His Captive Lover (The Thorpe Brothers Series) (7 page)

“Get your purse,” he grumbled.  “Someone from the office went to your house and was able to get you some clothes, your purse, keys and wallet.  They are in my office.”

He reached inside the door and pulled out a duffle bag, slung it over his shoulder then continued to the elevators, keeping her hand in his the whole time.

The touch of his hands immediately sent her mind going in crazy directions and she couldn’t focus for a moment.  She’d never had this kind of a reaction when Jeff touched her, or any of her previous boyfriends.  So why did this man’s touch affect her so dramatically?  Why was it that the one man who thought she might be a criminal was also the one that sent such a spark through her body? 

Needing a break from his closeness, if only for one night, she thought to try one more argument so that she wasn’t sleeping in his home tonight.  “I’m pretty sure that Autumn won’t be going to her book club tonight,” Mia said, almost running to keep up with the man in the strange mood.  “I’m in the same book club and all of the other members are friends of mine.  They won’t meet without me.”

Ash pressed the elevator button and stared straight ahead.  “Then she’s probably there talking to your friends and getting their support, trying to figure out what happened to your ex.  So she’s working and we shouldn’t disturb her.”

Mia thought he might be right and bit her lower lip, trying to come up with a counter argument.  “I should probably be there as well, to answer their questions.  Then I can go home with Autumn afterwards.”

“You’ll come home with me and we’ll go over the details one more time.  Maybe something will come to you over dinner.”

Mia sighed, knowing that he was right there.  Every time someone had mentioned an issue the police had found, she’d been able to give them something to investigate, something to check into that might shed some light on why the police were pursuing her so vehemently. 

Thankfully, the security guards had kept the press away so there weren’t any cameras flashing in her eyes this time around.  He tucked her into the passenger seat of his car and she was once again struck by how much money Ash must make to be able to afford a vehicle so amazingly luxurious. 

Well, he defended criminals, charged them exorbitant rates and basically circumvented the justice system. 

That probably wasn’t a fair assessment of his skills.  But he was so big and so intimidating, she didn’t feel like being fair.  She watched him walk around the front of his car, her eyes fascinated by his long legs and her mind trying to determine what was underneath his expensive suit.  She couldn’t believe her mind was going in that direction!  It was so….naughty and she was never naughty! 

She didn’t like him one bit.  And she continued to tell herself that the whole way home.  She repeated the statement as he showed her through his gorgeous brownstone where he occupied all four floors of a beautiful townhouse in one of the older sections of Chicago.  It was a quiet neighborhood with old, oak trees shading the sidewalks and elaborate, black bannisters leading up to a newly renovated home.  Inside, the brick was still showing and he’d even pulled away the ceiling to show the raw wooden support beams, giving the place an edgy but comfortable feeling. 

Ash watched her out of the corner of his eye as she entered his house, wanting to see her reaction.  He loved this place.  He had bought it several years ago and done most of the work himself.  Of course, he could always count on his brothers  to help when there was heavy lifting needed.  Or when one of them wanted to burn off some stress from the office.  For some reason he wasn’t going to delve into too deeply, her reaction was extremely important to him. 

When he noticed her eyes widen as she took in the main living area with the deep sofas and the rough looking floorboards, he wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.  But when she saw the large windows that looked out into the back yard with the deck and landscaping, she smiled and his shoulders relaxed somewhat. 

“You can stay in here,” he said, dumping the duffle bag inside the doorway of a comfortable looking bedroom that looked like a designer had created the space.  “Why don’t you freshen up and meet me out in the kitchen?  I’ll cook something for dinner and we can talk some more.” 

Mia was left alone for the first time since she’d been rudely woken up this morning.  She just stood there for a moment, absorbing the silence.  She didn’t think about her own home or what she would or should be doing now.  She refused to let her mind start worrying about her students and what they might be thinking about after hearing of her arrest.  She focused only on relaxing her mind. 

Focusing on the here and now, she looked around at the large, comfortable room.  Someone obviously used the room because there were shirts and suits in the closet.  Ash probably let his brothers crash at his place when they went out partying or something.  She didn’t really care.  She was just grateful for the silence. 

