by Lexi Cross
Of all the hits he’d ever done. All the times he’d had to sneak into tricky places, to hunt someone down and wait for hours and hours for the perfect shot. For all the tight places he’d gotten himself into and out of, this was the trickiest. This job was, by far, the hardest job he’d ever had. Shooting people was far easier than keeping his hands off Pia.
Chapter 4
It had been two weeks since Ryder kissed her. After the kiss, which still felt unreal to her, she’d gone to bed and hadn’t slept at all that night. She kept thinking about sneaking into his room or finding some other way to see him. She was so exhausted by the next day that when she finally woke, it had all seemed like a dream. She wasn’t sure if it was a nightmare or not.
She’d tried to pretend like it never happened. Like he was just her bodyguard and nothing more. She had nothing for him or against him. She only talked to him when she needed to and nothing more. She wasn’t nice or mean. She wasn’t really anything at all.
That was on the outside. But inside, it was turmoil. Every time she saw him or he came near, her heart leapt. She would steal glances at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. She’d think about him all the time, even though she tried her hardest not to. He was always there. How could she not think of him? She had no choice but to be near him constantly. And it was driving her crazy.
She clicked the fob of her car door and got in. A moment later, Ryder got into the backseat. She’d gotten good at ignoring him. Like he was nothing more than her shadow. She turned the music up and sang along as she drove to work. When they arrived, she unlocked the door and went through her morning routine.
First, the lights went on. The inside of the store lit up suddenly as the lights flicked on one by one. She walked to the back where the office was. There, she opened the safe and pulled out the register till. Once it was in place in the register, she walked through the store. The long rack along the sides of the store held her priciest pieces. They had the prime spot and were the most visible. In the center were the slightly less expensive items. Those hung on circular racks or folded displays, depending on the item. Of course, she’d never dream of hanging sweaters or something with delicate fabric that might get stretched out. Her lingerie collection was in the back, in small wooden squares for different sizes and pieces.
After her tour through the store, when everything looked in place, she checked the time. Close enough. She walked back to the front, turned the sign to say “open” and took her place behind the counter. The cashier she had scheduled for today showed up a short time later and Pia retreated to her office.
She spent the morning doing paperwork—the boring stuff. Which mostly meant collecting receipts and invoices to give to her accountant. She couldn’t be bothered to do any of that stuff. Then she opened her computer and got to the fun part. The whole reason she opened this store to begin with. The shopping. She loved looking through exclusive collections and having access to items that only a few other boutiques had access to. It made her feel even more special than she already did.
Sometimes she would order just one of an item, just for herself, and wear it in the store. When people asked if she had the item for sale, she’d smile and say, “Sorry. This is an exclusive piece.” Of course, other shops could purchase the same item, but there were no shops like hers around. Someone would have to order online or travel far to find the outfits she owned. Her next step would be to have designers create an exclusive line that truly was all hers. That they wouldn’t sell anywhere else. She wasn’t quite big enough for that, but she’d get there.
She glanced over at the edge of her office. Ryder sat there, picking his nails. Gross. She quickly looked away. She got up to stretch and headed back onto the floor for a while. She walked around, chatting with customers as she saw fit.
She heard someone murmur something and turned toward the sound. It was two women, standing close to each other and leaning in to talk. They looked at Ryder and continued whispering, then hurried away to the other side of the store.
She went over to the women. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh…” One of the women glanced over her shoulder to look at Ryder, who was tagging along behind Pia, as always. “Everything is fine.”
“Are you sure?” Pia asked. She gave Ryder a pointed look. “He’s just my security, no need to worry about him.”
Ryder smiled at the women. Then he moved his jacket aside to reveal his gun, tucked under his arm in a leather holster.
The women’s eyes grew wide and they rushed out of the store.
“What the hell!” Pia stormed into the back room, then turned and waited for Ryder to follow her. When he did, she put her hands on her hips and gritted her teeth. “You just scared away two of my customers!”
He shrugged. “Didn’t look like they were going to buy anything anyway.”
“I don’t care! Don’t take out your gun, and stop looking all creepy when you’re in my store. I know you have to be here, but you don’t have to ruin my whole life.”
“Ruin your life?”
“You’re everywhere! I can’t get away from you. You’re just there, lurking all the time. It makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t like it.”
“Well.” He shifted his weight and smirked. “That’s not my problem. I’m just doing my job.”
“Well, I can’t do mine if that’s how you’re going to do yours. You don’t have to be so obnoxious about it!”
“You’ll find anything to complain about, won’t you?”
