Author Alison Foster: New Release! Take Me Home (A Bodyguard Christmas Story)

Take Me Home by Alison Foster

New, new, new! Just released! A Bodyguard Christmas story featuring Tanner Hayes from SCANDAL.

Excerpt

My skin feels prickly as I’m snapped out of my self-pitying thoughts by a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” I say, looking through the peephole. All I can see is a… Christmas tree?
No reply. I guess Christmas trees aren’t big on conversation.
“What the hell?” I mutter as I open the door just a smidge. A second later, I yelp in shock and try to close the door shut when a man emerges from behind the green plastic tree.
Tanner Hayes.
“Did you really think it wouldn’t be me? Santa knows who’s naughty and nice,” he says, lodging his big boot between the door and the door frame before he pushes it wide open, flinging me backward in the process.
My mind goes numb with thoughts of fleeing. I shouldn’t be stunned. Tanner is a curse I can’t shake, but I am at a loss as to how he could find me so fast.
Tanner paces around the room, putting the Christmas tree down by the bed. It’s a huge, fake tree, complete with cheap ornaments and lights that start blinking when he finally plugs them in after struggling to locate an electrical socket.
“Kind of brings a little of the season into this shit hole,” he mutters.
I stare at him silently, unable to understand what the fuck is happening. I don’t get it. How in hell did he find me? I know my father’s security team is sharp and fast but for the life of me I don’t see how Tanner even figured out I fled, let alone how he located me and drove up here. Did he take a helicopter? A plane? There’s something not adding up.
He suddenly turns to me with a smug look on his face. I hate him and yet I can’t stop admiring his bulging muscles. Tanner is one of nature’s most successful experiments as far as integrating a breathtaking physique with cocky coolness—tall and spectacularly ripped and poised with a closely cropped crew cut that accentuates his angular features. He oozes sensuality and confidence. He can grab control of any situation. Too bad he’s arrogant, not to mention my father’s right hand. I can’t even count the times he has saved the great Jordan Kane’s ass.
“What’s your plan about the cockroaches?” he says after a while of silent staring as he takes in the miserable room.
“Cockroaches?” I cringe a little at the idea. “They’ve probably all frozen to death in here.”
“Yeah, you’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” he says and then leisurely extends his leg to crush something with his boot.
It takes me a while to determine the squishy sound was him stepping on a cockroach.
OMG, this is so disgusting. I’ve had it with him and his cold, controlling, manipulative ways. “I’m an adult, Tanner. Go the fuck back to Los Angeles. You can’t make me do anything against my will. This is Canada. I won’t cross at the border and I won’t get on a plane.”
The staring competition begins once again until a grin forms on his lips. “I think I can make you do anything I want,” he says, as cool as a cucumber.