“When I m-mentioned to Jackson and Knox that I was thinking about retiring, they both protested.”
“Why?”
The question really had nothing to do with the point of the exercise, because she didn’t imagine Daniel would really care about the answer. But she did. She’d always wondered. None of the guys talked about their time with the SEALs much. Over the years she’d tried to press Jackson for details, but had quickly learned it wasn’t a subject he liked to discuss, especially when he was home.
“Why?”
“Why was it time to move on to something else? From what Jackson and Knox have said, you were an amazing soldier.”
Asher made a quick, jerky, dismissive movement with his hand. It took Kennedy a few moments to realize she’d embarrassed him.
“We’d gotten close over the years, were lucky to have worked together since Jackson and Knox joined the SEALs. But I’m a couple years older. My body was starting to feel the effects of such a physically demanding job, and it was time for me to move on to something else...before my weakness cost someone their life. The team is only as good as the weakest link, and I refused to become that link.”
Something tight squeezed her chest. Kennedy could imagine Asher’s struggle, pitting his love and dedication for his job, and the guys who’d become like family, against the fear that he was becoming a liability to those same men. He constantly put the needs of others above his own.
She wondered who put his needs first? And as much as she wanted to say Jackson and Knox, she wasn’t entirely certain that was true. By his own admission, Asher had gone into the business his two friends wanted instead of doing whatever he’d hoped to do.
“So you started Trident because you wanted to continue diving?”
“No, we started Trident because Jackson is a hell of a salesman.”
Kennedy chuckled. “Yeah, he is, isn’t he?” When her brother wanted something, he went after it and wouldn’t take no for an answer—from anyone.
He’d been tenacious, working tirelessly to secure clients for Trident when they’d first opened. He’d taken some shitty jobs—they all had—in order to build the business.
Luckily, fate had brought him together with Loralei’s father at Lancaster Diving and Salvage. Without Loralei, Trident never would have found the Chimera. And Jackson never would have met his future wife.
Kennedy loved her soon-to-be sister-in-law. She and Jackson were perfect together.
“He told us the story of the Chimera and how the legend of it had been handed down for generations in your family.” Asher gave her another shrug. “I didn’t have anything better to do.”
Such a ringing endorsement for a lifetime of commitment. And if she hadn’t seen Asher give one hundred and ten percent to Trident over the past two years she might wonder if he was truly dedicated to their success. But she had no doubt.
Even if he hadn’t been bound to the company, it was becoming obvious that Asher would have done absolutely anything for Jackson and Knox.
“I got so tired of hearing that as my bedtime story,” Kennedy mused. “Jackson didn’t mind the hidden treasure and high seas drama, but I wanted fairy-tale princesses.”
Asher laughed. “You’re such a girl.”
Just to taunt him, Kennedy ran her hands over her breasts, hips and along the curve of her ass, tossing him a wicked grin, “And don’t you forget it.”
Asher shifted, his expression going sharp and a predatory glint flashing through his eyes. “Not possible,” he said, his voice low and rough enough to send a shiver racing down her spine.
Well, that had backfired. Or maybe it hadn’t. From the moment they’d parted last night her body had been left simmering. She’d tried to ignore the need pulsing beneath her skin.
It wasn’t working.
“Do you have any idea how difficult it is to be the only woman surrounded by all you big, dangerous, military men?”
“Honey, you have every damn one of us wrapped around your little finger and you know it.”
She tried to bite back the words but didn’t succeed. “You aren’t.”
“The hell I’m not.”
Kennedy stared at him. That was the last thing she’d expected him to say.
“Then why have you spent the past two years taunting me? What did I do?”
Asher shifted, his hips rubbing restlessly against the edge of the desk. “You d-didn’t d-do anything.”
Kennedy heard his words. She registered the stutter, nothing new. But for some reason, she loved the little halt in his voice.
To her, Asher Reynolds had been perfect. Gorgeous, powerful, determined, sarcastic, witty, sexy as hell. Every woman’s fantasy and nightmare together. He was untouchable and so utterly superb. Like the most exclusive and expensive bottle of wine she could never afford to taste.
She could feel the tension rolling off him as he waited for her reaction to his stuttered words. It wasn’t the first time she’d noticed him do this. But before, she’d simply brushed it off, thinking it was better not to acknowledge the slip and add to his embarrassment.
But maybe...
“You know, I like your stutter.”
“You wh-wh-what?”
“I like it. It’s cute.”
His entire expression went cold. “That’s not funny, Kennedy. I don’t appreciate you making fun of me.”
“I’m not. And I mean it, although maybe cute is the wrong word because no one could ever describe you as cute. Come on, you’ve looked in the mirror before and you know exactly your impact on women. I’m absolutely certain every female within a ten-mile radius wants you. So you freeze in front of a camera and stutter...it makes you real.”
He continued to stare at her, but Kennedy couldn’t stay still. Taking several steps nearer, she closed the gap between them, until their bodies were practically flush. She tipped her head back, looking into his eyes.
