Bared for Me(7)
Two seconds later he lurched to a halt. It was like a knee to the balls. She had met someone. Worse, that someone was male. Rocco glared through narrowed eyes and recognized the bastard.
Like bloody hell.
He stalked up behind her and plucked the champagne flute from her hand. “I’ll take that, thanks Princess.”
He felt her turn towards him, but he was too busy out-staring the man she’d been talking to.
Pete Boulder’s eyebrows soared to within a whisker of his hairline. “Rocco. Good to see you.”
Rocco took a mouthful of her drink, paused a second and then swallowed the sweet lemonade. “Didn’t know you were headed back to Manhattan so soon,” he said to Pete.
He shot Dani an annoyed look and handed her glass back to her. Somehow the fact that she hadn’t been drinking alcohol pissed him off all the more. So did the fact that she’d done her hair and something to her eyes. And there was gloss on her full lips.
She’d prettied up for Pete-the-Pervert Boulder?
“No rest for the wicked.” Pete smirked.
Yeah, Pete was absolutely wicked. Vile in fact. And he wasn’t getting near Dani.
“Indeed.” Rocco watched as Dani placed her lemonade on the table with an arctic expression. She wasn’t impressed? That made two of them.
“You still wanting to use the Silk Room as a backdrop to one of your portfolio shoots sometime?” He turned his attention back to Pete.
“You’re finally agreeing?” Pete’s eyebrows rose again.
“Seems so.” Rocco would offer anything to get this creep away from Dani. “Call my assistant to set up a time that suits.” He glanced at his watch in an exaggerated gesture. “I need to get Dani to her brother now.”
He slung his arm along her shoulder at the exact moment she stiffened. “Come on, Princess. Don’t want the carriage to turn into a pumpkin. See ya, Pete.”
He left with that image of Pete’s smirk burned in his brain.
What the hell had she been thinking?
But Dani was unusually silent as she walked with him across the lobby and into the elevator. It was only once the doors closed and they were alone that she turned on him.
“I didn’t need you to come rescue me.” She shot daggers with those fierce blue eyes. “I told you, I’m all grown up.”
“You don’t need—”
“I turned him down.”
Turned him down for what? Rocco’s blood boiled. “He tried it on?”
“Ugh.” She wrinkled her nose. “The man only has sex with his camera.”
Is that what she thought? Was she that naive? Dear lord, the guy had been salivating.
“The only way he wanted to shoot me was naked,” she said, jabbing the button for the fourth floor as if it would make the elevator move faster.
“Wanted to know if I was as adventurous as my brother.”
“You said no?”
The elevator doors opened on his floor.
“Of course I said no. I’m not stupid.” She stalked ahead and turned, impatiently waiting for him to open the door. “You’re as bad as Logan, not trusting me.”
“You said you’d stay in my room.”
“I said I wouldn’t leave the hotel. And I didn’t.” She marched into the room and kicked off her boots. “No one thinks I can make sensible decisions for myself.”
“That’s because you don’t make sensible decisions. Isn’t this proof of that?”
“That’s because I’m forced into action. They don’t want to know. Won’t listen. Won’t let me talk.”
“But Pete Boulder for fuck’s sake. Surely you know his reputation?”
“Of course I do. I know he makes people famous.”
“Why do you want to be famous?” And for what? It didn’t add up, this was the girl who’d always run away from all that stuff. Hell, she’d run away from the party the other night. Though he’d wondered if he’d been the only guest to notice the fact.
“I don’t. I just want to make some money.”
“You come from one of the wealthiest families in America.”
“I have no money of my own. Or none that I can access right now. The only way I can gain control of my life is to control everything. Especially money. My father just blocked my cards as a way to control me. I can’t let that continue.”
Rocco sighed. “I get it. But you don’t want to model with that guy as the photographer—”
“I don’t want to model at all,” she snapped. “I just thought it would be a fast way of getting enough money to get on with my life.”
