Beck: Hollywood Hitman (8 page)

He could live with that. What would she think if she knew all the dicey things he’d done? Would this heat still pulse between them or would she recoil in horror, afraid of the killing machine he was?

“I understand. I’m not your judge. I’m your protector.”

Her fingers reached out and curled around his hand.

A bolt of white-hot heat shot through his body. His gaze met hers. He could mask his reaction to most stimuli, but he didn’t think he was could mask his attraction to Natalie.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I already feel safer knowing you’re here.”

Desire charged the air between them. Heat slid down his spine. He wanted to keep Natalie safe, keep her close, but he couldn’t allow himself to fall for her while he was doing that for her.

Chapter Ten

Beck’s lips pressed to her neck and slid down her chest. A trail of liquid heat sent her heart racing. His hand cupped her breast and she arched back, pressing her head into the pillows. “God, yes, Beck. Yes.” Her voice was warm and rich with desire.

He pulled her taut nipple into his mouth.

Slivers of heat flashed through her body. She clasped the back of his head and her back bowed, wanting him to pull her nipple deeper into his mouth. His teeth grazed the sensitive flesh and her hips thrust up, seeking out his hard maleness to fill her. To make her come, to give her the satisfaction she craved—

“Yo, girl, what is up with you? Snoozing by the pool with a script and a margarita at four o’clock? You feeling okay? Taking a little vacation from your workaholic ways?”

Behind her Wayfarer shades, Natalie’s eyes fluttered open. Hand on hip, Stacia stood beside the poolside lounge chair in a white sundress that clung to her curves.

Natalie cleared her throat. “Hey, no,” her voice raspy, “just fell asleep.”

“Not a good sign for that script you’re reading.” Stacia flopped onto the lounger next to Natalie.

The last two weeks, Natalie’s dreams had been filled with an X-rated movie reel of her and Beck together.

“Drinking too? Damn girl, what is going on?”

“You’ll see.” There was a reason Natalie chose this spot to read scripts. This was her third day in a lounger by the pool. She nodded toward the far end of the backyard.

She’d discovered this show entirely by accident two days before, but ever since that afternoon she’d planned her day around this forty-five-minute paradise.

“Best view ever.” She picked up the pitcher and poured a margy for Stacia.

“What are we watching?” Stacia lifted her sunglasses and her gaze trailed across the swimming pool and around the yard.

“Look to your left, but don’t be obvious.” Natalie handed the glass of booze to her friend.

Stacia lowered her shades over her eyes, leaned back, sipped her margy, and then turned her head just a hint to the left.

A quick gasp. “Mother of God,” Stacia breathed, her voice dripping appreciation. “Sex on a stick.”

Beck, shirtless and sweaty, sprinted from the house to the far end of the yard, where he immediately started doing jumping jacks. His golden, sun-kissed skin gleamed in the afternoon light.

“You’re living with that?” Stacia swallowed. “I mean, I knew the man was good-looking, but day-um.”

“Mm-hmm.”

He dropped to the ground and began doing push-ups. The muscles in his arms tightening and flexing with every lift.

“It gets better.” Natalie took a long sip of her drink. “Next are the wind sprints.”

“Girl, how have you not tapped that?”

“He’s my
bodyguard
. Don’t think it’s advisable to sleep with the guy who’s meant to protect you.”

“Not my bodyguard, you think maybe I could borrow him for a couple nights?” Natalie lifted her eyebrow and shot Stacia a look. “No harm in asking. And besides, since when do you do what’s advisable where men are concerned?”

Good point. Natalie sighed. Her head hadn’t been in charge much where lovers were concerned. Sometimes her heart, often her libido, but logic was usually left out of the equation. Not now. She was attracted to the gorgeous man across the yard. Sweat, like liquid sugar, dripped down his hard-carved pecs, but she doubted Beck would appreciate her jumping him. He’d already rejected her once at Villa Blanco.

“Sleeping with Beck would be inappropriate.”

“And
this
is appropriate?” Stacia nodded toward Beck, now running in place. “Sitting in your yard pretending to read and ogling this man? I mean, I get it, I’m happy to sit here with you and enjoy this—my God, look at the muscles on his back.”

Natalie inhaled. The problem was she didn’t want to simply look at Beck, she wanted to touch and feel and grab and rake her nails down that long, well-muscled body until he called her name.

