Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) (14 page)

“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 themselves.

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.”

It was far from the last thing on Lissa’s.

Asher’s coiled tension was palpable. His temper seeming to make even the air around them crackle. As for the way he kept prowling around her sitting room like some predatory beast… Lissa found it all very arousing.

How stupid was that?

Asher had at least a hundred pounds on her and a foot in height. His mood said he was more likely to cause her physical harm than make love to her.

And yet a part of her knew Asher wouldn’t hurt her. His job said he knew how to kill if he had to, but Lissa knew instinctively he would never physically harm her. Bruise her pride a little with those spankings, but never cause her actual physical harm.

He might not have been serious in his suggestion a few minutes ago, but it didn’t sound like such a bad idea to her…

“Where are you going?” Ash scowled as Lissa rose to her feet, the answer to that question becoming obvious as she walked toward him, a determined glitter in those golden-topaz eyes as she threw off her jacket. “Lissa…?” He watched her warily as she stepped out of her high-heeled shoes, losing three inches in height, before she slowly sank to her knees in front of him. “What the hell are you doing?” His voice was a strangulated rasp as her fingers moved to unfasten the single button on his trousers.

Her glance was teasing beneath thick lashes. “I must be doing something wrong if you don’t know.” She slowly slid the zipper downward.

Ash’s desire was instant, primal, as his cock surged up long and thick inside his boxers, the tip already slick with precum.

His hands moved to her shoulders, fingers gripping tightly. “I’m really not what you want right now.”

“You’re exactly what I want,” she purred. “Right now.”

“I have no control left.” He held her away from him as she pushed his boxers and trousers down to his thighs, allowing his bare, engorged cock to surge free. “You scared the shit out of me earlier with your disappearing act. If you do this, I won’t—I can’t be considerate or gentle.”

“Did I ask you to be either of those things?” Her gaze was on his erection as she ran the moist tip of her tongue suggestively across her lips.

“No.” Ash’s fingers tightened as he all too easily imagined that pink tongue licking and stroking the straining length of his cock.

But he couldn’t let her do this. Could he? “I’m not going to spank you,” he assured her gruffly. “I’m not going to do anything to you—”

“I know that.”

“—I’m just very angry right now and needed to verbally vent— What did you say?” He stared down at her.

The warmth of one of her hands wrapped about his cock. “Asher, I’m not trying to seduce you because you threatened to spank me. Or in the hope of dissipating some of your anger. Do either of those things even sound like me?” she added teasingly.

No, they didn’t. He’d known Lissa was outspoken, fiery, and a totally independent and confident woman from the first night he met her. Nothing about her had changed in the past year. If anything, she was even more of all those things.

Which must mean she
wanted
to do this.

Ash’s breath caught in his throat as she began to stroke her fingers along his rigid length. “Why?”

“You still owe me for Sunday morning. We owe
each other
for Sunday morning.” Her hand remained wrapped about his cock as she leaned forward to run her tongue moistly over the mushroom head, lapping up the precum. “Mm, you taste delicious.” Her face was flushed with pleasure.

“Lissa…!”

“Just relax and let me do this, Asher.” She parted her lips and took the whole of that bulbous head into the heat of her mouth, the soft rasp of her tongue a continued caress along his length.

Relax? His cock was being sucked into the moist inferno of Lissa’s mouth, and she was telling him to
relax
?
Damn it, his legs were shaking so much, he wasn’t sure they would continue to support him.

“I need to sit down before I fall down,” Ash muttered. If Lissa was going to do this, and she seemed determined she was, then he wanted to enjoy every second of it and not worry he was going to hurt her by falling on her when his legs finally gave out.

Lissa raised her head slowly, reluctant to release Asher. So much so she lingered to give his cock one last greedy lick. “These need to come off.” She pulled his trousers and boxers all the way down to his ankles. “You’ll feel pretty stupid if you fall flat on your— Come to think of it…” She admired the long length of his burgeoning cock. “I don’t think it would be your face you landed on first.”

“You’re doing wonders for my ego.” Asher chuckled as he removed his shoes and she helped him step out of his clothes.

She sat back on her heels. “The socks have to go too. Not in the least sexy.”

“Might as well take it all off while I’m at it.”

Watching Asher strip made Lissa’s nipples ache and increased the desire pooling between her thighs. Seeing him completely naked—wide shoulders and muscular chest, flat washboard abdomen with that delicious vee of muscle going down to his groin, the thick length of his cock jutting up from a nest of dark curls—was enough to make her mouth water too.