Defying Asher (Knight Security 1)

by Carole Mortimer

  A sleepless night later and Lissa still had no idea what had happened to make Asher behave that way.

  “Who are the two gorgeous hunks standing outside?” Gloria stood by the window looking out. “Well, one of them is more like a hulk,” she added wistfully. “I could really go for all that toned muscle and messy blond hair. Not that I’d complain at having either of them in my bed.” She gave a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows.

  Lissa knew exactly which “gorgeous hunks” Gloria was referring to. Just as she was aware one of them had already been in her bed.

  They weren’t the same two bodyguards who had driven her into work this morning. That had been Ethan and a man he introduced as Ian Knight, cousin to the four Knight brothers. Apparently, there was an upside to having her own security detail: instead of getting the tube to work, as usual, the two men had driven her to work in yet another black SUV.

  Asher and the man, Zander, who had followed her and Asher back to her apartment yesterday, had been waiting to take over when they reached the travel agency.

  Zander had given her an acknowledging nod. Asher, on the other hand had barely even glanced at her, his expression hard and uncompromising as he kept a watchful eye on their surroundings.

  That hurt.

  Lissa had half expected, after his comment last night, that Asher would take himself off her security detail. It might have been better for both of them if he had. It was agony to know he was on the other side of that door, silent, dark, and brooding, and treating her as nothing more than another client he was being paid to protect.

  Because that was all she was to Asher.

  Not his lover.

  Not his anything.

  The two of them had only met again because of circumstances.

  He had made that perfectly clear last night before he walked out on her.

  Which was exactly what I did to him a year ago, she reminded herself.

  Yes, but she’d been left with no choice once she knew Asher was involved with someone else. No matter how much she liked Asher, how amazing their night together had been, she could never be responsible for humiliating another woman the way Adam had humiliated her.

  “They’re my security detail,” she informed Gloria, having told her on the phone last night exactly what was happening in her life right now. As Gloria worked with her, the other woman needed to be on her guard too.

  “Whoa.” Gloria raised teasing brows. “Do they protect you night as well as day?”

  She smiled ruefully. “Yes. But outside my apartment, not inside.”

  “Pity,” Gloria murmured, her expression sobering as she moved away from the window to sit behind her desk. “Are they any nearer to finding out who could be targeting your mother?”

  “Not as far as I’m aware. They really don’t tell me very much.”

  Claudia had turned up at the hospital to see Jack last night while Lissa was there, the doggedly faithful Malcolm at her heels. Her mother had been as cool and controlled as usual, offering no explanation or apology for the chaos she had brought into Jack’s and Lissa’s lives. Not that Lissa had expected any; she had always known Claudia was utterly self-centered.

  “Time to start work,” Gloria said softly as their two junior coworkers arrived. “Let’s hope the hotties outside don’t scare away too many customers today.”

  Apparently, they didn’t, because the morning was a busy one. Lissa was glad of it, needing the distraction of work to stop her from thinking too much about the man standing outside.

  “Shall I bring you a sandwich back, or will you be going out yourself?” She looked enquiringly at Gloria as she shrugged into the jacket of the black business suit she wore over a cream blouse.

  “I’ll go out.” The other woman gave a glance out the window at the two men. “Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to strike up a conversation with the hulk on my way out.”

  Lissa laughed at Gloria’s hopeful expression. “Good luck with that!”

  Ethan had told her on the drive here this morning that Zander was one of Gabriel’s old army buddies, and not to be put off by his taciturn nature. Zander was apparently known for his protection skills rather than his conversational ones. Lissa hadn’t liked to ask what those protection skills were. Tall and heavily muscled, Zander looked as if he could crush any other man with his bare hands.

  “I’m going out the back way,” she told Gloria, unable to bear the thought of being shunned by Asher twice in one morning. Besides which, the sandwich bar was only half a dozen doors down from her travel agency. She would be back before Asher even knew she had gone out.

