by Zoey Parker
“No?” This was Mr. Johnson.
I didn’t answer, pretending not to have heard him. The next time he spoke, he was much closer.
“Hey, quit being a diva and answer me. What do you mean no?”
I didn’t move, though I felt my cheeks redden at the diva comment. Anger flared inside me, but I shoved it down. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of getting a rise out of me. Letting out another sigh, I told him, “No as in not you. Is that clear enough, Neanderthal, or should I try and grunt it?”
By this point I’d caved and was now looking at him, trying to fix him with a piercing glare. Instead, I admitted only to myself that I was checking him out. My eyes, still carefully covered by my glasses, raked down his body, devouring the sight of his muscles beneath the shirt that clutched at them as desperately as I wanted to.
“I didn’t peg you as the type to grunt,” he told me, and my body trembled at the low, rough tone of his voice, like gravel rolling beneath the tires of my car. “You look more like a screamer.”
Oh, holy hell!
I tried to swallow down the sudden swell of desire as I had a flash of him on top of me, those large hands which had so deftly saved me the night before now raking themselves down my form harshly, leaving fire in their wake.
Forcing the image from my mind, I gathered up what indignation I could muster. I stood up, finding myself much closer to his hard frame than I had anticipated. Reaching my hand back, I cocked it and then swung it forward, palm open, prepared to deliver a resounding smack that would make me feel better and help disguise some of my unanticipated lust.
But it never made contact.
About an inch from his face, he stopped me. His large, rough hand grabbed my wrist, so strong that I felt as though he could break me in an instant. But he didn’t. Instead, he jerked me forward until I crashed against his chest. A shiver of desire ran through my body. It made me as angry as his hand around my wrist did.
“Easy, princess,” he rumbled.
I made a frustrated noise and jerked my hand from his grasp. It came free easily, though I knew it was because he let me go rather than him not being strong enough to hold me.
“Don’t you ever touch me,” I instructed furiously, because I was sure I would melt if he ever did again. “I don’t want to have to shower again today.”
His dark eyes narrowed at me and he opened his mouth to say something back to me, but I wouldn’t let him. I pushed past him, letting my shoulder catch his, which was all muscle. “April!” I called. She was still waiting by the door patiently and looked a little exasperated by my antics. I instantly felt a little guilty; she clearly thought I was being childish. But I pushed that aside and remembered that I didn’t want him here. “Escort Mr. Johnson out. I don’t want him here.”
“No can do. Caleb gave me very specific orders and you don’t get to veto them.”
I shot him a poisonous glare. “I said leave. April, show him the door.”
“No,” he told me, folding his arms across his chest, making the muscles stand out.
April briefly looked panicked, like she wasn’t sure what to do, and I felt kind of bad for her. Despite us being friends, I was her boss, yet I could tell that she didn’t want to escort him anywhere. Whether that was because she honestly wanted him here for his protection or because he was big and she was tiny, I couldn’t tell.
“Fine then,” I ground out. “I’ll call my uncle and then you’ll have to leave!”
As I stormed into the house to my phone, I heard him mutter something behind me that might have been, “You do that, princess.”
I furiously dialed Caleb’s number. It rang twice and then he picked up. Before he could even say hello, I told him, “Recall your guy.”
There was a pause. “You have a problem with Kade?”
I had to assume that the Mr. Johnson on my patio was his Kade. I told myself not to bother memorizing his name, but it was already ingrained in my head. I didn’t think I’d ever forget that sexy man outside, though I told myself that he was just a man.
“Whoever he is, yes, I want him gone. He’s an ass.”
There was another pause and when Uncle Caleb spoke again I thought I heard a hint of amusement in his voice. “Has he done anything?”
“He’s here! Isn’t that enough?” I shrilled into the phone. “He’s a crude ruffian and I don’t want him here!”
This time there was definitely amusement in his voice. I could picture him leaning back in his chair, smiling as he spoke to me, smug and annoying as only he could be. “I see. Well, unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of Prince Charmings on hand, but I happen to have a wealth of ruffians. Trust me when I say he’s the best of a rough bunch.”
“I don’t need a bodyguard,” I tried, switching arguments because I was starting to realize that Caleb wasn’t going to give me someone else just because I said I didn’t like this Kade guy. “I’m fine on my own.”
“No, you’re not,” Caleb countered, and the amusement was gone from his voice. He wasn’t kidding. “You were attacked. You need someone to protect you. Period.”
“Fine, but does it have to be him?” I couldn’t help the whining tone of my voice.
“Sorry, but it does.” The smile in his voice was back and it pissed me off more than just about anything else.
“Just give me someone else!”
“Nope.”
I glared at the phone before yelling at him, “Ugh! I hate you!”
At this, Uncle Caleb actually let out a full belly laugh that lasted long enough that I was about to hang up on him when he finally said, “Love you, too, princess.”
