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‘Yes,’ she’d breathed as if she couldn’t wait

What a joke And, unfortunately now that he had worked out exactly as going on, the joke was on them, not him

Aidan forced his features to reht Why hadn’t he considered all this before?

Because he hadn’t been able to shift his mind from sex every time he looked at her, that hy

Well, she’d certainly put paid to that He wouldn’t touch her now in a New York minute

Cocking his eyebrow as if in weary ah ‘Really?’ he drawled, focusing entirely on Ellery ‘You’re going to have to do better than that’ He had Ellery’s head on the chopping block; there was no way he would concede to him now ‘You can’t meet my bet with a woman’

‘The rules of the house say that you have to accept any wager I propose, boy,’ Ellery said with cocky self-assurance

‘Any wager that’s reasonable Yours is ludicrous Now find so else’ Aidan’s tone hardened with every word ‘Or fold and pray you have a friend whose couch you can sleep on tonight’ He’d waited a long ti but his absolute—and very public—humiliation would suffice to ed for the wrongs perpetrated by his once-good friend

A piece of weighty jewellery clunked as a woman raised her arm, the sound elevated by the anticipatory stillness in the room

The old round noise from the bar filtered into Aidan’s consciousness ‘You’re done for, Ellery,’ he said softly ‘Admit it’ The moment of victory was so close he could taste it So why did he feel so tense? Shouldn’t this moment of triuht? Make him feel happy?

Cara Chatsfield mistakenly chose that moment to step slowly onto the dais, her lovely face a ered her? Was this soether outside on the balcony?

Then it struck him It hadn’t been relief he’d seen on her face when he’d approached her and Ellery before; it had been fear Fear that they’d nearly been caught out

Logic told hiic wasn’t ruling hi was a had been amiss from the moment she had stumbled into him hours earlier

‘On second thoughts,’ he found hi, ‘I’ll take your bet’

Then he’d take her So fast and so hard she’d rue the day she’d ever tried to cross him