Her Hidden Falls Bodyguard Billionaire Cowboy - Taylor Hart Page 0,28

to the surfing part, Zoey found it inexplicably hard not to swim right out to the part of the ocean that the instructor wanted them to start from. Even more difficult was balancing on the board and waiting for the right wave.

“Now,” Monica told them. “When I say up, you hop up and I’ll give you a push as the wave takes you.”

Surprisingly, the wave did take Zoey. Until she fell off and dragged her butt against the rocks on the bottom. When she emerged, she saw Sean actually surfing toward her. She frowned at him. It figured he would be good at it. The man had some wicked coordination. She’d seen him mess around with Beau on the broncs. He always went on runs and stayed in shape.

Now, as he jumped off and jogged toward her with his board under his arm, she took a second to admire his full six-pack. Maybe it was even an eight-pack. The man was leaner than when he’d left for the FBI.

He grinned at her. “Good job, honey.”

Their eyes held, and she tried not the think about the way he was looking at her in her two-piece bathing suit—a suit she hadn’t bought or packed for herself. She smiled at him but kept her voice soft. “You don’t have to pretend quite so hard. No one is around.”

He hopped on the board and started paddling back out to Monica. “Oh, sure they are.”

The thought occurred to her that she could rush back and run for it. As she watched Sean paddle away, she decided she would do just that.

Chapter 14

Sean endured Monica’s flirting for a bit and then focused on getting up on the board. By the time he was surfing in, he scanned the beach and couldn’t see the red-and-pink swimsuit and black hair anywhere. He cursed and hopped off the board, dragging it out but not wasting time to return it. He took off down the beach toward the beach house.

It wasn’t that far of a walk. It’d probably taken them fifteen minutes to walk it together. Now, as he ran at full speed, he still couldn’t see Zoey. How had he let this happen? He never should have thought that they could just go do excursions. He focused, just like he would when he was in the chute with a bronc about to buck him off, just the way he’d told Beau to do the past couple years when he’d ridden them. Just like he had every day on the job as part of the police force in Hidden Falls.

It didn’t matter that she had agreed that she would testify. All that mattered was her safety. He’d forgotten that. Surfing had sufficiently distracted him. The funniest part was that he’d seen the way Angela or … Zoey had been jealous. It hadn’t hurt the ego.

He pumped his legs faster, ignoring the pain and the way his chest burned. He gained on the beach house and still didn’t see any sign of her.

As he rushed inside, yelling her name, there was no response. But he did hear the car door close. It was almost like a bad episode of Dukes of Hazzard. He dashed through the house, out the front door, and out to the street while she was backing up. He dove on top of the car.

She gunned it, swerving at the same time.

But he took advantage of the sunroof and dove into it, grabbing the wheel.

“Sean!” she yelled. “Let go!” She pushed harder on the gas pedal as they headed toward the main part of the resort and the exit gate.

“No! Stop the car!”

The car went impossibly fast and Sean held tight, even though she was clawing and pushing him. Upside down, he suddenly realized they were going to crash into another car.

At the last moment, he yanked the wheel. The car swerved to the right, jumping the curb, and thankfully came to a stop. He leaned past her, unlocked the door, and slid off the car, yanking open the car door before she could orient herself. He reached in and grabbed her arm.

“Ouch! Let go!”

Once he’d pulled her out, he let her go and she fell to the ground.

She stared at him in shock. “I cannot believe you did that.”

“I can’t believe you did that!” he yelled back. Adrenaline surged through his veins, making him shaky.

Tears streaked her cheeks as she turned her face away. “I hate you.”

He cursed, wanting to berate her but not able to. His