Then the line went dead. I’d officially lost this battle. Caleb would give me anything in the world, whatever I wanted, if he could. Except someone else, and I knew there was a reason for it. It likely meant that this guy was the best of the best, equal parts dangerous and loyal. Someone my uncle trusted enough to leave with me when he wasn’t here.
It pissed me off because it meant that I wouldn’t be able to sway him. It pissed me off because it meant that I was going to have to deal with this Kade character for as long as Caleb felt I was in danger.
It pissed me off because, despite my anger, there was a hot and bothered part of me that wanted nothing more than to have him stay the night at my house. In my bedroom. Beside me. Naked. Sweating. Pumping.
I shook the thoughts from my head, because I wouldn’t let this man get to me. I was stronger than that.
I didn’t care how deliciously attractive he was.
Chapter Four
Kade
Day one was going rougher than I had thought, and I hadn’t expected a smooth landing in the first place. Start with a pissed off, prissy starlet who didn’t want anything to do with me, then add a dangerous biker gang leader for an uncle, and just for good measure throw in a hard cock lusting after her perky, smooth body.
Yep, definitely wasn’t going well.
Abby had spent the first hour of my arrival telling me all about how she didn’t want me here. How she thought that I was crude and awful, uncouth and everything she didn’t want in a man in general, not even a bodyguard. Although her words had stung a little bit, I wasn’t really all that offended by them. She wouldn’t be the first woman to tell me that I wasn’t her type—and a lot of the time they still ended up riding me until they were sweaty and boneless. Mostly, I tuned her out and let her rant, enjoying the view. She’d stayed in that little triangle bikini set, so there was plenty good to look at.
Pacing around the room—we’d moved into the massive living room at this point—I watched as her hips swayed back and forth and her breasts bounced. Her bikini turned out to be a string bikini, for which I was eternally grateful. The backside of her bottoms was little more than a tiny triangle that sat upon the tops of her ass cheeks before the string disappeared between them, leaving the rest bare.
Her ass was round and firm with those perfectly rounded bottoms that liked to hang out of
booty shorts and panties. Seeing them just exposed like that was giving me a raging hard-on, but I couldn’t really say that I was upset about it.
Her long legs moved gracefully, like she was a model on a catwalk, as she paced back and forth. The pacing was nice because it let me watch her backside for a little bit, her hips rounded and full, her legs perfectly toned with that little space between them at the apex of her thighs where I knew her hot core was. Then she would turn around to walk back toward me again, and I could see her trim waist and her large, perky breasts, the nipples showing through the stretchy triangles of her bathing suit top. They bounced a little as she walked, pushing together and swinging just a little with each step.
Oh, yes, it wasn’t all bad despite the lecture.
“Are you even listening to me?” she half screamed at me.
She had stopped pacing and was now standing about a foot away from where I’d plopped down into one of her overstuffed armchairs. She had her hands on her full hips and was leaning forward slightly so that her breasts had come together, pushed by gravity, leaving a line of cleavage that was enticing and still a little shiny from whatever suntan lotion she’d used earlier. Her long blonde hair tumbled down over one shoulder looking like spun silk, urging me to reach for it and run my thick fingers through what I knew would be incredibly soft strands.
“Sure,” I said, my voice rougher than I’d intended. “You hate my guts, wish I’d get the hell out of here, you don’t need a bodyguard anyway, blah, blah, blah. Did I miss anything?”
Her bright blue eyes narrowed at me, reminding me that her face was just as sweet and beautiful as the rest of her perfectly shaped, tempting body. Her lips were full despite being pursed together and she looked like she wanted to try to smack me again.
Don’t do it, I thought, because I knew how that would go. I wouldn’t just stand there and let her slap me, not when I didn’t deserve it. And if she tried again, then I’d catch her wrist again. From there, things would deteriorate quickly.
I was already sitting and she was already leaning forward. My cock was hard and her body was all but screaming for lewd things to be done to it. I wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to pull her to me, to jerk her hand enough that she lost her footing and fell onto my lap, maybe with her legs spread to catch herself so that she’d straddle me. And then I’d have to pull her closer until her breasts pushed against me and I felt the nipples through my thin t-shirt. Her warm core would be poised right over the zipper of my jeans and I could jerk up into it.
I snapped back to the present when Abby pulled away a little, her cheeks flushed with anger. Her arms folded just beneath her breasts, making them push together even more. Hope flared when they looked like they might pop loose of those little triangles to show me her already pebbled nipples. I was willing to bet they were a rosy pink color.
Stop it, I admonished myself. I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me. I wasn’t usually this uncontrollably horny, but with her all bets seemed to be off.
Which was definitely not good. I needed to keep a healthy dose of distance between myself and her if only because I knew that Caleb was not going to be okay with me trying to get into her pants. And if she actually let me…well, that wouldn’t go over any better.
