Under Pressure (12 page)

“Giving you something else to think about.”

“This isn’t a good idea, Kennedy.”

“You’ve already said that, but I’m a big girl and I can make my own decisions.”

Asher stood there, powerless to do anything but watch as she swept the soft cotton shirt off her shoulders. It fluttered to the floor at her feet.

The bra she was wearing should have been labeled a lethal weapon. Why the hell was she wearing lingerie designed to drive a man to his knees?

It was candy-apple red and more lace than actual material. He caught tantalizing glimpses of skin through the strategic holes in the fabric. The swollen points of her nipples jutted straight out, silently begging for his attention.

His cock went rock hard.

Her skin was sun-kissed golden brown. Tiny freckles ran along her shoulders and down the swell of her chest.

God, he wanted to taste her. To run his tongue over every inch of her body and lap her up.

“Stop,” he somehow managed to croak out when she reached for the button holding her shorts closed. “For the love of all that’s holy, stop.”

Kennedy froze, her fingers wrapped in the waistband. She swallowed, her warm whiskey gaze sharp and searching as it roamed his face. “Do you really mean that?”

“Yes. No,” he groaned out.

A sinful smile tugged at her lips, and something dangerous flashed across her face. This woman, this tempting siren of a woman, was going to be the death of him. And he’d deserve every second of torture that came before. But at the moment, Asher couldn’t remember why this was a bad idea.

He’d watched her and wanted her for so long.

She flicked the button on her shorts open. The sound of her zipper, metal grinding against metal, was loud in his ears and the final straw.

Standing up, Asher stilled when Kennedy shook her head.

“Nope. You can’t touch.”

“What?” he asked, his voice incredulous. The woman was giving him a strip tease and expected him to keep his hands to himself?

She was crazy. Or wickedly, wickedly devious.

Or both.

“You get through the rest of these questions without hesitating, and then you can have your reward.”

She was offering herself like some prize at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. Part of that pissed Asher off. Kennedy was more than something to be won.

She was the kind of woman you earned, and spent the rest of your goddamn life trying to keep up the pretense that you deserved her.

She was every man’s fantasy of forever.

Which was why he shouldn’t touch her. He’d tried forever and had no desire to try it again. Even his wife, a woman who’d stood up before God, their family and friends and professed to love him, had walked away without a thought.

No, their marriage hadn’t been perfect. They’d fought and irritated each other. But he’d been blindsided when he’d returned home to an empty house.

Asher had thought they were happy. He’d given everything he could to Krista, and it still hadn’t been enough.

It was never enough.

But the stakes were even higher with Kennedy. She wanted him now, but she’d decide he wasn’t good enough, just like all the others. And this time he wouldn’t just lose his home or his belongings.

He’d lose his friends, his family and the business he’d poured all his energy into.

But how was he supposed to resist with her standing in front of him in nothing but matching red lace panties and a bra?

He was human. He’d been fighting his desire for too long. He couldn’t fight anymore.

“Then you better hurry with those questions, because you’ve got about fifteen minutes before I say to hell with it and give you exactly what you’re asking for, little girl.”

“I keep telling you, I’m not a little girl.”

Asher let his gaze meander across Kennedy’s body. Her breasts swelled over the cups of her bra, threatening to spill out with every ragged breath.

At least he wasn’t the only one buzzing with need.

Her hips rounded nicely, the perfect hold for him to grasp and pull her tight against his own body. The smooth plane of her belly, the skin there a little lighter than the rest of her. Smooth, tanned legs that he could imagine wrapped around his waist.

She was playing with fire, but he was afraid that he was the one about to get burned.

“I’m well aware of that.”

* * *

T
HIS
WHOLE
EXERCISE
had been designed to take Asher’s mind off his fears. However, it was backfiring because Kennedy couldn’t remember a single one of the questions she’d prepared to ask him.

The way he was watching her, like a jungle cat playing with his prey, made her throat go dry and her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth.

Her entire body hummed with energy.

