Her head spun dizzily as she was suddenly flipped up and put back in the passenger seat, her abused bottom stinging more than ever.
“Do up your seat belt— I don’t think so.” Asher pressed down the central lock button as Lissa reached for the door handle.
“Unlock this door,” she ordered between gritted teeth.
“No.” He adjusted his seat and turned on the ignition. “I’m taking you back to your apartment so I can remove your jeans and then finish what I started,” he added determinedly.
“You have to be joking,” she scorned.
“Do I look as if I’m joking?” Asher leveled a steady gaze at her.
“No,” she conceded tautly.
“Going to apologize?”
Her mouth set in a stubborn line. “Absolutely not. Asshole!” she muttered, her tone resentful. Her sore bottom pressing down on the leather seat caused her to squirm with discomfort now.
Asher didn’t answer, his expression grim as he put the car in gear and drove out onto the road.
She had been spanked in a public car park, for goodness’ sake.
She didn’t care that no one else had been able to see what was happening, the loss of dignity alone was enough to keep her mulishly silent on the drive to her apartment.
After the way he’d just behaved, there was no way she was going to allow Asher inside her apartment.
Or spank her again.
“Take off your boots, jeans, and panties.”
So much for not allowing Asher into her apartment. Once he had parked the SUV on the street outside, he had got out of the vehicle and walked round to her side. His arm had snaked about Lissa’s waist as she stepped quickly down onto the pavement, intending to make a run for it. He hadn’t even paused as he threw her over one of his shoulders, putting a hand up in acknowledgment of the other man in the second SUV, before carrying her inside the building.
He had totally ignored Lissa as she kicked and pummeled his back in protest. Even getting into her apartment hadn’t proved difficult for him. Asher had just taken her bag off her and looked through the contents until he found the key. He had only put her down once they were inside her apartment.
Lissa had never felt as agitated as she did right now. She glared that anger and frustration at Asher as she answered him. “I want you to leave.”
“Feel like apologizing yet?”
“No.”
Ash had no idea why he was so set on Lissa apologizing.
Maybe lack of sleep.
Sexual frustration.
Genuine anger at Lissa’s earlier accusations.
Any and all of the above, probably.
Along with an ache to resume spanking Lissa’s bottom, bare this time. His flesh touching hers.
Whatever the reason, Ash wasn’t leaving here until he’d extracted that apology. By whatever means.
“Where’s the demon cat?” He hadn’t seen the tricolor cat since they entered the apartment.
“Probably sulking in the bedroom.” Lissa shrugged. “He doesn’t like it when I leave him on his own overnight.”
“Does it happen a lot?”
“No.” Her eyes narrowed at his implication. “Was it a guilty conscience that stopped you from sleeping last night?” she taunted.
“You sharp-tongued little…!” Asher’s jaw tightened. “It probably escaped your notice, but I stood guard outside your father’s hospital room all night.”
Her eyes widened. “You did?”
“I did,” he confirmed. “And one more crack from you about a ‘guilty conscience’ or ‘closing the door after the horse has bolted,’ and I’ll add another ten spanks to the outstanding total.”
“I wasn’t— What outstanding total?” Lissa eyed him warily.
“Ten for your earlier accusation of incompetence. Ten more for swearing at me. By my calculations, you have twelve left to come.”
“You didn’t give me any prior warning you would spank me if I did either of those things.”
“Well, I’m giving you one now.”
“You gave me no warning before the fact.”
“Argue as much as you want. It isn’t going to make the slightest difference. Now take off your boots, jeans, and panties.”
Lissa was very aware of how alone they were inside her apartment. As she couldn’t miss the determined glint in Asher’s eyes. He really did intend to continue spanking her.
And that knowledge shouldn’t have sent the heat coursing to her core or caused her nipples to plump into hard and tingling peaks.
What the hell was wrong with her?
Asher was an asshole. His threat to continue spanking her was the behavior of a Neanderthal. He—
“Do you want me to start counting down from ten?”
Her frown turned into a scowl. “What I want is for you to leave.”
“Not going to happen.”
“This is way out of line—”
“No, you’re the one who was way out of line earlier.” His hands were clenched at his sides. “The person you’re pissed at is whoever shot your father. Not me. Not anyone at Knight Security.”
“Sensitive, much?”
“You should know.” He gave a taunting smile.
Lissa felt the blush warm her cheeks at exactly how she knew of Asher’s “sensitivity.” In certain places, at least. Unfortunately, his heart wasn’t one of them.
She gave a shake of her head. “I’m not going to apologize.”
His smile took on a triumphant edge. “I was really hoping you would say that…”
Lissa took a step back from his predatory one. And then another. And another. Until the backs of her knees made contact with her coffee table. She held her hands up defensively. “You can’t do this, Asher.”
“Oh, I believe I can.” He loomed over her. “Don’t even think about it,” he warned as Lissa raised her right leg, bending it at the knee as she did so.
She froze, Asher’s tone all the more dangerous because he spoke so softly. “Think about what?” She played for time as she tried to think of a way out of this situation, and came up empty.
