“My shower isn’t big enough for two people.”
“I can be very…inventive.”
“Probably because you’ve had plenty of experience.”
A frown appeared between his eyes. “I’m single and thirty-six years old, not sixteen.”
Lissa knew she was being unfair. That she hadn’t been a virgin either when the two of them made love a year ago. But there had only been one man before Asher, and she had thought she was going to marry Adam. The two of them had been engaged, planning the wedding when she learned of his duplicity.
“Does that bother you?” Asher probed.
“No.”
It wasn’t Asher’s experience that bothered Lissa, it was remembering the telephone call he’d received the morning after they spent the night together. From someone he was obviously very close to. Admittedly, time had shown he hadn’t married the other woman, but Lissa had been able to hear the affectionate familiarity in the message the other woman left on Asher’s answering machine. And Asher had just spent the night with another woman. With Lissa.
Lissa knew exactly how it felt to have someone be unfaithful to her. Knew what it was to suffer that betrayal and humiliation.
“Are you sure about that?” Asher frowned.
“Very.” Her eyes narrowed. “Are you seeing anyone else right now?”
“Are you?” he instantly shot back.
“No.”
That frown cleared from between his eyes. “Me neither.”
Which left them precisely where? They had almost made love yesterday morning. Almost? They had made love; it just hadn’t ended the way either of them had expected. As the unsatisfied ache between Lissa’s thighs and the bulge visible in Asher’s jeans testified.
Lissa sighed heavily. “The two of us becoming involved is a bad idea on too many levels to list.”
“The body wants what it wants.”
Lissa knew that the correct saying was “the heart wants what it wants.” Proof, if she’d needed it, it wasn’t Asher’s heart that was engaged, only his cock.
And what was wrong with that?
Asher was a man, she was a woman, they were both adults, and they wanted each other, despite the constant sniping between them. Or maybe the sniping was a measure of the frustration they felt from not satisfying that desire?
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay…?” Ash eyed her uncertainly, not sure what Lissa was saying okay to. The last thing he wanted to do was make a mistake and get kneed in the balls for his trouble.
She met his gaze unflinchingly. “Let’s take a shower together and then complete our unfinished business. Is that clear enough for you?”
“Crystal.” Ash’s uncertainty deepened rather than lessened. “Where’s the catch?”
“There isn’t one.”
“Why do I find that hard to believe?”
“The body wants what it wants, right?”
Ash could feel the heat of Lissa’s body. “Does your body want mine?”
“I thought you just listed all ways in which it showed that.”
“That was at the idea of being spanked.”
“Same thing.” She placed her hands on his chest to give her leverage as she rose on tiptoe and kissed him softly on the lips. Her breath was hot against his lips as she moved back slightly to gaze up at him.
How could Ash doubt Lissa’s desire when he could feel the hard tips of her breasts pressing against his shirted chest, and the heat of her mound was against the reciprocal bulge in his trousers?
And yet he sensed something was…off about Lissa’s sudden acquiescence. It, not her, seemed too easy.
“Are you sure this is what you really want?” He continued to frown.
Lissa gave a husky laugh. “That isn’t very flattering, Asher. I’ve indicated I’m more than willing, and now you’re the one who’s reluctant.”
“I’m not reluctant.” He put his arms about her waist and pulled her in close against him. “But neither do I want to be something you’ll regret. Again.”
She sobered at his mention of the past. “I won’t regret it, because we’re both going into this with our eyes wide open. But I seriously need a shower before I do anything else.”
He continued to study her searchingly for several seconds, before finally nodding when her gaze continued to meet his unwaveringly. “Okay, let’s do this.” He released her to take her hand in his as the two of them walked down the hallway together.
The butterflies in Lissa’s stomach began to fly around in a swarm, her anxiety deepening the closer they came to the bathroom.
This was too…ordered. Completely lacking in spontaneity. Wasn’t at all wild and urgent like it had been between them a year ago, or yesterday morning.
It made Lissa feel self-conscious.
Uncomfortable.
Did Asher feel the same tension?
Lissa glanced at him from beneath lowered lashes. Asher’s expression wasn’t particularly happy either, that frown back between his eyes, lips thinned and his jaw set.
She released her hand from his as she came to an abrupt halt in the hallway. “This isn’t going to work, is it?”
“Oh, I have no doubt it will work,” he assured her ruefully. “But you’re right, not like this.” He straightened. “You go and take a shower, and I’ll look through your fridge for something for dinner. I’ll cook. We can decide afterwards what we want to do for the rest of the evening.”
“I really do have to go back to the hospital to see my father.”
“I’ll make sure you get there.”
Lissa arched one eyebrow. “You can cook?”
“I can cook,” he confirmed dryly. “Maybe not the fancy stuff, but enough so that I don’t starve.”
“You still live alone?”
“I already told you I’m not involved with anyone else. For the record, I’ve never lived with anyone. Ever.”
“Me either. Well, apart from Stazzi, obviously.” When Lissa and Asher first met, she’d shared this apartment with Stazzi.
