Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) by Carole Mortimer Page A

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