Asa (Marked Men #6)(28)

I liked sex—a lot—and I wasn’t averse to having whoever shared my bed for the night sleep over. I was a pro at getting my own way and defusing awkward situations with pretty words and a clever grin, so I typically never had to worry about morning-after catastrophes. In fact, I usually could look forward to a repeat performance when the sun came up, but somehow I knew if I went there with Royal in the bright light of day, it would change things.

I already felt it in the way my hands wanted to linger at the delicate curve of her waist. In the way my skin tingled and felt alive where it touched hers. In the way I wanted to simply look at her in all her naked and fiery beauty while she held on to me. I absolutely couldn’t get serious about this girl, we were beyond wrong for each other … not that I was ever going to be right for anyone, but especially not right for her. Too bad my body and my mind didn’t agree on that fact.

Everything inside of me tightened and coiled, ready to strike when she muttered my name in her sleep and wiggled her body even closer to mine. She was seriously going to make me come just by breathing on me, so I sighed and extracted myself from her sleepy hands as delicately as I could. I needed some space, both physically and mentally. She was far too easy to get lost in, and the fact that she was strong enough, secure enough, to come after what she wanted even though I told her what the inevitable outcome was going to be was a turn-on like no other. I had been chased by women before, often because I led them on for my own reasons. But I had never been chased and then caught by a woman that knew all the rules going in. I both loved and loathed her fearlessness. It made it impossible to say no to her.

I had no clue if she needed to be up for work or not, so I decided to take a quick shower and then call Nash to see if he could rescue her trapped purse from her car. That was a call I wasn’t eager to make. I could already see the wild fire of concern and worry that would burn through our group of friends when it was made clear that Royal and I had spent the night together.

Sure, we were consenting adults and it was no secret she had been after me for more than a minute, but now that I had broken the seal, taken what was offered, it would be a whole different ball game of subtle hints and more obvious warnings that I better treat her right and better not do anything to hurt her. Of course I didn’t want to hurt her, that’s why I had avoided this inevitable hookup for as long as was humanly possible. But now there was no choice. The line had officially been crossed and I knew there was a crash-and-burn hovering somewhere down the line for both of us on this side of it. That’s just the way things in my world worked and it was better to accept them than be blindsided and devastated by it when the crash happened.

I took a second to brush my teeth, then turned the water in the shower on as hot as it would go and stepped underneath the spray. This was early for me to be up and about, but my insistent dick and whirling mind weren’t going to let me crawl back into my occupied bed without either a f*ck or a fight. The water was enough to jar me fully awake and aware as I bit back a groan when I realized every time I stepped into this shower stall I was now going to have the image of Royal watching me, with those wide, chocolate-colored eyes forever imprinted on my brain.

She should have been offended and embarrassed. Instead she was pissed, and rightfully so. I had known all along what I was doing, had felt the burn and want for her pressing hard at the base of my spine. I also knew she wasn’t going to sit idly by while I disappeared into the bathroom. Her nature was to be curious and a problem solver, so I’d known she was going to get a show when she eventually came looking for me. What I hadn’t planned on was her staying to watch, or how ridiculously hot her doing so had made me. I was just trying to prove a point, trying to get her to see what I was really all about and how little regard I could have for her feelings. Only she had turned the tables, made it about something more; between her melted-candy-colored eyes and her furious pout, she had made it something more. Of course I said her name on a curse when I came and I also knew she wasn’t leaving the apartment until I took her to bed. But then she had curled so innocently and so trustingly into me while she slept, and just like that she had turned sex into something more as well. She was making all of it into something more, including me, and that felt beyond dangerous.

The water almost scalded as it poured over the top of my head and down across my shoulders, but it felt good and released some of the tension that was riding me hard. I turned my head and couldn’t say I was surprised when she stepped between me and the spray. The water turned her hair from burnished mahogany to almost jet black and her eyebrows nearly touched her hairline as she gazed up at me.

“Everything okay?”

I should be asking her that. Instead I reached out and caged her in between my arms and the tiled wall while the hot water continued to cascade down around us.

“I was just envisioning the lecture that is bound to be headed my way when we call Nash to get you into your car.”

Her slick hands moved up and down my ribs in a caress that I’m sure was designed to soothe but instead made my already hard cock even harder. She couldn’t miss it the way it was pointed straight up between the two of us.

“It won’t be any worse than the one I’m sure Saint is going to give me.” Her voice was still soft with sleep and heavy with something I didn’t want to try and dissect.

I bent my head down just a little and the water ran off my nose and dripped across her parted lips, and told her quietly, “You should listen to her. Whatever she has to say.”