Asher Reynolds was dangerous. That was part of his appeal. His tattoos, the pale scar across his lip. The way he carried himself, always alert, always prepared, as if he was forever anticipating a problem and prepared to meet it head-on.

But those same things that made him appealing also made him aloof. It was becoming obvious to Kennedy that the scar on his lip wasn’t the only one he carried, although it might be the only one he let anyone see.

Asher didn’t like to admit weakness—she didn’t know many men who did. He kept people at arm’s length. Hell, as far as she knew, Jackson and Knox were the only true friends he had...the only people he’d ever let in.

And if she was looking for more from him that might be a problem, because any woman who wanted to crack his smooth outer shell was going to have her work cut out for her. So it was good this was just about sex.

“Explain the preservation process,” Kennedy finally managed to croak out.

His lips twisted into a smirk, the kind that she knew meant he was playing with her and delighting in the mental games about to take place.

Oh, hell
.

She enjoyed verbally sparring with him. It heated her blood just as much as the kisses they’d shared, stimulating her in a way she’d never experienced before...and liked.

She should have been cold, standing there in nothing but her panties and bra, but she wasn’t. The energy humming beneath her skin had little to do with her lack of clothing and everything to do with the dangerous man staring at her out of those hooded green eyes.

“Do you really want to know about the preservation process?”

Kennedy swallowed hard. “Yes.”

His lips tugged up at one corner, almost imperceptibly.

“What do I get if I answer correctly?”

“The knowledge that you’re intelligent and can verbalize coherently?”

Asher shifted, crossing his arms over his chest in a way that made his shoulders and biceps bulge against the soft fabric of his T-shirt.
God help her.

“That’s not what I want.”

Kennedy licked her lips, slowly, seductively. Her heart thumped frantically behind the wall of her chest.

“What do you want?”

His gaze flashed and then narrowed. She’d seen that expression before. Asher was shrewd. And he thought he had her backed into a corner.

Surging up from the edge of the desk, he closed the space between them in two quick strides. Self-preservation kicked in, maybe a little late, and had Kennedy taking an instinctive step backward.

But she didn’t get far.

Cupping the nape of her neck, Asher stopped her momentum. His hold wasn’t hard, and she could have broken it, but she didn’t. The moment he touched her, everything inside her just...stopped. And waited.

Angling her head back so she was looking up at him, he said, “What I want is you on your knees.”

She sucked in a gasp, not because she was startled by his admission, but because the moment he’d said the words in that low, smooth voice of his, she’d wanted the same thing.

But she’d been sparring with this man long enough to keep her response locked down tight.

“We don’t always get what we want.”

His fingers tangled in her hair, taking a strand and stroking it. “Cupcake, you know me better than that.”

Tingles erupted across her scalp. She couldn’t stop the shiver that raced down her spine. And, damn the man, the tilt of his smile said he saw everything.

Why the hell was she fighting so hard on this? Merely because that’s what she’d been doing for the past two years? Or because she enjoyed the spice that layer of tension added to the energy arcing between them?

Shrugging her shoulders, Kennedy tossed him a little half grin and said, “Okay,” before starting to sink down to the floor.

She didn’t get far. His hand at the nape of her neck prevented her from following through.

“I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”

She lifted a single eyebrow. “Really? Now who doesn’t know whom? We’ve been facing off for two years, Asher, and you didn’t think I’d take your challenge seriously?”

He laughed, the sound rich and warm as it melted over her.

“Well, I’ll be dammed.”

“Besides, you assumed I’d see being on my knees as some kind of fine to be paid.” Kennedy licked her lips. She didn’t mean to, but it just...happened. “I see it as more of a reward...for me.”

Asher groaned. His hand in her hair tightened and his mouth closed in on hers. Strong, sure and deadly to her equilibrium.

There was nothing soft and meek about Asher. He kissed just the same way he approached everything else in life, full throttle.

It didn’t take long before Kennedy was gripping his shoulders, holding tight because the room had begun to spin.

He nibbled and tasted. Teased and consumed. Conquered.

