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Elena felt none of the discomfort she had felt earlier in the day, in his room Now, all she felt was the unexpected closeness that cahts that you had never said aloud before His body was hard against her own, his hands were calloused and sure, as they moved up and down the curve of her back

As the kiss deepened, Elena felt desire slowly build up inside her She moved her hands beneath his t-shirt and felt the hard wall of his stoer He pulled at her blouse, and at the sae sofa

They fell together onto the sofa, Elena first, and then Neal on top of her She wasn’t sure if her shortness of breath had to do with the fall or the feel of Neal’s lips on her neck and shoulders Slowly, deliberately, Neal removed her clothes, one by one, until she lay naked beneath hiot off her for a moment, and rid himself of his own clothes

When he settled on top of her again, he was as naked as she was He started kissing her again,his lips from her neck to her breasts, and then to her stomach

Clutching at his hair, Elena tried not to wonder how he had come to be so sure and confident as a lover She tried not to think about all the women he must have been with to have perfected his style so well Elena rehts at all This was not a relationship, it was a business deal

She closed her eyes and re this at all She wanted to be free, and the only way to achieve freedom in this world was financial stability She couldn’t sto back in with her parents, she couldn't stand ad She was a failure

She wondered if accepting Neal’s deal was a failure in its own right She questioned her own sanity in agreeing to it at all, then he entered her, pushing his erection deep inside her, his breathin with her own, his lips on her mouth, on her neck, on her breasts, and she wondered if she were doing the right thing

It was hard to reether, skin to skin, no distance between theasps escaped her, and an orgas that this wasn’t simply the desperate act of a lost woman

Chapter8

They had fallen asleep on the couch Neal woke up in thein through his French doors Elena had been asleep, but sheinaudibly in her sleep fro Neal had picked her up as gently as he was able to and carried her to his bedroo her into bed, he threw a blanket over her and walked back into the living room

Neal kneouldn’t be able to fall back asleep at this point His ely alive, but his thoughts were troubled He was starting to doubt the success of his plan So et pregnant She nant at all The doctor he had found to alter the paternity test ht back out at the last s, all pulling in different directions

Neal had looked at the situation fro to hiht The only way the fae had a child Neal tried not to feel too hurt by the fact that he wasn’t the n

ext logical inheritor after his brother’s children, but he forced the hurt froht to it He had never been interested in the company and he had said so on many different occasions

A s interest in the co so absent in his life After all, all that ti the business Again, Neal felt a wave of shame His pettiness surprised him and he suddenly re

Neal wondered if she was right If e a shallow life had been an attempt to turn himself into a shallow person, and if that were the case, he wondered if it had succeeded He looked back on his life the past year, and he had to admit that perhaps he was Neal went to the little side table where he kept his keys He opened the left drawer and stared at George’s house key innocently sitting there