Page 20 of Dangerous Temptation

Alex was disconcerted when he awoke. For once, his body wasn’t tense and his senses weren’t on alert.

All was still around him. The bed was warm and comfortable.

The mattress accommodated his height and the covers didn’t scratch.

Most confusing, though, it wasn’t the dead of night.

Early tendrils of light, really just the hint of them, were brightening the east-facing window.

It hit him then. He was out. He was free, and he’d slept the whole night through.

Again.

Rolling onto his back, he stretched. His head was foggy and his body was logy. He wasn’t used to getting so much sleep, even though he craved it. He’d developed such a light trigger that the drip of a faucet or the creak of a floorboard could set him off.

Learned behaviour could become as sharp as instinct.

And instinct told him he was alone.

He reached for the other side of the bed, but he knew without opening his eyes that Elena wasn’t there. Her heat wasn’t warming the sheets. Her slight weight wasn’t rolling towards him, and he didn’t hear her soft breaths.

The fact that she was gone didn’t surprise him.

He rubbed his hand over his chest.

With a sigh, he dropped his arm over his head against the pillow.

He just couldn’t seem to help himself around her.

The little waif had gotten under his skin, which wasn’t a good thing.

He knew the danger of allowing her close.

He still didn’t know her intentions, although everything Leonard had told him about her had proven true.

She was an economics student at NYU, and apparently a good one.

She’d ranked near the top of her undergraduate class and had achieved her master’s degree with honours.

She was working on her doctorate, but he couldn’t get past one thing.

She was a Bardot.

At once, his brain cleared. His dulled senses tingled in warning, and he sat straight up in bed.

His office. Shit .

His hand fisted in the sheet. It was in the adjoining room and full of sensitive information, business as well as private. There were things in there she could not see.

Had she gone through his papers? Would he have heard her? He’d been out cold.

A breeze sent a chill down his back. He’d sworn to himself he wouldn’t trust anyone ever again. Not partners, not family, and certainly not a seductive femme fatale .

He shoved back the covers and began stamping towards the other room but pain shot through him unexpectedly. Sucking in a breath, he reached for the bedpost. The bruises on the bottom of his feet looked like storm clouds.

He muttered a curse under his breath.

She made him forget himself whenever she was around. His goals, his promises to himself, his self-defence mechanisms … The ache in his groin was all that mattered.

‘Damn hormones.’

He hadn’t even considered taking her someplace else. He’d wanted her in his bed. He hadn’t given a thought to the risk he might be taking.

His fingers wrapped around the doorjamb as he swung into the next room.

His gaze scoured the office, moving fast and then going back for a second, slower pass.

On the surface, everything appeared as he’d left it.

The chair hadn’t been moved, the drawers were shut tight and there was no way she could have gotten into his computer.

Still, prickles bit the back of his neck.

His gaze landed heavily upon the red notebook that sat open next to his laptop, and his vision turned nearly the same colour.

He slapped the doorjamb viciously, then stalked over to his desk, the pain in his feet fitting his mood.

He stared down at the narrow-ruled notebook.

It was still open to the page where he’d blacked out most of his notes because he’d been going down a rabbit hole. There wasn’t anything to see.

But she’d been in here. He knew it as well as he knew his own name.

He began flipping jerkily through pages. That’s what he got for letting his dick lead him around. His teeth gritted until his jaw popped.

She’d been through the notebook. He had no evidence, no proof, but he knew it. It would be unintelligible to most, but she wasn’t most people. She was as smart as she was beautiful, and she was willing to use that sweet face and hot body to slip by his defences.

‘God dammit.’

He’d known he shouldn’t trust her. What was her game here? Had she not gotten her fair share? Had daddy told her there was more for the taking? Had someone made her an offer she couldn’t refuse? Appealed to her sense of ‘patriotism’?

He dropped the notebook with a splat against the desktop. So help him, he was not going to be played again.

He swept up the desk phone, called his top security guy and skipped right over the niceties. ‘I want Elena Bardot checked out.’

He didn’t let the man even get started about the first background search they’d conducted.

