to moving silently. In the past, his freedom and even his life had depended upon it.

  Not much had changed…

  He crossed the reception area and approached Logan’s office—not to eavesdrop. Due to the volume of their argument, he could have heard them from the parking lot. Usually Logan didn’t yell; as the CEO of Payne Protection, he didn’t need to yell to be heard. The other voice was female and easily recognizable to Garek even though Candace Baker didn’t usually deign to speak to him.

  Apparently she had no problem talking about him. “I can’t believe you would consider offering this assignment to Garek Kozminski!”

  He had figured Logan had called this meeting about a job. In the year that he’d been working for his brother-in-law he’d had many assignments. Had Candace protested every one?

  “He’s proven himself over and over again,” Logan defended him. “He’s a damn good bodyguard!”

  “Garek Kozminski is a thief and a killer!” she yelled. “I can’t believe you would trust him. I never will!”

  Garek felt a twinge in his chest—one he refused to acknowledge as pain. Candace’s low opinion wasn’t exactly a surprise or unwarranted. And of course he had done nothing to change it; he’d actually done more to provoke it and her.

  Logan’s voice wasn’t just loud but it had gone chillingly cold when he said, “He helped save my life and my brother’s life—”

  “Because of his criminal connections,” she interrupted.

  “That’s enough,” Logan told her. He didn’t shout now; he sounded too weary to fight anymore. “Garek and Milek Kozminski are essential members of this team.”

  “They’re your brothers-in-law…”

  And maybe that was her real problem: Logan had married Stacy instead of her. She had obviously been in love with her boss for a long time; she’d left the River City Police Department when Logan did in order to join the fledging bodyguard business he’d started a few years before.

  “Candace,” Logan said, “if you can’t work with them, maybe you can’t work—”

  “Hey!” Garek said as he pushed open the office door before Logan could finish his ultimatum. He didn’t want Candace fire
d. Sure, she hated Garek. But he didn’t hate her.

  He wanted her.

  He had wanted her since the very first time he’d seen her. She was all long legs and sharp curves and sass. It sparkled in her blue eyes every time she looked at him. But she wouldn’t look at him now. Instead she’d tilted her head down so that her jaw-length black hair skimmed across her face, hiding her eyes.

  “I’m sorry I’m late,” Garek said, although he’d had a good excuse. Someone else had called him about a job, an assignment he might not be able to refuse no matter how much he wanted to…

  “It’s probably a good thing you were,” Logan remarked. “In fact you might want to give us a few more minutes…”

  Candace lifted her chin and shook her head. “There’s no need. I’m doing what I should have done a year ago…”

  A year ago was when Garek had started at the Payne Protection Agency—after his sister had married Logan Payne. He doubted Candace’s timing was a coincidence. She had probably wanted to resign then, but no doubt her pride had forced her to stay.

  “I’m quitting,” she finished.

  Logan jumped up from the chair behind his desk and cursed. “Damn it—”

  “You were just about to fire me,” Candace pointed out. “This is for the best, and we both know it.” She turned then and finally faced Garek. Her blue eyes had never been so cold as she stared at him.

  Conversely, heat rushed through Garek as his temper ignited. But before he could say anything, Candace pushed past him. He reached out and grasped her arm.

  She stared down at his hand. Her voice as cold as her gaze, she said, “Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me.”

  He would have teased her, as he had incessantly for the past year. But he sensed that her coldness was just a thin veneer for deeper emotions.

  Candace Baker was strong. She was nearly as tall as he was, and she was all lean muscle. But there was also a vulnerability about her that she desperately tried to hide beneath a tough attitude. Just like the coldness, neither was who she really was.

  “I didn’t figure you for a quitter,” he goaded her.

  “You don’t know me,” she said as she jerked her arm free of his grasp. “And you never will…”

  Before he could challenge her claim, she was gone. And he couldn’t have that. He just couldn’t have that…

  *

  “I’m a fool,” Candace berated herself as she tossed clothes into the open suitcase on her bed. “I am such a fool…”

  Not for quitting. Hell, she should have done that a year ago. She was a fool because she’d waited too long. And mostly because she had let him get to her.

  How?

  She knew what Garek Kozminski was. And unlike everyone else, she wasn’t going to forget—because she couldn’t let herself forget. In addition to being a killer and a criminal, he was also a flirt. Just a flirt…

  That was why he kept teasing her. And looking at her…

  She shivered even now thinking about how that silvery-gray gaze was always on her, touching her like a physical caress. He was just teasing her. He couldn’t really want to touch her. He couldn’t really want her.

  She was always the buddy, the gal-pal—never the woman a man actually desired. So he was just messing with her for his own amusement. She was not amused. She was furious. And the more he flirted with her, the most frustrated she got. That was why she had lost her temper with her boss.

  The doorbell rang, echoing throughout her bedroom from the wooden box on the dark blue painted wall. She doubted it was Logan paying her a visit. He had obviously been about to fire her before Garek had interrupted him.