She went to the bathroom and washed her hands and face, feeling marginally better.  When she looked into the duffel bag he’d dumped by the door for her, she found a pair of black slacks and a white blouse along with underwear.  She hoped that Autumn had gone to her place and gotten these items because she couldn’t imagine someone else going through her personal items.  As she dug through her makeup, she was sure of it.  Only Autumn would know which lipsticks were her favorite and how much she loved to brush her teeth.  Whenever she was stressed, Mia brushed her teeth.  The clean, minty feeling helped her feel more in control. 

She did that now and felt even better but she knew what would relax her even more thoroughly.  She didn’t have her workout clothes, but she slipped her running shoes off along with her socks and centered herself in the middle of the room.  Taking several deep breaths, she closed her eyes, then slowly leaned forward, letting her arms hang down to the floor with her knees straight.  The stretch in her back muscles and on the back of her thighs was instant and relaxing.  She let everything unwind from her waist upwards, or downwards since she was hanging down, her hands resting on the floor. 

She moved from one yoga pose to the next, feeling the tension slowly seep out of her muscles.  She went into cobra pose, her eyes closed and her face facing up to the ceiling, then shifting all of her weight back into downward dog. 

Ash pulled out all the ingredients for dinner, opened a bottle of wine and got down the wine glasses.  He normally drank beer when at home, but he didn’t think Mia was the kind of woman who would appreciate a good lager.  She struck him as more of a merlot kind of lady. 

Several minutes later, when she still hadn’t come downstairs, he started to worry about her.  She’d been through a stressful, horrible day.  Mia seemed too fragile to endure what she’d gone through today, but she’d rallied, answering all of his questions, enduring the arrest, the reporters, his staff shooting ideas and questions towards her.  And she’d done it all with grace and patience.  He’d never had a more cooperative client before.  And she’d done it all while looking like the most desirable woman he’d ever seen.

What if she were upstairs, finally cracking under the pressure?  She’d gone through so much, what if she were crying?  What if she were struggling to get through the evening? 

He didn’t like where his thoughts were going.  His mouth compressed into a grim line as he looked up the stairway to the opening above.  When she still didn’t emerge with her bright, happy smile like he wanted her to, he tossed the dish rag down onto the counter and strode across the combined kitchen and great room to the stairs.  Taking them two at a time, Ash hurried to the room where he’d left her, his imagination making him increase the pace substantially.  He hoped she wasn’t the kind of woman who would do something stupid.  Were there any sharp objects in his bathroom?  He knew his brothers used the room when one of them stayed overnight, so there could be razors in the drawers.  That thought had him almost sprinting down the hallway. 

The sight that greeted him as he stood in the doorway was the farthest thing he could have imagined.  Strike that!  He couldn’t have imagined this in any way. 

Mia wasn’t slitting her wrists or knotting bed sheets to hang herself from the rafters.  She wasn’t even sitting on the bed or in the middle of the floor sobbing her heart out.  She was standing on the hardwood floor, doing possibly the most erotic moves he’d ever witnessed.  In the back of his mind, he suspected she was doing yoga.  But he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be rational about what she was doing.  His whole body froze – except for one important part of him, and that was the part that was thinking right now.  Okay, so thinking wasn’t exactly the right term for what it was doing.  Reacting was a better term. 

She moved slowly. His eyes followed the curve of her neck, the arch of her spine and the way that arch pressed her breasts against her tee-shirt.  Then she moved again, her body folding upwards, ending with her bottom in the air!  Were her legs really that long?  And damn if she didn’t fold herself forward one more time, moving into yet another position. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Ash demanded, desperately needing to either join in or stop her from going to another pose. He didn’t think she would appreciate the positions he’d put her into if he joined her.  But his feet wouldn’t move so he could back away and give her some privacy, which is what he knew he should do if he were a gentleman.  So the only option was to stop her from doing anything else. 

