Page 45 of Brazen King

“Yeah,” he says gruffly, his voice enticingly hoarse with sleep.

He clears his throat as his eyes skim down my body appreciatively, and his eyebrow cocks in a look of silent challenge.

I’m in trouble.

But whatever he hears on the other end of the line is clearly not to his liking. And his appraisal of my body comes to an abrupt halt as his eyebrows press into a dark scowl.

“When?” he demands. Then, “And they took care of it?”

A moment of silence follows as the caller responds.

Killian releases a venomous growl that puts knots in my stomach, and he tosses aside the covers to climb out of bed. “Bloody bastards. I’m on my way.”

He hangs up, his eyes burning with fury as he stalks across the room toward me. “Did you intend to slip out on me in the middle of the night, then?” he demands.

The subtle threat in his tone makes my pulse quicken, and my mind scrambles to recover the situation before he finds out my true intentions. “I have to get home before someone notices I’m gone,” I insist, collecting my leggings and busying myself by pulling them on. “Part of what makes me effective as a secret weapon is that not even my father’s men know what I’m capableof.” It’s not a lie—my father’s men don’t know who his assassin is—but it’s not entirely the truth either since I had no intentions of leaving just yet.

Killian stops before me, his hands finding his hips as his impressive cock remains on full display. And as it swiftly starts to swell, I can’t help but lick my lips, swallowing hard as it comes to eye level with me.

“Be that as it may, you’re mine for the night, princess. And if you’re not going to sleep, then next time, I expect to wake with your mouth around my cock. Is that understood?”

Heat blossoms in my core, and my breath hitches at his command. Not that I ever intend to see it through. But I can’t expose my intentions by pushing back too hard. So, instead, I glare up at him and grumble a grudging, “Fine.”

“Good girl,” he purrs, cupping my chin with his strong hand. Then he bends to brush a tempting kiss across my lips.

My heart skips a beat, but I ignore it as I snatch up my bra. “Who was on the phone?” I ask, redirecting his attention.

“Lance,” he says simply.

“Is something wrong?” I press, grabbing my shirt and straightening to pull it on over my head.

“Just a hiccup in one of my shipments coming in,” he says vaguely, giving a casual shrug.

But his response to Lance made it sound far more serious than that. “A hiccup?” I press, straightening my clothes and collecting my backpack.

Killian starts to dress too, collecting his boxers and bringing them up around his hips before opening his impressively large closet to pull out a pair of slacks. “I should have known better than to strike a deal with the yakuza—they’re always screwing people over,” he says matter-of-factly.

And I’m astonished by how laissez-faire he can continue to sound. When the yakuza are involved, things tend to go to hell ina handbasket real fast. I’ve killed more men from the Japanese mafia than all the others put together because they constantly stab their business partners in the back. In fact, my father stopped making deals with them years ago because the one thing we can trust the yakuza to be is untrustworthy.

And when they decide to betray you, they don’t do it in a small way.

Killian must have a proper mess on his hands.

“You made an amateur move,” I tease, following him to the closet and leaning against the door jamb so I can watch him dress.

“Oh?” he asks, deftly buttoning his steel-gray dress shirt. And his eyebrow quirks in that expression of mild amusement as he casts me a sidelong glance.

“I would think a mafia boss as well established as you would know better than to do business with Saturo Takumi,” I chide.

Killian chuckles, that low, dark sound that makes my core tighten. And as he finishes rolling up his sleeves, he turns to look at me. No man has a right to look so dangerously handsome just minutes after climbing out of bed. But after he finger combs his hair out of his eyes, he looks fit for a proper night on the town.

“You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now,” he growls, and I’m stunned that he actually agreeing with me. “But it seems I’m a sucker for punishment.”

Stepping close, he wraps a strong arm around my waist, pulling me against his firm body.

“Or I enjoy tempting fate,” he murmurs, and my pulse stutters as he leans in to kiss me.

My hands slide up his chiseled chest, and I wrap my fingers around his collar as I give in to temptation, kissing him back greedily. And when he finally pulls back, we’re both breathless once again.

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