Asher nodded. “Good to know.”
Lissa tilted her head. “We really don’t know much about each other, do we?” It was a statement not a question. Physically, they had no secrets from each other, but in every other way, they were almost like strangers.
Who was she kidding? She might not know what Asher liked for breakfast in the morning, or his taste in books or movies. But she knew Asher. He was protective as hell, with an inner strength that could spill over into arrogance when he chose to let it. He made no effort to hide his loyalty and affection for his family. The four brothers worked together, for goodness’ sake, and there had been an obvious affection in his voice when he talked about his sister. He was also honest to a fault—sometimes too much so, as far as Lissa was concerned.
In other words, she knew Asher as a man of strength and honor.
It was only the little things Lissa didn’t know about him. The things a couple usually learned about each other on a first date. She and Asher hadn’t had a first date, or a second one, come to that. Instead, they had ripped each other’s clothes off the first evening they met. A pattern they seemed to have repeated ever since!
Instead of getting to know each other, they had done things backward, establishing a physical rapport that was combustible without really knowing each other. They hadn’t talked. Shared details of their childhoods. The countries they had traveled to as adults. Who their friends were. Food and drink likes and dislikes.
And still Lissa knew all she needed to know about Asher to be aware she was falling in love with him all over again.
If she had ever stopped.
“There’s no rush,” he told her softly. “I’m going to be around for a while. We can take our time, get to know each other better.”
But could they? Someone out there in the world was gunning for Claudia, and they didn’t seem to care who got killed or injured in the crossfire. Maybe Lissa would be next.
“
Go take your shower,” Ash encouraged. “I’ll have dinner ready when you come back.”
She shot him a flirtatious glance. “Whoever would have guessed you were so domesticated.”
“Your cat is domesticated,” he growled. “I happen to be a big guy who likes to eat on a regular basis.”
“Don’t worry, Asher, your bad-boy reputation is safe with me.”
He scowled. “I don’t have a bad-boy reputation.”
“Of course you do.” She chuckled.
“I seriously don’t.” Ash wasn’t finding this conversation in the least amusing. “The two of us may not have got off to a…conventional start, and things have been a little tense since we met again a couple of days ago, but I really don’t have a bad-boy reputation. Hell, I haven’t even—” He broke off as he realized he was about to admit he hadn’t slept with anyone since that night with Lissa a year ago. The woman in Puerto Rico really didn’t count. He’d given her pleasure, but he hadn’t slept with her, and he certainly hadn’t had sex with her.
“Haven’t even…?”
“Never mind,” Ash snapped. “Go take your shower.” He turned abruptly on his heel and walked back to the kitchen area.
He heard the water running in the bathroom as he opened the fridge door to see if he could find the ingredients to make them both an omelet.
Domesticated?
That was the last thing he was.
Or ever wanted to be.
His brother-in-law, Jonas, a man who guarded his privacy more than any other person Ash had ever met, was domesticated. The other man hadn’t hesitated to give up his privacy when he fell in love with Lily. Poor guy had even agreed when Lily told him she wanted to spend last Christmas with her four brothers.
Yeah, well, that was Jonas. Ash wasn’t about to let himself fall in love with anyone. This was about sex and only sex, damn it.
Fuck domesticated.
Lissa started to feel clean for the first time in a couple of days, having soaped and rinsed all over, her hair also freshly washed. Now she was just enjoying standing beneath the spray of hot water, wet hair slicked back, eyes closed as the water cascaded over her face and down her body.
The familiar hands sliding beneath her breasts, accompanied by the heat of a naked, aroused male body pressing close against her back, were her first indications she was no longer alone in the shower.
She gave a low moan, eyes still closed as her head fell back against Asher’s shoulder. His lips traveled hotly down the length of her throat as his fingers squeezed and caressed her nipples to hard, sensitive peaks.
Pleasure, hot and aching, immediately centered between her thighs, her clit swelling and throbbing in response to that pleasure.
“Asher…” she groaned.
“Were you expecting anyone else?” His growl was accompanied by squeezing her nipples to the edge of pain, the hard length of his cock a suggestive glide against the cheeks of her bottom.
Lissa’s eyes opened as she heard the unmistakable aggression in Asher’s tone and felt the tension in his body, instantly knowing this wasn’t the same man who had offered to cook her dinner a short time ago. This Asher was the forceful and demanding man who had enjoyed spanking her bottom and several times threatened to repeat the punishment since.
“Ash—”
“Stay exactly where you are,” he ordered harshly when she would have turned in his arms. One of his arms remained like a steel band about her waist, hand dropping to seek out the throbbing nubbin between her thighs.
“Oh God…” Lissa’s knees threatened to buckle beneath her when Asher’s fingers began to pull and squeeze her swollen nipple to the same rhythm as he stroked and milked her swollen clit.
There was no gentle buildup. Her orgasm hitting her with the force of a tsunami, Lissa gasping as pleasure consumed her body. Asher’s teeth sinking into the sensitive flesh at the base of her throat prolonged and intensified that release.
