Protecting His Assets by J.K. Coi Read Free Book Online

pressure of his mouth, the tug of his teeth. His forearm curled around her small waist, pulling her tighter to his body and taking her weight. She didn’t pull away, her gaze dipping down, down, to the spot where her Lycra-covered breasts pressed against his bare chest.
    “Oh God,” she whispered, then jerked her gaze up to his in horror as if she hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
    “What the hell was that?” someone yelled from the sidelines.
    Big Joey.
    Ms. Porter closed her eyes and stiffened. She shoved against him, but he was slow to release her. The club owner climbed into the ring and stalked toward them with smoke practically coming out of his ears. He looked like a monstrous bull next to her slim, catlike form, but she didn’t shy away from him.
    Steve quashed the crazy impulse to step between them, frowning. Even knowing this woman for less than a day, he was certain she wouldn’t appreciate his interference.
    “Your da would crucify you if he saw what you just did, dropping your guard in front of your opponent like a rank amateur.” Her gaze slid sideways back to Steve for a fraction of a second, long enough for him to see the regret pulling her face back into its stern, professional mask.
    She slapped at his hand with her glove and stretched her neck out to the left and right. “Cut it out, Uncle Joe. We were just sparring.” She looked over her shoulder at the crowd that had gathered to watch their match and groaned.
    Uncle Joe?
    The club owner snorted and dropped his hands to plant both fists on his hips. “Don’t you talk to me as if I didn’t halfway raise you. Now…” He spun around and glared at the gawkers. “What’s everyone looking at?”
    The men began to disperse. Big Joey turned back around and frowned. “By the way, April honey, you never did say what you’re doing here. I take it you’re with this guy?” He jerked a thumb at Steve with a sneer.
    “Just doing my—” she started, then sputtered as she remembered that she couldn’t tell anyone that she was on a job. “Well, actually I’m…uh…”
    Steve stepped in. “We met last night, and April here promised to give me some pointers in the ring,” he said, suggesting that they’d met on very personal terms. Beside him, she winced, but true to her word not to let anyone know her real purpose for being with him, she didn’t contradict him even to someone who was obviously a friend.
    Big Joey frowned and crossed his arms. Her lips pressed together in a thin line. The engaged light that had glowed in her eyes during their sparring match had faded. In fact, the air around her was cooling by the second, as if she was mentally putting on her ugly suit again, distancing herself.
    He was lost as to why. After seeing the way she’d brightened in the ring—from a utility bulb into a freaking strobe light—he honestly had no idea what April Porter was all about. She was a dichotomy, but one he ached to decode.
    Big Joey looked Steve up and down, but there were no jokes about his getting boxing pointers from a girl. “Well, there’s nobody better than April Porter… Just as good as her da, she is.”
    Steve glanced at her. Was his bodyguard blushing? “I suppose I can’t disagree with that,” he said, although he had no idea who her father was, except that he’d been a fighter.
    She cleared her throat and gave Steve a properly contained smile. “Thanks for the sparring match. If you’re finished your workout, I’ll change now and be ready to go in ten minutes. Please don’t leave the gym without me.”
    Her voice dripped with that professional stiffness, but he nodded. She turned away and ducked beneath the ropes, jumping down out of the ring. She unwound the tapes on her gloves like a pro and peeled them off, then dumped them on the bench and made her way to the locker room.
    Damn , she could bounce quarters off that tight ass.
    Beside him Big Joey cleared his throat. “What do you think you’re doing with that