Hard Man (3 page)

“Scared?”

Yes.
“No.”

“What do you need?”

Ashbea
licked her lips.
“A big cup of strong coffee.”
Or a slap in the face to wake her up from what she was actually thinking.

“Settle for getting fucked by a big, hard cock?” His voice was low and husky with promise.

Yes please.
“That’s hardly a gentlemanly thing to say.”
But I like it.
On the whole
Ashbea
only swore when it suited the occasion. Talking dirty with Harry was a different kind of occasion.

“But it’s what you need.”

“No.”
Ashbea
pushed against his chest. It was initially to get away from him but the hard wall of flesh made her hands start to slide a little farther down.

“Whatever you want I will do.”
Harry’s
hands slid over hers. “Just ask, bumblebee.”

If anyone had asked her later,
Ashbea
would have sworn blind that she had no idea what possessed her to tear
Harry’s
shirt open.

Harry was unfazed by her actions. “You want it rough?”

Yeah she did, but more than that
Ashbea
wanted to be in control. “I want you to lie on the ground, unzip your pants and present your cock to me.”
Ashbea
could hear the nuns at her old school, St Mary’s, clacking their beads together and praying for her.

“Want to ride me?”

“Just do it.” Fast, hot sex was exactly what she needed. Maybe it would be so terrible that she could draw a line under last night’s moment with Harry in the goodies room. That was the theory.

Harry reached into his front pocket. “You’ll need this.” He tossed her a condom.

Thank God one of them was thinking because it wasn’t her.
Ashbea
watched as Harry dropped gracefully to the floor and did as she requested. It was then that she noticed the line of scars on his ribs.
Ashbea
recalled the ridge of tissue she’d felt on his back the previous night. What had happened to him? Whatever it was it would have been painful. “Harry—”

“You know the door’s not locked?”

The idea of someone like Ida or Mitzi walking in and finding them appealed to
Ashbea
.
“Frightened of being seen, Harry boy?”
She angled her hands down her back and unzipped her dress, letting it slide to the floor. “I want to see cock, mister.”
Yeah, I’m bound for hell.

“Yes ma’am.”

It was almost funny how fast Harry pulled his cock out. The long, hard length of it made her body tremble. That would soon be inside her and
Ashbea
couldn’t wait. She kicked off her shoes. “Play with your cock.”

“What?” Harry looked at her in surprise.

“You heard me.” She tossed her bra in the air, her panties soon followed. She kept her eyes on the man pulling on his cock as she ripped the condom packaging open with her teeth. There was something about a man running the length of his hands up his shaft that made
Ashbea
hotter than she ever imagined she could be. She was so turned-on by what Harry was doing that
Ashbea
knew foreplay was going to be unnecessary. In fact, it would only delay what she really needed.
A cock between her thighs.

Ashbea
went to stand over him.
Harry’s
hands stilled when she put a foot on either side of his body. She was completely naked and in broad daylight and strangely enough
Ashbea
felt the most powerful she had in a long time. “Is that the best you can do?”

“I can’t concentrate when you stand there like that.”

Ashbea
was pleased to hear it.
“How?”

“All beautifully wet and open just for me.”

“Men.”
She shook her head in mock despair. “You’re such terrible
multitaskers
.” She dropped to her knees, one on either side of his cock. She made sure her pussy rubbed against the head of his cock as she pulled the condom out of the packet.

“Trying to kill me?”

“You deserve it after calling me a mistake.” But
Ashbea
had decided she may as well get something out of this for herself. Then she would walk away and know he would never have anyone as good as her. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration but it was her fantasy and that’s what she wanted to believe.

“Bumblebee—”

“Be quiet.”
Ashbea
leaned down and licked the tip of his cock. That was something she had never done before and she liked the way the flesh jerked and strained against her for more. Maybe this convention hadn’t been that big a waste of time. “Now be still.” She fisted his cock and worked quickly to cover the shaft. The quicker it was on the quicker he was in.
And it’s all about me after all.
“Done.
Now how much do you want me, Harry boy?”

“I want to fuck you now.” His voice was a low growl of need.