“Sticking that stiletto heel in my foot or kneeing me in the groin,” he drawled. “It will just piss me off even more, and the count will go up exponentially.”
Lissa slowly lowered her foot back onto the carpeted floor. “Okay, I apologize.” She forced the words out. “You’re a brute and a bully, and I can’t imagine what I ever saw in you, but I apologize. Satisfied now?” She glared at him resentfully.
“No.”
“I apologized, damn it!”
“But there was a distinct lack of sincerity in your voice when you did.”
“Yesterday was traumatic. I’ve been awake most of the night.” Tears stung her eyes as she blinked up at him. “I’m just so tired, Asher.”
“Okay.” He sighed. “I’m willing to commute your sentence of twelve spanks until after we’ve both had some sleep.”
Some of the tension drained out of her shoulders. “That sounds like an excellent idea.”
“I’m pretty happy about it too.”
“Well?” she prompted seconds later when he made no move to leave.
He raised his brows. “Well, what?”
“I want to go to bed,” she reminded him.
“I thought you would never ask.” Asher grinned as he bent to lift her up into his arms, one arm under her knees, the other about her shoulders as he strode down the hallway toward her bedroom.
“Asher…?” Her arms clung about his muscular shoulders.
He quirked one dark eyebrow. “You said you were tired.”
“Not too tired to walk.”
“There’s just no pleasing you, is there? Can’t you see I’m being gallant, woman.” He scowled.
“You’re being a—mmfph.” Lissa’s next words were muffled by Asher’s mouth taking possession of hers.
So much had happened since the last time Asher kissed her. Ethan’s interruption of their love
making. Learning her father had been shot. The rush to the hospital. Dealing with her mother’s coldness. Sitting alone at her father’s bedside all night. The argument with Asher this morning.
And yet it was as if no time had passed at all as her lips parted and she returned the passion of Asher’s kiss.
Lissa gave a groan as she lost herself in that kiss, only Asher existing at that moment, and the release they had both been denied yesterday morning.
She broke the kiss long enough to murmur, “Stay.” She had spent all those hours alone at the hospital last night. She didn’t want to be alone again now.
His brows rose. “I thought you’d realized that was my intention all along.”
“Arrogant bastard,” she said without rancor.
He gave a low chuckle. “Not sure if that’s an improvement on asshole or not.”
“It is,” she conceded dryly.
Ash shrugged. “If you say so.” He entered the bedroom to see the tricolor cat sprawled across the middle of the bed. “I’ll leave you to remove demon cat.” He placed her down on the side of the bed. “While I go and run the shower.”
“Is that a polite way of telling me I smell?”
“Polite? Me? Do you have me confused with someone else?”
She gave a tired chuckle. “I’m not sure I have the energy for a shower.”
“You’ll feel better for it,” he promised, knowing from personal experience that he always felt like shit if he didn’t shower after being up as long as Lissa had.
“If you say so.” Lissa picked the sleeping cat up and cuddled him in her arms. “One angry male in my life is more than enough right now,” she added ruefully as the cat wriggled out of her arms and jumped to the floor, landing on all fours before walking out of the bedroom, his tail held disdainfully high.
Ash paused. “I’m not angry, Lissa.”
“You were earlier.”
“When you get to know me better, you’ll realize that I don’t stay angry for long.”
She arched her brows. “Does that mean you’re letting me off those twelve more spanks?”
“No,” he answered dryly. “It means that when I spank you again, not if, it won’t be done in anger. Our father taught all of us never to hit anyone when we’re angry. By the time we reached our teens, my brothers and I were all pretty big and could have done serious damage.”
She gazed at him quizzically. “Is he still alive?”
“Unfortunately, no. He and my mother were both killed in an airplane crash thirteen years ago.”
“Do you still miss them?”
“Every day.”
She sighed shakily. “My family is all screwed up, isn’t it?”
“It’s far from ideal, I’ll grant you that. But you turned out okay.” His voice lightened. “So your parents must have done something right.”
Her brows rose to her hairline. “I turned out okay?”
“Fishing for compliments?” he teased.
“Is that likely to happen?”
“Not right now, no. You’re tired and cranky, and you smell— Ouch!” he complained as a pillow hit him in the chest. “That wasn’t nice.”
“Neither was what you said. Besides, I’m allowed. I’m tired and cranky, remember?”
Ash liked Lissa in this playful mood. Even if he knew that a lot of it was forced. The trauma of the past twenty-four hours had to have taken its toll on her, physically as well as emotionally. “You forgot the smelly part,” he drawled, throwing the pillow back at her before disappearing into the bathroom.
He turned on the shower over the Jacuzzi bath in one corner of the cream-tiled room before sitting on the edge of it to wait for the water to heat up to temperature. There were half-burned candles arranged around the back edge of the bath. Scented, he discovered when he picked one up and sniffed it. Ash could easily imagine Lissa lying back in a scented bubble bath, the room illuminated by just these scented candles, her hair piled loosely on top of her head, with only the tops of her breasts visible above the bubbles.
The image made him instantly hard.
Damn, this woman affected him as no other ever had.
Or ever would?