But Kennedy wasn’t the kind to sit idly by and be taken. Pushing up onto her toes, she met him stroke for stroke, sucking his tongue and claiming pieces of him for herself.

He tasted like coffee and cinnamon. Smelled like sandalwood and the sea.

After several minutes, he broke away, staring at her out of glittering green eyes. Kennedy wanted to bask in the heat she saw there, revel in the power she’d wielded over him.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” he finally said, his voice low and rough.

“Why not? We’re both adults.”

“You work for me. Your brother is my best friend. I’m worried this is going to become a problem at some point.”

Kennedy let her hands play across his arms and shoulders, relishing the feel of his muscles and strength. “Jackson never has to know. In fact, for both our sakes, we need to make sure he never finds out. I work
with
you, not really for you, even if technically you are one of my bosses. Besides, that’s only true for the next couple weeks.”

Certain her assurance that whatever this was between them had a built-in expiration date would soothe the last of his reserve, she was startled when Asher pushed her away. She’d hoped he’d kiss her again, make her head and the room spin. Instead, cold air snaked across her almost naked body, sending goose bumps chasing over her skin.

But what he did next puzzled her even more. He tugged his shirt over his head, lifted it over her own and tugged it down her body. Inside out and backwards.

His warmth and scent enveloped her, making her even more discombobulated. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t have this conversation with you standing in front of me half-naked. What do you mean that’s only true for a couple more weeks?”

Uneasiness rolled through her belly, but Kennedy ignored it. She’d assumed Jackson would have already told Knox and Asher about her new job. She knew they usually stayed in regular contact no matter how far apart they were. But maybe, with everything going on in the Mediterranean, Jackson had forgotten to mention it. Or maybe he’d thought she’d tell Asher herself. She realized belatedly that would have been a good idea. Well, she could fill him in now.

She cleared her throat. “That call in the airport was a job offer from an advertising firm in Seattle.”

“What?” Asher’s voice was tight and controlled, but she could hear the anger pulsing just beneath the surface.

“I’ll be leaving in about two weeks. It’s a great opportunity and exactly the kind of position I went to school for.”

“I didn’t realize you were unhappy at Trident.”

Kennedy frowned. “
Unhappy
is the wrong word. I like what I do.”

“Then why are you leaving? Aren’t we paying you enough? I’m sure Knox and Jackson would be happy to counter their offer.”

She swallowed. How had this happened? They’d gone from half-naked to arguing intensely about her job. Somewhere along the way she’d missed the turn sign.

“Jackson already knows.”

Asher went perfectly still. His gaze glittered dangerously. And every molecule of oxygen seemed to be sucked out of the air, his displeasure like a weight upon her skin.

“He what?”

“Jackson was aware I’d interviewed, and that there was a possibility I’d be leaving. I did promise to complete the documentary beforehand and help find a suitable replacement. I wouldn’t disappear on you guys that way.”

“You think that’s my problem with the whole situation?”

“Well...yes. What else could you be upset about? So, your arguments about why this can’t happen aren’t valid. I’ve been around long enough to know you don’t do long-term. It’s perfect, really, since I’ll only be here a couple more weeks. I want you.”

She closed the gap between them, setting her hand against his naked chest. Her palm felt scorched from the heat of him, and an answering need throbbed right between her thighs.

Her other hand settled along the bulge of his erection, rubbing. A strangled hiss slipped through his clenched teeth. “And it’s obvious you want me.”

Kennedy didn’t wait for his agreement but reached for the hem of the shirt he’d pulled over her head and tugged it off. Then she reached back to pop the catch on her bra. It fell to the ground between them.

Asher’s gaze followed it, snagged on that taunting pile of cloth. Kennedy couldn’t breathe.

Slowly, his eyes tracked up from the floor, over her calves and thighs, her hips and belly, bare breasts and tightened nipples.

When he reached her face, finally meeting her own stare, what she saw nearly had her running for the door. Because she was no longer confident she could handle this man.