Muscle for Hire (21 page)

Oh God, she wanted that.

But that want, that need was beyond any she could bear. So instead, she welcomed Jeff’s constant chatter, ignored his rather questionable driving skills and sat silent.

Knowing she would soon be alone with Aslin in his room.

A room in one of Sydney’s more prestigious establishments. “I still say this is swank accommodation for a bodyguard,” she commented, looking at the very luxurious exterior as the valet opened her door.

“Where did you think I would stay?” Aslin’s deep rumble behind her made her tummy flutter. “A Best Western?”

She shot him a quick glance over her shoulder. “So Blackthorne pays you well then?”

“Blackthorne pays me very well. Look it up on the Forbes Top 100 Highest-Paid Bodyguard List. I’m Number Two.”

Rowan couldn’t stop her eyebrows shooting up. “There’s a Forbes Top 100 Highest Paid Bodyguard list?”

Aslin grinned. “No. Now get out of the car, Hemsworth, before I come around there and lift you out.”

If she were feeling more capable, she would have hit him. But she wasn’t. She hurt. She really did. Shutting out the pain wasn’t easy when she was spending so much effort suppressing the need to blurt out how much she wanted him.

Climbing from the backseat, she bit back a wince as her heels hit the ground.

Aslin was there before her in a heartbeat, worry etching his face, scooping his hand up to hers to help her out. A small part of her wanted to tell him to piss off. The rest of her—not only the broken, sore bits, but the bits governed by her heart—surrendered to his attentive concern.

When was the last time she’d let anyone take care of her?

There was no immediate answer for that, and when she went searching for it, a cold emptiness stroked her soul.

Her life had been all about Chris for so long she’d forgotten what it felt like to be someone else’s
anything
. For the first few years of Chris’s career, she’d stayed in the background, focusing on her tournaments and martial arts school for kids, determined to let him find his own feet. He was a young man in his early twenties, after all. She knew she’d come close to coddling him since their parents’ death. But then the entourage had formed around him, the wild parties had begun, the excessive indulgences, the reliance on Tilly to do things for him above and beyond that of a personal assistant, and Rowan hadn’t been able to stand idly by any longer. From the minute she’d stepped back into the role of big sister, her life had been about her brother and being the most invulnerable fighter she could be.

Letting anyone care for her…

Rowan’s heart tripped a beat and her mouth went dry. It wasn’t just that she was in love with Aslin Rhodes. She
trusted
him.

Trusted.

Which was impossible. She trusted no one. Apart from Chris.

She swallowed, staring at him as he stepped back from the car, her hand in his.

His forehead creased. “What?”

“I—”

“Want me to stay, Mr. Rhodes?”

Rowan turned to look at Jeff, who grinned at them both through the driver’s side window.

“No.” Aslin drew closer to her as he closed the door behind her. “Go back to Chris. And tell him if he damages my bike, I’ll damage him.”

Jeff laughed. “Will do.”

With a quick nod to Rowan, Jeff gunned the Audi’s engine and tore away, leaving the valet parking attendant coughing on his fumes.

“Sorry about that,” Rowan said to the young man. She dipped into her shorts’ pocket to look for a tip before remembering they were from Wardrobe and empty of money.

“C’mon.” Aslin smoothed his hand down her back and around her waist. “Let’s get you off your feet and into my bed.”

Rowan couldn’t help but chuckle. “Is it always going to be this way with you, Rhodes? Bossy, arrogant and presumptuous?”

He flicked her a quick sideward glance. “Yes. It is.”

The corners of his mouth twitched, destroying his attempt at brooding menace.

Rowan loved it.

Loved it. Loved him.

By the time they arrived at his suite on the fourteenth floor, she knew she couldn’t keep it in any longer. Knew she had to tell him, show him, before she exploded like his trailer.

The sound of the door closing behind her was all she needed. She may have only been two steps into his suite, she may only have left hospital half an hour ago, hell, she may have only just survived some messed-up attempt on her life six hours ago, but she couldn’t wait any longer.

She turned to Aslin, hooked her fingers over the waistband of his jeans directly above his fly and tugged. She pulled him along as she walked backward toward the suite’s massive king-size bed.

“What do you think you’re doing, Hemsworth?” His deep voice played with Rowan’s sanity. Stroked over her senses. Teased her control.

“I’m seducing you, soldier boy. What’s it look like I’m doing?”

He shook his head, curling his fingers around her wrist to remove her grip on his waistband. “No you’re not. I didn’t bring you here to—”

Rowan took a step back, slipped her hands under her shirt’s hemline and pulled the item of clothing up over her head.

Aslin’s argument was abruptly silenced. His nostrils flared. His gaze fell to what she’d revealed—her unrestrained breasts, her puckered nipples.

The muscles in his jaw bunched, his throat working as he studied her offering to him.

“I want you inside me so bad it hurts,” she stated, never so sure of anything in her life. “Make love to me. Now.”

He lifted his stare to her face. “No, love, you hurt because someone tried to kill you this morning. And as much as I want to, if I make love to you now, I’ll only hurt you some more.”

Rowan shook her head, her fingers moving to the fly of her shorts. “No you won’t. I trust you.”

And before he could utter another word, she released the opening of her shorts and let them fall from her body.

Chris had not delivered underwear with him when he’d brought the shirt and shorts. He never wore underwear himself, so why would he think to bring some for his sister? Rowan had never been so thankful for that shortcoming.

The second the soft denim of her shorts pooled around her ankles, she knew she was exactly where she wanted to be.

The second she stepped out of the bunched item of clothing and destroyed the space between her and Aslin, she knew she was doing exactly what she wanted to do.

