Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) Read online

  Knight Security Series 1

  Defying Asher

  By

  Carole Mortimer

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2016 Carole Mortimer

  Cover Design Copyright © Glass Slipper Designs

  Editor: Linda Ingmanson

  Formatter: Matthew Mortimer

  ISBN: 978-1-910597-28-6 (mobi)

  ISBN: 978-1-910597-29-3 (ePub)

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved.

  DEDICATIONS

  Peter

  As Always

  Chapter 1

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Miss Pissy Forsythe.”

  “And if it isn’t Mr. Asshole Knight,” Lissa sparked back, eyes wide with shock as she watched Asher Knight step out of the elevator into the lobby of the exclusive Felton Tower apartment building in London. What on earth was he doing here?

  “The name’s Asher, and isn’t that insult getting a little old?” He came to a halt in front of her, assessing her with dark brown eyes touched with intriguing flecks of jade.

  “Not if it still applies.” Lissa had no intention of revealing how badly shaken she was at seeing Asher again. The man was far too arrogant and full of himself already.

  She would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit, despite everything, she still found everything about Asher Knight—Ash to his friends, of which she apparently wasn’t one—disturbing.

  In his midthirties, he wore his dark hair cut shorter than she remembered. His face was all harsh angles: those unusual jade-flecked brown eyes, high cheekbones, aquiline nose, sculpted lips, stubbornly square chin, with a beguiling cleft at its center.

  As for his powerful and muscular body… Six feet four inches of solid muscle showed to advantage this evening in a tailored black suit, pale gray shirt, and a silver-and-black-striped tie. He had wide shoulders, defined chest muscles, and washboard abs—Lissa knew that included those two extra muscles that veed down to his groin.

  From past experience, she also knew his cock was long and thick when aroused, and that Asher knew exactly what to do with it in order to give a woman maximum pleasure.

  When had she last seen this man? A year ago? No, she had seen him again six months ago, even if the two of them hadn’t spoken to each other when they both attended the wedding of her friend Stazzi to her Mediterranean prince.

  Who was Lissa kidding?

  She knew exactly when she had last seen Asher. Damn it, she remembered everything about this man.

  Their first disastrous meeting a year ago, when she had thrown the contents of a champagne glass in his face in the middle of an exclusive restaurant.

  Asher following her out of the restaurant, the two of them arguing before making love in the back of Asher’s car.

  The night of passion that followed.

  Her disillusionment the following morning.

  The way they had studiously ignored each other at Stazzi and Alexandre’s wedding six months later. Well…it had been studious on Lissa’s part. Asher hadn’t even acknowledged her, leading her to doubt he even remembered the two of them had once spent the night together.

  Her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here, Asher?” This was an exclusive, private apartment building. The reception desk was always manned by at least one security guard, to ensure only invited guests were allowed inside the elevators.

  He shrugged wide shoulders. “My company is providing extra security in this building at the moment.”

  “At the start of the weekend?” It was eight o’clock on a Friday evening.

  “People still need protection whatever day of the week it is.”

  Lissa knew from Stazzi that the Knight brothers owned and ran Knight Security, a company that specialized in providing security for individuals and businesses alike. Apparently they provided the same service for whole apartment buildings. “I take it, as the two of you are dressed exactly the same, the muscle-bound guy behind the desk works for your company?” She glanced across at the man watching the array of television screens behind the reception desk.

  Having arrived in the building a few minutes ago, Lissa had been surprised at being prevented from going any farther than the lobby of the building. She had thought she knew all the men who worked behind the reception desk here, but she didn’t recognize the man sitting there tonight. The normal security men all knew her and she knew them, and she usually just passed through and into the elevator after an acknowledging wave on her part and a nod from them. Not this evening.

  Asher dipped his head in acknowledgment of the other man before taking hold of Lissa’s arm and pulling her over to the side of the marble lobby. “You can be as pissy as you want to me, Lissa. I’m used to it. But Liam is only doing his job.”

  “Which is?”

  “Security and protection.”

  “And who in this building needs protecting?” Claudia occupied a penthouse apartment when she was in London, but there were twenty or so other tenants in this exclusive building.

  He released her arm. “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  She sighed her impatience. “I want to go up to Claudia Reynolds’s apartment.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  “None of your damned—” She bit back her angry reply. “I just do.”

  “Your name isn’t on the approved list.”

  “What approved list?”

  “This one.” Asher withdrew his cell phone from his jacket pocket, pressed a couple of keys, and then held the screen up in front of her face.

  Lissa read the dozen or so names on the screen. None of them were hers. “Why would my name need to be on there?”

  “That’s also on a need-to-know basis.”

  “Well, I need to know.” She frowned her frustration with this conversation. If it wasn’t for the fact she was twenty-eight years old and should know better, she would have stamped her foot too. This man had always brought out the worst in her.

