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An alratification for anythingthe haruarantee if you roement, you’ll be disillusioned and sorely disappointed when it ends”

With that, he abruptly stood up, sloshing water all over the place and forcing Arabella to ive hi ht of hi ith rivulets of watera course down his beautifully honed body

He grabbed a large towel off the heating rack and wrapped it around his waist, not looking at her “My sister brought up sos for you to wear until your clothes arrive, and I have work I need to do, so I’ll be in ency”

He walked out of the bathroo to his office was Maddux’s way of shutting her out, and Arabella would be a bald-faced liar if she said that his disregard didn’t hurt after what they’d just shared Then again, she supposed their mutual pleasure had provided a far more intimate connection for her than for an experienced man like Maddux, as no doubt used to sexually sophisticated women who didn’t romanticize their encounters with him

But even knowing that, she didn’t regret what had just happened, not when everything about his confident control had awakened those illicit desires she’d always harbored deep inside It was as though he’d put ato please hi her subo, would ultimately be rewarded with the sweetest ecstasy

For the in because no man had ever come close

to arousing her mind and body the way Maddux just had, and she’d always known that sweet and gentle and considerate sex didn’t appeal to her No, the i had always featured a dark, edgy, sexually assertive man who dominated all her senses She’d always believed her fantasies were depraved and taboo and perverseuntil noith Maddux

It was as though she’d been waiting for the right , who knew exactly what her body craved and how to indulge those shameless needs she’d only entertained in her head

But never, even in her wildest dreams, would she believe that man would coe

Chapter 13

Maddux had no idea when he’d grown a conscience as far as his plans for retribution against Theodore went After years of devising the otherArabella in exchange for Theodore had been a spontaneous choice and a huge mistake, and that was even more clear to him after his tryst with her in the bathtub

He didn’t expect souileless as Arabella to be so uninhibitedor that she’d enjoy his brand of sexual doin, and despite her sass and stubborn attitude, it was clear that she was a sub restrained and forced to cede her pleasure to hi perfect and beautiful when he’d finally allowed her to coet hiht have been inexperienced when it caer and devoted learner, and he’d been so fucking helpless to resist her zealous attempts

But it was the aftermath of that encounter and the soft, starry-eyed way she’d looked up at him that had delivered a hard and much needed jolt of reality to what had just happened Especially when his sister’s earlier warning about Arabella being vulnerable in this situation, and to Maddux’s intentions, added to the tur inside him

He exhaled on an irritable growl and spun his leather chair around to look out the office s instead of staring at his computer screen, because his concentration at the moment was shit anyway

When had he become such an unscrupulous, apathetic asshole that he’d take an innocent woame with Theodore? When he’d accepted her proposition, it had been on the pre that Arabella was under his co that knowledge eat them both up inside