Shit. That was not what she’d meant to step her foot into. Her face heated. Despite the tan, she blushed with embarrassing ease. And she was not talking about this. Except she had opened the damned door, and running away now would make her look like a coward after all that nonchalant talk about sex. “Like I said before, Fifty Shades of Grey. Though you probably can’t count that well, so it’s forty-nine or fifty-one just to be extra contrary.”
“I find women too vulnerable and uncomfortable to say no to abuse, and then hurt them for my own sexual gratification?”
That sounded downright disgusting, and Jaz made a face. “Ew.”
Liam’s curious gaze turned penetrating, as if some part of him wasn’t quite certain of Jaz’s answer. Was afraid that she did think that of him.
“I think you’re a certifiable asshole,” Jaz informed him. “But no, I don’t think abusing women is in your nature. What people do in bed is their own business. I’m just saying that your idea of a good time and mine are different.” She turned her face up to the sky, where a light sprinkling of rain was starting to descend. “Yesterday was a fun little interlude, but now I see that it affected you a great deal more than it affected me, and I promise it will never happen again. Plus, two weeks are up next weekend. Unless those bums are behind the creepy newspaper-script letters, I’m free of you.”
“Sounds like you haven’t checked your email lately.”
That didn’t sound good. Pulling her phone from the armband she had it in, Jaz scrolled to the incoming messages, her gaze snapping to the starred one from her handler at Vector Ascent. Amid the usual disclaimer and a signature line that took up two paragraphs, the fatal words stared out at her from the screen.
Jaz, given the uptick in threatening comms, we’d like you to stay with Trident Security through the competition. We’re picking up the tab on it as of Friday. Stay safe and climb on.
She scrolled through the message again. It stayed put. Her jaw clenched. They’d had a deal with Liam, and he went behind her back by secretly contacting her sponsor. By taking all choices away from her. This wasn’t even a reaction to last night’s attack—from the dates of the emails in the chain, he’d started this train into motion a week ago.
“How could you?” she demanded.
“How could I what? Make a professional recommendation about the security of a woman who has less than zero situational awareness and thinks learning self-defense carries too great a risk of pulling a muscle?” Liam snorted. “To be blunt, I did it without hesitation or a second thought.”
11
Liam
Liam, Jaz, and Sebastian arrived at Los Angeles International Airport the day before the route-marking part of the Clash of the Titans Challenge was set to start. After collecting the oversized gear bags from baggage claim, they made their way to the car rental counter.
“Give me that.” Liam extended his arm to take Jaz’s bag, which wouldn’t fit onto their overfull trolley. “It’s bigger than you are.”
“I can handle my own gear.”
“You can also pee behind a bush. Are we giving up indoor plumbing on that count?”
“Technically, yes. Unless you want to haul a potty into the mountains.”
“Children.” Sebastian’s voice was singsong as he tilted his head toward the rental counter, where an associate was waiting. “We are in public.”
“Tell him to stop trying to control me, and we won’t have an issue.” Jaz walked up to the counter, giving her name for the reservation. Liam was right behind her, rejecting the more fragile Corvette they were offered in favor of a slate-gray Ford Fusion with tinted windows.
“I’m not controlling you, I’m controlling the environment. That’s my job.” Liam grabbed the keys from the attendant before Jaz could. His lower body tightened involuntarily, letting him know just how much it wouldn’t mind controlling this woman for a while—which was out of the question even if Jaz had been interested. She was Kyan’s sister, and that made her off-limits.
He still hadn’t told Kyan about that kiss. Liam told himself he was waiting until they were at a gym with a proper sparring ring so Kyan could pound on him for it—but that wasn’t the whole truth. The real problem was that instead of satiating the pull Liam felt toward Jaz, the kiss had only magnified it. He could still taste the sweet surrender of her mouth, the arousal he felt taking over her body as she dug her fingers into him. There was a part of Jaz’s sexuality that enjoyed erotic control, though she would no doubt try to skin Liam alive if he pointed that out.
And that was the crux of the problem. Now that Liam knew she enjoyed it, his own urges were assaulting his cock every time he allowed an errant thought into his head. Maybe he should have gone to one of those parties Sandy tried to coax him into attending. Released some tension. Cleared his head. But he hadn’t gone. Didn’t want to. Couldn’t make himself interested in casual play.
So he threw himself into his work—and when the Clash of the Titans was over, he’d step away to the distance he’d always maintained between them. For now, though, nothing—nothing—was going to happen on his watch. He didn’t care how much it chafed Jaz to have a babysitter. The day Liam’s sister had been assaulted by a rich high school senior was branded on Liam’s soul. He’d been too small and weak to stand up to the football player then, but he wasn’t that little boy anymore. Now he made the rules. And enforced them.
“Ready for the press conference?” Sebastian asked Jaz as they piled into the Fusion, Liam taking the wheel. “I hope there are blow-dryers at the hotel. Gotta look my best in case the camera swings to show your lovely support team.”
“I’ll be fine. Not my first round in front of a camera. Just try to keep the paranoid boy from interrogating the other competitors and making a fool of everyone.”
Liam ignored the jab. Vector Ascent had sent him profiles on the four men Jaz would be competing against. A couple had a few minor misdemeanors on their records, but since each Titan was backed by a national brand, they were trying to stay on the straight and narrow. The online rhetoric from people upset about Jaz taking Roman Robillard’s spot and about Girls Aflame in general had been holding steady, but without any specific threats.
“Did the PD ever track down Jaz’s purse snatchers?” Sebastian asked from the back.
“Negative.” Liam hadn’t really expected them to. A pair of drunken bums who failed to snatch a purse in a cameraless alley were never going to be a priority. Ignoring the GPS’s insistence on a direct route and the grumbling of his annoyed passengers, Liam took extra time to drive around and get a solid lay of the area. Yes, it turned a short drive into a long one and made a part of Liam’s left ass cheek fall asleep, but the inconvenience was worth it.
Ontario, California, was a large small town with great access to the San Gabriel mountain range, where the competition was being held. Despite being located in SoCal, the partially wooded peaks would be covered with pristine snow over the winter months. The slabs of stone sliced up from the earth like the vertebrae of some enormous many-backed beast. In counterpoint to such monstrous imagery, birds chattered overhead, including the repetitive, high-pitched pips of bald eagles. When Liam peered upward, he saw two of them wheeling above, the telltale white of their heads and tail feathers visible. There were a few restaurants in the area and a number of establishments that catered to the tourist industry. The Cucamonga Peak Inn the Titans were booked at already had five utility task vehicles or UTVs parked outside, each shiny washed car painted with the words RZR XP 1000 Dynamix on the side.