“You’re an ass,” she told me suddenly, turning away so that I could see her perfect behind again.
Focus, focus, I told myself. The problem was, her body seemed to be all I could focus on right then. Yep, I definitely need to find some horny chick to fuck. And soon.
While she was turned away, I adjusted myself in my jeans, hoping that my hard-on was discreet enough beneath the denim.
“Look, lady,” I started, pushing aside my desire as best I could. How could such a bombshell be such a bitch? “I didn’t ask to be here, okay? I was told to watch you and that’s what I’m going to do because your uncle is my boss and I like my job. I like it enough to want to keep it. So it looks like we’re just going to be stuck with each other for a while.”
I saw her shoulders tense. There was a pause and I thought maybe I had gotten through to her—could we actually reach some sort of civility?—but then she opened her mouth again. “Right, I’m sure this is just torture for you. You have to stay in this big mansion and watch me, a famous movie star! It must be just horrible for you.”
Irritation gripped me. How could one person be this full of themselves? Lifting myself up from the chair and ignoring the discomfort of my jeans, I snarled at her, “Damn right it is. Imagine getting stuck with some second-rate so-called star. Your movies are enough to make me want to gouge out my own eyes.”
Not true; I hadn’t seen a single one of her movies. But that really wasn’t the point. I was willing to play dirty and strike her where it hurt if that was what it was going to take. Which, apparently it was.
She whirled around to face me, a scandalized look on her face. For that look alone the lie was worth it. For a second she was speechless. Her mouth opened and closed several times, like she was trying to suck in air and having a hard time of it, the result being them forming a small o. It made me notice her full, sultry lips.
My mind dipped once more to the gutter, imagining what those lips might look like, what they might do. I imagined the way they would look wrapped around my thick cock, sliding up and down, maybe popping the head out before swallowing it again. Maybe they’d even leave a ring of that glossy cherry red lipstick she was wearing around the last inch of my cock, the part that she probably wouldn’t be able to take in without gagging.
I let out a shuddering breath, stepping closer to her, closer than I really meant to. She left her mouth parted as she looked up at me beneath thick, dark lashes.
“Close that mouth,” I whispered to her in a voice thick with desire, “before I find something long and thick to fill it with.”
Her bright blue eyes widened slightly at my words. I was sure she was going to get pissed off, be thoroughly offended and scandalized by my lewd suggestion. She wasn’t. Instead, I saw her eyes darken slightly with desire as her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of crimson. I saw her lower lip tremble slightly and her whole body shake as she sucked in a heaving breath that made her breasts rise and fall heavily.
And that was when I knew for sure: She wants me, too.
The knowledge kicked my already intense desire into overdrive. Despite all my drowning need for her, I had written her off as inaccessible not merely because she was Caleb’s niece, but because she wouldn’t be interested in a guy like me. I was most definitely not her type and she had made that very clear from the moment we met. Not that it stopped my mouth from letting suggestive things slip out. Now that I knew that she wanted me, the urge to throw her down on the white-carpeted floor and spread her legs was almost irresistible.
She’d let me fuck her, I knew it.
I felt myself leaning toward her without even realizing it, but she must have, because a second later she jerked back away from me, nearly tripping. At the last second, she steadied herself.
I watched as she pulled a mask of composure over her features, working hard to control her breathing. When she straightened herself up and turned toward me, she said, “I can assure you that I don’t want whatever you have to offer. No matter how long and thick it is.” Her eyes darted down to my pants where my cock strained against my zipper. Her cheeks reddened.
My eyebrows quirked in surprise and a grin slipped onto my lips, though I didn’t mean for it to. My look must have said something to her, because that lovely little flush of hers traveled down her neck and speckled the tops of her breasts. It was adorable and sultry all at once.
“Whatever you say, princess,” I murmured.
Silence spread between us suddenly, heavy laden with a tension that was sexual for me and probably for her as well. Despite what her mouth said, her body seemed to be responding to me in all the right ways.
Depends on your definition of right, came a little voice from the back of my mind. Probably the pla
ce where reason was still trying to work.
Focusing on that part of my brain, the one where I could still be reasonable, I tried to calm down. I wasn’t going to fuck her. That wasn’t an option. Which meant that if I didn’t want to endure this torture for too long, I was going to have to get myself the hell out of her life as quickly as possible. Her words from earlier—you have to stay in this big mansion and watch me—rang through me a second time as their underlying meaning hit me.
I had to stay with her. I was her shadow. From now until Caleb called me off.
It wasn’t a bad thing, all things considered. I got to watch her body and her pouty lips, and I’d already proved to myself that I could tune most of what she said out, so the spoiled little princess crap wouldn’t drive me just completely insane. Hopefully, I could get her to just hang out here at the mansion so I wouldn’t have to worry about the potential dangers outside.
