Under Pressure by Kira Sinclair Read Free Book Online Page A

upside the head for being disrespectful, only to follow up the deserved punishment with the warmest, biggest hug on the planet.
    She’d never hesitated to put him in his place when he’d needed it, and as an angry, scared, hurting adolescent, he’d needed it often. She’d had the highest hopes for him, expecting him to do her and the memory of his father proud.
    When his father was killed in action and his mother abandoned him, his grandmother had given him a safe place. So he’d wanted desperately to make her proud. His every decision growing up had been for that one purpose.
    But the pressure he’d felt to live up to the glowing ideal of his father and make up for his mother dumping him on her doorstep had been huge. Difficult for a child to shoulder.
    Right now, he felt the same weight as Kennedy stared up at him expectantly.
    “I’ve got this,” Asher forced out.
    “Obviously not, or you wouldn’t have run from that room like someone had tossed in a grenade.”
    Kennedy pressed closer. Asher countered with a single step backward. He would have gone farther, but his back collided with the solid plane of the wall. Damn the small room.
    She crowded him, glaring up out of those mesmerizing eyes, golden and fierce.
    “You’re not going to g-give up on this, are you?”
    “No.”
    He stared down at her, his mind spinning and his body in turmoil—his need for her intertwining uncomfortably with the fear that surfaced each time he thought about standing in front of those damn cameras.
    “Fine. Then why don’t you come up with a solution to a problem I’ve been dealing with since I was six.” Asher crossed his arms over his chest, placing a physical barrier between them.
    Her mouth opened and then shut. She stared up at him. Asher could practically see the wheels turning behind her eyes. God, he loved watching her mind work. She was observant and intuitive. She was good with people, which was a skill he’d had to fight tooth and nail to develop.
    Her lush lips tightened. Her shoulders straightened. And tiny grooves crinkled the spot right between her eyes as she gave him a little frown. “I’m sorry, Asher. I didn’t mean to imply that you couldn’t handle the problem.”
    “Oh, I think you did. I get that this project is important to you. But I’m the one in f-f-front of the camera.”
    She shifted, resting a soft hand on his arm. The heat of her palm soaked through the thin layer of the dress shirt, sending a zing of need ripping straight through him.
    “Okay, so the cameras make you nervous?”
    “The cameras. The people. The idea of stuttering in front of an audience. I don’t know what I’m doing, Kennedy, and stress makes the stutter worse.”
    “I’ve seen you in stressful situations before without any sign of a stutter.”
    “Sure, because I was trained and prepared, knew I could handle things. I’m not ready for this.”
    A smile bloomed across Kennedy’s face.
    Asher blinked, unable to look away. Kennedy was gorgeous in a girl-next-door kind of way. But when she smiled, true happiness or excitement shining from those tempting golden eyes...there was nothing more appealing.
    “I think I have an idea.” She cocked her head to the side. “I’m going to see if I can work some magic. Meet me in my room in an hour.”
    She turned to leave but paused just inside the doorway, her eyes raking over him from head to toe. Every molecule in his body felt the weight of her gaze.
    “Leave the shirt and slacks on.”
    And then she was gone.
    * * *
    K ENNEDY WAS OUT of her element, but that didn’t faze her. She’d figure it out.
    Hunting down one of the cameramen, Neil, she hauled him off to a quiet corner of the ship.
    “I need to borrow your camera.”
    He blinked. “Uh...what?”
    “I need to borrow your camera.”
    “Not just no, but, hell no.”
    Kennedy wasn’t stupid. She’d known it would take some cajoling to get what she wanted. She’d once been told her brother was a brilliant