Free Muscle for Hire by Lexxie Couper Page B

by the notion.
    For a dangerous moment, the urge to lean forward, gaze into the man’s eyes and introduce himself came over Aslin. If for no other reason than to see him squirm. Instead, he ground his teeth and pocketed his I.D. pass. Beside him, Rowan chuckled.
    “Anyways.” The guard gave them both a wide smile. “I better keep doing my rounds. Don’t forget about the gate guard. Sorry ’bout the light in your eyes and all.”
    “No worries,” Aslin said. “You’re just doing your job.”
    Beside him, Rowan burst out laughing.
    Five minutes later, they were on his bike heading for Chris’s harbour-side hotel.
    Rowan’s thighs hugged his hips, her body heat a constant promise of what might happen when they arrived at Chris’s penthouse suite in the Park Hyatt.
    Aslin’s head swam at the thought. Would they finally surrender to the overwhelming sexual chemistry between them? His dick throbbed, stiff with anticipation. That the thrumming of his bike’s powerful engine radiated through his balls only sweetened the pleasure in his groin.
    When he pulled in front of the hotel, every muscle in his body was on fire.
    He planted his foot on the road, killed the engine and held his bike steady as Rowan climbed off. The absence of her body pressed to his sent a chill through his heat. An emptiness he wasn’t prepared for stole through his soul.
    Are you falling for her already, boyo?
    Throat thick, he slid the visor of his borrowed helmet up and turned to see her remove his helmet from her head.
    She stood motionless beside his bike, her ponytail falling over her shoulder in a tumble of messy waves, her gaze unreadable as it found his face.
    He drew a steadying breath. “Wait for me in the lobby.”
    She didn’t answer. Instead, her teeth caught her bottom lip.
    “Evening, sir, ma’am. Are you checking in?”
    The cheerful voice to Rowan’s left jerked Aslin’s stare from her face. The hotel’s parking valet stood beside her, bestowing them both with a wide smile.
    Before Aslin could answer, Rowan shook her head. “No. He’s just dropping me off.”
    Aslin’s gut clenched. He controlled his frown. “Am I?”
    Rowan nodded, her teeth no longer worrying her bottom lip. “This is too much, Aslin. Too much too quickly. I want you, but I realized on the ride here I need to take a breath. To think.”
    Beside her, the valet cleared his throat. “Shall I—”
    Aslin didn’t move his focus from her face. “It’s just sex, Rowan.”
    She shook her head, her eyebrows pulling into a brief frown. “No. It isn’t. And that’s the issue.”
    The parking valet mumbled something and then, head down, cheeks red, hurried away.
    Aslin ground his teeth. She was correct. It wasn’t. He knew it, and so did she.
    Rowan let out a sigh. “I wasn’t ready for this. It’s a problem I’m not prepared for, and I don’t know what to do next.”
    “Fuck me,” Aslin growled. “And let me fuck you. Simple.”
    She chuckled. “Not simple at all. And I can see through your bluster, soldier boy. You’re as freaked out by this whole thing as I am.”
    His gut knotted. That she could read him so well already should have angered him. It didn’t. It only highlighted exactly what she was saying—what was between them had the potential to be so much more than sex. And he could tell it scared her.
    And it doesn’t you?
    “Rowan,” he began, but she shook her head and took a step backward, hugging his helmet to her breasts. “Goodnight, Rhodes. I’ll see you tomorrow on set.”
    And before he could utter another word, she turned and strode through the hotel’s glass doors and into the foyer.
    Leaving Aslin to watch her go.

Chapter Six
    Fifty laps of the hotel’s swimming pool hadn’t helped her. Working out in the hotel’s twenty-four-hour gym hadn’t either. Masturbating in the shower had achieved fuck all and consuming ice-cream sundaes smothered in hot chocolate fudge sauce from room service while watching in-house