Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) (2 page)

His superior height allowed him to hold the phone up out of her reach. “I told you, Miss Reynolds isn’t to be disturbed right now.”

“This is ridiculous.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“You have no right to stop me from seeing Claudia.”

“I beg to differ.”

Lissa snorted. “You’ve never begged for anything in your life!”

“True,” he drawled. “But if Miss Reynolds had wanted to see you, then your name would have been on her list of approved visitors.”

Lissa stilled. “Are you saying Claudia
gave
you a list of the names of the people she wants to see?”

“Yes.”

“And I’m not on it?”

“No.”

Well, wasn’t that wonderful. Just fucking marvelous.

Asher eyed her suspiciously. “What’s your connection to Miss Reynolds?”

Her connection to Claudia? Well, after this evening, Lissa wasn’t sure she had one, even tenuous as it had always been. The two of them had never been particularly close. How could they be when they barely knew each other?

The two women lived in different worlds. Claudia was the powerful CEO of the prestigious
Elan
fashion magazine, whereas Lissa managed a travel agency. Lissa liked nice clothes as much as the next woman, but she certainly wouldn’t spend thousands of pounds on the fashions displayed every month in
Elan
and which Claudia wore all the time. Claudia was English by birth, but her main home was in New York and had been for years. Lissa had gone to school and university in the UK and preferred to live here.

Even so…

Lissa straightened, the four-inch heels on her boots putting her on eye level with that cleft in Asher’s chin. “Claudia Reynolds is my mother.”

Oh fuck
.

What the hell was Ash supposed to say in answer to that when he hadn’t even known Claudia Reynolds
had
a daughter?

A daughter she hadn’t told them about and whose name she hadn’t put on her approved list of visitors.

Not just any daughter either, but Lissa Forsythe, the woman Ash had once spent a memorable night with. The same woman who had walked out of his life the following morning, muttering something about “not being part of his damned harem,” adding she never wanted to see him again.

That hadn’t been completely possible, of course. The two of them had been out to dinner with Lissa’s friend Stazzi and Asher’s friend Alexandre the night they first met, and they had both attended the other couple’s wedding on the island of Androcco some months later. Not that Lissa had spoken to him at the wedding; she had been far too busy flirting with one of Alexandre’s male relatives even to notice Asher.

But there had never been any mention a year ago, not even a hint, of Lissa being the daughter of the powerful fashion media mogul Claudia Reynolds.

Until now.

Fuck
.

Lissa gave a mocking smile at his obvious shock. “It would seem Claudia forgot to mention that little fact,” she added with the same cold disdain as her mother.

Yes, she had, and now Ash, already Lissa’s least favorite person, was having to deal with the fallout.

“Is it Claudia you’re here to protect?” Lissa probed.

“You would have to ask Miss Reynolds that.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she scoffed.

“Take it however you want.”

“Oh, I will.” She gave Ash a saccharine-sweet smile. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why Claudia needs this extra security when Harvey Stein has been her bodyguard for years?”

“No.” Why the hell
hadn’t
Claudia Reynolds told them she had a daughter? A daughter she so obviously hadn’t spoken to in the last two days.

Although, he didn’t think he or Liam could be blamed for not making the connection between the two women this evening. They looked and behaved absolutely nothing alike.

The mother was a tall slender blonde, the epitome of cool elegance in the fitted dresses she favored. Lissa was beautiful, but her just-below-shoulder-length hair was a deep auburn with touches of red. Her eyes were the color of yellow topaz. She was only three, maybe four inches over five feet tall, without the aid of those lethal four-inch heels on her boots. Lissa’s figure was also curvy, her clothes casual: short tan leather jacket over a yellow sweater, and jeans that clung to her ass and thighs.

Claudia Reynolds also didn’t look a day older than thirty-five, definitely not old enough to have a daughter aged in her late twenties. If anything, the two could have been sisters rather than mother and daughter.

That was hardly the point, was it, when Knight Security had asked Claudia Reynolds for full disclosure before taking on the job of protecting her while she was in England on business. Omitting to mention the existence of her daughter certainly wasn’t doing that. Making Ash wonder what else the older woman had
forgotten
to tell them.

“Where and who is your father?” He stalled for the time he needed to get his head around this unexpected development. For all he knew, there could also be an unnamed husband popping out of the woodwork sometime soon.

“He lives in Los Angeles. He’s Jack Forsythe, the film producer.” She shrugged. “I took my father’s name, even though my parents were never married and my mother left shortly after I was born.”

“You were brought up by your father?”

“Yes.”

“Hasn’t he been married three times?”

“Four,” Lissa corrected. “Having that many stepmothers has been…interesting to say the least. He’s between wives at the moment,” she added dryly.

Fucking hell. This just got more and more complicated. “You don’t speak with an American accent.”

“English boarding school.”

“Your parents both live in the US, but you live in London and work in a travel agency? At least you did a year ago.”

The question Ash wanted to ask was, why did she? when she had a megarich fashion guru for a mother and a famous and equally rich film producer for a father? Whether her parents were married or not, most young women in that position would have lived the life of wealth and privilege she had obviously been born into.

“I’m twenty-eight, Asher, not eight, which means I can live where I damn well please. I also happen to own the travel agency where I work,” she added dismissively.

Well, that made a little more sense. A little. It still didn’t explain why Claudia had forgotten to mention her daughter. Or how Asher was now supposed to deal with that information.

He winced as he handed Lissa her cell phone. “I’ll call up and tell Miss Reynolds you’re here—”

“Don’t bother,” Lissa snapped in disgust. “Just let her know I came by for our required monthly visit. She knows how to contact me.”
If she wants to
was tacitly added to that statement as Lissa turned and walked over to the glass entrance door, hips swaying provocatively, her head held high.