Correct answer.

“Or I’ll explode and you’ll miss out.”

Right, he had a point there. Loath to miss out on what she knew would be a fantastic ride,
Ashbea
lifted up and plunged down on him in one go. The hard heat of his cock speared up inside her, pushing heat up through her veins. “
Ohhh
…” That was exactly what she needed.

Harry’s
hands settled on her hips. “Are you going to move?”

“I’m savoring you.”
I may stay here forever.

“How long does that take?” Harry asked in an overly polite voice. “We have limited time.”

That was true. She looked into his eyes, wondering why he never seemed to smile. She’d heard his chuckle last night but that was when she could not see him. Was there something he was hiding?
Ashbea
looked at his scars. They did not shock or scare her but she wondered what they did to him.

“Don’t go there,
Ashbea
,” Harry said as if reading her thoughts.

He was right. It was none of her business. This was a fling and nothing more.
Ashbea
lifted off his cock until only the head was still lodged inside her pussy. “Tell me I wasn’t a mistake.”

“You weren’t a mistake.”

“And?”

“You’re beautiful.”

“And.”
There wasn’t another one she could think of but
Ashbea
was not averse to hearing more.

“And I need to fuck you.” Harry pulled her down into his arms and rolled her over so she was underneath him.

“Hey!” Before she could say anything else her legs were suddenly over his shoulders. “This was my game.”

“You’re too slow, bumblebee.” Harry plunged inside her and started pumping away in deep, fast strokes.

“Oh g-g-god,”
Ashbea
choked out as his hips ground into her time and time again. He was like a human jackhammer. He never slowed the pace and her whole body shook. When his mouth settled on one breast and sucked she screamed and clutched him to her.

Harry’s
beeper went off. “Crap.” His mouth left her wet breast with a pop.

“What?” Her other breast wanted the same treatment.

“I’m supposed to be at the office to talk to the staff.” He increased his pace.

“Fuck ‘em. Fuck me instead.” And Harry did until she was gasping for air and screaming with release as the most intense orgasm tore through her body.
Ashbea
had tried not to scream but that had been impossible. Thankfully there were so many screaming convention-goers that hopefully her scream would be mistaken for one of the revelers.
Harry’s
beeper chirped once more and Harry kept slamming into
Ashbea
until he growled and slumped forward in her arms.

“Bloody hell, I didn’t want to do that.” Harry pushed back from
Ashbea
, untangling their bodies. He pulled out from her inside her and removed the spent condom.

As hard as his words sounded,
Ashbea
wasn’t blind. His eyes were full of pain, not disdain, though regret lurked there.
Oh, what is your story?
Ashbea
knew he had to have one. Harry was hot and caring one moment and then as cold as ice. “Why are you mad at me? Or are you mad at the world?”
Ashbea
had felt and seen the scars on his chest. Her fingers had run over the hard ridges of tissue on his back. What had happened to him?

Harry stood up and went over to a trash can and disposed of the condom. “I’m not going to explain myself to you.” He reached for his trousers.

“Why not?”
She followed his lead and gathered her clothes. “You’re scared and scarred. I think I knew that without even seeing the wounds.” Even as she said the words,
Ashbea
knew that was true. No man could touch her so sweetly and be as cold-hearted as he was trying to sound without something deep cutting into him. She shook out her dress.

“We’re all scarred in some way. And no, I’m not going to tell you.”

“Because I wouldn’t understand?”
Her eyes lost contact with his for one moment as she pulled it over her head. She had no idea where her bra was. “You are not Robinson Crusoe when it come to pain you know.”
Ashbea
located her panties two paces away flung over a chair. “And don’t tell me I wouldn’t understand. You don’t know me.” She pulled her panties up.

“Don’t I?”

“No, I’m more than a pair of boobs.”

“And a great ass, bumblebee.”
Harry gave a small, reluctant smile.

Ashbea
was monetarily dazzled. When Harry smiled he was beautiful. She swallowed hard. “I am a goddess and you were lucky to even look at me, let alone touch me.” She could be as tough and uncaring as he. If he wanted her then he would find her.
Ashbea
bent down and picked up her shoes and marched off.