“I’ll complain when someone scares my customers out of the building, yes. Who knows what sales I just lost and who they’ll tell. These things spread, you know. If word gets out that there’s some creepy man who stares at everyone and has a gun, no one will come in, and I’ll lose business.”
“Oh no. And then what will you do? You’ll have to sit at home all day doing your makeup. I’m sure you don’t need the money from this place.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “That’s beside the point. I don’t even like you being in the store anyway. You’re not exactly my target clientele and it makes the whole place look bad. I think you’ll have to start waiting in the back.”
“Nice try.” He crossed his arms and glowered. “If you have a problem with how I do my job, take it up with your father.”
Why did he always argue with her? Couldn’t he see how unreasonable he was being? The women had left the store because of him. Of course she was going to be upset. She had every right to be. And her father would agree, that she was sure of. He was a businessman himself. If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have this store. He was the one who’d pushed her and helped her along the way.
“You’re right. I will take this up with my father. Thank you for the suggestion.”
She huffed and bumped into him when she walked past. But he didn’t let her pass. He grabbed her waist and spun her to face him, then held her close to him.
“I know you think about,” he said. “Our kiss. You think about it all the time.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. What kiss?” She stepped, trying to get away from him.
“Don’t play like that.” He bent down and breathed in her ear.
Her body tingled with delight. Everything she’d felt that night when they’d kissed rushed back to her. Was he going to kiss her again? She wanted him to so desperately. But she couldn’t show it. Not for a second. He already thought he had her.
“I said let go of me. Or do you want me to add sexual assault to the list of things I tell my father that you’ve done?”
He licked her neck and she flinched away from him, but from willpower, not disgust. She wanted him to lick her all over.
“I can’t stop thinking about that kiss. The way your breasts felt in my hand. The way your leg wrapped around me. The way my hard dick made you all wet.”
She gulped and tried feebly to push him away.
“I know you have to pretend you don’t want me,�
�� he said. “That’s fine. It makes it that much hotter.”
“Ryder.” She meant it to be stronger and harder. A demand to let her go, but it came out with too much longing. She was no good at hiding her feelings. The desire was too strong. His name on her lips sounded like a request, like the longing she felt in every nerve in her body.
“Pia,” he whispered. “You make me so hard. Every time I think about that kiss or your hot body. And right now, I’m like a rock.” He grabbed his crotch. “Want to feel?”
“I have a store to run.”
How badly she wanted to reach down and grab him. To make him moan, to feel just how big he was. He had to be huge, like the rest of him. But if she did that, she wouldn’t be able to stop, and neither would he. This wasn’t the time or place to do that. If she was going to touch him like that, it would be when she could really do something about it.
He smacked her ass hard. “Get back to work, then. We can save this for later.”
She turned from him and shook her head. She looked back over her shoulder. “Pig.”
He grinned and followed her out of the back room.
She didn’t want to admit that the sting on her ass felt good. She wanted him to smack her again. She pictured herself straddling him, feeling him deep inside her, and him slapping her ass while she rode him. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had to calm this heat before facing customers. Luckily, no one was right around her.
She went to the register to check on her employee. She had to carefully glance at the name tag to recall the woman’s name. She was terrible about that.
“Everything going well, Cindy?”
“Yup. We’ve been pretty busy today. Are you okay?”
“Yes, why?” Pia looked down at herself. Nothing looked out of place in her outfit.
“Your cheeks are all red and your face is flushed.”
“Oh, is it?” She put a hand to her cheek. It did feel hot, even to her. Stupid Ryder getting her all worked up. “I am a little warm. Maybe I’ll change into something lighter.”
She pulled a short sleeve top off the rack and took it to her office. She closed the door before Ryder could get in the room, then locked it.
“I’ll just be a second. You can’t be in here while I’m getting changed.”
“I’ll be waiting.” Then, quieter, he said, “And imagining you naked while you’re in there.”
She quickly yanked off her sweater and slipped the top on. She felt much cooler now, but knowing that Ryder was just outside the door made her feel hot all over again.
What was she going to do about him? Just screw him and get it over with? But what if that made it even worse? What if she wanted him more and more? What if she couldn’t get enough of him and they ended up just having sex all the time? They’d get caught eventually. And then what?
Well, he’d be fired. And maybe that was okay. Maybe that was what she needed. To be away from him. Then a great idea crossed her mind. She could tell her father. Tell him that she was into him, had feelings for him even. Her father would get rid of him fast. No way would he take the risk of his little Pia messing around with his hired help. But the thought of him gone made her sad like it never did before.