“Lissa—”

“Don’t give it another thought, Asher. Whatever game Claudia is playing, I want no part of it.” She didn’t even turn as she gave a dismissive wave of her hand on her way out the door.

“Well, that went well.” Asher gave Liam an uncomfortable grimace.

The other man frowned. “Miss Reynolds has been holding back on us.”

Yes, she had, and now Asher was going up to one of the two penthouse apartments to demand to know if there was anything else Claudia Reynolds had omitted to tell them.

What sort of mother scheduled monthly visits with her own daughter, for fuck’s sake? A daughter Claudia hadn’t even thought to put on the list of approved friends and associates she had given for people allowed to visit her apartment.

And how the hell was Ash supposed to deal with having the disturbing Lissa Forsythe back in his life?

Chapter 2

“How’s your foot?”

Ash’s gaze narrowed on his oldest brother, Gabriel, sitting behind his imposing desk in the Knight Security office building. Ash sat opposite, his booted feet propped up and crossed at the ankles on the front of the antique piece of furniture. At thirty-seven, Gabriel was the eldest of the four Knight brothers. Ex-military, he now preferred to wear a tailored suit and run the company office rather than go out into the field.

“I read Liam’s report from last night,” Gabriel told him unapologetically.

“Of course you did.” Ash sighed. “Well, my foot’s badly bruised, but there don’t seem to be any broken bones.”

“Fiery lady.”

That was one way of putting it. Lissa had been a thorn in Ash’s side from the first night he met her. Outspoken. Fiery, as Gabriel said. Beautiful. And so fucking passionate, she took his breath away. But then, she’d done that from the moment Ash first looked at her.

“What explanation did Miss Reynolds give for omitting her daughter’s name from her list of approved visitors?”

“In light of what happened before she left New York, she totally forgot her daughter would be visiting,” Ash revealed. “How the fuck does someone forget their own daughter?” It had been all he could do to conceal his disgust the previous evening when he spoke with Claudia Reynolds.

Gabriel shrugged. “You would have to ask Miss Reynolds that.”

Ash frowned at his brother. “Seems to me Claudia Reynolds and Jack Forsythe should take more of an interest in their daughter.”

“Feeling a little protective, are we?”

“Don’t start your fucking mind games with me, Gabe.” Ash scowled. “I’m not in the mood for them.”

“What are you in the mood for?”

Fucking.

Hard. Fast. Mindless. Unadulterated,
uncensored
fucking.

And not just with anyone either. With Lissa.

Ash had thought of little else since seeing her again last night. That need had kept him awake most of the night, and he still ached with it.

He remembered in graphic detail how he couldn’t get enough of her that night a year ago. The taste of her. The silky sensuality of how her skin felt beneath his hands. How they’d taken each other again and again, in every way possible, until they both fell into an exhausted asleep in the early hours of the morning.

No other woman had affected him that way, before her or since.

Or he was just getting picky.

Whatever the reason, that single night with Lissa was etched into his memory, maybe even his soul.

And the following morning, she’d walked away, after accusing him of God knows what when he returned to the bedroom from taking a shower. She’d sashayed her delectable ass out of his apartment and treated him with utter contempt six months ago and again last night.

“When did you and Miss Forsythe first meet?”

Ash met Gabriel’s gaze guardedly. “Alexandre’s Stazzi—I suppose she’s Princess Anastazia now,” he mused. “She introduced the two of us last year.” Ash and the ruling prince of Androcco had met at university and remained friends ever since.

“And?”

“And the four of us had dinner together.”

“Is that all you and Miss Forsythe did together?”

“What the fuck does that have to do with you?” Ash snapped.

Gabriel leaned his elbows on the desk, green eyes as hard as the jewels they resembled. “It has a great deal to do with me if your previous…relationship with Claudia Reynolds’s daughter intrudes on this protection detail. Maybe you’re too close to the situation and Noah should take the lead on this. You could take over the kidnapping case—”

“No!” Ash had swung his legs to the floor to sit forward, his body tensed aggressively. “I can handle it, damn it.”

“I’m more worried about the possibility of you inappropriately handling Miss Forsythe.”

His eyes narrowed. “When have you ever known me to allow my personal life to interfere with my professional one?”

“Never,” Gabe conceded. “Except for the fact you don’t deny there
is
a personal relationship between the two of you.”

“Was,” Ash corrected. “There
was
a personal relationship. A year ago. Briefly. Very briefly,” he added flatly.

Gabe gave a hard smile. “You seem to have made enough of an impression during that
brief
relationship,
she didn’t even hesitate in inflicting injury on you last night.”

He shrugged. “The Knight charm strikes again.” Of the five Knight siblings, only the youngest was married, their actress sister, Lily. She and her husband, Jonas, had recently learned they were expecting their first baby. The four Knight brothers, all aged in their thirties, were still single and preferred it that way. Although Ash found he liked the idea of being an uncle in six months’ time.

“If only,” Gabriel drawled dryly.

“Fine.” He nodded. “I’m on my way to see Lissa—Miss Forsythe now.” Fuck. Two minutes into assuring Gabe he could behave in a professional manner, and already he’d overstepped the client/bodyguard line by talking about Lissa with such familiarity. “She telephoned her mother late last night. The two of them talked, but Miss Reynolds didn’t tell her what happened before she left New York. I’m going to Li—Miss Forsythe’s apartment now, to explain the situation to her.” He’d checked: Lissa still lived at the same apartment she’d shared with Stazzi a year ago.