“You’ve got your skirt tucked into the back of your knickers,” Harry called out as she retreated.

“And that’s the last look at my ass you are ever going to get, Harry boy,”
Ashbea
yelled back. She stomped around the corner until she was out of sight and pulled the fabric out. “Damn man.”

Chapter Three

“Oh there you are, Emily.” Mitzi threw up her hands in the air dramatically. “We have been waiting forever for you to show up. We need to know what orders have been placed. Where is the information?” Ida stood by her side like the obedient servant she was.

“Where it always is.”
The woman was a dumb as the heels she sold.
“On the laptop.”
Ashbea
had been gone for an hour, back to her room to shower and change and already Mitzi was working herself up for another drama. The whole convention was a dramatic farce. Women tottering around on heels, laughing and screaming, and, as far as
Ashbea
could tell, having a good time. It was not her scene. She liked quieter, more organized things that did not require her to wear heels or deal with people who thought “
squeee
” was an adjective. Maybe it was when you were drunk.

Ashbea
wasn’t in the mood to deal with the dramatics of Mitzi. She had more on her mind. The whole thing with Harry had thrown her more that she wanted to admit.
Ashbea
liked to think herself cool and in control. She was anything but with Harry. The guy basically seemed to hate her yet they’d had sex twice. What was that about? Was he into the angry sex thing? But then it didn’t feel like anger. Sure, it was passionate but there was something else. It was the way Harry looked at her like she was beautiful.
Or am I just dreaming that? Am I so desperate that any man who shows interest can have me?

Mitzi waved her hands around over the laptop as if to make it work. “Do something. Emma. Press a key and show me what we have orders on and hurry up. I have important business.”

Translation—free drinks with a lecherous plastics supplier who all Princess Mitzi staff knew the boss was sleeping with.
Ashbea
sighed and sat down at the laptop. The sooner she showed bimbo brain, the faster they could all leave each other’s company.
Ashbea
tapped her fingers over the keys, opening up folders of information that even Mitzi should be able to understand. “There.” Sales were
okay
, not fantastic, but okay for an out-of-town company looking to get a foothold in a national market.

Mitzi had no idea how to use a computer let alone read a graph. “Sales are abysmal.”

Her shrieking made
Ashbea’s
ears protest at the sound. Mitzi was a woman who needed a good slap to get her back to reality. If
Ashbea
did not have the debt she did, she would have done it then and there. Instead, as patiently as she could,
Ashbea
explained them to her. “Actually Mitzi, they’re quite good for the size of our company.”
Ashbea
ignored the look of horror Ida gave her for calling their employer by her first name.

“Oh well,” Mitzi said, calming down somewhat. “I knew that. I was just checking that you did.”

Idiot, moron, fool.
“Of course.”
Twit.

“Come along, Ida.” Mitzi beckoned the other woman as if she was some sort of trained animal. She stopped in her tracks when Harry knocked and poked his head around the door. “Well, hello, and who might you be?” Mitzi’s eyes hungrily assessed him.

Uh-oh.
Mitzi was in hunter-gatherer mode and she was never subtle about it. Any good-looking man became a target for her. Harry, give him his due, looked her at with a polite yet cool smile.
Ashbea
was pleased to see she was not the only woman he did that to. She also had to admit she was relieved too. Sure, Harry was not her man. He had made that only too obvious. That was fine with
Ashbea
but still it would have upset her to see him transfer his interest to such an obvious bimbo after her.

“Harry Hardman, Convention Center Manager.”

“Oh.” Mitzi ignored the hand Harry held out to her.

Ashbea
couldn’t help the smug grin on her face. Yeah, she was pretty sure there was no significant money in managing a convention center. Although Mitzi sucked at graphs she could add up someone’s potential wealth in a second and decide whether it was worth making her move. Her body language indicated that any physical assets Harry possessed did not match his monetary ones and therefore he was not worth pursuing.

Harry dropped his hand as if an introduction to Mitzi was of no matter to him.
“Just coming to discuss some details with you.”