  “And if the hulk sees you’re gone?”

  “His name is Zander. And if he does come in, it will give you the opportunity to bat your eyelashes at him and maybe ask him out to dinner.”

  Gloria’s expression brightened as she turned her gaze speculatively out the front window. “Don’t rush back.”

  Lissa had no intention of hurrying back. Her life and her apartment hadn’t been her own for several days now, and she was badly in need of some time to herself. Maybe she would walk to the park at the end of the street after buying her sandwich. She could sit on one of the benches and people-watch for a while. Try to “get her shit together,” as Gabriel had so succinctly told Asher to do yesterday.

  Because this aching yearning inside her for Asher couldn’t continue.

  When Ash caught up with Lissa, he was going to spank her ass within an inch of her fucking life!

  He wasn’t accepting any excuses this time. No pleas for mercy, no tears, he was just going to paddle her ass until she begged him to stop. He might not stop even then.

  What the hell had she been thinking, going out the back door of the travel agency—a door Ash had checked earlier to make sure it was locked—without telling them she was leaving?

  Locked or not, either Zander or I should have been guarding that back door.

  Ash’s shoulders slumped slightly as he realized Gabriel’s concern was proving to be the right one: Ash was failing in the job of protecting Lissa.

  Because he was too close.

  To the situation.

  To Lissa.

  When I catch up with her, I’m going to be more than fucking close!

  If, not when, Ash reminded himself as he strode down the street, his eyes narrowed as he searched for a glimpse of that familiar auburn hair. He had instructed Zander to stay at the travel agency, just in case Lissa returned while Ash was gone.

  Lissa’s assistant had assured them her boss had only slipped out for a few minutes to get her lunch from the sandwich bar a couple of doors down. A sandwich bar from which Lissa had been conspicuously absent when Asher got there.

  He had been searching for another ten minutes now, and so far, Lissa wasn’t anywhere. Shit, she had probably been kidnapped. Might already be dead.

  Another couple of minutes and he would have no choice but to phone Gabriel so they could set up an official search party—

  There.

  Ash had cast only a cursory glance in the direction of the small park at the end of the street, but his gaze narrowed as he saw a familiar head of auburn hair. The woman was sitting on a bench, with her back toward him, but he would recognize the rich color of Lissa’s hair anywhere.

  “What did you not understand about the instruction you were not to go anywhere—and I do mean fucking anywhere!—without a bodyguard?”

  Lissa tensed at the first sound of Asher’s voice behind her, outwardly calm but inwardly cringing as she turned and saw the absolute fury on his glowering face.

  It had been so peaceful sitting in the park too. Soothing to her frayed nerves caused by both that disagreement with Asher last night and the lack of sleep that followed.

  The dark and angry glitter of Asher’s eyes brought that tension back with a vengeance. “As far as I’m concerned, it was advice, not an instruction,” she came back challengingly. “It’s my lunch break, and I stepped out for a sandwich. For the record, I do
n’t take instructions from either you or your brother.”

  “No?”

  Her chin rose. “No.”

  “Do you take your lunch break at the same time every day?”

  “Yes.” Lissa’s tone was wary as she wondered where he was going with this conversation.

  “Always buy a sandwich from the same sandwich bar?”

  “Yes…”

  “So anyone watching you would know it’s your usual routine to leave the office at one o’clock to go to that sandwich bar and purchase your lunch?”

  Ah. “Yes…” She winced.

  A nerve pulsed in his cheek. “Are you deliberately trying to get yourself killed?”

  “Of course not.” Lissa used the excuse of throwing her empty sandwich packet in the bin and stand up. She felt at far too much of a disadvantage with Asher looming over her.

  “You could have fooled me,” he snarled.

  She breathed out deeply through her nose. “You seem to be under the misapprehension your opinion matters to me.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Your dead body would matter to me!”