“Then why did you have that slanging match with Logan about it?” Rocco struggled to simmer down.
“Because he was trying to control me as much as my father does. He wouldn’t listen.”
That had been true. Logan had just wanted her out of there. “Yeah but did you have to be so bone-headed about it?”
“Did he?”
Rocco ran his fingers though his hair and rubbed at the back of his neck. It was a fair point. “Look.” He huffed out a breath and glanced at his watch. “You need dinner. I need dinner. Let’s have dinner.”
It should be here already.
They’d eat. He’d let her talk. He’d listen. He might even be able to help her. He got that she had no control right now and yeah, he didn’t think it was fair either.
He went to the counter and pulled a bottle of iced water from the bar fridge. He twisted the cap and turned back towards her, catching a sight of her just as she—
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
His fingers snapped and the cap shot across the room. She’d taken off her merino sweater. But as she’d done so, the thin tank-top she wore underneath had ridden up. One of the skinny shoulder straps had fallen south—exposing skin. Too much skin. And there was no bra on beneath that skimpy thing?
She glanced over at him, frozen in the act of flinging that sweater to the sofa. “What?”
“Your top.” He practically wheezed. “It’s ridden up.”
“Isn’t it ironic.” Her eyebrows lifted. “All he wants is me naked. All you want is me covered from head to toe.”
“Yeah. Covered. Now.”
“But I’m hot,” she challenged.
He knew that already. He glared at her. She sent the smallest, sassiest smile back.
“Cover. Up.”
The knock at the door startled them both.
“Room service.”
Rocco didn’t move. He kept glaring at her—pointedly. So he saw the moment the idea hit her—the sudden spark that glinted in her eye. Wicked, irrepressible amusement.
She was at the door before he could blink. She flung it open with a breathless laugh. All that luminous skin was still showing—in fact more was. She’d let the strap fall further.
“Rocco, you’re so impatient.” She laughed at him over her shoulder before turning to face the waiter, nothing short of nubile energy. “I thought you wanted to eat first?”
The waiter, generally too cool to smile, stood stock still. Scarlet flooded his face, his mouth hung ajar for three seconds too long.
Rocco wasn’t having him look at Dani like that. And he wasn’t having her think she could score a point without retribution.
“On the table as usual, please Jax,” he ordered coolly.
He quickly walked over to her before she had the chance to dart out of reach. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, sliding his hands over her stomach before gripping her waist and spinning her to face him. Her startled squeak made his muscles bunch. He hauled her against him so hard her soft, unconfined breasts flattened against his chest.
His already awake cock stiffened so quick it was painful.
So close. So good.
“You really are a minx, aren’t you?” he muttered. “You’ve gone too far this time.”
Chapter Six
TOO FAR? Rocco was the one who’d gone too far. He was like some over-zealous prison guard, holding her too tight, too close for too long.
And she was loving it waaaay too much.
She hadn’t realized just how much bigger and stronger than her he was. Her already weak body was now melting at the discovery. But judging by that glint in his eye? This wasn’t for pleasure, this was payback for her lame little tease.
She looked down, not wanting him to see how much his touch affected her.
“You can let me go now,” she said, clenching her hands into fists so she wouldn’t rub her fingers all over his pecs like she itched to. “He’s gone.”
His grip didn’t loosen any, which secretly pleased her. Could he feel how fast her heart was racing? How tense parts of her were? How ready?
“You didn’t tip him,” she added vaguely, trying to act normal. Like she wasn’t burning up, about to do something that she’d definitely regret. “And you’ve made your point.”
Rocco had rejected her once already today. She didn’t need to go for total humiliation by throwing herself at him.
But he was rigid, had spread one hand firmly on her butt, holding her right there against his outrageous erection.
Maybe this wasn’t all about payback.
She couldn’t breathe because when she did, her tight nipples pressed harder against his hot chest. She didn’t dare move. She didn’t want him to move.