Bared for Me

by Natalie Anderson

  “Why’s it so important that I admit it?” she asked, drawing her lower lip between her teeth and biting down.

  He winced. He wanted to suck her lip between his to soothe it. “Because then it’s out there in the open and we can deal with it.”

  Her mouth parted as she drew a sharp breath. The shadows in her eyes grew. Finally, she answered.

  “How are we going to deal with it?”

  Chapter Three

  DANIELLE STARED UP at Rocco, unable to believe this was happening. She was in his home and she was backed up to the counter and he was almost pressed against her.

  Heaven was almost here.

  Had she fallen and hit her head and this was all some fantasy while she was unconscious? Maybe she was dreaming and the day hadn’t begun? Maybe the fight with Logan and finding out about her father’s interference with her bank cards was all an earlier nightmare and now the dream had morphed into her ultimate fantasy?

  He was hot for her.

  She bit down hard on her lip again to make sure she was awake—and heard Rocco’s sharp inhalation. And even though he wasn’t touching her—yet—she could feel his heat.

  She could never have dreamed up something so good. This was too, incredibly, real.

  “You have to admit it first,” he said, not moving from where he leaned too close. Towering. Trapping.

  “Or what?” She stared up at him. She wasn’t giving herself away. Not yet.

  “Are you daring me?” he asked softly.

  His manner wasn’t menacing, but goosebumps peppered every inch of her skin. Another part of her, deep inside, melted.

  “You want me to make you admit it?” he asked, looking like he wanted exactly that.

  Ummm.

  Dani squeezed her toes so she stayed standing. “How would you try to do that?”

  His jaw became more angular, like he’d clenched his teeth. Slowly he lifted his hand from where it rested beside her.

  She pressed against the steel counter at her back. Like that was going to help her? She swallowed, not taking her eyes from his, yet aware of him lowering his hand so damn slowly, bringing it nearer her.

  There was only an inch between them—eyes, mouths, chests. So close to full body contact.

  He placed his hand on her belly. She tensed. Through her thin wool sweater, she felt the pressure and warmth of him. His thumb stroked, a sweep towards her breast, just the once. Desire rippled through her. She tried to stop the trembling, but something raw was uncoiling deep down in her belly.

  “Admit you want me.” He leaned in, his whisper tickled her lips. He was so, so close.

  Oh she wanted. She’d wanted for a long, long time.

  And really, what was there to lose when there was everything to gain? His kiss. His mouth on hers. That’s what she wanted. Well, for starters anyway. Her brain blanked as he pressed more powerfully on her belly, as if he sensed the hunger growing there.

  “I… ” ...can’t think.

  “Want me to touch you?”

  She drew another shaky breath.

  “Kiss you?”

  Another stroke of his thumb.

  Love you.

  She closed her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Yes,” he replied flatly.

  Dani’s eyes flashed open in time to see him pull back.

  “So now we know.” He straightened, dropped his hands and turned on his heel.

  He was on the other side of the room before she could blink.

  “You bastard.” Stunned she stepped forward.

  Of all the rejections in the last two days, this was the worst. This was the one that sent her over the edge. “What—”

  “You’re the baby sister of my best friends.” He turned back and interrupted with words that bit. “You’re staying here because it’s a safe place. I’m supposed to be safe for you.”

  “Then what the hell was that all about?” she snapped at him. “Ego trip of the day for you?”

  His head jerked up but he planted his hands on his hips. “Danielle—”

  “Or was it some mean joke?” Hurt sliced into her now. He knew, didn’t he, about her stupid crush. That she’d been dreaming about him for the last five years. “You were lying to trick me, right? Humiliate me for your own sick amusement.”

  And she was so, so hurt.

  “Please.” He gestured roughly towards his groin. “My body can’t lie.”

  So he had a hard-on. So what. Guys got them all the time. It didn’t mean anything. “But your mouth can.”

  “Dani,” he shouted, shaking his head in frustration. “I want you. I want you more than... But I’m not going to do anything about it.”

  Dani stopped still. Didn’t breathe, blink, or think.

  Mind. Blown.

  On the one hand her heart leapt, because he really did want her. And in the same breath—rejection.

  One too many rejections this week.

  There was only the one thing to do. Dani turned and ran for it.

  She was fast. He was faster.

  She got to the door but didn’t even have the chance to reach for the handle before he was there, right behind her. His arms stretched above her, holding the door closed. But he had to lean close to ensure it.

  “Honey, the running away stops here.” That low, wicked whisper in her ear again. “No more.”

  So now they were close again. Body within an inch of body. Only this time not facing. Sexual need shivered through her as she sensed his strength at her back.

  She turned her head, felt his chin brush her forehead. “What are you going to do, handcuff me to the bed?”

  “Don’t try to tempt me, it won’t work.” His laugh was low and husky.

  Smiling wanly, though he couldn’t see, she rested her burning forehead on the door. She wished she knew how to tempt him properly.

  The other night at the party she thought he’d looked at her. Really looked. And she’d worn that dress specially. Only he’d turned and walked the other way. Blanked her.

  He didn’t walk away from her now. So close. So quiet.

