Banging the Superhero (6 page)

When Ace spoke, his voice sounded different. She couldn't put her finger on how, though.

"Thank you," he said.

She smiled. "He's really out cold."

"He has disastrous nightmares. I shouldn't have left him tonight."

And that he had, she realized, was her fault. "Sorry about getting stuck in the tree. It's not like I planned to ruin your evening."

She'd never liked being made to feel badly about things beyond her control.

Patting Lael once more on the back, she stood from the bed. Easing away, she regarded Ace.

"What I meant—and for the record I really don't like having to explain myself—is that I should have taken him with me," he said. "I should have let him go into school late."

"Do you want to show me where I'm supposed to sleep? The couch?"

The house was huge, tons of rooms, but she didn't want to assume she would actually have a bed. Of course, since she was paying, maybe she should demand
his
bed.

"You're right down here." He motioned to the left with his head and walked out of the room into the hall. She followed quickly after she closed Lael's door.

Ace opened up a door two to the left from Lael's room and stepped inside. When she entered, she sighed in relief. She wouldn't have to sleep on some lumpy couch, after all. She crossed to the huge four poster, slipped out of the robe and tossed it on the foot of the bed. She needed to free herself of everything reminding her of this night.

"This whole floor is mine. My older brother, when he's home, is upstairs, and I stay here with Lael and—Holy shit! You're naked under that thing." Ace stared, jaw gaping.

Alice looked down in horror as her heart threatened to pound out of her chest.

"Oh god."

She whirled around and leaned down to scoop up the robe.

Ace let loose a long, low whistle. "You've got a great ass, Alice Styles."

She felt her cheeks heat up as she pulled the robe back on and fastened the sash.

"I forgot. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry."

Ace's eyes were volcanic as he walked toward her. "I have to tell you, Ms. Styles, with all the fantasies I've had of your posterior, I did not do you justice."

"Ace." She swallowed. What was she supposed to say? She'd flashed herself to him and—
wow
—he'd reacted. He moved until he stood behind her.

"What?" he asked, sounding perplexed.

"I'm not your type."

His breath tickled the back of her neck. "You're really not. I meet women all the time. You're never the type I go home with. And yet . . . I have wet dreams about you like I'm still Lael's age."

"Oh my god, Ace, you shouldn't say those kinds of things to me."

Because she didn't know what to do with them. Because since she'd gotten famous no one spoke to her like that anymore. Ever. Because his words made her insides melt with the sheer sexuality of the images in her mind. Ace having a wet dream.

"Alice, I want to squeeze your ass." Ace rubbed his nose on the back of her neck and her knees nearly buckled. "And if you don't tell me to stop, I'm going to do it right now."

"Um . . . ." What was happening here? Why couldn't she think?

"You should tell me to stop."

Her mouth went dry. "If I let you squeeze my ass, it doesn't mean I want to have sex with you."
Liar
.

"Oh, you want to sleep with me. I can hear the lie in your voice."

Her pulse sped up. "You can hear lies?"

"Yes. Now, I'm going to squeeze your sweet little ass."

His large hands stroked both of her butt cheeks and she gasped. "You said squeeze."

Ace laughed, a warm sound that swept over her body, making her even hotter.

"I'm sorry. Did I take too many liberties on your naked ass? How's this?"

He didn't just squeeze, he swept her robe out of the way and dug into her naked skin. Her knees trembled. Finally, he let go. She whirled around. His face looked passive, which pissed her off. Another moment of that caressing and she might have come—standing—right there.

Her gaze traveled down his body and froze as she saw it. Ace's hard length bulged the front of his jeans. And that thing was large. She swallowed as she tried to regain her equilibrium.

"I take it you're an ass man."

He cleared his throat. "I'm going to get you some clothes."

"Lots of women leave their stuff here?" Why did she care?

"It's my sister-in-law's. No women stay here with me, Alice. Not ever. You're the first."

That being said, he turned on his heel and stormed from the room. She was the first? Sitting on the bed, she tried to calm her pounding heart. This was an unacceptable occurrence. She was Alice-fucking-Styles. She wasn't just a celebrity cook, she was an international corporation. She had a magazine devoted to her "good" name, numerous cookbooks, and in a few months, if she was lucky, a brand of cake mix.

