Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) (6 page)

Ethan gave her a considering glance, making Lissa feel even more self-conscious in the knee-length robe she wore over the white nightgown she had slept in. It was Sunday morning, and she didn’t have work. She also didn’t have any plans for the day, so there was no reason for her to rush showering and dressing. She probably wouldn’t be up at all if Sherlock hadn’t woken her up so she could feed him.

“Liam tells me you and Ash have met before?” Ethan prompted.

Warmth colored Lissa’s cheeks as she wondered what else Liam had told Asher’s brother. “We have mutual friends in Prince Alexandre and Princess Anastazia of Androcco.” She still found it a little odd to think of her best friend as being a princess of anywhere, let alone that beautiful island paradise in the Mediterranean.

“Right.” Ethan didn’t look in the least convinced by that explanation.

Lissa wondered if Ethan and Liam were friends. If so, Ash’s brother knew far too much about her than she was comfortable with his knowing. “I—”

“Well, isn’t this fucking cozy!”

Lissa gave a guilty start as she turned to see Asher powering down the hallway towards them, those jade flecks in his eyes gleaming more prominently than usual, dark hair ruffled, his jaw and cheeks tight. His body was tense, seeming to quiver with anger beneath the ubiquitous black suit, gray shirt, and striped tie.

She bristled at the accusation she could see in his eyes. “What are you implying?”

“I stopped by on my way home from working all night to check in with Ethan, and I arrive to find you standing out in the hallway wearing only your nightclothes. So you tell me, what am I implying?”

Lissa’s head tilted back as Ash came to a halt mere inches away, towering over her in the confines of the hallway, his eyes glittering accusingly. “Go to hell, asshole!” She turned on her heel and walked back into her apartment, slamming the door behind her.

At least she attempted to slam the door behind her, but Asher grabbed hold of it before it closed. Her eyes widened as she turned to see him stepping into her apartment and closing the door behind him.

Lissa took a step back as he carried on walking toward her with long, predatory strides. “What is your problem, Asher?” Where was a pair of four-inch stiletto heels when she most needed them?

“You are my fucking problem.” He glowered down at her as she came up against the wall. “Just how cozy did you and Ethan get last night?”

“You have a foul, disgusting mind, did you know that?” She glared. At the same time, she felt her body responding to his proximity. Her nipples were tightening to hard and tingling buds, a warmth centering at her core before spreading through the rest of her body.

“Answer the fucking question!”

Lissa took in Asher’s clenched fists, the ready-to-spring tension in his body, the furious expression in his eyes,
and
the accusation in his tone, and decided that caution would be the wisest course of action. “It seems to have escaped your notice that Ethan was standing
outside
my apartment not inside.”

Nothing about seeing Lissa and Ethan talking together had escaped Ash’s notice. Nor the way Lissa was dressed. Or rather
undressed.
Or the admiration in his brother’s eyes as he looked at her.

Or the fact that Ash had a throbbing erection and his vision had turned red the moment he saw the two of them chatting so cozily together. Like friends. Or lovers… “Maybe that’s because he just left it?”

“Or maybe because he was never in my apartment to begin with. I was offering to get him a cup of coffee, Asher,” she added exasperatedly.

“Just coffee?”

“Your suspicion and accusations are not only insulting to me but also to your brother’s professionalism,” she accused. “Or do you all make a habit of sleeping with the people you’re protecting?”

Ash wanted to kiss the sneer off her lips. To put his hands on her bare bottom and lift her up so that she had no choice but to wrap her legs about his waist, the heat of her core pressing against his erection as his mouth claimed hers in a punishing kiss.

God, this situation was fucked up. Ash was fucked up. Because of Lissa. He hadn’t so much as thought about her for months—

Why was he lying to himself? He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Lissa since seeing her again at Alexandre and Stazzi’s wedding six months ago. Wondering what she was doing. Who she was doing it with.