“I know you see it as a weakness, and maybe it is. But, hell, Asher, it’s the only one you’ve got. You’re smart, can handle any situation put in front of you with calm and confidence. Without that tiny flaw the rest of the world would never be able to measure up or compete. It gives us mere mortals a chance.”
8
HER WORDS STUNNED HIM. But he was even more shocked when Kennedy leaned in, her hands pressed tight against his chest as she sealed her mouth to his.
The kiss was pure heaven and excruciating hell all rolled into one. Because before he could even react and pull her closer, Kennedy was gone.
She backed away. Asher’s hands rose, chasing after her, fisting around empty air.
Her words had scorched through him almost as surely as that kiss. She didn’t think less of him because of his fear and stutter, but it was more than that. She liked it. Thought it made him unique.
That floored him. Especially after years of being teased and taunted because of it. It was more than he ever could have expected, especially from Kennedy.
It wasn’t as if he’d provided her any reason to be sympathetic toward him, which was the best he could have hoped for.
But that was what gave her words a ring of truth. She had no reason to lie or sugarcoat anything. So when she said something to him, he could take it at face value.
Which only made his body burn hotter, especially where her hand had pressed into his chest.
“Let’s get back to work.”
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. She might like his stutter, but that didn’t necessarily mean it would disappear. His throat felt swollen and scratchy, too tight to let sound and words pass through. Asher’s gaze moved to the unblinking black eye of the camera lens pointed straight at him.
It would pick up every hesitation, magnifying it and amplifying it.
“Hey,” Kennedy’s soft voice pulled his attention. She watched him, her expression carefully neutral and easy. “Just focus on me.”
Slowly, her hands moved up her body, over her belly and breasts to the button at the top o
f her shirt. And she flicked it open.
For a second he thought maybe she was warm. The room was small, and they were in the middle of the Caribbean. His own temperature spiked when she reached for another button and pushed it through the tiny hole holding it closed.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you something else to think about.”
“This isn’t a good idea, Kennedy.”
“You’ve already said that, but I’m a big girl and I can make my own decisions.”
Asher stood there, powerless to do anything but watch as she swept the soft cotton shirt off her shoulders. It fluttered to the floor at her feet.
The bra she was wearing should have been labeled a lethal weapon. Why the hell was she wearing lingerie designed to drive a man to his knees?
It was candy-apple red and more lace than actual material. He caught tantalizing glimpses of skin through the strategic holes in the fabric. The swollen points of her nipples jutted straight out, silently begging for his attention.
His cock went rock hard.
Her skin was sun-kissed golden brown. Tiny freckles ran along her shoulders and down the swell of her chest.
God, he wanted to taste her. To run his tongue over every inch of her body and lap her up.
“Stop,” he somehow managed to croak out when she reached for the button holding her shorts closed. “For the love of all that’s holy, stop.”
Kennedy froze, her fingers wrapped in the waistband. She swallowed, her warm whiskey gaze sharp and searching as it roamed his face. “Do you really mean that?”
“Yes. No,” he groaned out.
A sinful smile tugged at her lips, and something dangerous flashed across her face. This woman, this tempting siren of a woman, was going to be the death of him. And he’d deserve every second of torture that came before. But at the moment, Asher couldn’t remember why this was a bad idea.
He’d watched her and wanted her for so long.
She flicked the button on her shorts open. The sound of her zipper, metal grinding against metal, was loud in his ears and the final straw.
Standing up, Asher stilled when Kennedy shook her head.
“Nope. You can’t touch.”
“What?” he asked, his voice incredulous. The woman was giving him a strip tease and expected him to keep his hands to himself?
She was crazy. Or wickedly, wickedly devious.
Or both.
“You get through the rest of these questions without hesitating, and then you can have your reward.”
She was offering herself like some prize at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. Part of that pissed Asher off. Kennedy was more than something to be won.
She was the kind of woman you earned, and spent the rest of your goddamn life trying to keep up the pretense that you deserved her.
She was every man’s fantasy of forever.
Which was why he shouldn’t touch her. He’d tried forever and had no desire to try it again. Even his wife, a woman who’d stood up before God, their family and friends and professed to love him, had walked away without a thought.
No, their marriage hadn’t been perfect. They’d fought and irritated each other. But he’d been blindsided when he’d returned home to an empty house.
Asher had thought they were happy. He’d given everything he could to Krista, and it still hadn’t been enough.
It was never enough.
But the stakes were even higher with Kennedy. She wanted him now, but she’d decide he wasn’t good enough, just like all the others. And this time he wouldn’t just lose his home or his belongings.
He’d lose his friends, his family and the business he’d poured all his energy into.
But how was he supposed to resist with her standing in front of him in nothing but matching red lace panties and a bra?
He was human. He’d been fighting his desire for too long. He couldn’t fight anymore.
“Then you better hurry with those questions, because you’ve got about fifteen minutes before I say to hell with it and give you exactly what you’re asking for, little girl.”
“I keep telling you, I’m not a little girl.”
