“What things?” They’d insulted each other tonight more than ever before, and it was difficult to choose one of those insults over the others.
“I didn’t mean any of them. Damn it, I would never deliberately hurt you. I was just… I was protecting my own arse, okay?” he added self-disgustedly.
She eyed him warily, still not sure which remark he was specifically apologizing for. “In what way?”
He sighed deeply. “Because I shouldn’t have let you goad me into dancing with you in the first place. I certainly shouldn’t have physically reacted to you in the way I did while we were dancing. Then I compounded the situation, to draw attention away from that reaction, by unfairly turning the situation around on you. I ended up being rude and hurtful.”
Ah, that remark.
As apologies went, it was pretty self-denigrating.
Nevertheless, there was something slightly…incongruous in Natalia standing there fully dressed whilst listening to a naked man apologize to her.
Arousing too, Natalia inwardly admitted, knowing her nipples had perked right up and between her thighs was once again hot and swollen.
Killian was just so blatantly male, from those wide and scratchable shoulders, his muscular chest and slender waist, to his powerful hips and thighs—
She had to stop this! Had to. Before she did something totally unacceptable from which there would be no turning back. For either of them.
Killian looked at her for several more long seconds before shaking his head as he muttered, “This was such a bad idea.” He turned to open the glass door behind him and switched off the shower water.
Giving Natalia her first sight of his totally naked ass.
If she thought his cock looked edible, then his ass was a work of art.
Golden skin, so tautly muscled and toned, Natalia was unable to prevent the drool from filling her mouth this time as she easily imagined licking each and every deliciously contour of that muscular ass.
“No, it’s perfect,” she heard herself say, groaning her disappointment when he turned to look at her and she could no longer see that fine ass.
Natalia held his gaze as she pulled down the straps of her black gown to shimmy the garment down her breasts and thighs before allowing it to fall onto the warmed tiles at her feet. She was now only wearing her black lace bra, the panties that matched, and four-inch-heeled sandals.
Too much?
Oh God, did she look like a hooker?
The scraps cupping her breasts and covering her mound were made out of sheer lace. The four-inch-heeled sandals probably added to the look.
Killian certainly seemed to have been struck dumb at the sight of her barely covered body.
An almost naked Natalia took Killian’s breath away, she was so damned sexy and beautiful.
A goddess.
Her skin was as pale and smooth as alabaster, with the perfectly shaped body of a Venus di Milo, only with larger breasts. And what gorgeous breasts they were, cupped lovingly inside scraps of black lace, the rose of her nipples visible through the sheer material. Her waist dipped in before flaring out to generous hips, another triangle of black lace covering the cluster of trimmed dark curls over her mound. Her legs looked long and slender above those sexy high-heeled sandals.
Natalia wasn’t fashionably thin like so many of her friends were, but her daily visits to the gym ensured there wasn’t an ounce of superfluous flesh on her toned body, except for those generous breasts. Killian longed to know whether or not they would fit perfectly into the large palms of his hands.
There was no hiding his reaction to her when his bare cock was already aroused and leaking copious pre-cum from its slitted tip onto the skin near his navel. Merely from looking at a nearly-naked Natalia. He would probably spontaneously combust if he so much as touched her.
I’m not going to touch her, damn it.
Not only would it irrevocably change things between them, but his ability to guard Natalia would be also compromised, leaving him with no choice but to ask Leon himself to bring in another lead bodyguard for her—
Damn it, he realized with rising anger, that’s what this was all about!
Natalia had been furiously angry at the nightclub, had told him she intended informing her father she wanted another lead bodyguard. Killian had assured her that wasn’t going to happen. This, putting him in an irredeemable position, was her way of achieving that.
She really did need her arse spanked. Hard and repeatedly.
By him?
Fuck it, yes, by him. He’d had just about enough of this young lady’s deliberate machinations to get her own way. This stopped now.
Her eyes widened as Killian stalked toward her with the lithe single-mindedness of a predator approaching its prey.
She stumbled a step backwards. “Killian?”
“Killjoy,” he corrected. “It’s what you and your friends call me, so I may as well live up to the name.” He reached out to grasp her arm, maintaining that hold as he moved to sit on the side of the bath.
“What are you doing?” she demanded when Killian pulled her almost-naked body over his thighs.
He answered her by landing a loud and painful smack across both her arse cheeks.
“Killian!” Her cry was one of pain and indignation. She tried to turn, but his hand in the middle of her back prevented her from moving. The fact her sandalled feet were six inches off the tiled floor prevented her from gaining any leverage to be able to stand either.
Her skin felt like silk against the roughness of Killian’s hairy thighs. Her squirming to escape was only making his cock harder.
“You bastard!” she spat out when he held her down more securely before he landed another resounding smack on those firm arse cheeks.
“Does ‘I hate you’ come next?” he mocked.
She turned her head to glare at him with those beautiful gray eyes. “That doesn’t need to be said. And once I speak to my father, you are so fired,” she added between clenched teeth.