The second—the very
second
—she took Aslin’s large, strong hands and placed them gently on the curve of her hips, gazing up into his dark, desire-filled eyes, she knew she was exactly with the only person she ever wanted to be with again.

And when he groaned, a barely audible sound of raw need and tenuous control that she felt it in the pit of her belly, she knew he was the person she was meant for.

He was the strength she never allowed herself to believe she needed.

The protection she’d never sought.

The man she didn’t know she longed for.

“Aslin,” she murmured, smoothing her hands up his chest, reveling in the coiled steel of his pecs, “you’ll only hurt me if you say stop.”

“Oh, fuck me.” The words were a hoarse moan. His stare was locked on her, his jaw tight. “I should say stop. You’re in no condition to make love, Rowan. I’d be a sodding, selfish bastard if I—”

She turned and walked away from him, three steps, four, until she reached the bed, the massive bed beside the floor-to-ceiling window with its views of Sydney beyond. She stopped and climbed onto the soft mattress, one knee and then the other, presenting him the sight of her naked ass, her moisture-slick pussy, before lowering completely to the bed on her side and gazing back at him.

“I trust you, Rhodes,” she said, watching him watching her. “I trust you, I’m in love with you and I know you won’t hurt me.”

He didn’t move. “Say that again.”

“I trust you. I love you.”

His Adam’s apple worked up and down his throat. He walked to the bed, his stride long and steady.

“Say that again.”

She smiled at the tenuous control in his deep voice. “I trust you, I love you and I know you won’t hurt me. Now shut the fuck up and make love to me. Before I risk reinjuring myself by handing you your ass. Again.”

His nostrils flared. “One of these days I’m really going to regret being bested by you.”

“You are?”

Aslin shook his head. “No.”

Rowan laughed, and then the sound faded away as Aslin’s hand circled her ankle.

She held her breath, unable to tear her stare from his face as he lowered his gaze to where his fingers wrapped her flesh.

He smoothed his palm up her calf, not a lot, but enough to send a shiver through Rowan’s entire body. She moaned, her nipples pinching tight at the caress.

His chest rose with a long, deep breath, his fingers splaying a little as he pressed his knee onto the bed beside her leg. She slowly rolled onto her back, parting her thighs to grant him more room on the bed.

He drew in another breath and lifted his gaze to her pussy. His throat worked again, the muscles of his jaw knotting, his battle with control turning his muscles to coiled steel. His undeniable, restrained power flooded Rowan’s sex with moisture. She was right to fall in love with this man. As unexpected as it was, it was so right.

Perfect.

She shifted a little, biting back a soft wince as her bruised rib did its best to remind her she’d recently been in an accident.

Aslin’s stare flicked to her face at the low sound, the tension in his body claiming his face.

“Rowan…” he murmured, straightening away from her, his fingers sliding off her calf.

She stopped his retreat with a quick hand, shaking her head as she maneuvered onto her knees before him. “I’m fine, Aslin. I hurt more when you aren’t touching me.”

And to prove her point, she lifted his hand and placed it on her breast.

Chapter Fourteen

A ragged groan tore from Aslin’s chest. He gazed into her eyes, so close her warmth folded around him, and yet still so far away. Too far away. Just one hand on her body. One.

It wasn’t enough.

It made his head swim and his body burn.

But as much as he wanted to shove Rowan backward, cover her body with his and bury himself to the hilt in her tight, wet sex, he couldn’t. He shouldn’t even be touching her now.

As if aware of his torment, Rowan took charge.

Without a word, she captured his other hand in a gentle grip, lifted it to her mouth and pressed her lips to the centre of his palm.

The cut on her bottom lip from the explosion scratched against his skin, and with the sensation came guilt.

“Rowan.” He tried to pull his hand away, but her fingers on his wrist grew firm.

“I’ve spent my entire adult life conditioning my body to switch off pain, Rhodes,” she said, her breath warm on his palm, her gaze holding him prisoner. “Training my brain to deny its presence. What I haven’t done is teach my body and mind and soul to ignore the pleasure you awaken in me.”

The words sent exquisite pressure into Aslin’s groin. He pulled in a deep breath, knowing he should insist what Rowan wanted—fuck, what he wanted—couldn’t happen now. Later. When she had recovered more from the explosion.

But he couldn’t. Not with the heat from her naked body kissing his. Not when she pressed his right hand to her breast. Not when desire burned so openly in her eyes.

“The pleasure you awake in me now, Aslin,” she whispered, rasping her lips against his palm, “just by being here, loving me, is far more potent and consuming than
any
discomfort my injuries may cause. I love you, soldier boy. Love you.”

It was those words that destroyed his control. Those words that shattered his resolve.

Love.

She loved him.

The only woman he’d ever felt love for loved him back. And wanted him to make love to her now. There was no coming back from that.

He smoothed his hand from her breast, down over her broken ribs, lingering there for a still moment. “I will do everything I can not to hurt you,” he whispered. “But I need you to tell me if this does.”

She nodded, her eyes shining. “I promise.”

His gut clenched, her trust in him almost undoing him completely. He was used to people trusting him. His unit had trusted him when he was a soldier, Nick had trusted him to keep him safe for fifteen years, but this was different. This was…

Precious
.

Smoothing his hand from her injured ribs, he allowed his palm to skim over the curve of her hip before journeying the perfection of her butt cheek. Its toned shape felt sublime beneath his hand. Rowan’s low groan told him she craved his touch as much as he craved her body.

Not just her body. All of her. Her stubbornness. Her inner strength. Her determination.

All of her.

With gentle pressure on her arse, he drew her closer to his body and lowered his head until his lips brushed hers.