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The shower ca the soft sounds Spade ht in front of her and she wouldn’t know it What if she opened her eyes and Spade was right there, close enough to touch?

Denise couldn’t help it; her eyes slit open Nothing in front of her A soft click on the other side of the roouessed That was confir as Spade lass opaque, Denise reasoned You won’t be able to see anything In fact, it’s probably steamed up now

As quietly as she could, she rolled over, keeping her face half concealed by the pillow

The light in the shower illulass wasn’t fogged It didn’t even look like it was there, giving her an uninterrupted view of hiht made her lick her lips before she could stop herself

Then Denise shut her eyes Congratulations, you’re officially a Peeping To on Spade like that If she had any dignity, she’d roll back over and face the wall Now

She opened her eyes again Spade’s back was to her, suds sluicing down his broad shoulders like sea foaainst the paleness of his skin, long strands separating under the streams of water Those suds slid farther down his back, chased by spray, gathering at his waist and then dragging down the hard globes of his ass

Denise snapped her eyes shut Took a deep breath and proht It was an invasion of Spade’s privacy, a violation of his trust, a -

She opened her eyes, sasp Spade’s hands caressed down his chest,the onto his face and sluicing down to clear away the suds even as he lathered more across his skin

She’d seen a few attractive nad men in her life, but none of them came close to Spade Every inch of his body was taut with perfectly proportioned muscles, like he’d been carved by an expert sculptor and then ht only es, rippled sinews crisscrossing his back, ar as he shaht now

She stared as Spade washed his hair, then turned to rinse the lather out, giving Denise another view of the jaw-dropping exquisiteness of his ass Her heart started to pound while an answering throb took up cadence far lower She knew she had to shut her eyes, but she couldn’t see her Denise flinched guiltily, but his eyes were still closed against the suds trailing down his face She let her gaze travel down the grooves of his chest, past his sto the thin dark line of hair that flared when it roin

Her mouth went dry while another part of her flamed with heat Di, but she couldn’t look away Spade’s hands slid down his stomach, a wealth of suds in them, to close around the flesh crowned by that patch of dark hair

Stop looking, stop looking!

Spade soaped the length of hithen and thicken under his hands Denise’s gaze elded despite her co at her to look away She sed, that throb inside her doubling in intensity while heat spread through her Was he getting hard as a natural reaction to touching hi of so right now, but instead of being upset at her spying, beckoned her to join him?

Frustration finally snapped Denise’s eyes shut She wasn’t done with her period yet, so even if her fantasy came true and Spade did invite her to join him, she couldn’t And even if she could, she shouldn’t

It wasn’t fair The first man since Randy who stirred her eht hu, probably in that order She’d already sacrificed her pride by accepting that she was nothing more than a costly thorn in Spade’s side until they found Raum The least she could do was avoid total hu fked out of pity

Denise hugged the pillow and rolled to face the wall, burying her face in it Once this was over, she’d be okay She’d go home, spend tio away Everything faded with tirief over Randy’s death and the PTSD that used to strike every time she was around a vampire

The shower shut off after a few more minutes By that tinawing hunger inside her quieted to a dull ache

See? she told herself gri fades with time

When Spade went into Club Prive with Denise the next evening, Black Jack was already there It was just after eleven Spade s enially once he’d gotten his tray of chips "I’ht"

Everyone chuckled except Madox, the oil executive Spade had cleaned out He gave Spade a single baleful look and then folded his hand

"I’ht," he announced

"Stillyour bluff, Madox?" Black Jack smirked "Got to win and lose like a man, pardner"

"Redneck trash," Madox hed and slid Madox’s chair out with his foot "Siddown, Henry You’re more fun than old Oil Slick, anyway"

Spade sat, Denise standing behind hiht it was a poor house rule that she couldn’t sit next to hilanced up at Denise, nodded, then resuame The other two players who’d since folded were less respectful in their evaluation If the gray-haired bloke stared any harder at Denise’s clvage, Spade would find a way to eat hiht

She did look exceptionally lovely in her strapless red dress with long white gloves Her hlighting the dias he’d told her were costume

If Spade had his preference, he’d be on a real date with Denise elsewhere, instead ofhi him one step closer to that, if all ell

Black Jack won the hand and then Spade was dealt in He let the other players beat him in every round, until his chip supply had dwindled to less than half of what it started as Then Spade sighed with nation

"Think I’ll chase my entertainment elsewhere BJ, mate, any recommendations on where I can find soht chord Although Black Jack’s face remained impassive, he folded his hand when, by Spade’s card-counting calculations, he had three of a kind in queens

"Think I’ettin’ bored of poker, too," BJ said "Wait up, Henry Iyou’ll enjoy"

Spade cashed out his re chips and waited while Black Jack did the sa some red-hot fun, huh?" Black Jack reio

"Indeed Preferably the kind that’ll ht with her even more enjoyable"

Spade kissed Denise’s neck as he said it, savoring the shiver that went through her He couldn’t wait until he could kiss her and she’d knoasn’t part of an act

"Let’s try Drai’s," Black Jack said "I’io nowadays Crowd’s lanced at Denise as he said that last sentence Spade grunted "No need for pretense She knoe are"

"Ah" The va out of his upper lip "What’s your na"

Noticed that, did you? Spade thought coolly, but before he could reply with a fake name, Denise answered