  Or the best…

  Lissa hadn’t forgotten the night she and Asher had spent together. It had been unforgettable. Out-of-control desire. Raging passion. The two of them hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other, ripping off only enough clothes for the two of them to be able to make love in the back of his car parked behind the restaurant. That desire had continued for hours more in Asher’s bed once they finally reached his apartment. Lissa had never known another man or a night like it, before or since.

  Asher couldn’t have forgotten about her completely either, not when tonight he had called her by both her first and last name.

  “Sorry, I can’t do that,” he replied, answering her last comment.

  She snorted. “You aren’t sorry at all.”

  “No.”

  Lissa chewed on her bottom lip, not sure what was going on here but intending to find out. “Are the two of you guarding the building or someone specific?”

  “Both.” He bared straight white teeth in a humorless smile at the knowledge his answer wasn’t in the least helpful.

  “Why? And if you tell me again that it’s on a need-to-know basis only…!”

  “It is.” He shrugged.

  She scowled her frustration. “In that case, I suggest you call up to Claudia’s apartment and tell her Lissa is here to see her.”

  The smile left his lips. “Miss Reynolds isn’t receiving visitors this evening.”

  Her hands cl
enched at her sides. “Asher, I swear to God, if you don’t stop stonewalling me, I’m going to do something drastic.”

  “Like what?” he taunted. “Throw more champagne in my face?”

  If there had been a bottle or glassful handy… “You deserved it.”

  “Maybe,” he conceded with an unconcerned shrug. “I’m not sure I deserved having you walk out on me the following morning, though.”

  “Oh, you did,” she assured him vehemently.

  He gave a shake of his head. “You’ll have to explain it to me sometime, then, because I still have no fucking idea what I did wrong.”

  Probably because he had a completely different set of morals from her own. Lissa certainly didn’t go to bed with one man while receiving messages on her answering machine from another lover, reminding them of their date that evening. Especially when the man she had spent the previous night with was still lying naked in her bed.

  Which was exactly what had happened to her in reverse with Asher.

  He had been in the shower when his phone rang the “morning after.” Lissa had let it ring, knowing it would be picked up by the answering machine. The woman’s voice was young and teasing. “Don’t forget we have our special celebration tonight. Looking forward to it. Love you.”

  Lissa had been dressed and ready to leave by the time Asher emerged from his shower.

  She still wasn’t sure whether or not she had been relieved or saddened to learn of Asher’s duplicity…

  Ignorance was bliss, they said—whoever they were. But without that knowledge of Asher’s other lover, Lissa might have made even more of an idiot of herself over him than she had. She had already been halfway in love with him.

  Instead, she had made a grand exit.

  She shrugged. “Isn’t it enough that you’re a grade A asshole?”

  His mouth thinned. “You didn’t seem to care about that in the back of my car or in my bed.”

  Heat warmed her cheeks at this evidence Asher did remember that night. “I cared the following morning when I realized what an idiot I’d been.”

  “O-kay.” Asher breathed deeply. “But what I said just now still stands. Your name isn’t on this list, so I can’t allow you up to either of the apartments on the penthouse floor.”

  “Fu—” Lissa drew in a deep, controlling breath before she could finish that sentence, knowing it was Asher’s reference to the past, remembering how stupid she had been, that had triggered every one of her defensive buttons. “You’re still the most infuriating man it’s ever been my misfortune to meet.”

  He stepped in close to her. “And you’re still beautiful when you’re angry.”

  To say Lissa was unnerved by his sudden proximity was an understatement. Asher was close enough now for her to see those green flecks in his dark eyes. A five-o’clock shadow darkened his strong jawline, but not enough to hide the sexy cleft in his chin. She could smell the sandalwood soap she knew he kept in his bathroom, and the tantalizing citrus of his aftershave, along with the musky male scent that was all Asher.

  She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “You need to back off,” she warned.

  “Or what?” he taunted.

  “Just back off.” The more he stalled, the angrier she became. She certainly had no intention of being intimidated by both his height and that muscular body.

  “I don’t feel inclined to do that— Ow! What the fuck?” Asher recoiled as the stiletto heel of Lissa’s boot stomped down painfully on his instep. “I should have put you over my knee and spanked you the first time I met you!” He bent to massage the pain of his injured foot.

  “You could have tried,” she challenged.

  “Jesus, woman, what the hell did you do that for?” He frowned darkly as he straightened.

  “You were enjoying yourself far too much at my expense,” she answered unapologetically.

  “I don’t remember you complaining the last time I did that.”

  “Would you keep your voice down?” Lissa belatedly gave the listening Liam a glance, annoyed with herself for being so caught up with Asher she had briefly forgotten the other man’s presence.

  Liam’s expression was stoically bland, but she was sure she detected the slight twitch of his lips as he held back a smile.