“Yes, well, I would normally love to but I do have a shocking headache. I feel for sure my eyes are on fire.” Mitzi clutched at her temples as if her head was in pain.

Ashbea
would have been more than happy to see that happen and report back to the Brisbane office staff the news they had been longing to hear. “Mitzi’s head did indeed explode. Please prepare party for when I get home.”

“But I’m a trooper so I’ll soldier on for the good of the business.” Mitzi waved her hand at
Ashbea
. “Tell Emma whatever it is.” She clattered off with Ida in tow.

Ashbea
looked up at Harry. “You’re waylaying her from drinks, you know.”

“Emma?”

“Bimbo brain isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.”

“She is a rude, arrogant bitch and she should treat you better.” Harry did not look happy.

Ashbea
did a double take. “That’s odd coming from you, Harry. One minute you consider me an error in judgment and the next you want to defend me?” She shook her head.
How did anyone work this guy out? And why do I even want to?
“You’re weird, man.”

Harry shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “I know, bumblebee.”

Lordy
, the man was confusing. The husky way he called her bumblebee sent shivers down her spine. “You should smile more often. It makes me think you don’t hate me.”

“I don’t.”

“Really?
Even though I am a mistake?”

“I’m sorry about that.”
Harry’s
voice was soft with apology.

Ashbea
was not about to let him off so lightly. “That you said it or that we had sex?”

Harry reached out and took her hand in his. “I’ll never be sorry about being with you, bumblebee.”

His flesh was soft, warm and giving. “Oh, who are you?” One minute she wanted to hate him and the next
Ashbea
wanted to take him in her arms and soothe whatever problems made him act so hard.

“I’m just a guy.” Harry looked down at their tangled fingers as if surprised to see their hands entwined.

“Sure you are.”

“Would you like me to say something to her?”

Ashbea’s
heart skipped a beat. She had never had anyone want to stand up for her before. “That’s sweet.”
So sweet that I could easily do something dumb like fall in love with you.
“But it would go to waste. Mitzi only ever hears what she wants to hear.”

“Hmm, well, women like that—”

“Will never change.”
Harry was really most awfully nice when he relaxed. What made him so tense? Was it her or something else? As much as Harry annoyed her,
Ashbea
wanted to know what made him as he was. No one tried so hard to be so cold without a reason. “So to what do I owe the honor of your visit to the mad little empire of Princess Mitzi come-fuck-me shoes?”

“You’re the only one I’ve heard call them that.”

“I say things as they are. You may want to try that sometime, Harry.”

Harry nodded his head in thought. “You have a problem.”

“I do?”
Ashbea
had the horrible feeling she was going to miss this man when he was gone from her life. That was crazy of course. He had called her a mistake and spontaneous, wild sex did not make a long-term relationship.
Remember that.
But then Harry smiled at her words and she had trouble remembering anything. He had that effect on her.

“No, other stuff.”
Harry pulled his hand from hers as if remembering why he was there. He cleared his throat. “As part of my job I check the storage area where all the products for the different suppliers at the convention are kept.”

Who was this man?
Tender and sweet, hot and sexy but then cool and careful.
He was the proverbial enigma wrapped around a riddle. As much as
Ashbea
sucked at puzzles, she wanted to work Harry out. “Your job sounds almost as boring as my job.”

“Does Princess Mitzi have enemies?”

Ashbea
snorted.
“Undoubtedly.
Mitzi pisses off everyone from the mailman to the office cleaner. The staff loathes her and most store buyers hate her with a passion. Actually, I believe she’s probably pissed off a good percentage of the population in one way or the other. Why?” There were no random questions in life.

“Take those shoes off and follow me.” Harry smiled again, his eyes lingering on her breasts. “You don’t need come-fuck-me shoes. You’re
fuckable
without them.”

Ashbea
felt hot all over and her inner thighs started to sweat. “Are you trying to drive me mad?” She bent down and unstrapped the heels.

“Yeah, bumblebee, that’s my plan.” He looked her up and down. “You’re short.”

She rolled her eyes at his words.
“How inconvenient for you.”

