Chapter 9
Nine
After breakfast, Lila was exhausted. It had nothing to do with her injuries.
It was the interaction. She had never been someone who liked to be around a lot of people.
Their expectations of her abilities always made her feel like a freak.
They wanted to poke her brain. But the last few years, she’d gone full introvert.
“You should go rest,” Ian said.
He used that same bossy tone that had her entire body humming. Like, what the hell was that? It was weird. And uncalled for.
“I think we should keep working all of these names.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and glared. Her nipples tingled again. Again, what the hell was that? She wasn’t a virgin, but the two encounters she’d had didn’t prepare her for the hotness of Ian Smith.
“Lila, you need to rest. I have a feeling the owners of Dillon will want to talk to you. Best to have your head screwed on straight,” Sam said
She sighed and tore her gaze away from Ian. Her face flushed. Here she was objectifying his son, and Sam was being kind. His tone was a one eighty from his son’s.
“I guess you’re right.”
Ian grumbled something under his breath.
She glanced at him, but his expression was placid.
Damned spies. Rising, she felt a wave of exhaustion hit her.
How did she get so tired? She had slept a lot.
There was no way she would admit she was tired, so she walked towards the bedroom.
With another muttered curse, Ian stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm.
“What the hell?”
He said nothing. He just lifted her bridal style into his arms.
“You were about to fall down, you idiot.”
“Son,” Sam admonished.
“She was about to pass out.”
With that said, he marched down the hallway to the bedroom. As angry as he seemed to be with her, Ian settled her on the bed with a gentleness she had not expected.
“I’m getting you some water, then you are resting.”
“I need to use the bathroom.”
“Fine.”
He stomped out of the room muttering something under his breath.
With a shake of her head, she slipped off the mattress and headed to the bathroom.
When did he become so emotional? Where was the man they called Ice when he had been in the Elite Eight?
She knew she would never come up with an answer, so she pushed those questions out of her head.
She was already back in bed when he returned.
“Took you long enough.”
“My father is irritated with me.”
“That’s because he’s a softie.”
He reared back. “My father is not a softie.”
“Well, he is with me,” she said with a sniff.
Ian grumbled, then slipped into the chair he had sitting by the bed.
She studied him. His eyes were red, his mouth pulling down, and there were dark circles beneath his eyes.
Guilt hit her square in the chest. This man had come to her rescue.
Yes, whoever had come to clean up might not have found her, but there was at least a 50/50 chance.
“You should get some rest.”
He shook his head. “I got a few hours last night. That’s enough.”
“Listen, I get you were an assassin and that meant following your mark with not much sleep at times. But we have three other trained operatives in this house. They can protect it.”
He rolled his shoulders. “Fine.”
He rose from the chair, and she expected him to leave her. Instead, he pulled off his shirt.
“What the hell?”
“There are only two beds in this house at the moment. Dad’s in the other room.”
He dropped his pants and she squeezed her eyes shut. His chuckle was low and sexy. There was that word again. She needed to come up with some other word to describe him.
“I don’t go commando,” he said. She heard a drawer open, then close. The floor creaked and there was a rustle of clothes. “I have shorts on now.”
She opened one eye and he was telling the truth. They were grey knit shorts, which were cousins to the grey sweatpants. The man was trying to kill her. He also didn’t have on a shirt. She cleared her throat.
“You forgot your shirt.”
“I get too hot. Normally, I would just sleep in my knit boxers, but I knew you wouldn’t be comfortable with that.”
She kept staring at his chest. The man was built. Those suits hid a lot. Lean muscles and a freaking eight pack of abs had her stomach trembling.
“You can always take yours off and we’ll be even.”
Her gaze shot up to his face.
“Aw, that’s a no, I guess?”
“You would be correct.”
When had she gotten so breathless? She sounded like a thirteen-year-old with a crush. How embarrassing.
“Then, let’s get some sleep. We’ll have to start getting ready soon. Unless you think you can’t keep your hands off me?”
The smile curving his lips made Lila want to growl, but she didn’t. Instead, she harrumphed, then lay down. “Don’t hog the covers unless you want to be kicked out of bed.”
Another deep chuckle wound through her blood. The man was lethal with that chuckle.
The mattress dipped behind her, then he settled down with a sigh. Another wave of guilt hit her. He sounded tired.
“You should have slept a little last night.”
“I told you I slept in the chair. I can sleep just about anywhere.”
She said nothing to that because she was sure he was lying. Why would he do that? She didn’t need anyone looking after her. Granted, he had come running when she had called, but she did not like the idea of a debt owed. That would just not do. She had too much on her plate and that—
“Bloody hell, woman, stop thinking and just go to sleep.”
She blinked and looked over her shoulder at him. “Was I mumbling?”
She had a problem with that. It was one of the reasons the two serious relationships she’d had didn’t work out. Her quirks were too much for other people.
“Yes.”
Her face heated. “Sorry.”
His eyes narrowed. “What?”
“I get that some of my mannerisms are a lot to take. I apologize.”
If anything, he looked angrier. “Who said that to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Who said that your mumbling was a lot to take? A man?”
More than just one. But she was ashamed to have to admit that.