“You know what’s better than wind sprints?” Stacia asked.

Natalie tilted her head.

“Pull-ups. You need to get that man a pull-up bar. Put it by the pool house.”

Natalie nodded. So inappropriate and yet so satisfying, sitting here, drinking a margarita, and staring at the man who was protecting her. That beautiful, well-muscled machine of a man, who was protecting her.

Her belly wobbled and her toes curled. Had anyone ever protected her? Didn’t feel like it. Most her life she’d mainly felt like she was protecting herself.

“He knows we’re here.”

“Doesn’t mean he knows we’re watching him.”

“Oh, he knows.” Stacia sipped her margy. “I feel the sizzle between you two, just like that day at lunch.”

“That day at lunch he turned me down.”

“Girl, because he was there to do his
job
, which was to protect your ass, which he did. Doesn’t mean the sparks weren’t real. Come on, you of all people should know that you cannot manufacture that kind of heat.”

“Or ignore it,” Natalie mumbled.

“How long do you think you can pretend this chemistry doesn’t exist between you two?”

“As long as it takes.” A memory of the photo of the guy in the hoodie tore through Natalie’s mind.

She shivered. Her gaze followed Beck as he slowed to a jog. Soon he’d stretch out the lovely bulging muscles he’d just worked. The show was nearly finished. She was physically attracted to Beck—what straight woman wouldn’t be? Her gaze skimmed over his shoulder and pecs, but she also felt a sense of security, of safety, when he was with her. Had she ever experienced those feelings before Beck’s arrival? Natalie couldn’t remember ever feeling this safe.

She crossed her ankles and flexed her feet. Her desire for Beck wasn’t a good enough reason to jeopardize him staying on the job to protect her. He was pretty uptight and all business. She’d rather squash the desires for him and have him as her bodyguard than have a fling that meant she had to find a new bodyguard in a couple of weeks.

Beck turned to the side, bent forward, and stretched his hamstrings.

“He makes me feel safe,” Natalie whispered, more to herself than to Stacia.

“Well, thank God for that. Because you deserve to feel safe, and whatever whackadoo is prowling around ought to know they’ve got to get through that wall of A-prime muscle to get to you.”

That man that owned that wall of muscle stood and turned toward her. His gaze locked onto her. No smile, but that intense heat sizzled between them. A pull that they both felt. He tilted his head as if in recognition, then turned and jogged back to the house.

“You felt that, right? Even
I
felt that. This thing between you two is
powerful.
”

Powerful, maybe, dangerous yes, and right now Natalie had more danger in her life than she’d ever wanted.

“So how are you really doing?” Stacia asked and poured herself another margy.

“I tell people I’m fine.”

Stacia tilted her head to the side and thinned out her lips. “Puh-lease, this is me.”

“But really, I feel like a mess. Between the parking garage and the guy in the hoodie—”

Stacia whipped her head toward Natalie. “What guy in a hoodie?” She sat forward in the lounge chair. “You didn’t tell me about a guy in a hoodie.”

Natalie filled in Stacia, who sat there in horrified shock. “How long has this crazy person been stalking you?”

“They don’t know.”

“I think it’s time for the cops.”

“No. Cops.” Natalie’s tone was sharp, sharper than she usually used with Stacia.

“Look, I get that you value your privacy and you don’t want to drag all that other baggage back into the light, but girl, this is a man following you wearing a damn hoodie. Come on. And the parking garage too? This shit just got real.”

“They’ve got it covered. Beck has it covered.” Natalie’s gaze shifted toward the sliders at the back of her home where Beck had disappeared. Was he showering? She closed her eyes. She’d love to shower with him.

“You think it’s Rico?”

“He wants to meet up. Says he needs closure for his recovery.”

“Fuck that. He can get his damned closure over the phone. Don’t you dare.”

Natalie bit her bottom lip.

“I know that look—don’t even think about meeting that trash. After what he did?”

“That wasn’t his fault.

“Bullshit. You were with him when it happened and he—”

“Don’t.” The memories of that night, which ended in the hospital, her face battered and bruised and Rico arrested, were tucked away in Natalie’s head, and she had no desire to take them out for review. “I just . . . I understand the need for closure, okay? I get how that can feel so important. “

“Take Mr. Muscles with you. I mean, who knows what person is after Rico’s ass now? Last time it was his bad shit that got you hurt.”