“I doubt, once I’ve explained the situation to Leon, that he will agree with you,” Killian taunted, inwardly knowing that Leon indulged Natalia’s every whim. But perhaps his new wife might have more of a handle on Natalia’s brattish behavior.
Either way, he doubted he would get away unscathed or unreprimanded for spanking Natalia Brunelli.
He looked down at those reddened globes showing the clear imprint of his hand on them.
Damn, it was worth it.
Every. Single. Moment.
Something had broken in Killian tonight—probably his self-control—and he felt a need to vent his frustration with Natalia’s lack of self-preservation. Maybe she’d become too used to always having someone at her back, protecting her, or maybe she just didn’t give a fuck, but Killian had no intention of allowing her reckless behavior to go unpunished a moment longer.
“What situation?” she finally answered him.
“The fact you deliberately engineered this.” His accusation indicated the position they now found themselves in, him the dominant with her draped over his thighs for a spanking. “All so you can tell your papa what a big bad bodyguard I am.”
Her eyes widened at the accusation before her expression became taunting. “Bodyguards are supposed to be big and bad.”
He scowled. “But they aren’t supposed to strip naked in front of their client or spank their arse!”
“Well…no, but—” Her frown appeared pained. “You really think that I…what did you call it?…deliberately engineered this so you would spank me and I could then ask my father to dismiss you?”
He gave a snort. “I know you did.”
She avoided his gaze. “If you think that, then there’s nothing more to be said.”
Killian could hear the quiver in her voice, and he could have sworn he’d seen the glisten of tears in her eyes before she turned away.
Except this was Natalia, and right now, she was furiously angry with him.
Enough
to have created this impossible situation from which there was no return. For either of them?
Oh yes.
“I’m not falling for the hard-done-by, spoiled-little-rich-girl act either,” he dismissed in a hard voice. “We’ll both talk to your father when he gets back and ask him to replace me, but for now, your dangerous games stop, do you understand?” He smacked her bottom again when she didn’t answer him. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she bit out between clenched teeth.
“Say ‘Yes, Killian, I understand, and the games will stop,’” he instructed.
She turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed. “Are you being serious right now?”
“Deadly,” he assured her grimly. “I’ve already explained that the threat to your safety increased considerably when your father left on his honeymoon. Not only that, but Leon, quite rightly, wants to remain incommunicado right now. Only those close to him know where he and his new wife are spending their honeymoon. His absence leaves you vulnerable to any one of his enemies.”
God knew, despite Leon keeping a tight rein on his criminal kingdom, that the older man also had his share of enemies as well as men in his own organization who might wish to become capo dei capi in his place. It was up to Killian and his cousins, men who had no interest in taking a place of power within the Italian Mafia, to ensure that didn’t happen.
Killian knew where Leon was, of course, but he had strict instructions not to contact the older man unless it was a case of life or death. Killian having a serious case of blue balls wasn’t life or death, not to Leon, anyway.
Killian scowled. “I allowed this stopover in Paris on our way back to the States because I thought you needed the distraction—”
“You allowed it?” If looks could kill, then the fury in those gray eyes would have struck Killian dead.
He calmly returned Natalia’s accusing gaze. “Yes, I allowed it. Because although you’re secure in your father’s love for you, and you like Carla, you have to be feeling the fact that your father’s first priority will now have shifted to his new wife. I weighed up the options and thought this trip to Paris and spending time with your friends here, rather than going straight back to the estate after the wedding, might be a useful diversion.”
Natalia stared at him for several long seconds before answering. “You have enough empathy to have realized how I must be feeling about my father remarrying, but then you go ahead and do something totally at odds to that sensitivity by spanking me as if I’m a naughty child.” Her voice had begun to rise over those last few words.
Killian knew exactly how naughty she could be, and most of the time, he enjoyed it. But when she was lying across his bare thighs, dressed only her bra and panties and wearing those ridiculous pencil-heeled sandals, with the imprint of his hand on the delicious globes of her arse, there was no way he could think of her as being a child. Natalia was most definitely all woman. Moreover, she was the woman he had desired for months, if not years.
Which led him to the realization Natalia wasn’t the only one putting their bodyguard/client relationship in jeopardy; he was doing it too. Hell, he’d stripped naked in front of her just to prove that he would and could meet every challenge she threw at him.
Had he really stripped only for that reason?
The obvious hardness of his cock and the leak of pre-cum from its tip gave a resounding no in answer to that question.
He wanted Natalia.
To a degree his behavior was becoming as reckless as hers sometimes was. Oh, he remained vigilant when they were outside, but his behavior once they returned to the hotel tonight told him he was seriously compromised.
The sad truth was he doubted Natalia was genuinely interested in him. He’d become a challenge to her. A game she liked to play, like a cat with a mouse. If Killian were ever to show her how deep his desire for her went, she would probably run screaming for her papa.
In those circumstances, maybe he should be the one to contact Leon immediately and ask him to send one of his cousins to replace him.
