Free Hitman's Captive: A Bad Boy Romance by Lara Swann

fists as Leo spoke, “Really, princess? Never seen a
guy’s chest before?”
    I felt the heat searing
my cheeks as I refused to look at him. Of course I had - you couldn’t really
get away from that, not with the occasional pool party, or the morons at school
who just had to show off. Not that they had anything to show off, not compared
to—
    Oh, god help me.
    I’d never really looked before though - I knew better, and it would only have led to dangerous thoughts.
My classmates - hell, any boys - were off limits, and even if I might have felt
rebellious once or twice, I wasn’t going to risk what would happen to them if
I went too far. So I didn’t really have a whole range of male chests to compare
to, but even if I did…I had a feeling that this one would still come out on
top.
    I cursed myself for the
thought, trying to find something to say - some way to get him to cover up and
forget this whole thing. Then the sound of a belt buckle caught my attention
and I jerked, fighting the instinct to stare at the source of the sound.
    “Leo!” My
voice came out broken, like I couldn’t believe what was happening - and I used
his name as a concession that I hoped would knock some sense into him.
    Instead, he just laughed
again, “Calm down, girl - I’ll keep the boxers on. Wouldn’t want to offend your
sense of modesty, hmm?”
    We were well past that.
    I wanted to make a biting
remark, but it was all I could do not to sink down and let the floor swallow me
up. He should be the one to be ashamed and embarrassed, not me. But I’d
seen things I shouldn’t, and now I was replaying them over in my mind and that
terrible, rebellious part of me was hoping to see more forbidden things.
    To prevent that from
happening, I darted over to the other side of the room, putting the bed between
us and refusing to look at him. I shouldn’t even be here with him at all.
Sharing a room with a man—
    The bed creaked as he
slipped into it, and suddenly my anxiety skyrocketed.
    “You’re not giving me the
bed?!” I turned sharply to look at him, my concern over his lack of clothing
completely overridden at the prospect of sleeping in the same bed as my captor.
    Even so, I couldn’t help
but look - the covers managed to hide most of that sinfully powerful body, but
I could still see the top of his chest, the curve of muscles along his
shoulders—
    Oh please help me.
    A heat stirred inside me
at the sight - the thought - and I had to fall back on my outrage to stop it
from overpowering me.
    “It’s big enough for both
of us.” His nonchalance was obvious, and I could tell he was surprised by the
question. Bastard.
    “It is not! I am not sharing a bed with you, asshole!” I wasn’t yelling. Not quite.
    His expression shifted
between amusement and annoyance as I glared at him, and he shrugged. “I gave
you a bed of your own earlier - you tore it apart, remember? So now we’re
sharing.”
    I bit my lip hard, mind
spinning as I tried to find a way out of this. “We could go back and fix it! It
wasn’t broken, just thrown—”
    “No. I said it before -
after what happened there, you’re not leaving my sight.” His expression was
hard now, any patience clearly having worn out, and I was torn between fighting
some more or huddling terrified against the wall. “And, princess? Don’t think
to try anything tonight - I sleep very lightly.”
    The threat was obvious,
and it chilled some of my anger, making me let it go with only a muttered, “You
could have let me have the bed.”
    Leo’s eyes sparked, but I
wasn’t sure what was behind them as his gaze turned harsh. “You didn’t really
expect me to be the chivalrous sort, did you, princess?”
    He flicked the light off,
and the words echoed in the sudden darkness. My gut twisted uncomfortably and
the brief memory of his hands bandaging my wrist with care replayed in my mind
- making me realize that yes, actually - somehow, I had.
    More fool you, Alessa.
    I stood awkwardly