‘Deeper,’ he demanded. ‘I want to know if she has any connections to the Feds or reporters – television, print, internet, radio or otherwise. Find out how close she was to that bastard of a father of hers. Check her financial situation and if she’s ever taken any programming classes.

I want to know what kind of toothpaste she uses, damn it. ’

He’d nearly hung up before he pulled the phone back to his ear.

‘And I want the names of every man she’s ever slept with. Ever .’

He jammed the phone into its charger base and looked over his desk one last time. He’d brought her here. He’d escorted her right into the room.

He spun away and headed back into the bedroom. The chill intensified.

Frowning, he looked at the sliding glass door. He didn’t remember leaving that open.

Mood darkening, he walked over to roll it closed. He was going to have to start locking things, a step he abhorred. If he couldn’t stay away from her, it would be the only way to keep –

She was on the balcony.

The sight was enough to temporarily shut down his brain. There she was, plain as day. She hadn’t left. She’d stayed with him.

The angry thoughts in his head jumbled.

What the hell?

She looked so young and innocent standing out there, wrapped in a blanket and wearing his slippers. His gaze stuck on the outrageously large footwear adorning her tiny feet. She was making a habit of commandeering his clothing. As adorable as it looked, she made the ensemble sexy.

He felt himself getting hard, and it annoyed him.

He stared at her, trying to use his head – the one atop his neck – before he lost the capacity. Had paranoia gotten the best of him? Or was she really that good?

The chill of the morning made him inhale sharply when he pulled the door open. The wind last night had ushered in a cold front. The frostiness hit his lungs like needles. He stepped out onto the balcony, and the iciness was a welcome balm against his feet.

Naked, he walked towards her. ‘What are you doing out here?’

She glanced at him and her gaze slid down not so discreetly to his groin. Whatever the cold had shrivelled perked right back up. Her cheeks reddened and she turned her attention back to the horizon. ‘Waiting for the sunrise.’

His eyes narrowed. On a frigid day like this? She could have watched it from his bed.

His feet started going numb against the limestone. ‘Let me in.’

Again that appealing shyness showed itself.

She dipped her chin but opened the blanket.

He stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

He put her in control of the coverlet again and bundled her close.

She was short enough to tuck right up against him and their bodies touched from head to toe.

‘Mmm,’ she hummed in surprise.

She cuddled closer and his resistance to her wavered.

‘Everything OK?’ he asked. There might be something to that old saying – keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

He rubbed his chin against the crown of her head. He’d meant to wine and dine her last night and, honestly, screw her until he got her out of his system. That had been the plan, but he hadn’t made it past the great room before he’d jumped her.

Already, he knew it hadn’t been enough. System-wise, her magic had worked itself deep.

She nodded briefly.

He tightened his hold and dropped his head so he could look at her. ‘You tell me if it’s not.’

No matter what her objectives were, he’d never resort to hurting her physically.

She nodded again, her chin barely lifting. ‘I’m not used to being … active,’ she whispered.

Something proprietary rose inside him. ‘Get used to it.’

It had been a while for him, too, but he hadn’t chosen abstinence. The wolf inside him settled a bit, though, to hear that she had.

The sun appeared in that moment, peeking over the hills in the distance.

Only a sliver was visible, yet the bright rays swept over the tips of the trees.

The upper floors of the house lit up, but the lake was still dark.

It would be a while – a long while – before any sunshine hit those dark depths.

‘Beautiful,’ she murmured.

He couldn’t help but agree, only he wasn’t looking at Mother Nature. Her skin glowed under the morning sunshine, and her tousled hair shone. He nuzzled against the soft strands, wondering what it would take to get her back in bed.

Even with the head games, he still wanted her.

She looked over the grounds with curiosity from the lake house to the balconies to the turrets up top. Her wiggling was starting to have serious implications. Icy temperatures or not, Alex was feeling the need to –

‘How did you manage to keep the place?’

He pulled back slightly, her fresh scent distracting his thought processes. ‘What do you mean?’

She looked him dead on, her doe eyes unblinking. ‘Why wasn’t it seized by the court?’

His jaw went tight.

And there it was.