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Chapter One

“WHERE DO YOU think you’re going?”

Danielle Hughes almost skidded in the slush, shocked he was the one who’d been sent to find her There she’d been thinking her week couldn’t get worse

So wrong

She’d finally grown the courage to get out of hoht anniversary party, she’d not returned to varsity but flown to Manhattan instead She’d landed last night and gone straight to Logan’s apartment She’d hoped her black-sheep brother would be supportive of her desire to escape their father’s controlling grip

So wrong Again

She blinked, refusing to re at her only fifteen minutes earlier She’d run away from his place too

Now she didn’t look at the guy who’d caught up with her Instead she keptto be scooped up and sent home like a recalcitrant child

Not by him

“Danielle”

It wasn’t a bark of irritated authority She’d expect that fro whisper right in her ear, his voice all wicked invitation Unintentionally of course Her brother’s best friend would never drea anywhere near sexy with her But there was no escaping it Rocco St Clair embodied sex As far as her body was concerned, he was the ultiod

“Dani”

Only her brothers shortened her na about Rocco’s view of their relationship

She’d been fifteen when he’d first enthralled her Silent, he’d looked at her with those deep, dark eyes and kept her secret He’d kept her heart since too Not that he knew it Nearly five years later, his effect on her had only heightened

Dani briefly closed her eyes, trying to fight the flush that had begun in her lower belly and was now burning it’s way up to the tips of her ears

Morti-fricking-fying

That she thought she was all adult when she still harbored a crush like this? She was a fool

“Answer ?”

She stole anotherto face him

He stood beside her Too close And with just one look, she was as breathless as if she’d raced up the Empire State stairs in less than sixty seconds Tall, dark, and yeah, panty- handsome In his dark wool coat, and black jeans combo, Rocco St Clair was the epitome of urban winter style But it wasn’t the clothes and the built body they fitted so well that heated Dani’s blood It was his eyes She could lose herself for days in the promise of intensity and effort that lurked in those eyes She knew Rocco wasn’t one for doing things by halves And when he smiled?

Oh lord, so not happening She was never letting hi to do was to push back, then run

“What’s it to you?” she challenged

Too shrill Bratty The spoilt princess he expected her to be She hated living up to the label she loathed, but how else to handle this moment of hideosity?

She’d just been ripped apart and rejected by Logan, the one person in her faht count on And now she had to deal with the man she saw once a year at best, yet who’d ruined her for every other guy wanting to get it on with her

“You have to ask?” Rocco looked mildly amused “Your brother wants to know”

Yeah and Rocco saw himself as another brother to her He’d never see her as anything other than an annoying kid sister

“I don’t need Logan to send his minion out after me,” she snapped and turned away

Logan didn’t want to let her stay with hih to send soet into trouble? Too bad

Rocco seized her upper arh the layers of denirip burned

She froze, glaring up at hiiddy circles just because he had his hand on her

“Let o,” she barely breathed

It was the first time he’d touched her Not exactly the realization of an erotic fantasy But his hand was big, strong and his fingers only tightened thefree Her blood heated

Too much

Screw assertiveness, aggression was the only way she was getting away from him “I don’t need you”

She didn’t need his help or his pity or his ‘brotherly’ concern What she really needed froive her It wouldn’t ever cross his mind

She glared up at hi on the flash of rage that ripped though her now She tensed, seized with the urge to lash out

But Rocco held her tightly Held her gaze She saw anger turn the light in his jet-black eyes from a warm tease, to hard Hissilence But he couldn’t be as angry as she?

“What?” she dissed him “What do you want?”

He didn’t answer right away He just stood rigid, taller, broader, tougher than ever And he seeh her For a horrified moment she wondered if he could read how badly she wanted hiy that ate her from the inside

He cocked his head as if shaking off an errant thought As he blinked, that flat anger faded from his eyes

“Logan wants you to go back to his place,” he said

“Logan can go to hell”

Abruptly Rocco laughed It lit hi—and didn’t erous “I think he’s already there Coet you a coffee on the way You’ll feel better soon”

Patronising asshole “I’m not a toddler who needs a pacifier”

“No?” He laughed again

“No” And she wasn’t going back to where she wasn’t wanted or respected Not to her parents’ place in Suan’s Manhattan apartment

She squared up, planting her feet slightly wider, trying to maintain assertiveness She so needed to

“Rocco, look I get what you’re doing Logan’s asked, you’ve jumped But it’s not necessary”

She ignored the sudden narrowing of his sooty eyes

“Newsflash, sunshine,” she played up her inner brat “I’ care ofbrother”

“You can take care of yourself?” He let her go, folding his arms across his chest With the collar of his coat turned up, the guy was the picture of , brick wall in front of her “Then there’s no reason not to tell ?”

She had no freaking idea “A hotel”

“You’ve made a reservation?”

“I’m not afraid to walk into one and just ask for a roorown up in a hotel for heaven’s sake She kne they operated Custoht

“You have cash on you?” he asked

Why did she need cash? She glanced up at him Her heart stopped No way

His expression softened infinitesian told me your father has blocked your credit card and reported your other bank card as lost He did it yesterday” He watched as she patted her jeans pocket and then unzipped her bag “You can’t even check right now because you left your cell phone at Logan’s and it’s all out of battery It’s after five, you’re without funds until tomorrow at the earliest”

“What?” She patted her pockets again That would be so right about her phone, she was always forgetting to recharge it