  “Your drama queen act is becoming tedious—” She didn’t finish her sentence because Asher’s hand snaked out, his fingers curling like steel bands about her wrist as he dragged her up close against the tense heat of his body. “Asher…?” She moistened the dryness of her lips with the tip of her tongue as she gazed up at him.

  His mouth twisted into a humorless smile. “Not so brave or mouthy now, are you? If I can overpower you so easily, then so can Stein’s murderer. And trust me, you’ll have even less to say with a bullet in your brain.”

  The nervous fluttering in Lissa’s stomach wasn’t caused by arousal or desire this time. Asher was too controlled. His eyes cold. His expression merciless. His fingers gripping her wrist just short of pain.

  She clenched her jaw. “Paranoid, much?”

  “I didn’t imagine Stein’s death or your father being shot.”

  “Stop trying to frighten me!”

  “Am I succeeding?”

  She fought against giving Asher the satisfaction of admitting he was. Not only by reminding her of the ugly truth of her life right now. The expression on Asher’s face was almost feral, and she could feel the coiled tension of his body pressing along the length of hers.

  The aroused tension of his body.

  Lissa swallowed before speaking. “I told you, this penchant you have for melodrama is becoming—”

  “Tedious,” he finished in a growl. “That isn’t melodrama, Lissa, it’s the plain unvarnished truth.” He turned and walked toward the exit of the park, pulling Lissa along with him, causing her to stumble in her high-heeled shoes as she tried to keep up with him.

  “You—”

  “If you call me an asshole just once,” Asher spoke calmly as he continued walking, easily dragging Lissa along behind him despite her struggles to free herself, “then you’ll discover just how melodramatic I can be.”

  “Would you stop behaving like a caveman? People are staring at us,” she protested as she saw several people in the park had turned to watch them, obviously unsure as to whether she was being forcibly abducted or if it was simply a lovers’ tiff.

  Lovers’ tiff? Hah!

  They would have to be lovers for that to be true, and so far—

  Asher came to such a sudden halt that a distracted Lissa found herself bouncing off the tensed muscles of his back. “What you’re seeing right now is only curiosity. Staring would be if I decided not to wait but to turn you over my knee and spank you right here and right now.”

  “You wouldn’t dare!” she gasped.

  “Oh, I think we both know that isn’t true.” He snorted as he resumed walking “So which is it to be? Do you want to take your punishment here or in private?”

  Her jaw set. “Neither.”

  “It was an either-or question.”

  “And I’m choosing to accept neither of those options.”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine…?” Lissa repeated uncertainly as Asher came to a halt as soon as they were out of the park.

  “Fine.” He nodded, taking his cell phone out of the inside breast pocket of his jacket before making a call. “Zander? Yes, I’ve secured Miss Forsythe. The park at the end of the road.” The hardness of his gaze remained on Lissa throughout his conversation with the other man. “Bring the SUV round, would you? No, I’m taking her to her apartment.”

  “I want to go back to work,” Lissa protested.

  Asher ended the call and replaced the cell phone in his pocket before answering her. “I doubt it will surprise you to know I don’t give a shit what you want. In future, you’ll do as you’re damn well told, which means you aren’t going anywhere without me by your side.”

  “You have no right—” Her protest came to an end as Asher grasped hold of her forearms, holding her immobile as he bent his head until his face was only inches away and on a level with her own.

  A face so taut with anger, the skin was stretched tightly over his high cheekbones, his eyes dark pits of fury as he glared at her. “Wasn’t Stein’s death and your father being shot enough to convince you this isn’t some fucking game? That whoever is doing this has no respect for human life? Yours or anyone else’s close to Claudia.” The words sounded as if they were being spoken over broken glass. “I don’t give a damn whether you like it or not. Those are the facts, and I will not allow you to take reckless chances that endanger your life or one of my men. Is that clear?”

  Her throat moved as she swallowed. Asher truly was overwhelming in this mood, almost savage in the rawness of his rage. “Yes.”