  After what he must have overheard her saying about him, why had Garek tried to stop Logan? Instead of insisting his brother-in-law terminate her on the spot, Garek had actually tried to talk her out of quitting.

  But he didn’t know her. And around him, she wasn’t certain that she knew herself anymore.

  The doorbell rang again, or rather incessantly, as if someone were pressing hard on the button. With a sigh she turned away from her bed and headed down the hall. But before she could even reach the front door, it opened. She knew that it had been locked; she always locked her door. And nobody else had a key to her place.

  She reached for her holster only to realize she had left it—and her weapon—on her bed with the half-packed suitcase. But why would someone break into her place?

  She had nothing of value. And while she had once brought a Payne Protection client to her apartment in order to guard the woman, she was alone now.

  But then she was no longer alone as the intruder boldly sauntered into her apartment. He was incredibly tall with lean muscles and blond hair that nearly touched his shoulders. Her breath caught, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. Who else would have so easily picked her high-tech lock but Garek Kozminski?

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded to know.

  “I need to talk to you,” he replied. But he was looking at her that way he always looked at her—like she was an ice cream cone he wanted to lick.

  “So you picked my lock and let yourself inside?”

  He shrugged as if breaking and entering was inconsequential. But surely he knew there were consequences for crimes; he had spent time in prison for at least one of the probably many offenses he had committed. “You didn’t answer the doorbell.”

  “There are reasons people don’t answer their doorbells,” she pointed out. “I could have been gone.” If she’d packed faster, she would have been gone. That urge she’d had to run intensified—probably because she had come face-to-face with the reason she wanted to run. That she needed to run…

  His lips curving into a smug grin, he said, “But you’re here.”

  “Not for long,” she said as she spun around and headed back down the hall toward her bedroom. It wasn’t too late. She could still escape.

  But he followed her. “You’re packing? Where the hell are you going?”

  She paused as she was about to toss a sweater into the suitcase and realized that she had no idea. She had no plan. She’d only known she needed to leave—to get away for a while. Then she could decide if she wanted to come back. Ever.

  “You don’t know,” he surmised.

  “Anywhere you’re not,” she replied.

  He clasped a hand to his heart. “Oh, that hurts—like a knife through the heart.” Despite his playful tone, there was something in his gray gaze—something almost like real pain and regret. Did he actually care that she wanted to get away from him?

  “Do you have a heart?” she wondered.

  “Yes,” he replied. “So much so that I convinced Logan you’re a better man for this job than I am.”

  “Man?” Now she knew what he meant about the knife through the heart; a sharp pang in her chest felt as if he’d driven his blade deep.

  “Yeah, that assignment you wanted—it’s all yours,” he magnanimously offered.

  She shook her head. “I quit.”

  “Because you wanted that assignment,” he said.

  “No, I didn’t.” She hadn’t wanted that assignment; playing bodyguard to some reality star turned B-movie actress held no appeal for her.

  His gray eyes narrowed as he stared at her. “You just didn’t want me to have it?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Why not?” he asked. “What would I steal or who would I kill if I took this assignment?”

  He had definitely overheard her argument with their boss. Her face heated with embarrassment—not over what he’d heard as much as having to explain why she hadn’t wanted him guarding a woman who rarely wore clothes on camera, or according to the tabloids, off camera either. She wasn’t certain she understood why herself.

  She wasn’t certain about anything anymore.

  She shrugged. “It’s a high-profile assignment—one that will raise the awareness of Payne Protection to the national level.”

  “Last year—all the a
ttempts on Cooper’s and Logan’s and Parker’s lives—raised the awareness of Payne Protection,” he pointed out. “That’s why an LA actress wants to employ one of our bodyguards. We’re the best.”

  She wanted to argue the “we,” but Logan had been right earlier. He and Parker probably wouldn’t have survived if not for Garek’s help.

  “That assignment doesn’t require the best,” she said—since she suspected the entire need for a bodyguard was just the actress desperately trying to get some more minutes of fame.

  “Then why didn’t you want me to take it?” he asked.

  She shrugged. She wasn’t about to admit it had bothered her a lot to think of him with a scantily clad reality star. “It doesn’t matter now.”

  “It mattered enough to you,” he said, his voice deepening with confusion and concern, “that you quit the job you loved.”

  “Loved is right,” she agreed. “Past tense. I don’t love it anymore.” But that was a lie; she knew it even as she said it. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her job anymore. It was that she was afraid she might fall in love with something—with somebody—else.

  “Is that my fault?” he asked. “Or Logan’s?”

  That was why she couldn’t risk falling again—because she had already made enough of a fool of herself over love before. “If this had anything to do with Logan, I would have quit when he married your sister.”

  “Maybe you were just waiting around for them to fail,” he said. “It’s not like anyone really thought they’d last.” He chuckled. “Least of all me.”

  “They have a child together,” she said.

  “Little Penny,” he murmured, his grin widening with obvious love for his two-month-old niece.

  Candace’s breath caught in her lungs. Garek was so damn handsome it wasn’t fair. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said. “You need to leave.”