“And you’re a smart-ass,” Harry replied, ushering her out.

“As are you.”

* * * * *

“Holy crap!”
Ashbea
was agog. All the heels had been sawn off the Princess Mitzi line of shoes.

Harry caught
Ashbea
by the elbow as she staggered back against him. “Yeah, it’s pretty messy.” He led her farther into the storage room. A discarded hacksaw was thrown in among the debris. Harry bent down to pick up one mutilated shoe. “Why would you encase a cigarette in clear a plastic heel?” This was one of the weirdest conventions, second only to the bondage one they had two months ago where they had wanted a half-naked woman to be suspended from the ceiling by ropes. Harry had put the kibosh on that. Half-naked was fine. Suspension from anywhere was a health and safety risk and not worth any publicity.

“It was Mitzi’s idea.”
Ashbea
took the heel from his hand. “She thinks things like eyeliner pencils, lipstick pens, nail files and the like are artistic and original when covered in plastic. I think she’s nuts.”

That was one of the things he loved about
Ashbea
. She said what she thought.
Loved? Steady on, man.
“Is your employer on drugs?” Better to focus on the problem at hand and not the woman at his side.
Ashbea
was an unforeseen complication Harry still wasn’t sure how to deal with. She was the first woman in a long while he wanted to spend any time with.

“Who knows what Mitzi’s on.”
Ashbea
surveyed the mess of broken shoes. “She’s going to throw the biggest hissy fit when she sees this.”

And no doubt blame
Ashbea
in some way. Harry saw enough of Mitzi to realize the woman was a bully. Instinctively he wanted to protect
Ashbea
from her. “So who’s the competition down here?”

“Angela’s Ankles and Polly’s Perfect Pins.”
She raked a hand through her hair. “There are some weird-assed people in the come-fuck-me shoe business. Angela is super friendly to your face but would knife the competition in a heartbeat and Polly appears like a sweet, elderly woman but she has the cunning of a rat. Both of them hate Mitzi, which is not a crime in itself as it shows good taste, but both would like to see the company fold as Princess Mitzi is their main rival in plastic shoes.”

Crazy names for a crazy business that appeared as cutthroat as any. “Uh-huh.” Harry smiled. He had been doing that a lot in the last couple of days and it felt strange yet good.

“Lucky, they were only samples and not to wear.”
Ashbea
shook her head in wonder. “How do I tell bimbo brain about this without needing six aspirins afterward to counteract the high-pitched Mitzi whine?”

“Let’s glue the heels back on.” The words were out of his mouth before Harry had time to think.

Ashbea
was surprised. “Together?”

“Yeah.”
It surprised him as well. His initial plan had been to avoid this woman like the plague but there was something about
Ashbea
. She intrigued him. Sexually she was amazing.
Ashbea
thrilled him in a way no other woman had. It was more than just bodies slamming together looking for release. Harry wanted to please
Ashbea
. There was also this need he had to help and protect her. That was not something he had ever felt even with Caitlyn, or if he did it was not as insistent. It was almost like a primal urge to be near her and damn the consequences. “It could be fun.”

“I don’t think you’ve had fun in a long time, Harry.”

She was right. He had wallowed in his own guilt far too long to consider getting anything else out of life. Less and less he was viewing her with the same suspicion he gave to other females. Harry wanted to know more about what went on in
Ashbea’s
head. Besides, gluing on dumb heels would give him more time to decide what he felt about this woman. “What do you have to lose, bumblebee?”

Basically, it was her shirt followed by her bra then her panties. One minute Harry was being all helpful collecting broken heels into a pile and the next he was coming at her with a look that made her panties wet.

“Harry.”
Ashbea
should have been backing away and concentrating on the job at hand but heels could not compete with the promise of a nice, hard cock. She wanted to feel him once more all hot and tight and pounding away inside her. Just the thought of it made her tremble. No one made love to her like Harry. Made love?
I mean sex.
Love indicated commitment. They had none unless it was to a mutual orgasm.

“Yeah?”
Harry’s
hands were on her breasts, teasing her nipples.