Under Pressure(11)

Bounding up from the bed, Kennedy shot him a tight look, scooped her shirt from the floor and pulled it back over her head. Then she moved to the camera, hitting a button.

Turning to face him, she crossed her arms beneath her breasts, tilted her head to the side and studied him in a way that left him feeling exposed and edgy.

“I think maybe we’ve figured out the key to suppressing your stutter.”

“Oh, yeah, what’s that?”

She walked slowly toward him. Her hips swayed, drawing his gaze. The woman was brilliantly sexy. Too sexy for her own good.

Asher licked his lips. The decadent taste of her still clung there, flooding his mouth. He wanted to kiss her again, over and over.

“Sex.”

Asher blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You haven’t stuttered once since this—” she wagged a finger between them “—started.”

He stared at her, realizing that she was right. When he’d first started talking, his throat had been tight, his chest aching with the certainty that he wouldn’t be able to do this. And he’d stuttered, not much, but a little.

Then she’d started talking back, sharing tiny pieces of herself with him, and he’d put his hands on her. From that moment on, getting more of her had been all he could think about. Obviously not the camera recording in the corner.

And he hadn’t stuttered once.

* * *

BLOODY HELL.

Asher rubbed his hands up and down his face, trying to wipe away the past several hours.

He’d walked out of Kennedy’s room, his body revving like a stock-car engine, high-octane need at two hundred miles per hour. His mind was spinning nearly as quickly.

It wasn’t as if this would be his first sleepless night. It wasn’t even his first sleepless night over a woman. But it was the first in a hell of a long time. Damn her for changing everything with a few kisses and tantalizing words.

When she’d despised him, it had been easier to suppress his desire for her. But now that he’d seen how her body responded to him...

Across the room, his cell phone buzzed, vibrating against the top of the dresser.

It was after midnight. There were only a handful of people who’d call him this late.

Crossing the room, Asher snatched up the phone and nearly groaned when he read the display screen.

Jackson Duchane was the last person he needed to talk to right now. Guilt and dread twisted his gut. Had he found out what had happened?

There was no way, not when Asher had just left Kennedy’s room not twenty minutes ago. But that was immediately where his head went. How bad things would go if Jackson found out he’d touched his little sister.

A bitter taste flooded his mouth. Jackson, Knox and the team they’d built at Trident were all he had. They were his family. Had been from the moment they’d all been assigned to the same team.

But there was no question in his mind, should Jackson be forced to choose between him and Kennedy, his sister would win. As she should.

Just one more reason he needed to keep his hands off Kennedy.

“Reynolds,” he said, pressing the cell to his ear.

“Hey, man. Sorry to call so late, but it’s been a crazy couple days here. I have a few minutes before we get started today, so I wanted to touch base.”

Asher did a quick calculation in his head, realizing that it was actually early morning where his friend was, about seven hours ahead of their location in the Caribbean.

“It’s fine. I was still awake.”

“I figured you might be. How’d the first day go? I know you weren’t enthusiastic about taking on this project. Thanks, man, for doing it anyway.”

Shit, the guilt nearly choked him.

“It went fine.” Even Asher could hear the lie in his own words. Maybe his friend wouldn’t notice.

The pause at the other end of the line suggested that was some serious wishful thinking.

“You sure?” Jackson finally asked.

Asher sighed, the sound of it echoing down the line and reverberating back to him. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Kennedy giving you shit?”

He really didn’t want to talk about Kennedy with her older brother right now. “No more than usual. You know how we are.”

Jackson made a sound, a harsh, strangled laugh. “Maybe being forced to work together will be good for both of you. I just don’t understand the animosity between you.”

If he knew what had happened tonight, Jackson wouldn’t think his little sister being with Asher on the Amphitrite for the next two weeks was a good idea. But it was a little late for that.

“One of these days you’re going to have to explain it to me, man.”

