Young, rich, powerful, Sebastian "Bas" has it all, including membership to an exclusive gentlemen's club. Everything changes when his life is threatened. He hires the best security team to keep him safe, headed by Clara, a woman who busts his balls...
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CLARA
The muscles in my arms started to quiver as I neared the second minute of my plank. It was the last thing on my daily workout regimen. And I hated it. Every damn second of it. But it was necessary to keep myself in prime physical shape. Image was everything.
When the timer on my phone beeped, I sagged to the floor in a sweaty, shaking mess. God, some days I hated working out. On those days, I just wanted to curl up in my covers and sleep until the sun stopped shining through my windows. But today was important. I had to be on my A-game. I had a new client meeting. A very important wealthy client. With this huge payday I could finally pay off the last of my parents' debt.
I got to my feet and dragged my ass into the shower. I checked the time; I still had two hours before I had to be downtown. Nerves zinged through me and I rubbed at my stomach. I always got nervous before a big client meeting, even after having a hundred clients over the past five years. I'd paid my dues, earned respect in the security industry. But it was still hard being a woman in a male dominated field.
Showered and dressed, I tamed my mass of curls, and threw on my worn-in black leather jacket. It was my good luck charm. I'd never lost a client wearing that jacket. It probably made me look tougher, something that helped in the personal security business. Obviously people wanted a security team with people who looked like they could physically protect them. Funny this was, I wasn't the biggest bitch in town at 5' 8'' and 160 pounds but I could definitely lay out just about any man of any size. It was all about using someone's size against them. I studied Aikido for years and have used it a time or two to protect a client.
My security team worked for Beyoncé a couple years back when she was in town for a concert. I was right beside her when some overzealous male fan broke through the security line and tried to touch her. I had him pinned to the ground in about twenty-five seconds. Which was a little disappointing, as I was hoping to break my record of twelve seconds to take someone out, but the guy was fast for someone of his height and girth. Go figure.
I jumped on my motorcycle and headed downtown. I loved riding through the streets of LA, despite having the worst traffic in the country. I just stayed off the freeways. It was a lot easier to zip in and out of traffic on my bike. Besides that, it was a lot more freeing. Even if I did get stuck in gridlock, I had the advantage of driving between the lanes. I got a lot of horns and shouts, but I didn't care. Thankfully today was not a gridlock day and I made it downtown in forty minutes.
Usually parking downtown was impossible, but I had a visitor pass because of my appointment, so I was able to park right in front of the huge glass and steel structure called BasPal Tower. Just as I pulled off my helmet positive that my hair was sticking out every which way, a red Ferrari pulled up and parked behind me. I stopped and watched as an attractive young man got out of the car. I say young because I was sure he was ten years younger than I was.
