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Alli shot up in bed, sheets tangled around her, breath catching in her throat, sweat trickling down her back.

Jesus Christ. What had happened?

She was burning all over, her skin longing to be touched and itwas dark, so dark. She lay back down again in sweat-dampened sheets, sliding her hands over her own stomach, over her hipbones, down so that she parted her own legs and her fingers dipped inside wetness.

Then she was arching up to meet her hand with barely a touch, barely a movement, her hips bucking as her breathing stopped and her heart pounded and her left hand flew to her mouth, teeth biting down on skin as she pulsed and gasped and came all in the same instant.

For a long minute she lay there, her body calming itself in the cool of the night, seeing stars beneath her eyelids, letting her breath come more slowly now, recovering.

Until her brain finally caught up with what was going on.

Bea.

Bea?

Christ, she must be in bad shape. All this time to think and no work. Her brain was turning on her, becoming a traitor, teasing her with new and exciting images to try and make up for the boredom of the day.

That was it, wasn’t it? That had to be it.

And Bea of all people. She snorted into her pillow. As if.

Her limbs were heavy with tiredness.

As if anything like that would happen, could happen.

Except… except it had never been like that before, had it? She bit her lip. The urgency of it, the power of it, the heat of it. Never. She wasn’t that person. She was broken. She wasn’t designed to feel things like that.

She’d accepted that for so long that it had become a part of her. She was great at her job, ambitious, strong, so of course she had to be lacking in other areas to make up for those strengths. Surely everyone had their pros and cons.

She just wasn’t a sexual being. End of story.

There was a throbbing between her legs, a deep ache that made her long for more. A flash of Bea’s face and a clenching of muscles and her blood was starting to pound again.

Alli threw herself out of bed, marched herself into the coldshared bathroom and splashed water on her face. She waited until she was shivering with the cold and then took herself back to bed.

This was some kind of anomaly. Just further proof that she needed to get back to work. That was all it was.

TO BE FAIR, the breakfast buffet was fairly impressive. Alli looked up and down the long table, waiting for the twinge of sourness from her stomach that always came when she looked at fruit and coffee and thought about her day.

When it didn’t come, she picked up a plate and helped herself to whatever it was she wanted, finding that she was starving. She’d picked her plate clean by the time anyone else was up, and decided that she’d have a walk around to burn off some of the inexplicable extra energy that she had.

She’d slept heavily, like the dead once she’d gone back to bed.

She came out of the dining room and ran bump into Izzy.

“You look cheerful,” Izzy said blearily. Alli sniffed and tried to look sterner, obviously failing because even Izzy pulled a face. “Too early for this,” Izzy said, disappearing into the dining room.

The next person she met was Josh, his bulk filling the corridor as he headed to breakfast. He peered at her suspiciously. “Are you planning a breakout?” he asked.

Ah, that must be it. Alli straightened her shoulders. She was getting her phone back today. At which point, surely Darren was going to take pity on her and let her out of here. She must just be responding physically to the idea that she was going back to her life.

“Not quite,” she said to Josh.

“Please don’t. I’m the one that would have to chase you down.”

“I’m not a prisoner here,” she said.

He sighed. “Luke takes participation very seriously.”