***

Hot water pelted Beck’s skin. Damn. Natalie’s eyes on him . . . This was the third time she’d watched him work out, and today Stacia had been in the audience. He didn’t work out to give Natalie a view, he worked out so his physical performance remained on point and he could protect her, keep her safe, keep himself safe. But her eyes on him were like a warm caress over his skin, and damn if he wasn’t starting to want that caress to be real.

She tugged at him with her presence. He knew where she was nearly every minute of the day, but he also
felt
her presence. A connection he couldn’t ignore.

What the hell?

Had there been anyone he’d ever felt this connected to? Marisol? No, not even her. Their relationship had been based on a shared past and two good people stuck in a bad situation. He’d cared for her, loved her, but not felt this undeniable
connection
to her. Why Natalie? Why now? What a pain in his ass. Mistakes happened when want and need and emotion interfered with logic and calculated engagement.

He dropped his head beneath the water and scrubbed his hands over his neck and face. Hadn’t he learned that tough lesson after the last mission? He’d let down his guard, allowed emotion into the equation, made himself and her vulnerable and been fucked.

His hand rubbed soap over his chest. Natalie. Her gaze clung to him. Her body, her face, her eyes. He reached for his cock. Hard. So fucking hard. He hadn’t been hard much when he was in Club Crazy. Sex. Women. Pleasure, sensual or otherwise, had felt distant and impossible. Now the pinpricks of want bit into his flesh every damn day.

Her body in those shorts, her eyes on him, her laugh, her smile, and the heat that pulsed between them. How long could they ignore this desire?

For as long as it took.

He pressed one hand to the marble wall beneath the showerhead and grasped his hard cock with his other. He needed the release, needed this moment. Needed to get the thoughts of her low-cut bikini top and that skin and thick hair and the legs he desperately wanted wrapped around his body out of his mind.

He’d part those legs and pull each one over his shoulder. Kiss up the warm flesh of her thighs. His tongue sliding into her sweet folds. Forward and back over his cock, he pulled from base to end. Slow and steady. Her breasts, those taut nipples, sweet as sugar, in his mouth. His tongue lapping at her flesh and leaving hot trails of desire over her skin.

His tongue circled her clit and pulled her deeper into his mouth. Her hips pulsed up and back, seeking him, wanting him deep inside her. The moan from her lips. His grasp grew harder around his cock and he quickened the piston action. He wanted to hear his name rush from her lips.

He pulled harder. The image of Natalie splayed naked on the bed, ready and wet and willing and waiting for him to take her. The gorgeous flesh creamy and full of curves. His palm slid over her belly and up to her chest. He cupped her breast, leaned forward, and pulled her nipple deep into his mouth. Her head pressed back into the pillow and her breath short, her pulse like a hummingbird, excited and beating fast.

Beck’s balls tingled and heat built in his low back, liquid fire ready to explode from his balls. Her mouth open, he hovered above her, weight on his forearms. Her gaze latched to his, with the same desire he’d seen in her eyes today. He slid deep into her pussy. Hot, tight, sweet pussy clasped around him. God, yes.

His need to come built faster and faster, and he pulled hard on his cock and stroked with an insistent need for release. God, yes! He pulled faster and faster and harder and harder. The muscles in his legs tightened and the white-hot heat of come shot from his cock and visions of Natalie filled his brain.

Chapter Eleven

“I need to go out.” Natalie stood before him. She wore a tight pair of jeans and a top that showed the flesh of her taut belly. Her lush hair fell nearly to her elbows.

“Okay.”

The two weeks he’d been with Natalie they went exactly three places: the studio to meet with the director for the
Shemax
sequel, to Stacia’s to look at three gowns for the
Shemax
premiere, and to Boom Boom Wong’s office to discuss the publicity for the film. Not exactly the jet-setter, party-’til-you-puke lifestyle Beck had expected of one of the world’s biggest celebrities.

“This is—” Her lips flattened into a line and she pulled at her fingers. “—more personal.”

His belly tightened. His face remained like stone. “Just provide me with the name of the hotel so that I can ascertain the weakness and I’ll give you a larger perimeter while you—”