Mia’s body jerked out of downward dog and she tried to stop her fall, but couldn’t quite manage it.  She toppled gracelessly onto the floor with a loud “Hmph!”  Seeing him standing there, his jacket and tie off, his tailored shirt unbuttoned down to the middle of his chest and his sleeves rolled up revealed the strong muscles on his forearms.  What was a woman to do? 

She pulled herself up and dusted her bottom, glaring up at him.  “Yoga!” she snapped back at him.  “What did it look like?”

“Torture,” he calmly replied.  Or the sexiest thing he’d ever seen in his life, he thought as he looked down at her indignant expression.  “Feel better?” he asked, trying to suppress the laughter as she rubbed her cute, little bottom where she’d fallen on it a moment ago. 

“I was.  Until you rudely interrupted me.”  She took a deep breath and realized how rude she sounded.  “I apologize.  You’re going out of your way to help me and I’m just being snarky.  Thank you very much for putting me up for the night.  I promise to be out of your house tomorrow.  No matter what happens.” 

He didn’t respond for a moment, just stared down at her.  “We’ll see,” he finally replied.  “Let’s eat.”

Ash walked back to the kitchen, painfully aware that she was following him.  His body was already hard and ready for her, his jaw clenching with the need to touch her soft cheek, to see if those tender lips tasted as good as they looked.  And he wanted to fill his hands up with her full, luscious breasts and test their weight, feel the hard points that he could see through her tee-shirt with his thumb and watch her reaction.

Damn!  He was just making it worse. 

But he’d probably help her relax a hell of a lot more than doing yoga!  Or maybe it would just help him relax!  He certainly wasn’t relaxed watching her doing yoga.  And he was fairly sure that men’s bodies didn’t move like she’d been moving, nor did he want to attempt any of those poses.  Maybe he should just call up one of his brothers and tell him to meet him at the gym.  A good boxing match would do the trick since he couldn’t touch the lovely lady sitting primly across the counter from him. 

He moved behind the island until he could get his body back under control.  To occupy his mind, he poured her a glass of red wine.  “I hope you like pasta,” he said more gruffly than he’d intended as he lifted the glass to hand it to her.  He cleared his throat, trying to get a grip on his raging lust.  But every time he thought he might have it under control, he looked at her, saw her soft curls dancing around her pretty face and he pictured her in one of those damn yoga poses again! 

“I love pasta,” she said evenly, oblivious to his lust-filled state of mind, slipping onto one of the odd looking chairs warily.  She was surprised when it was much more comfortable than it looked.  “This is really nice,” she said, taking a sip of the wine and looking around.  “Who was your designer?” she asked, looking at the beams above her, the rough, brick wall and the enormous fireplace over in the corner that was so big, she suspected it would still be able to heat the kitchen area on a cold, winter’s afternoon.

“I did it all myself,” he replied, taking a plate and spooning an enormous pile of pasta onto the center.  He then ladled rich, fragrant red sauce, topping it all with a handful of cheese.  “Dig in.”

Mia looked at the enormous amount of food he’d given her. It was about the same amount she would make whenever she cooked pasta, but she would also divide this up into four portions, freezing the other three for future dinners that she could easily heat up in the microwave.  “Goodness, this is a lot of food.”  She tried not to laugh at his grim face, but she couldn’t help a bit of the amusement she was feeling at his serving sizes.  Amazingly, he served himself more than twice what he’d given her. 

He took the chair next to her, ignoring her laughter as he pointed towards her plate, indicating she should eat up.  “You’ve had a lot of stress today.  You’re going to need the energy to regroup.”

She laughed softly.  “That’s sort of what yoga does,” she replied back, but picked up her fork.

Ash mentally disagreed with her.  Mia Paulson doing yoga definitely did not reduce his stress level.  In fact, his stress level was pretty high right about now despite his attempts to calm down. 

To help distract himself, he opened her file and read through the details.  As they ate, he asked her questions.  But when she answered, their conversation diverged and he asked her more personal questions than he would ask of his other clients.  The conversation ended up being less about the case and more about him just learning about who she was as a person.  And he was surprised to find her funny and intelligent.