  “Talk to me,” he finally murmured.

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m listening.”

  She closed her eyes. “They never listen. They only lecture.”

  “I know.”

  “Even Logan. And who is he to preach?” Her brother had the starring role in a sex tape for crying out loud. It wasn’t like he was perfect. And why was the idea of her modelling so hilariously impossible—when he modelled too. She wasn’t that ugly.

  Rocco remained silent. Waiting. She knew in part it was because he pitied her. But right now she didn’t care about that. She was all but in his arms. And she could pretend, even for a few seconds. And yeah, maybe there was that dumb-ass bit of her that wondered that if maybe, just maybe, if she were honest with him, he might open up to her. And knowing he couldn’t see her face somehow made it okay to ask.

  “How long?”

  “What?” he asked.

  “Is it just today that you decided you’re... attracted to me... or...?”

  He didn’t answer for a long time. So long, she tried to move away from him.

  “The party the other night,” he said, stopping her turning to face him by simply leaning hard against her.

  Dani bit back her moan.

  “You had your back to the door when I walked in,” he said quietly. “I could see through that lace... And then you turned around.”

  “And you were appalled?” She clenched her fist against the door.

  “I was gutted. I’m not right for you. Not in that way.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’ve had a crush on you for years.”

  More than a crush. But he didn’t need to know how bad.

  “You have?” His words sounded odd. Like they were squeezed out of him.

  She nodded.

  “You barely know me.”

  How could he think that? He’d been hanging out with her brothers for as long
as she could remember. When he’d left home he’d worked part-time at her parents’ resort in return for a bed in the staff quarters. Then he’d dropped out of school and switched to full time. Anytime she was home, he was there. But yeah, maybe he’d been so busy busting his balls working round the clock, he hadn’t realized that she’d had eyes only for him for so long. She’d just been that kid to him—the one who’d hidden away.

  “Oh, you know,” she tried to laugh it off. “You have pretty nice packaging.”

  “So do lots of guys.”

  So not the same. Not many guys had eyes like polished onyx and bodies like they’d been hewn from marble by a Great Master.

  “You were nice to me,” she whispered.

  He waited.

  “When I was hiding that time.” She’d not wanted to go back to school. She’d screamed at her mother. Then she’d hidden.

  Rocco had been on one of his rare visits from his new life in New York. Visiting Connor. He’d spotted her. Rocco had met her gaze, somehow understood her mute plea. Rocco had stayed silent. And she’d seen him as the man he was—intense, loyal and so freaking hot her hormones had latched onto the idea of having him and refused to let go.

  “Since then?” he sounded amazed.

  She nodded.

  She felt coolness as he stepped back.

  “Turn around,” he said.

  Slowly she did. She didn’t want to look him in the eye now. Who’d have thought her afternoon could become even more of a nightmare?

  “You were a kid.” He tried to smile but looked too tense to pull it off. “And you were unhappy. It wasn’t that I was nice. I just wasn’t a jerk.”

  Like her father had been.

  And he wasn’t being a jerk now. She got what he was doing—the gentle let down. It was worse than anything.

  “Let’s start over,” he said roughly. “You’re staying the night. One night. Sort the bank in the morning. Find your way from there.”

  No. He’d forced this into the open. He couldn’t ignore it now. She sure as hell couldn’t forget it. “But what about this?”

  “This is just chemistry. That’s all.”

  He was dismissing her crush just like that? Like it was just going to disappear? Hell, if he only knew how many times she’d wished it had. How many times she’d kissed some other guy hoping to feel some kind of lust—even a fraction of what she felt for him.

  “If you knew me better, you wouldn’t have a crush.” He seemed to read her mind.

  Really? She straightened up from the door and stepped up so she was toe to toe with him. “Then I guess you have one night to rid me of it.”

  And that’s what she wanted. She didn’t want to measure every other guy to him. Because every other guy paled in comparison. No other guy, ever, had done it for her the way Rocco St Clair had.

  He grinned. Well, it was more a twisted, uncomfortable looking grimace. “Okay, I’ll kill your crush. In one night.”

  Chapter Four

  “HOW DO YOU plan to kill it?” Dani asked, ridiculously intrigued.

  “I’ll find a way.” He stepped away from her, crossing to the other side of the room to study his computer screen. In seconds he was typing something short with two fingers.

  “You don’t think if we just give into it, then it would be gone?” she asked, unable to hide the hope in her voice.

  He didn’t so much as glance back at her. “That’s not a wise idea.”

  “No?”

  “I’m not screwing around with you,” he said roughly. “It wouldn’t be right. Or fair.”

  She blinked. “Right?”

  His phone pinged. “Or fair,” he repeated.

  His phone pinged again.

  “Why wouldn’t it be right?” she asked. Why didn’t he think he was right for her?

  His phone pinged once more.

  “You don’t want to get that?” she asked, irritated.

  “No. It’s fine.” He didn’t even take his phone from his pocket.

  “We’re not talking marriage here, you know,” she said, her irritation mounting. “Nothing so serious...”

  “Is nothing serious to you?”

  He was trying to sidetrack her. It wasn’t going to work.