In the circumstances, Ash had thought it best to keep himself occupied last night and had taken over the whole of the night shift at Claudia Reynolds’s apartment building. Neither she nor Jack had left the apartment during the evening or the night that followed. Curiously, neither had Malcolm Arnold. Which must have been a cozy little threesome: Claudia, her past lover, and her present one. Ash was sure if it came to a showdown that Jack would easily have won the battle to share Claudia’s bed.

Ash’s cousin Ian had taken over from him an hour ago, and the impulse for Ash to visit Lissa’s apartment on his way home had been purely that, an impulse. One he might have been wiser not to have acted on, considering he had behaved like a Neanderthal once he saw Lissa chatting to Ethan, dressed in her nightclothes.

His mouth twisted self-derisively. “Have you spoken to your mother recently?”

Lissa’s eyes widened in alarm. “Has something else happened?”

“Depends what you mean by happened.”

“Asher—”

“Your father arrived yesterday and spent the night at Claudia’s apartment.”

Lissa drew her breath in sharply. She had thought she was over knowing she came way down her parents’ list of priorities, and for the most part, she was. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t still be hurt by their utter lack of consideration for her or her feelings. Or feel humiliated at Asher knowing of their complete disregard for her as their daughter.

As far as Lissa was concerned she had been an accident that neither Claudia nor Jack were willing to change or adapt their lives to accommodate. Hence the nanny when she was young and boarding school once she was old enough. Hell, half the time, she had ended up staying with Stazzi’s family over the Christmas break and other holidays, because both Claudia and Jack were busy. Those holidays and Christmases with the warm and loving Carmichael family had been the ones Lissa enjoyed the best.

They had also shown her own family wasn’t just dysfunctional, it was nonexistent.

It would have been better for all of them if twenty-eight years ago, Claudia had chosen not to have her baby. Lissa had often wondered why she hadn’t.

The tension left Lissa’s body as she slumped back against the wall. “Nice of them to let me know.”

Ash hated seeing that pained look in Lissa’s eyes as he watched the fight go out of her. Fuck Claudia and Jack for hurting her this way.

“Melissa?” he prompted teasingly.

She glanced up at him. “Typically, Claudia refused to accept the diminutive I chose to use when I started school.” A humorless smile curved her lips. “How did Malcolm react to Jack’s arrival?”

His eyes widened. “You know about the two of them?”

“Oh yes.” She grimaced. “He may only be my age, but it seems even a robot like Claudia has physical needs.”

“And you, do you have physical needs too?”

Her throat moved as she swallowed audibly. “This isn’t a good idea, Asher.”

No, it wasn’t. But Ash wanted it anyway.

“I need to take a shower and get dressed, and I’m guessing you need to go home and get some sleep if you’ve been up all night,” Lissa’s protest seemed halfhearted as Ash’s hands moved up to cup either side of her face.

Ash knew his brother was still outside in the hallway, no doubt monitoring the amount of time Ash spent inside Lissa’s apartment. A detail Ethan would have to put in his report, which would no doubt result in Ash being called into the office later today and raked over the coals again by Gabriel.

But for the moment, Ash didn’t give a damn about any of them. Here and now with Lissa, the hurt she hadn’t been able to hide at her parents’ selfish attitude toward her, and the musky scent of her arousal invading and capturing his senses, was all Ash cared about.

He gave a low groan as his head lowered and he claimed her slightly parted lips with his own in a full-on kiss that demanded her response rather than asked for it.

The kiss they’d shared yesterday had nowhere near satiated his hunger for this woman. He stroked his tongue against and then between her parted lips, claiming the moist heat inside as his tongue slid erotically along the length of hers.

Ash’s tongue went deeper still when Lissa gasped and he moved his hands to cup her bare bottom. He enjoyed squeezing those delicious orbs before lifting her up and leaving her no choice but to wrap her legs about his waist, the heat of her pussy pressing against the hardness of his cock. Just as he’d imagined minutes ago.