  “Not good enough,” he rasped. “I said, are we clear?”

  Her frown was pained. “Yes, we’re clear.”

  “Better.” He nodded abruptly. “Now you’re going to get in the back of the SUV.” He nodded toward the black vehicle Zander had parked by the pavement. “If you have any sense of self-preservation, you won’t say another word until I get you home. Understood?”

  “Ye— Understood,” she hastily repeated as Asher’s expression darkened even more.

  Which Lissa hadn’t thought was possible. She had really screwed up this time. Monumentally. Not deliberately. She had only wanted to get some fresh air. An escape, release, from the claustrophobia of having bodyguards with her wherever she went.

  But Asher was right: she hadn’t thought through the short- or long-term repercussions of her having gone out alone, even to get a sandwich. Short term, she or one of the employees of Knight Security might have been shot and killed. Long term, Asher and Knight Security would have to bear the onus of that death for years to come. Her father wouldn’t be too happy if she died either. As for her mother… Who knew what Claudia thought and felt about anything. Lissa certainly didn’t.

  She climbed into the back of the SUV without saying another word, very aware of the silent—and disapproving—Zander sitting behind the wheel. That silence and tension became oppressive as Asher climbed in beside the other man and nodded for him to drive the SUV out into the traffic.

  Leaving Lissa, alone and miserable in the back of the vehicle, to ponder what her punishment would be once they reached her apartment. She had a feeling those twenty-two spanks to her bottom might be involved. And Asher wasn’t in any frame of mind to hold back on the force of those blows.

  Chapter 10

  Ash prowled restlessly about Lissa’s apartment, shooting her the occasional narrow-eyed glance as he wondered if he had ever been this angry before.

  Before Lissa.

  Somehow, he doubted it. He certainly didn’t remember it if he had. And he would have remembered this taste of bile in his mouth, the ache in his chest, and the burning need he felt to hit someone. To maim, possibly even to kill.

  The army had trained Gabriel to be a sniper, but all the Knight brothers were crack shots. It had occasionally been necessary for one or other of them to fire a gun in the defense of a client or them
selves.

  How Ash felt now was nothing like the calm space he went to just before he’d had to take one of those shots. Right now his skin felt too tight for his body, as if something dark and elemental were trying to break free. His guts were churning, and no matter how much he swallowed, that acidic taste remained in his mouth and throat. His blood was rushing heatedly through his veins, and there was a constant buzzing sound inside his head.

  Because for ten minutes, I had no fucking idea if Lissa was alive or dead.

  Ten minutes. And it might as well have been a lifetime. It had seemed like a lifetime while it was happening. Had been the longest ten minutes of Ash’s life, as everything happened in slow motion, and his certainty grew that he was going to find Lissa lying dead somewhere. Or worse, they wouldn’t find her at all. That he would spend the rest of his life wondering whether she was alive or dead.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Ash didn’t dare even attempt to make a reply. If anything, Lissa’s apology only succeeded in making him angrier, and he had no idea what words might come out of his mouth if he attempted to speak. Or if he would be able to stop at only hurtful words.

  Lissa sighed heavily as she watched him from where she sat in one of the armchairs. “Can we just get this over with so we can both move on with our lives? The spanking,” she supplied as Ash looked at her blankly.

  The spanking?

  Did she really think a few smacks on her backside would in any way compensate for the sheer terror Ash had felt when he realized she was no longer inside the travel agency she owned? Or give him back the years shaved off his life by that terror.

  He bared his teeth in a snarl. “We’re way past a punishment as minor as spanking.”

  “They hurt!” she protested.

  “Obviously not enough,” he snapped.

  “I’ve apologized. I don’t know what else I can do to stop you being so angry with me,” she groaned.

  “You could always try seduction— That was not a serious suggestion,” Ash dismissed harshly as her eyes widened. “Believe me, sex is the last thing on my mind right now.”