Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) Read Online Free

his uninjured foot between the frame and the door to Lissa’s apartment, preventing her from slamming it in his face. “You knew it was only a matter of time before I turned up here.”
    “Did I?” She eyed him coolly with those beautiful yellow topaz-colored eyes.
    Ash had never seen eyes that color before he met Lissa. Cat’s eyes, and surrounded by thick dark lashes, giving them an almost exotic appeal. Those eyes, and the creamy texture of her complexion, made an intriguing contrast to the deep auburn of her hair—
    Oh, for fuck’s sake.
    “We need to talk,” he said tersely.
    “I have nothing to say to you.” She continued to keep the door open only enough to accommodate where Ash’s foot was stopping her from closing it in his face. As she so obviously wanted to do.
    God, this woman was hot.
    Lissa had looked amazing last night in her fitted sweater and tight-fitting jeans, but today she looked even better. She wore a white vest top with thin straps, fitted over her voluptuous breasts and slender waist. Loose-fitting jogging pants rested low on her hips, leaving two inches or so of her bare abdomen between them and the vest top, allowing Ash to see the colorful tattoo.
    “That’s new.” He bent down to get a closer look at the design.
    “What the…?” Lissa stepped back as Asher leaned so close to her, she could feel the heat of his breath on her bare skin.
    “This is beautiful work.” He made no effort to straighten as he glanced up at her, the green flecks visible in the darkness of his eyes. “You didn’t have this tattoo a year ago.”
    A stark reminder, if Lissa had needed one, that this man knew and had touched every inch of her. Intimately.
    “A phoenix rising from the ashes,” he mused admiringly as he raised his hand.
    “Don’t.” Lissa could have kicked herself for sounding breathy as she stepped back from allowing him to touch her.
    Even if breathless was how Asher made her feel. Breathless. Aroused. Even now her body was tingling in awareness of his proximity.
    Every time Lissa had seen Asher so far, he had been wearing a suit—or nothing at all! A dinner suit the first evening they met, a formal suit at Stazzi and Alexandre’s wedding, and again at Claudia’s apartment building last night. This was the first time she’d seen him casually dressed in a T-shirt and jeans.
    The tight tee showed off the muscular strength of his arms and wide shoulders and chest, the ridges of his washboard abs clearly outlined. Faded blue jeans rested low on his hips, emphasizing the lean length of his legs, heavy biker boots on his feet.
    Asher was sophisticated and elegant in a suit, but he looked even more dangerous wearing a casual T-shirt and jeans. The dark hair and heavy boots gave him an added bad-boy edge.
    “Interesting choice of design,” he murmured as he finally straightened.
    “I consider it the story of my life so far.” Lissa had no intention of admitting he was part of her having, literally, risen from the ashes .
    Considering her early life and childhood, it was surprising she was as normal as she was.
    Her mother had separated from her father when Lissa was only a few days old, Claudia moving to New York to take over as head of the features department at Elan magazine. Lissa had stayed with her father, in the care of a full-time nanny, with occasional visits to her mother when she was older and as Claudia’s busy work schedule allowed.
    Then at eight, Lissa had been shipped—flown?—off to boarding school in England. And hadn’t that been a wonderful time. As a new girl, Lissa had felt self-conscious enough, but a new girl with an American accent… Let’s just say it had been in her own best interest to lose the accent as soon as possible.
    Even so, her school life had only become bearable when Stazzi Carmichael joined the same school when they were both thirteen. They clicked instantly, became the sister to each other neither of them had.
    They had also gone to the same