  “I’m just talking some... fun...” That’s all she wanted. Really.

  This time his phone didn’t chime a message. It rang, rang and rang.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to get that?”

  He growled and yanked his phone out, swiping the screen. “What?” he barked into it.

  A full minute passed while who ever was calling explained something long and clearly complicated.

  “Fine. Give me five minutes.” Rocco ended the call and bent back towards his computer.

  He was as bad a workaholic as Connor. The brother serving a life sentence as CEO of Summerhill.

  Dani crossed her arms. She was going to get a job too. She wasn’t wasting more time studying for a degree she wasn’t interested in. She’d get a job and eventually pay for herself to study what she wanted to study. If she didn’t accept her father’s money, she didn’t have to accept his terms.

  Rocco clicked something so his screen shut down. He turned to face her. “I have to go downstairs for a bit. Only an hour or so, but I need to get to it. Can I trust you or am I going to have to lock you in here?”

  “Lock away. I’ll set off the fire alarms.” She sent him a malignant smile.

  “You would too,” he acknowledged appreciatively. “How many times did you run away from that boarding school?”

  “Not enough.” She’d hated it. She’d oscillated between studying her ass off and ditching all A-grade plans to plot escape routes.

  He laughed, then sobered. “Can I trust you?”

  “I promise I won’t leave the hotel,” she said peaceably. “As you’ve so kindly pointed out, I have nowhere to go.”

  “Chin-up peaches, it’ll sort itself out.”

  Not if she didn’t make some changes.

  “We’ll have dinner when I get back if you can wait that long,” he said. “You can access the menu on the iPad over there. Just phone down and order.”

  “Are there any personal movies I might want to enjoy on here?” She nudged the iPad with her finger.

  “I’m not your brother.”

  She chuckled softly. Logan’s infamous sex-clip was apparently one of the most viewed ever. “You want me to order you anything?”

  “They know my usual. Get them to send it all up in an hour or so. You might as well put through your breakfast order at the same time. Pancakes, waffles, anything you want.”

  “Wow, so generous,” she mocked. “Is this what you offer all the women you bring here?”

  “I don’t bring women here.” He didn’t even blink.

  “Men, then? Oh!” she slapped her hand on her forehead. “You should have told me sooner already. Saved me embarrassing myself.”

  “No men either.”

  “No partners at all?”

  He shook his head.

  She frowned, thinking it though. “Oh I get it. You go back to her place so you can escape easily.”

  He gave a non-committal shrug, but she knew she had him.

  “You’re a runaway too,” she waggled a finger at him. “Fancy, we have something in common.”

  “No,” he said, starting to walk towards the door. “Not much in common.”

  But Dani had realized something else. “So all your staff will be thinking this is something really special,” she grinned gleefully. “That’s really funny.”

  The look he sent her was not amused.

  “Oh the irony. They’re all downstairs thinking the boss has finally gotten his act together. That he’s finally getting some. Whereas we’re up here doing nothing but talking.”

  “Talking is right.” He grimaced as he got to the door. “Don’t you ever stop?”

  “Sure.” She glanced at the menu she’d pulled up on the iPad. “You never cook?”
>
  “You see a kitchen? Why, you want to cook your own?”

  She shuddered. “I never cook either. Fancy, another thing in common.”

  “Give it up.”

  She chuckled. “Over easy or sunny side up? You think we’ll have that preference in common?”

  He went completely still, then spun round to face her, pointing his index finger like a dagger at her. “You’re going to starve at this rate. I won’t let them serve you anything.”

  “You’re already starving me.”

  He so looked shocked she had to laugh.

  He didn’t. “One day, Dani, you’re going to land yourself in real trouble.”

  “I can’t wait,” she muttered after him as he left the room. “It’s got to be better than boring.”

  As soon as Rocco closed the door behind him, she went to her bag and rifled for her wallet. Her brother might have mocked her but she knew what she was going to do.

  Pete Boulder, one of New York’s most celebrated photographers, and known for his ultra-edgy, push-the-boundaries work, had been at her parents’ party. They’d employed him as the official photographer—so they could vet what pictures were presented to the world. He’d approached her during the party and shown her the picture he’d taken of her. At the time she’d been mortified. But now she used the hotel room phone and dialled the number written on the card he’d given her.

  A portfolio with Pete Boulder could set her career in motion. So what if he was creepy. He could get the job done. She’d see if she could meet up with him tomorrow or sometime soon. She was not going back to Summerhill.

  “Pete,” she said as soon as he answered. “Danielle Hughes. We spoke at my parents’ party at Summerhill the other night. You asked me about posing for a spread? I wondered if we could talk more.”

  “Danielle,” Pete’s voice sounded loud in the empty room. “Whereabouts are you?”

  “In Manhattan, actually. At The Trove. Only for the one night, but I have time tomorrow—”

  “I have time right now.”

  He did? “Uh... okay. You want to come here?” Good lord, she wasn’t anything like ready. But she could be.

  “I’m only five minutes away.”

  Seriously? Was something actually going to go right for her today? “Fantastic,” she breathed. “Then I’ll see you in the bar shortly.”