Could his irresponsible behavior tonight be classified as a life-or-death situation?
If Killian couldn’t regain control of his emotions, or his body, and concentrated his attention one hundred percent on protecting rather than desiring Natalia, then yes, it could very quickly turn out that way.
And if anything happened to Natalia because Killian had allowed himself to be distracted by his desire for her, then he would never forgive himself.
Handing off her security to one of his cousins was going to kill him, but if it kept Natalia safe, then so be it.
Chapter Five
Natalia saw the moment Killian’s anger faded to become something else. Quite what that something else was, she had no idea, but as he held her arm to steady her and help her back onto her feet, she could tell by the remoteness of his expression that he was completely back in brisk bodyguard mode.
She was treated to another brief glimpse of his perfect glutes when he turned away before they and his cock were covered by the black boxers he pulled on.
Natalia took advantage of that same time to take her robe off the back of the bathroom door and slip it on before tying the belt firmly about her waist. She’d brought the black silk robe with her, because she disliked the bulky, unflattering toweling robes provided by the hotel.
Her dignity had already taken several blows this evening. She didn’t need to add to that by feeling and looking like a sack tied up in the middle.
“Have your bath.” Killian didn’t answer her accusation when he turned back to face her, that magnificent cock, as she had guessed, no longer on display. “I’ll go to my own bathroom and take a shower.”
Natalia wanted to ask him to get naked again and stay here with her and take his shower, or better yet, to get in the bath with her. But this evening, and their last conversation, had pretty well set in stone where their relationship now stood.
She deeply regretted once again telling Killian, in the heat of the moment, she was going to ask her father to remove him as her bodyguard. No, not ask, demand. She’d behaved badly this evening several times, and she knew Killian had spanked her in retaliation for that behavior.
Behavior that had now convinced Killian the two of them should jointly ask her father to replace him as her bodyguard.
She liked all the Price men well enough, but even the thought of not seeing and being with Killian every day made her chest ache and her eyes sting with unshed tears.
“Can you be trusted not to try to leave the hotel again tonight, or do I have to share a bed with you too?” Killian prompted in a hard voice.
Natalia drew in a sharp breath at the thought of sharing a bed with Killian. But not like this. Never like this. “You can trust me to stay put.”
He nodded abruptly. “I hope you mean that.”
She gave a pained wince. “I do.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve said something to my face and then done the opposite the moment my back is turned. Tonight was a prime example of that, when you said you were going to the powder room and then decided you were going to leave the club by the emergency exit instead.”
“But I didn’t do it.”
His mouth twisted. “Only because I guessed what you might do and prevented it from happening. Natalia, the security your father put in place for you isn’t there to cage you in, it’s to stop anyone from getting close enough to harm you. I’ve obviously somehow failed to get that point across adequately in the two years I’ve been your bodyguard. To a degree my mere presence is starting to put your life in danger rather than keeping you safe.”
That unhappy feeling in Natalia’s chest deepened at Killian’s heavily resigned tone. As if he no longer believed she would ever be capable of behaving like a responsible adult.
She didn’t need a psychologist to tell her why she behaved this way. She already knew it was to try to get a reaction out of Killian rather than suffer his neutral bodyguard f
ace. The expression in his eyes was always hidden behind those dark glasses he wore day after day.
And behaving like a spoiled brat was an improvement on that?
No, of course it wasn’t, but these occasional heated arguments with Killian were the only crack in the usual impregnable armor of his indifference.
She straightened with as much dignity as was possible when she was wearing only a bathrobe over her underwear and these ridiculously high-heeled sandals. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”
“Me too,” he snapped.
“I will definitely be staying here in my room until I leave to have dinner with Henri tomorrow evening.”
Killian’s mouth thinned. “When did you arrange that?”
“When he called me earlier to apologize because he couldn’t join us at the nightclub.”
“A heads-up well ahead of time might be nice next time,” Killian bit out.
“Why?” She eyed him mockingly. “Were you thinking of inviting me out to dinner yourself tomorrow evening?” She cursed herself for her immaturity the moment the taunt left her lips.
Unfortunately, over these past two years, this constantly challenging Killian had become a habit. Mainly because he seemed to constantly disapprove of her and her actions.
Natalia knew how she appeared to others: that spoiled little rich girl Killian had accused her of being earlier. Possibly because she was. Because she wasn’t visibly employed, a lot of people would also add idle to that list of her faults.
Except it wasn’t true.
Spoiled she admitted to, but the wealth was her father’s, not hers. For a very long time now, she’d had plans that she hoped would eventually bring recognition to the name Natalia Brunelli in her own right and potentially make her personally wealthy at the same time.
Her dinner with Henri tomorrow night would tell her if that was going to be possible.
She lowered her gaze. “Sorry.”
“If I wasn’t your bodyguard, would you have accepted if I invited you out to dinner?”
Natalia gave Killian a startled glance. “Are you asking?”
Killian (Dance with the Devil 3) Page 4