“First, it isn’t good form to talk about other men while in bed with one.”
But they weren’t together. They were just sharing a space, right? And why was she asking herself insane questions? Maybe that expert her grandmother had hired had been wrong.
“And second of all,” he said before she could tell him they weren’t really in bed together, “you are not too much. You are too much for lowly men who were too little for you. You are freaking Delilah Eddington Underwood. You are the pinnacle. If any man said that you were too much, he was a spineless idiot who didn’t have the bollocks to take you on, and you’re better off without him. ”
Suddenly, the backs of her eyes were burning. “Thank you.”
His gaze softened. “Now get some sleep.”
With that thought, she turned back around, and settled in.
She knew that nothing would come of her fascination with Ian.
He was way out of her league, but it was still nice that he said those things.
As a woman, she should be sharing with girlfriends, but the one and only true girlfriend she had was Eden.
Jin was her friend too, but she couldn’t really tell her about her past relationships.
Eden, though, she could have told her, but it had been embarrassing.
She was inching toward thirty and had only had two relationships, and both had ended the same way with the same complaints.
But Ian said there was nothing wrong with her. Or, at least, she wasn’t too much. Holding that thought close to her heart, she allowed sleep to take over.
Ian woke being wrapped up in someone’s arms. The woman was cuddled up to him, her nose pressed against the pulse point in his neck. His dick was hard. The scent of roses hit him hard. His still half-asleep brain came fully awake when he realized that the soft bundle pressed up against him was Lila.
He should untangle himself from her, but he couldn’t.
She had sought him out in sleep, just as she had the night before.
His heart seemed to turn over. This woman he had once called his nemesis was starting to matter.
The truth was, she had always mattered. And lately, Ian was starting to realize she mattered more than most people in his life.
She mumbled in her sleep, pressed closer, then stilled. He knew the moment she became aware of the situation. Lila stiffened, then her eyes fluttered open.
“Umm.”
He couldn’t say anything to that because his brain was bleeding. He had never been this damned hard in his life. At least, he didn’t remember it.
Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and he groaned.
“You are killing me here, Lila.”
She blinked. “I like when you say my name.”
Her voice was sleepy, her face flushed, and Ian couldn’t stop himself. He lifted his head and brushed his mouth over hers. Just that simple gesture had need racing through his veins. She shivered against him and it was his undoing.
He gave into the hunger that had been building for months.
He slanted his mouth over hers, taking the kiss from simple to raging heat in less than ten seconds.
Lila didn’t hesitate. She opened her mouth, and he thrust his tongue inside.
After slipping his hand down her body, he urged her closer by cupping her ass and pressing her closer.
There would be no way she wouldn’t feel his arousal.
She moaned against his tongue. The vibrations filtered out over his body. Bloody hell, he needed her naked. He wanted to slip down her body, taste her need, then lose himself inside of her. He could just imagine how tight she would be and the way she would squeeze him.
Before he could give into that desire, he heard the tell-tale creak of the floor, warning him that someone was on their way back to the room. With great regret, he pulled back from the kiss.
She made a noise that sounded a bit like a growl, and he smiled despite the fact he wanted to growl himself. He was so fucking hard, he was amazed he hadn’t come. From barely dry humping. The woman was dangerous.
“Love, there’s someone coming down the hallway.”
Her eyes flew open. God. Those eyes. They would always get to him. A cute blush filled her cheeks.
“Oh, God,” she said, horror in her voice. She tried to roll away from him, but he stopped her.
“We will finish this, Lila.”
She frowned at him. “You’re a bossy bit of goods.”
He smiled at the old-fashioned saying. “You better believe it.”
He gave her another hard kiss before rolling away from her, then rising from the bed. It was painful, but he did it. “I need a shower. From the tread that is probably Jenner coming to check on you.”
She sat up, and he had to stop just to look at her. Her hair was a tangle of curls, her mouth was red and swollen from his kisses, and her face was still flushed.
Bloody hell, she was gorgeous.
“What?”
He shook his head. “I was just thinking how amazing you are.”
The slow blink told him she wasn’t accustomed to compliments. Of course, she had cut herself off from everyone for over two years. He had a feeling that Judith Eddington wouldn’t be that forthcoming with compliments.
There was a soft knock on the door, and since he didn’t want to be embarrassed by his obvious hard-on, he slipped into the bathroom.
Closing the door behind him, he waited and heard Jenner come into the room.
Everything in him told him to be out there with her.
Ian did not like the idea of another man around her.
It was stupid and backwards to even think that way.
Even if he had a claim to her, which he wasn’t sure he did, Ian didn’t believe in that kind of behavior.
Lila seemed to tear down all of his civilized thinking and leave him like a mess of neanderthal idiocy.
Even at the moment, knowing that he wasn’t a man who could settle down, he had a hold on the counter edge to keep himself from charging back into his room and beating the hell out of Jenner.
Fuck, he was mess, but for the first time in a long time, he felt he was on the right path. Protecting Lila seemed to reignite the spark he had lost over the last year.
The question was if it was the woman or the situation? He stared at himself in the mirror and realized the answer didn’t matter. Because, in this, he could be honest with himself. All that mattered was the woman. Nothing else.