If he was gone, she wouldn’t have him to lust over, but was that a good thing? She kind of enjoyed their rare exchanges, full of sexual tension. His words came back to her. “We can save this for later,” he’d said. Did he expect something to happen, then? Of course he did. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. No doubt about it. The way he kept grabbing her like that. The way he looked at her and talked to her. He had it bad for her. And that gave her power.
If she did sleep with him, she’d have even more power. Though, would that even benefit her? What would she do if she could get him to do whatever she wanted? What did she want from him? Maybe nothing more than to know that someone was so hot for her. That he was following her around, watching her ass the whole time, wanting her. That he imagined her naked and imagined taking her right there and everywhere they went. She liked feeling desired like that.
The boyfriends she’d had before never wanted her like that. Sure, they wanted sex, but anyone would do for them. But Ryder? He made her feel like the only woman on earth. Like he wanted only her and no one else. Like she was the last desirable thing on the planet. And that was a very good feeling.
***
Ryder thought he was doing a good job at avoiding and ignoring Pia. It made it easier that she was also not paying attention to him. But today had been different. After weeks of checking her out from a distance, watching her tiny body and imaging the way he’d put his hands all over her, they’d had that little…whatever it was in her back room.
He’d come close to kissing her again. But then he’d come close to doing a lot more, too. He felt so out of control. Why did she do this to him? He really needed this assignment to end so he could get on with his life. This whole not sleeping thing, not being able to think about anything but her, was getting really old.
That night, as he kept replaying their encounter over and over, he ate quickly in the kitchen. The family ate in the dining room, of course. But the help ate out of sight. He wanted to get back upstairs to his room so he could watch her on the camera and maybe jerk off while looking at her. That had become his main staple lately. Watching her on video and masturbating to her fantasy. If he could never have her, then he’d do this at least. He had no other choice.
He took a bite of his burger and chewed. As soon as he’d finished, he ran upstairs. He sat in front of the monitors. She was just finishing dinner. She took tiny bites of a large piece of chicken covered in some sauce. Half of her meal sat on her plate when she got up to leave the room. Was she done already?
He watched as she walked up the stairs and went into her room, where he could no longer see her. He pulled up some other videos. Clips he’d copied from other times that he liked to rewatch. He turned to one of her talking with her father in the entryway.
There was nothing particularly special about this clip. He’d taken the audio out because it was so boring and mundane. But in this clip, she was wearing a tight-fitting top. Cleavage stuck out from the top and the round curve of her breasts sat perfectly underneath. He could even see her nipples poking out. He remembered the feel of them in his hands. Soft and warm and how her nipples responded to his touch.
He took his hard cock out and began stroking it. Just before he was ready to finish, a loud shriek came from her room. He jumped up, yanked his pants into place, and rushed out the door.
He pulled her door open. She wasn’t in the room. But she hadn’t left. He’d been watching. The light was on in the bathroom.
He ran toward the door, pushed it open, and dashed in the room, hands up, ready to fight. He looked around, but saw no attacker.
Instead, there was Pia, standing in her tub. Water still sat in the tub, gentle steam curling up from it. The steam had frosted the large mirror over the sink. The tile floor looked slick with the residue. The rug beside her tub was soft and fluffy, waiting for her wet feet. She’d put a fluffy pink towel on the small silver stand beside the tub.
Her long blonde locks were piled high on top of her head. And she wasn’t wearing a single thing. Her naked skin glimmered, the water catching the light. She faced away from him.
He let his gaze fall down her. The gentle curve of her neck as it led into her shoulders. Her shoulder blades, perfectly shaped, surrounding her smooth back. Then her ass, round and full. He had to quickly look away from that ass. Water ran down her legs and dripped into the tub. His eyes went back to the perfect circles of her butt.
He was still hard from watching the video, but this was real life, right in front of him. Flesh, so close to his hand. He could just reach out and touch it. He wanted to smack it, to squeeze it, to bite it. To rub his dick all over it and between the soft folds of her cheeks. Was she into anal? If it was done right, girls went ape for that shit. And he knew how to do it just r
ight. He could fill her completely. Front and back and mouth.
He imagined the sensation of her wet mouth, her tight pussy, her tighter ass. He swallowed hard. He might pass out right there from lack of blood. It was all rushing to his groin, making his cock throb. He shifted his hips, and his stiffness rubbed against his shorts. It was almost enough to send him over the edge, he was that close just looking at her.
He swallowed hard again. He’d taken too long to say anything and she had screamed. “Why did you scream?” he asked, his voice close to shaking.
She turned her head over her shoulder to look at him. “Oh, umm, did you hear that?”
