Page 37 of Settling the Score

‘What?’ she finally said, realising he was waiting for her to ask him something.

‘I think you’re wrong.’

She glanced at him then looked away again quickly. ‘About what?’

‘I don’t think this is ancient history.’

The blood in her veins seemed to go all turbo charged, rushing through her so fast she could hear it pounding inside her ears.

She stood a little unsteadily, hands on hips, only realising how revealing her wet shirt was when his eyes slid down her to her clearly delineated breasts and still-puckered nipples. Heat exploded, not just in her cheeks, but through her whole body.

‘It’s been over ten years,’ she pointed out, but her voice was husky now. She wasn’t even sure if he heard it, because she’d spoken so softly and the ocean was rolling gentle waves towards the coastline.

‘I don’t care if it’s been twenty years, you can’t seriously tell me you’re not feeling this?’

Everything spun into blinding hyper colour clarity.

Sensation.

Danger.

The goddamned plan.

The stupidity of thinking she could flirt with him and stay enough in control to make sure she won, this time. It hadalwaysbeen like this between them. It hadn’t just been because they were hormonal teenagers in their first flush of relationship excitement. This wasthem,pure and simple.

‘I don’t feel anything,’ she lied. A terrible lie. One he clearly saw through, because his lips twisted in a mocking smile.

‘No?’ He took a step closer, something sparking in his eyes when they latched onto hers, probing her face. Studying her. Looking inside of her, deep inside, in that way he’d had way back when.

‘So, if I were to touch you… nothing?’ he prompted.

Her throat seemed to close over. Desire throbbed between her legs. Despite the cool of the ocean, warm heat slicked there, making her painfully aware of how badly she wanted him to touch her.

‘And if I were to kiss you?’ He moved closer. Close enough that he could do either of those two things. Touch her. Kiss her. Whatever he wanted.

If she agreed.

If she even hinted that she was okay with that, he’d make a move, and she’d be lost.

As lost as she’d been back then. Because even though so much time had passed, and she was a totally different person now, he was Aiden, and she was Sienna. He clicked, she jumped. That’s just how it had always been.

She was dumber than dumb to have thought, for even a second, she could take the upper hand here.

But then, Astrid was in her head. And Paige, and Bella. Reminding her that she was a strong, intelligent woman now, that she’d been through a shit tonne of adversity and was still going, one step after the other. Studying law part time, so she could help people like her dad. Supporting Melanie as best she could. Visiting her dad every weekend. Working to keep a roof over her head. Doing the best she damn well could to live a good life, and contribute to her town, to make the people she loved happy.

She tilted her chin, channelling those women, who’d helped her see what they did, who’d built up her confidence since Chicago, and made her believe she was capable of anything. Her fears and doubts ebbed away, leaving only certainty that she could handle this. She could handle him.

He was just a man, not a god, and no matter what she wanted from him physically, there was one ginormous, vital difference to how things had been between them back then.

Her body was one thing. But her heart and mind were totally another. He could touch her, and kiss her, and drive her completely wild. She’d never be stupid enough to let him anywhere near her heart, and without that, he had absolutely no power to hurt her. Zilch. She was safe.

Whereas he was, she hoped, a bit of a sitting duck this time around, just like she’d been back then.

First step to proving that? Picking up the gauntlet, of course…

‘I can’t say for sure,’ she said with a shrug, aware that it made her breasts shift. ‘But it sure sounds like an interesting experiment, cowboy.’

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