She did
not
get groped in the guest room of a Superhero with hair sweeping his rounded, perfect ass. She most certainly did not
enjoy
the experience.

Ace returned. If she'd managed to get some level of control of herself, he clearly had as well. The ice veneer that appeared when she mentioned Draco Powers was back in place. His telltale erection less visible, thanks to his untucked shirt.

He carried with him several articles of clothing that he placed on the dresser.

"Get some sleep, Alice. You're safe here. Even from me."

With that, he stalked out of the room like a man being chased, and she exhaled the breath she'd been holding. Pulling off her apron and throwing it on the floor in an act of defiance to her usual obsessive organization, she pulled one of the t-shirts he brought her over her head. It was long on her, past her knees, and she knew right away that Ace's sister-in-law was much taller than she was.

That was the last thing she thought as she crawled under the covers with the lights still blaring and fell into a deep sleep, relieved the machines would not get her during the night.

* * * * *

Alice awoke to Lael standing over her. She rubbed her eyes. "Hello."

That seemed a stupid thing to say but her head was fuzzy and she couldn't do better. Did he know what had happened the night before? Had her heartbeat woken him? What was going on?

"Ace said I shouldn't bother you but I thought you'd want to see this."

She rubbed her nose. "What time is it?"

"Nine."

"In the morning?"

"Yes."

Lael picked up the remote and turned on the television. She stared, bleary eyed, at the image that popped up. It was a man—well, she thought it was a man—wearing a ski mask. He spoke to the camera.

"My name is The Mask."

"Lael." Alice sat up. "What is this?"

"Shh. It's been playing all morning. He's taken over all the television stations."

She was so confused. "Who has?"

"The Mask."

"I am very impressed. In all my years, no one has ever bested me before and I find I do not like the feeling. I have been paid to kill Ms. Alice Styles."

She got an immediate headache. Wow, her day was
not
going to be better than the day before.

"I believe she is being protected by the paid services of Mr. Ace Hudson—a member of Powers, Inc. I was not prepared for his interference. I am hereby giving an ultimatum to Mr. Powers. Return her to me, or I will continue destroying the workings of all major mechanical systems in the world."

The replay shut off for a second and a moment later The Mask was back on replaying his message.

"Oh god, Lael, has he done anything yet?"

Her blond companion nodded. "He shut down the New York City subways. Ace got them back online. He was pretty pissed."

Ace's voice filled the room as he rounded the corner. "I told you not to wake her."

Alice jumped from the bed. "You didn't think this warranted waking me?"

"No way."

No way?
She blinked. A potential world catastrophe loomed on the horizon, based on some psycho's wish to kill her—no, wait because he'd been
hired
to kill her—

and all she could think about was how hot Ace looked in khaki pants and white t-shirt .

. . .

Damn. Maybe she should let The Mask have at her.

"Ace?" She tried to steel her shaky voice. "I don't want anyone to die because of me."

"Hey now." His tone held a hard edge as he crossed the room in two strides and pulled her into his arms. "You don't know me, so you also don't know that I'm really good at what I do. This man—he's a blow hole."

She laughed, and despite the circumstances, she felt good doing so. If she lived through this, and no one died, she was going to make some major changes. Starting with laughing more. That seemed key to a happier life.

Chapter Five

Ace hadn't lied to Alice when he'd told her the guy was a blow hard. No, the man had delusions of greatness to the nth degree. There was no way he would possibly be able to control the workings of machines outside of a one-mile radius. He'd been far too easy to take down. Unfortunately, that meant the New York City area would continue to get pummeled until Ace could catch the son-of-a-bitch.

Sweeping his hair over his shoulders, he stared at Alice. She'd been cooking for an hour, moving more and more food from her stovetop to the table. He was pretty sure the Eggs Benedict had been the last thing he would be able to eat for hours but Lael continued to consume her offerings in the way only a teenager could.

