Page 30 of In Bed with Her Billionaire Bodyguard

‘Did he ask?’

‘What?’ she said, his question cutting through the fog of desire clouding her mind.

‘Did he ask before he put his hands on you?’

Dark, swirling, thick and heavy, promises filled his gaze and she almost didn’t answer.

‘Yes. He did.’

‘And if I asked?’

This time his chest heaved in a breath that she felt against her breasts, hardness pressing into nipples that were taut with need.

She could play dumb, she could pretend she didn’t understand what he meant, but then she would have to walk away. She felt it. They stood there on the cusp, the brink of an edge she could still step back from. But she didn’t want to.

‘What would it mean if I said yes?’ she asked, and for a second she thought he might tease her. Laugh at her, ask if she was demanding hearts and roses and promises she wasn’t sure she wanted herself. Fear made her look straight ahead, staring at his chest and feeling the anticipated embarrassment beginning to burn her cheeks.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for him to answer and, even though a second stretched into ten, she refused to raise her gaze. Finally, his thumb hooked beneath her chin and she lifted her head to look deep into his silvery gaze.

Dark tousled hair framed his face perfectly and she was instantly struck by how beautiful he truly was. Fine cheekbones balanced out the sharp angles of his face, but it was him—it was his power beneath the layers of skin and silver eyes, that made him so devastating.

‘If you asked me to put my hands on you, it would mean that we would be adults about this. It would mean that when we get back to London, you’ll have someone else who will look out for you. I’ll oversee it, but I won’t be involved in your close protection detail.’

‘And what about my brother?’

‘You want to talk about your brother right now?’ he demanded, the gentle tease so much more welcome than what she’d feared only moments ago.

‘What about the deal? He wanted you personally to—’

‘He’ll live with it,’ Luca said, shifting his weight between his feet, somehow making her feel as if he wanted to walk her back a step, even though he hadn’t moved.

‘But—’

‘He’ll live with it,’ Luca growled, and she got the distinct impression he was barely holding on.

‘So if Ididask you to put your hands on me?’ she asked, needing to know. Needing clarification before they both gave in to whatever madness was waiting to take over.

That she was even considering this was insanity. But perhaps it was because they both had so much to lose that she was willing to take the risk. He had the future of his company on the line as much as she had the future of hers.

‘It would mean,’ he said, his head dropping closer to hers, his breath puffs of air against her moistened lips, ‘that I get to put my hands on you whenever I want, until we return.’

‘Just until we return...’ She didn’t even know if she were asking or demanding and from the swirling in the grey of his eyes like molten silver, neither did he. She was almost dizzy with want, but her instincts kicked in just in time. ‘In private,’ she said.

‘What?’ he asked, as if struggling with the same heady sensuality.

‘This is only in private.’

Something dark passed across his features, so quickly she wasn’t sure that she’d seen it, but then she was half lost because he said, ‘Of course.’

‘I can’t—’ Something in her started to defend herself. The risks she couldn’t take—the risks neither of them could.

‘I get it. So, in private,’ he said, pulling his hands from his pockets, where he’d fisted them, ‘I get to put my hands on you whenever I want?’ They were there, hanging seemingly loose, despite the tension she felt coursing through every inch of his body, inches from where she wanted them.

‘Yes.’ The word was sin on her lips.

‘Say it,’ he commanded.

‘I want your hands on my body.’

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