Bared for Me(5)

So he had a hard-on. So what. Guys got them all the time. It didn’t mean anything. “But your mouth can.”

“Dani,” he shouted, shaking his head in frustration. “I want you. I want you more than... But I’m not going to do anything about it.”

Dani stopped still. Didn’t breathe, blink, or think.

Mind. Blown.

On the one hand her heart leapt, because he really did want her. And in the same breath—rejection.

One too many rejections this week.

There was only the one thing to do. Dani turned and ran for it.

She was fast. He was faster.

She got to the door but didn’t even have the chance to reach for the handle before he was there, right behind her. His arms stretched above her, holding the door closed. But he had to lean close to ensure it.

“Honey, the running away stops here.” That low, wicked whisper in her ear again. “No more.”

So now they were close again. Body within an inch of body. Only this time not facing. Sexual need shivered through her as she sensed his strength at her back.

She turned her head, felt his chin brush her forehead. “What are you going to do, handcuff me to the bed?”

“Don’t try to tempt me, it won’t work.” His laugh was low and husky.

Smiling wanly, though he couldn’t see, she rested her burning forehead on the door. She wished she knew how to tempt him properly.

The other night at the party she thought he’d looked at her. Really looked. And she’d worn that dress specially. Only he’d turned and walked the other way. Blanked her.

He didn’t walk away from her now. So close. So quiet.

“Talk to me,” he finally murmured.

“Why?”

“Because I’m listening.”

She closed her eyes. “They never listen. They only lecture.”

“I know.”

“Even Logan. And who is he to preach?” Her brother had the starring role in a sex tape for crying out loud. It wasn’t like he was perfect. And why was the idea of her modelling so hilariously impossible—when he modelled too. She wasn’t that ugly.

Rocco remained silent. Waiting. She knew in part it was because he pitied her. But right now she didn’t care about that. She was all but in his arms. And she could pretend, even for a few seconds. And yeah, maybe there was that dumb-ass bit of her that wondered that if maybe, just maybe, if she were honest with him, he might open up to her. And knowing he couldn’t see her face somehow made it okay to ask.

“How long?”

“What?” he asked.

“Is it just today that you decided you’re... attracted to me... or...?”

He didn’t answer for a long time. So long, she tried to move away from him.

“The party the other night,” he said, stopping her turning to face him by simply leaning hard against her.

Dani bit back her moan.

“You had your back to the door when I walked in,” he said quietly. “I could see through that lace... And then you turned around.”

“And you were appalled?” She clenched her fist against the door.

“I was gutted. I’m not right for you. Not in that way.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve had a crush on you for years.”

More than a crush. But he didn’t need to know how bad.

“You have?” His words sounded odd. Like they were squeezed out of him.

She nodded.

“You barely know me.”

How could he think that? He’d been hanging out with her brothers for as long as she could remember. When he’d left home he’d worked part-time at her parents’ resort in return for a bed in the staff quarters. Then he’d dropped out of school and switched to full time. Anytime she was home, he was there. But yeah, maybe he’d been so busy busting his balls working round the clock, he hadn’t realized that she’d had eyes only for him for so long. She’d just been that kid to him—the one who’d hidden away.

“Oh, you know,” she tried to laugh it off. “You have pretty nice packaging.”

“So do lots of guys.”

So not the same. Not many guys had eyes like polished onyx and bodies like they’d been hewn from marble by a Great Master.

“You were nice to me,” she whispered.

He waited.

“When I was hiding that time.” She’d not wanted to go back to school. She’d screamed at her mother. Then she’d hidden.

Rocco had been on one of his rare visits from his new life in New York. Visiting Connor. He’d spotted her. Rocco had met her gaze, somehow understood her mute plea. Rocco had stayed silent. And she’d seen him as the man he was—intense, loyal and so freaking hot her hormones had latched onto the idea of having him and refused to let go.

“Since then?” he sounded amazed.

She nodded.

She felt coolness as he stepped back.

“Turn around,” he said.

Slowly she did. She didn’t want to look him in the eye now. Who’d have thought her afternoon could become even more of a nightmare?

“You were a kid.” He tried to smile but looked too tense to pull it off. “And you were unhappy. It wasn’t that I was nice. I just wasn’t a jerk.”

Like her father had been.

And he wasn’t being a jerk now. She got what he was doing—the gentle let down. It was worse than anything.

“Let’s start over,” he said roughly. “You’re staying the night. One night. Sort the bank in the morning. Find your way from there.”

No. He’d forced this into the open. He couldn’t ignore it now. She sure as hell couldn’t forget it. “But what about this?”

“This is just chemistry. That’s all.”

He was dismissing her crush just like that? Like it was just going to disappear? Hell, if he only knew how many times she’d wished it had. How many times she’d kissed some other guy hoping to feel some kind of lust—even a fraction of what she felt for him.

“If you knew me better, you wouldn’t have a crush.” He seemed to read her mind.

Really? She straightened up from the door and stepped up so she was toe to toe with him. “Then I guess you have one night to rid me of it.”

And that’s what she wanted. She didn’t want to measure every other guy to him. Because every other guy paled in comparison. No other guy, ever, had done it for her the way Rocco St Clair had.

He grinned. Well, it was more a twisted, uncomfortable looking grimace. “Okay, I’ll kill your crush. In one night.”





Chapter Four





“HOW DO YOU plan to kill it?” Dani asked, ridiculously intrigued.

“I’ll find a way.” He stepped away from her, crossing to the other side of the room to study his computer screen. In seconds he was typing something short with two fingers.

“You don’t think if we just give into it, then it would be gone?” she asked, unable to hide the hope in her voice.

He didn’t so much as glance back at her. “That’s not a wise idea.”

“No?”

“I’m not screwing around with you,” he said roughly. “It wouldn’t be right. Or fair.”

She blinked. “Right?”

His phone pinged. “Or fair,” he repeated.

His phone pinged again.

“Why wouldn’t it be right?” she asked. Why didn’t he think he was right for her?

His phone pinged once more.

“You don’t want to get that?” she asked, irritated.

“No. It’s fine.” He didn’t even take his phone from his pocket.

“We’re not talking marriage here, you know,” she said, her irritation mounting. “Nothing so serious...”

“Is nothing serious to you?”

He was trying to sidetrack her. It wasn’t going to work.

“I’m just talking some... fun...” That’s all she wanted. Really.

This time his phone didn’t chime a message. It rang, rang and rang.

“Are you sure you don’t want to get that?”

He growled and yanked his phone out, swiping the screen. “What?” he barked into it.

A full minute passed while who ever was calling explained something long and clearly complicated.

“Fine. Give me five minutes.” Rocco ended the call and bent back towards his computer.

He was as bad a workaholic as Connor. The brother serving a life sentence as CEO of Summerhill.

Dani crossed her arms. She was going to get a job too. She wasn’t wasting more time studying for a degree she wasn’t interested in. She’d get a job and eventually pay for herself to study what she wanted to study. If she didn’t accept her father’s money, she didn’t have to accept his terms.

Rocco clicked something so his screen shut down. He turned to face her. “I have to go downstairs for a bit. Only an hour or so, but I need to get to it. Can I trust you or am I going to have to lock you in here?”

“Lock away. I’ll set off the fire alarms.” She sent him a malignant smile.

“You would too,” he acknowledged appreciatively. “How many times did you run away from that boarding school?”

“Not enough.” She’d hated it. She’d oscillated between studying her ass off and ditching all A-grade plans to plot escape routes.

He laughed, then sobered. “Can I trust you?”

“I promise I won’t leave the hotel,” she said peaceably. “As you’ve so kindly pointed out, I have nowhere to go.”