  “Why the hell should I?” Asher continued to scowl. “Damn it, I think you broke a bone in my foot,” he muttered as he tried to put his full weight on it and ended up limping badly.

  “Oh, stop being such a drama queen.” She gave a disgusted shake of her head, left in no doubt about Liam’s smile this time as he sat back and openly grinned at the exchange. “I want to see Claudia, and I want to see her now, so I suggest you call up to her apartment and tell her I’m here— Oh, never mind,” she snapped before taking out her own cell phone. “I’ll call her myself and— What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded as Asher plucked her cell phone out of her hand. “Give that back.”

  His superior height allowed him to hold the phone up out of her reach. “I told you, Miss Reynolds isn’t to be disturbed right now.”

  “This is ridiculous.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  “You have no right to stop me from seeing Claudia.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  Lissa snorted. “You’ve never begged for anything in your life!”

  “True,” he drawled. “But if Miss Reynolds had wanted to see you, then your name would have been on her list of approved visitors.”

  Lissa stilled. “Are you saying Claudia gave you a list of the names of the people she wants to see?”

  “Yes.”

  “And I’m not on it?”

  “No.”

  Well, wasn’t that wonderful. Just fucking marvelous.

  Asher eyed her suspiciously. “What’s your connection to Miss Reynolds?”

  Her connection to Claudia? Well, after this evening, Lissa wasn’t sure she had one, even tenuous as it had always been. The two of them had never been particularly close. How could they be when they barely knew each other?

  The two women lived in different worlds. Claudia was the powerful CEO of the prestigious Elan fashion magazine, whereas Lissa managed a travel agency. Lissa liked nice clothes as much as the next woman, but she certainly wouldn’t spend thousands of pounds on the fashions displayed every month in Elan and which Claudia wore all the time. Claudia was English by birth, but her main home was in New York and had been for years. Lissa had gone to school and university in the UK and preferred to live here.

  Even so…

  Lissa straightened, the four-inch heels on her boots putting her on eye level with that cleft in Asher’s chin. “Claudia Reynolds is my mother.”

  Oh fuck.

  What the hell was Ash supposed to say in answer to that when he hadn’t even known Claudia Reynolds had a daughter?

  A daughter she hadn’t told them about and whose name she hadn’t put on her approved list of visitors.

  Not just any daughter either, but Lissa Forsythe, the woman Ash had once spent a memorable night with. The same woman who had walked out of his life the following morning, muttering something about “not being part of his damned harem,” adding she never wanted to see him again.

  That hadn’t been completely possible, of course. The two of them had been out to dinner with Lissa’s friend Stazzi and Asher’s friend Alexandre the night they first met, and they had both attended the other couple’s wedding on the island of Androcco some months later. Not that Lissa had spoken to him at the wedding; she had been far too busy flirting with one of Alexandre’s male relatives even to notice Asher.

  But there had never been any mention a year ago, not even a hint, of Lissa being the daughter of the powerful fashion media mogul Claudia Reynolds.

  Until now.

  Fuck.

  Lissa gave a mocking smile at his obvious shock. “It would seem Claudia forgot to mention that little fact,” she added with the same cold disdain as her mother.

/>   Yes, she had, and now Ash, already Lissa’s least favorite person, was having to deal with the fallout.

  “Is it Claudia you’re here to protect?” Lissa probed.

  “You would have to ask Miss Reynolds that.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” she scoffed.

  “Take it however you want.”

  “Oh, I will.” She gave Ash a saccharine-sweet smile. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why Claudia needs this extra security when Harvey Stein has been her bodyguard for years?”

  “No.” Why the hell hadn’t Claudia Reynolds told them she had a daughter? A daughter she so obviously hadn’t spoken to in the last two days.

  Although, he didn’t think he or Liam could be blamed for not making the connection between the two women this evening. They looked and behaved absolutely nothing alike.

  The mother was a tall slender blonde, the epitome of cool elegance in the fitted dresses she favored. Lissa was beautiful, but her just-below-shoulder-length hair was a deep auburn with touches of red. Her eyes were the color of yellow topaz. She was only three, maybe four inches over five feet tall, without the aid of those lethal four-inch heels on her boots. Lissa’s figure was also curvy, her clothes casual: short tan leather jacket over a yellow sweater, and jeans that clung to her ass and thighs.

  Claudia Reynolds also didn’t look a day older than thirty-five, definitely not old enough to have a daughter aged in her late twenties. If anything, the two could have been sisters rather than mother and daughter.

  That was hardly the point, was it, when Knight Security had asked Claudia Reynolds for full disclosure before taking on the job of protecting her while she was in England on business. Omitting to mention the existence of her daughter certainly wasn’t doing that. Making Ash wonder what else the older woman had forgotten to tell them.