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Aiesha wanted hi like a serpent inside her Had she ever wanted a man more than James Challender? He was the ultimate prize Rich, powerful, well-to-do She had alanted him From the first moment she had met him when he came to visit his parents soon after she had co flash of awareness arc between the it abundantly clear he was not going to be seduced by a teenager He hadn’t been rude to her or cruel He had been polite but firm Implacable And back then she had hated him for it

Nownow she wasn’t quite so sure what she felt other than rip-roaring lust

She wanted hi she hadchildhood Success Stability Safety

She made ait against hi

‘No,’ he said

No?

What man had ever said no to her? Ever since she was a kid she’d been fighting the her The shift in poas new and troublingunsettling She liked to be the one who said yay or nay ‘You want me’ She said it matter-of-factly Without emotion

He released her hand and stepped back froo anywhere’ He pushed his hair back over his forehead ‘You know it can’t’

Aiesha hid behind her h for your upmarket taste?’

His frown carved deeply into his brow as he moved away to the door to leave ‘I think it’s best if we keep things on a platonic basis It’ssafer that way’

She cocked one of her eyebrows at him in a cheeky manner ‘So we’re friends now instead of enemies?’

He turned and looked back at her for a long moment ‘I suspect your only enemy, Aiesha, is yourself’ He punctuated his comment with a brisk dismissive nod and closed the door before she could think of a comeback

CHAPTER FIVE

JAMES CLOSED HIS bedroo her? Touching her? Wanting her? He pushed a hand through his hair in distraction He should never have kissed her He’d crossed the line The line he’d put down a decade ago

Aiesha was cunning and clever For a uard had slipped, or so he’d thought But she knew exactly what she was doing Which buttons of his to press She wasn’t the emotionally vulnerable type She was too hard-boiled, too street smart Hadn’t her punch proved that?

He grimaced as he checked his reflection in the mirror of his en-suite bathroo to have a black eye for sure, all because he had co

He rubbed at the stubble on his jaw She’d been soundly asleep; there was no way he had got that wrong Her breathing had been deep and even, her whole body relaxed Her reaction had been so extreme, so unexpected Why?

He thought about her backgroundtrying to recall what his ue about her fa she’d told his e runaway and it had been her choice to leave She hadn’t been with his fah to prise out any other details As far as he knew, she hadn’t been into drugs or heavily into alcohol, or at least not that he had noticed She only had one tattoo, and a sht wrist—the name Archie with hearts and roses—but she had never said who Archie was or why he was so important to her that she’d felt compelled to have his name permanently inked into her skin

Ja inormous mistake He’d known it but done it anyway He hadn’t been able to stop hiently on his face he’d known he was going to kiss her It had been inevitable A force outside his control He’d only planned to press his mouth to hers as an experiment, as a test for hi his head

For years he had dreaered for it like a for Her ined it—soft and sweet and yet hot and hungry The blood had surged through him at rocket-force speed Her deliciously feht as he’d held her in his arue had danced with his in that sexy tango, the way her hips had been in the perfect position against his He’d wanted her so badly he’d had to fight to keep his hands in one place so he didn’t use them to tear the clothes fro wetness