Hell if he knew.
The circumstances of them meeting again were far from ideal. In fact, they were pretty shitty. But seeing Lissa, being with her again…
He’d wanted her the moment he’d seen her at the Felton Tower apartment building.
Maybe he had never stopped wanting her.
He’d never thought about it until meeting Lissa again, but there really had been a definite lack of women in his life this past year. A lack? Make that a fucking drought.
He’d been out to dinner with a couple of women, but hadn’t considered seeing them again once he’d taken them home. Nor had he accepted the invitation to spend the night.
There had been that woman in Puerto Rico last year— No, as he recalled, that hadn’t turned out too well either. Oh, he’d gone to bed with her—he was a man, and she was hot as hell—ensured he gave her pleasure, but he couldn’t remember getting off himself. Christ, if he couldn’t even remember it, then it probably hadn’t been memorable enough, or it hadn’t happened at all.
One look at Lissa two days ago and his cock had gone rock hard and became that way every time he was with her.
What the hell had happened to make her walk out on him a year ago? Admittedly, they hadn’t started the evening too well, the two of them exchanging insults until Lissa threw the champagne over him. But their lovemaking in the back of his car had been fucking amazing. The night that followed even better. He’d only left the bedroom to take a shower with the intention of starting all over again. But when he got back, Lissa had been fully dressed and—
Shit, the bathroom had filled up with steam while he was daydreaming. The water would run cold if Lissa didn’t get in the shower soon.
Except when he went to tell her the shower was ready, he found her fast asleep on the bed, still fully clothed, including those lethal stiletto-heeled boots, the demon cat curled up against her side as he looked at Ash with baleful eyes.
“You may be a warrior cat, buddy, and I respect that. But that’s my place you’re occupying. And just so we’re clear, I’m the one with the combat training,” Ash added challengingly as he gently but firmly moved the cat to one side.
Chapter 7
Lissa felt slightly disorientated when she woke up. Had no idea if the sun shining through her bedroom window and the time of seven o’clock showing on her digital clock meant it was early evening or morning. If she had been asleep for only a few hours or all night.
The last thing she remembered was leaving the hospital and coming back to her apartment. Then Asher went to the bathroom to run her a shower while she undressed. She didn’t remember undressing or taking a shower.
But if she hadn’t undressed or taken a shower, why was she now wearing her cream, knee-length nightgown?
And why was there an indentation in the second pillow beside her own?
As if someone had been sleeping beside her.
Quite recently, Lissa would say, when she touched the pillow and found it was still warm. It wasn’t Sherlock either, because her door was closed and the cat was nowhere to be seen in her bedroom.
Asher.
It couldn’t be anyone else.
So where was he now?
Had he reversed the roles on her and been the one to leave “the morning after” this time?
Except Lissa was pretty sure on this occasion, there hadn’t been a “night before.”
She would have known if she and Asher had made love. Her body would have told her. All she felt right now was slightly lethargic from having slept so deeply, she hadn’t even been aware Asher was in bed beside her. She would have had to have been almost comatose not to be aware of that! She had none of the pleasurable aches and pains in her body from the two of them having had sex either.
So if she didn’t remember undressing or taking a sho
wer, let alone falling asleep, then Asher must have undressed her before climbing into bed and sleeping beside her.
Had he walked out on her? Her apartment certainly seemed quiet enough for her to be the only occupant.
He and one of the other Knight Security employees couldn’t be too far away, though. Probably standing out in the hallway, alarming her neighbors. She really would have to talk to the other residents in the building. Explain this glitch was only temporary. At least, she hoped it was.
Lissa threw back the bedcovers and stood up. Whether it was early evening or morning, she badly needed to brush her teeth and have a cup of coffee to wake her up, followed by the missed shower and then dressing in some clean clothes. After which she would go out into the hallway and see exactly who was guarding her right now. Maybe even find out exactly when Asher had left her apartment.
She wasn’t sure who was more surprised when she padded down the hallway on bare feet a few minutes later and found herself face-to-face with not just Asher, but also a slightly older and leaner man whose short dark hair and green eyes nevertheless identified him as being another Knight brother. Gabriel, in all probability, as he was the only one of the Knight brothers older than Asher.
Gabriel Knight might be only a year older than Asher, but he also looked harder and more imposing, something Lissa hadn’t believed possible. The tailored charcoal-colored suit and white shirt Gabriel wore, with a dark gray tie knotted meticulously at his throat, did absolutely nothing to disguise the air of danger that surrounded him.
He was also an inch or so taller than Asher, Lissa realized as the two men stood up at her entrance.
Entrance?
Could a woman wearing only a short cream cotton nightgown, with her hair a disheveled tangle, and wearing what was left of two-day-old makeup, actually make an entrance?
Well, she could damn well try!
Lissa straightened, determined not to feel self-conscious about her appearance. “Silly question, but is it night or morning?”
“Evening,” the older man answered.
“I need to call the hospital and see how Jack is—”
“It was his phone call that woke me earlier.” Asher scowled at the memory. “He said he’s fine and to let you sleep.”
Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) Page 7