Free Stripped Defenseless by Lia Slater Page A

over her sensitive
pussy...her mound...her stomach...and across each breast.
    After
grabbing another towel, he walked behind her and began to dry her hair,
wrapping it up and squeezing the water out of the locks.
    “I
could get used to this.” She instantly regretted her words.
    He
stopped what he was doing and draped the towel around her. “I wouldn’t if I
were you,” he said in an almost inaudible voice as he maneuvered around her.
His intense gaze cut into her, and he walked out of the bathroom, leaving her
there feeling like a complete idiot. Again.
    Biting
into her lip, she refocused and tried to gain control of her emotions. “I
didn’t mean it literally, Kade,” she called out to him. “It’s not like I want
to marry you and start popping out puppies. I don’t even know your last name.”
    Silence
thickened between the rooms so she gave up trying to defend herself for
absolutely no reason at all. Why did she care anyway? The man was good for the
physical stuff but that was it. That was where it ended. If she could manage to
keep her mouth shut, she could probably get one more night of sex out of him
before she moved on. And maybe find out where he lived in case she wanted to
locate him again. Just for the sex. Really.
    The
mirror over the sink reminded her of the long day she’d had. Her cheek was pink
and slightly swollen, and the dark circles under her eyes made it seem like
she’d aged ten years in the past few hours.
    She
sighed, wrapped some ice in a towel and gathered the courage to join him.
    When
she walked through the door, he had on a pair of black boxer briefs and was
sitting at the edge of the bed rifling through a duffle bag.
    “How
are you feeling?” He looked up only for a moment.
    “Fine.”
One word answers were the best way to go.
    “You
don’t look fine.”
    “Mmm.”
Not a word but cursing at the man probably wouldn’t get her laid. She crawled
onto the bed, still completely naked, but he didn’t even give her the courtesy
of a glance.
    “Why
don’t you take these?” He swiveled around to face her with a brown prescription
bottle in his hand.
    “Those?”
She raised an eyebrow. “What are you trying to do, drug me?”
    He
shook his head but still didn’t make eye contact. “They’re pain killers for an
old injury I’ve got that flares up from time to time. A couple of these, and
you won’t feel a thing, I promise you.”
    She
arched her body toward him and circled her finger over her nipple. “What if I
want to feel something?” she asked in the sultry voice she’d used a billion
times at the club.
    He
blinked. “What?”
    Why
was it so much easier to play a seductress when you were named after a flower?
“Nothing,” she said, giving up. She placed the ice-packed towel over her cheek
and tried to forget how horny she was.
    The
bed creaked as he stood. “I’ll get you some water.”
    “Whatever,”
she mumbled, reminding herself that survivors didn’t beg. If Kade didn’t
want to see her anymore after tonight, then to hell with him. Oh, who was she
kidding? What would one more try at seduction hurt?
    * * * * *
    Kade
didn’t look in the mirror as he filled the plastic cup. How could he when the
man looking back at him was nothing but a pathetic, self-centered prick?
    Ava
Lureau deserved better than what he had planned for her, and it sickened him.
But there was no other way around it.
    If
she weren’t so innocent and loving, pleasing him so readily with her beautiful
body, then what he had to do would be easier. Cut and dried. Regrettably, he
knew as long as she let him, he’d take everything she had to give. Just like a
drug, he was quickly becoming addicted to her. He longed to please her—every
part of her. Fill her. Possess her. Protect her.
    He
walked back into the bedroom and saw her lying there with the comforter only
partially covering her naked body. God, he wanted her, and he wasn’t sure he
would ever be able to get enough.
    Maybe
if he were to