Except the reality was so much better than mere imagining.

Lissa’s arms moved up over his shoulders, and her fingers became entangled in the hair at his nape. Her breasts were pressed against the hardness of Ash’s chest, and he began to rub his cock slowly along the length of her heated core. From the hitch in her breathing and the increased scent of her arousal, he knew he was hitting her clit with every stroke.

He stepped forward, pinning Lissa in place between him and the wall, freeing his hands to pull her robe open and then taking it off completely. He broke the kiss, his lips traveling the length of her bared throat as he saw she now wore only a white cotton nightgown. Her breasts were full beneath it, nipples dark and swollen as they pressed against the material.

Ash slipped off one of the thin shoulder straps and pulled the neckline down and underneath her breasts, baring them to the caress of his mouth and hands.

She had the most gorgeous breasts. Full and round, and tipped by dark and aroused nipples that were begging to be played with and suckled.

Lissa’s head dropped back against the wall, her fingers gripping his shoulders as she watched Asher part his lips and suck her nipple into his mouth. One of his hands continued to squeeze and caress her bottom. The other cupped her breast, squeezing and rolling the engorged nipple in the same rhythm that his mouth drew on its twin, both just short of pain.

Her legs were still wrapped about Asher’s waist, the full length of his cock pressing against her throbbing clit as he pushed her farther up the wall with each powerful thrust of his hips. Her nether lips were swollen, her channel aching and open as she met each of those thrusts. More than anything, she wanted to release that hard and throbbing cock so that Ash could bury it deep inside, filling her, claiming her.

“Ash, please…” she choked. “I need—”

“I know what you need, baby, because I need it too,” Ash soothed as he raised his head, both hands cupping beneath her bottom to lift her away from the wall before he carried her toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathroom.

The doors were slightly ajar, allowing Ash to see that the room on the right was Lissa’s bedroom. Discarded clothes lay over the bedroom chair; several photographs sat on her dressing table.

He nudged the door open all the way with his foot before carrying her inside, narrowed gaze noting the bedclothes were only disheveled on one side of the double bed. Confirmation—if he had needed any—she had slept alone last night.

His earlier jealousy had been completely out of order. Lissa didn’t owe him any explanations for anything she did. He had no claim on her, apart from a single night spent together a year ago. His accusations had also been totally unfair to Ethan, and Ash owed his brother an apology later today.

None of which was of the least importance when he had a half-naked Lissa in his arms and a bed they could share.

He was also totally overdressed.

They both were.

He lay Lissa down on the bed, his gaze holding hers as he slowly pulled the nightgown the rest of the way down her body before straightening to look down at her.

A completely naked Lissa was exquisite.

The darkness of her auburn hair was feathered out on the pillow behind her. Her skin was smooth and the color of ivory. Full and pert breasts were tipped with those surprisingly dark and engorged nipples. Slender waist. Fuller hips, that intriguing tattoo of a phoenix decorating her left hip bone. Trimmed darker auburn curls covering her mound. Her legs were slender and silky. Feet bare.

Ash held her gaze as he took a foil packet from his wallet and placed it on the side table before quickly removing his own clothes. He wasn’t sure he, or his aching cock, would be able to bear the disappointment if Lissa told him again this was a mistake. He needed to be inside Lissa as much—more—than he needed his next breath. Breathing was overrated anyway if it came to a choice between that and making love with Lissa.

“The demon cat isn’t going to stick his claws in my bare ass, is he?” he teased. But only halfheartedly. The cat had only tolerated him yesterday and would no doubt welcome the chance to physically demonstrate his place in Lissa’s affections.

She chuckled. “Sherlock went out exploring after he’d eaten his breakfast.”

“Good.”

Lissa’s heart pounded loudly as she watched Asher finish undressing. If anything, he was even more lean and muscular than he had been a year ago. As for his cock… Her memories hadn’t done it justice as it curved long and thick toward his navel, the bulbous top glistening with precum. “Asher—”