“I already have.” Or he’d tried, without revealing Kennedy’s secret, his insistent attraction to the man’s sister or the way his body reacted whenever she was close. He had this aversion to getting his ass kicked and avoided it whenever possible.

“Not to my satisfaction.”

“Tough shit.”

Jackson grunted but, thank the good lord, changed the subject. “How’s the production crew?”

“They tried to dress me in a three-piece suit...with a bow tie.”

The loud burst of laughter made some of the heaviness in Asher’s chest disappear. Part of him wanted to reach through the phone and smack Jackson in the back of the head, which was exactly what he would have done if they’d been in the same room. The rest of him simply smiled at the sound of his friend’s laughter.

That’s what friends were for, after all. Jackson had his back, one hundred and ten percent of the time. The man had saved his life on more than one occasion, and Asher had taken a bullet for him. The battlefield bonded you in ways everyday life just couldn’t.

Besides, he could give as good as he got and had laughed his ass off plenty at Jackson’s expense when his friend had first gotten together with Loralei.

“Thanks,” he said, sarcasm leaking through the single word. “Your sympathy is overwhelming.”

“I’m sorry. I just...the visual is too much.”

“Then you’d have loved the chick who kept popping up out of nowhere to brush powder across my face.”

“Makeup? They have you wearing makeup?”

Asher grunted, trying to block out the memories. Who would have thought brushes and tiny pots of colored powder could masquerade as torture devices?

“Please, tell me there are pictures of that.”

He damn well hoped not. That was the last thing he needed. His man card was already in jeopardy as it was.

“Not a snowball’s chance in hell.”

A smile tugged at his lips. This was exactly what he’d needed, a conversation with his friend to set him back on even ground.

And remind him why touching Kennedy was a bad, bad idea. There was too much at stake and not even an amazing night with her was worth losing everything that mattered to him. And he wasn’t naive enough to think starting something with her could end any other way...no woman in his life ever stuck.

Asher heard a soft, feminine voice in the background on Jackson’s end. “Tell Loralei I said hi, and to give you shit.”

“I’ll tell her the first part. She’s got the second handled just fine without your prompting. Listen, man, I have to go. Things are moving quickly here.”

That was good news. Locating the Chimera had gained Trident some exposure, but this new find could cement their position within the salvage industry.

After this documentary aired, their visibility would increase even more. The ultimate goal was to be able to focus full-time on treasure and historical salvages and let the commercial diving side of their business, which was the only thing keeping them afloat right now, gradually fade away.

Which meant, somehow, someway, he needed to get through this documentary. This was his opportunity to contribute.

“Thanks, man. Seriously. I know doing this documentary isn’t your idea of a good time. I appreciate you taking one for the team.”

His resolve cemented as Jackson hung up.

Asher flopped onto the bed, arms and legs spread wide.

At least Kennedy’s little stunt tonight proved one thing. He’d conquered his fear of the camera once before. He could do it again.

He simply had to find a method that didn’t require him to touch Kennedy, kiss her or strip the clothes from her luscious body.





6


KENNEDY STARED AT the video playing across her computer screen. It was late. Or early. She’d meant to download the file from the camera and then go to bed. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day. But somewhere along the way, her good intentions had flown out the window.

The first time she’d hit Play, she’d told herself it was so she could see if she could learn anything helpful from the recording.

The second time she’d just wanted to double-check before deleting it permanently.

By the fourth time she’d stopped lying to herself.

Watching Asher on the small screen of her computer got her hot. He was gorgeous, but there was more.

Things she hadn’t picked up on when they were in that room together. Like the intensity pinching his face when he’d been rubbing her shoulders. The tension that had invaded his body, inch by inch, while she’d closed her eyes in bliss as he’d worked the painful knot from her muscles.

The memory of his mouth on hers, demanding and masterful. The slide of his wide hands across her back.

The more she’d watched the video, the more her body had burned. And the harder her brain had worked to convince herself this was okay.