Apparently, she was coping. But Ace would rock the temporary calm of her world with the questions he was about to have to ask. He tapped the table gently with his fork as he tried to figure out the best way to approach this awkward topic. Alice was a bit of enigma to him. She could be soft and gentle, like she'd been when she'd woken up and been scared by The Mask, or she could snap at Ace so fiercely he wasn't sure she hadn't left a dent on him somewhere.

Right now, she appeared calm. Dropping his fork, he looked at Lael. "Take one more bite and then go to school."

"Really? I thought you were going to let me stay home."

"I let you sleep in. Now, you need to go to school. Ms. Styles and I have some important things we've got to get done." He sat back in his seat and smiled at Lael. "I need to know you're safe at school."

Lael nodded. "Okay."

His brother took one more bite and looked at Alice. "Thank you for breakfast. It's much better than what we usually get. Wendy and Draco are always in such a hurry, it's cereal and dry toast."

Alice turned, her eyebrows raised. Ace closed his eyes for a moment and steeled himself to explain. The woman didn't miss a trick.

She glanced at Lael. "Draco lives here too?" Her gaze moved to Ace. "I thought your other brother was the third resident."

"Shit." Lael looked down at his hands and Ace punched him in the shoulder.

"Don't curse in front of women." Ace shook his head. "Go to school."

Lael jumped up and ran down the hall. Yeah,
now
the kid moved fast. Tell a near stranger their family secret and then run away to leave him to deal with it.
Wonderful
.

He stood and crossed the kitchen until he stood next to Alice. Leaning against the counter, he towered over her. She was so tiny. It made him want to pick her up, wrap her in his arms, and carry her into the bedroom. He swallowed and crossed his arms over his chest instead.

"Yes, Draco is my older brother. No one knows that. We keep it that way, like we keep our home a secret. Can you be trusted?"

Alice laughed, turning off the stove. "Now I get why you have such a
Draco
issue."

"What are you talking about?"

She turned on the faucet and carried her frying pan over to the sink. "Every time I said something about Draco, you went cold on me. Now it makes sense. It's a brother thing."

"I don't have a brother issue." What the hell was she talking about?

"Okay, big guy, I believe you." Patting him on the chest, she laughed. "And I will never, ever tell anyone about your relationships. I don't need to get into the mess of other people's family."

"Seriously, I don't have a problem with Draco."

"If you say so." She shrugged like she didn't care, which only pissed him off further.

He put his cup on the counter before he ended up breaking it in frustration.

"Why do you live with him?"

"It's a complicated issue. I have some stuff that makes it a little difficult for me to always function by myself. When I was a little older than Lael, the issues became a problem and Draco decided he needed to keep me close by to monitor me. Since then, I've gotten it under control. I could leave, would have left when Draco met Wendy, but now there's Lael, and neither Draco nor I want to leave him." He walked to the table and carried the dishes to the sink before picking up his cup. "I'm here another two years."

"You sound like you had a drug problem."

He'd been taking a sip of his coffee and he spit it out. Laughing, he wiped at his mouth with his sleeve. She rolled her eyes and handed him a napkin. "Thank you. No, um, my body makes a lot of adrenaline. It's part of how I do what I do. It needs an outlet or it gets a little bad for me."

"Bad how?"

"I regress a little bit." He really didn't want to talk about this. "Look, I have a really good life and most of the time I can handle myself just fine. We need to talk about you."

Her face fell from playful banter to a serious stare. She sighed. "I know."

"You know?"

"The Mask said he was hired to kill me. We need to figure out who did the hiring."

Well, that had been less painful than he'd imagined. "Right, so then—"

Alice pounded her hand on the counter. "We need to figure out what good for nothing, son-of-a-bitch, asshole thought they could fuck with my life."

Ace felt his cheeks heat up at her words. He turned, hoping she wouldn't notice.

It wasn't that he didn't live in the real world. He did. He worked with women every day. He knew they could curse like sailors and give him a run for his money in the profanity department. There was just something about seeing Alice do it while she stood over the sink looking so domestic that just seemed, well
—off.
He needed to get his head out of the pretend Alice he'd created and into the real one who stood before him.