Lissa still felt slightly dazed as Asher turned off the shower before picking her up and stepping out of the shower with her in his arms. Water streamed from their bodies as he sat her down on the side of the bath before falling to his knees on the bath mat in front of her.
She was given no time to so much as collect together a coherent thought as Asher placed his hands on her parted thighs and buried his face between her legs. His tongue thrust hotly between her parted nether lips, greedily lapping up her juices before moving to stroke roughly over her still-throbbing clit, sending her into another climax even more intense than the first.
“Asher—”
“Again,” he demanded, his hands sliding up her thighs so that his thumbs could part her nether lips, allowing his tongue to pierce and thrust into her pulsing channel.
Lissa was already so sensitized from her previous two orgasms, she was instantly hurtled into the maelstrom of her third release in a few short minutes. A kaleidoscope of colors flashed behind her closed lids as her body trembled and shook from the overload of sensations.
Two of Asher’s fingers slid inside the slick heat of her pussy. “You’re more than ready for me,” he murmured his satisfaction, those fingers starting to thrust inside her as his thumb pressed and stroked her clit. The fingers of his other hand moved up to brush lightly, tantalizingly, over her swollen and aching nipples.
“It’s too much,” Lissa groaned weakly. “Asher, I can’t again so soon—”
“You can.” He seemed like a man possessed as his fingers continued to plunder and claim her. “Come for me. Now,” he instructed fiercely.
Lissa came. Harder, deeper, than she ever had before.
Ash didn’t stop until he had taken every last throb and pulse of that orgasm for his own and Lissa had collapsed weakly forward, the dampness of her forehead resting on his shoulder.
“Asher, what’s wrong with you?” she gasped.
What was wrong with him? Nothing that a good hard fuck wouldn’t cure.
“Tell me this isn’t what you want, and I’ll stop.” Ash’s fingers slid out of her drenched pussy, and he sat back on his heels, his cock jutting up long and thick, the mushroom top swollen and slick with precum. His balls were taut and so full, they felt as if they were about to burst. “Answer me, damn it.”
Her eyes were a deep dark topaz as she looked at him, the pupils dilated, her cheeks flushed. “Why are you being like this?”
“Like what?” Ash rose to his feet, towering over her. “Wasn’t this what you wanted earlier when you implied the excitement was missing?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t say that—”
“You implied it.”
Her frown was pained. “You sound…angry?”
“Probably because I am.” A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. “I’m not some stray like your fucking cat, so don’t ever try to domesticate me!”
“I would never… I wasn’t…” Her eyes widened. “Asher, are you deliberately trying to fight with me?”
“Why would I do that?”
“I have no idea.” She slowly shook her head.
Ash stared at her wordlessly for several seconds before breathing heavily. “I have to go. Gabriel was right when he said I’m the last person who should be protecting you.”
She breathed in sharply. “You talked to your brother about me? I… Does he know what happened between us a year ago? Did you and Gabriel talk about me like some dirty little joke?”
Ash stared at her. What the fuck…?
“Is that what you really think of me?” Ash scowled. “That I’m some pathetic man who has to boast about his sexual conquests with his brothers and drinking buddies?”
Lissa didn’t know what to think anymore.
Except to know Asher had just described her as being a sexual conquest.
“You’re right, you should leave now.” Her hand trembled as she belatedly reached for a towel and wrapped it around her before securing it over her breasts. Breasts that were sore and aching from Asher’s lovemaking— No
, that hadn’t been lovemaking, it had been sex, pure and simple. Well…maybe not so pure, but it was obvious she meant no more than that sexual conquest to Asher. That she never would.
Asher had been so wrong earlier. The excitement was never missing when Lissa was with him. It was always there, a constant thrum of awareness beneath her flesh. Because she found everything about him exciting. Everything. Her skin became sensitized, all her senses coming alive just being near him.
She was the one who was pathetic.
“You should go,” she repeated shakily.
He nodded abruptly. “Do not leave here without a bodyguard—I mean it, Lissa. For once in your life, do as you’re fucking told,” he bit out harshly.
Lissa couldn’t even look at him as he snatched his clothes up off the floor and left the bathroom. She hadn’t moved from that spot when she heard the apartment door slam shut minutes later, telling her Asher had gone.
Then, and only then, did she allow the tears to fall.
Chapter 9
“What are you doing here this morning?” Gloria reproved affectionately at nine o’clock the following morning as Lissa turned from hanging up her jacket, ready for starting work. “I told you on the phone last night there was no need.” She gave Lissa a hug.
Lissa returned the hug. “No reason to stay away when my mother is spending the day at the hospital with Jack.” Gloria was well aware of the strained relationship between Lissa and her mother. The two women had worked together at the travel agency since it first opened.
Lissa had no intention of spending any more time in her mother’s company than she needed to. If she had stayed home today, she would only have spent the time brooding about her argument with Asher last night.
If it could be called an argument.
It had been more a case of accusations being hurled by both of them.
Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) Page 9