Asher let his gaze meander across Kennedy’s body. Her breasts swelled over the cups of her bra, threatening to spill out with every ragged breath.
At least he wasn’t the only one buzzing with need.
Her hips rounded nicely, the perfect hold for him to grasp and pull her tight against his own body. The smooth plane of her belly, the skin there a little lighter than the rest of her. Smooth, tanned legs that he could imagine wrapped around his waist.
She was playing with fire, but he was afraid that he was the one about to get burned.
“I’m well aware of that.”
* * *
THIS WHOLE EXERCISE had been designed to take Asher’s mind off his fears. However, it was backfiring because Kennedy couldn’t remember a single one of the questions she’d prepared to ask him.
The way he was watching her, like a jungle cat playing with his prey, made her throat go dry and her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth.
Her entire body hummed with energy.
Asher Reynolds was dangerous. That was part of his appeal. His tattoos, the pale scar across his lip. The way he carried himself, always alert, always prepared, as if he was forever anticipating a problem and prepared to meet it head-on.
But those same things that made him appealing also made him aloof. It was becoming obvious to Kennedy that the scar on his lip wasn’t the only one he carried, although it might be the only one he let anyone see.
Asher didn’t like to admit weakness—she didn’t know many men who did. He kept people at arm’s length. Hell, as far as she knew, Jackson and Knox were the only true friends he had...the only people he’d ever let in.
And if she was looking for more from him that might be a problem, because any woman who wanted to crack his smooth outer shell was going to have her work cut out for her. So it was good this was just about sex.
“Explain the preservation process,” Kennedy finally managed to croak out.
His lips twisted into a smirk, the kind that she knew meant he was playing with her and delighting in the mental games about to take place.
Oh, hell.
She enjoyed verbally sparring with him. It heated her blood just as much as the kisses they’d shared, stimulating her in a way she’d never experienced before...and liked.
She should have been cold, standing there in nothing but her panties and bra, but she wasn’t. The energy humming beneath her skin had little to do with her lack of clothing and everything to do with the dangerous man staring at her out of those hooded green eyes.
“Do you really want to know about the preservation process?”
Kennedy swallowed hard. “Yes.”
His lips tugged up at one corner, almost imperceptibly.
“What do I get if I answer correctly?”
“The knowledge that you’re intelligent and can verbalize coherently?”
Asher shifted, crossing his arms over his chest in a way that made his shoulders and biceps bulge against the soft fabric of his T-shirt. God help her.
“That’s not what I want.”
Kennedy licked her lips, slowly, seductively. Her heart thumped frantically behind the wall of her chest.
“What do you want?”
His gaze flashed and then narrowed. She’d seen that expression before. Asher was shrewd. And he thought he had her backed into a corner.
Surging up from the edge of the desk, he closed the space between them in two quick strides. Self-preservation kicked in, maybe a little late, and had Kennedy taking an instinctive step backward.
But she didn’t get far.
Cupping the nape of her neck, Asher stopped her momentum. His hold wasn’t hard, and she could have broken it, but she didn’t. The moment he touched her, everything inside her just...stopped. And waited.
Angling her head back so she was lookin
g up at him, he said, “What I want is you on your knees.”
She sucked in a gasp, not because she was startled by his admission, but because the moment he’d said the words in that low, smooth voice of his, she’d wanted the same thing.
But she’d been sparring with this man long enough to keep her response locked down tight.
“We don’t always get what we want.”
His fingers tangled in her hair, taking a strand and stroking it. “Cupcake, you know me better than that.”
Tingles erupted across her scalp. She couldn’t stop the shiver that raced down her spine. And, damn the man, the tilt of his smile said he saw everything.
Why the hell was she fighting so hard on this? Merely because that’s what she’d been doing for the past two years? Or because she enjoyed the spice that layer of tension added to the energy arcing between them?
Shrugging her shoulders, Kennedy tossed him a little half grin and said, “Okay,” before starting to sink down to the floor.
She didn’t get far. His hand at the nape of her neck prevented her from following through.
“I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”
She lifted a single eyebrow. “Really? Now who doesn’t know whom? We’ve been facing off for two years, Asher, and you didn’t think I’d take your challenge seriously?”
He laughed, the sound rich and warm as it melted over her.
“Well, I’ll be dammed.”
“Besides, you assumed I’d see being on my knees as some kind of fine to be paid.” Kennedy licked her lips. She didn’t mean to, but it just...happened. “I see it as more of a reward...for me.”
Asher groaned. His hand in her hair tightened and his mouth closed in on hers. Strong, sure and deadly to her equilibrium.
There was nothing soft and meek about Asher. He kissed just the same way he approached everything else in life, full throttle.
It didn’t take long before Kennedy was gripping his shoulders, holding tight because the room had begun to spin.
He nibbled and tasted. Teased and consumed. Conquered.
But Kennedy wasn’t the kind to sit idly by and be taken. Pushing up onto her toes, she met him stroke for stroke, sucking his tongue and claiming pieces of him for herself.
Under Pressure Page 9
