Aaron eyed me over the top of his cards, and I brought my glass to my lips. We’d been at the table for an hour, but this was the first game I had played. If my daddy taught me anything, it’s that you don’t play poker ‘til you know a guy tells. And I knew Mr. Stone was bluffing. He studied me for a long moment before resting his elbows on the table and placing his cards facedown on it. “You’re bluffing.” “Try me.” I licked my lips. “Unless you’re scared.” The guys around the table watch us with amusement, and my fighting talk got an ‘oooh’ out of someone. “Scared? Not of you, Bambi.” I ignored the old pet name and tilted my head. “Show your hand.” Slowly, he flipped the cards and spreaded them across the table in front of us. “Full house.” “Ooooh,” came from the guys who all folded. I shrugged a shoulder and sighed. “Dammit.” George smirked. “You should have listened.” I laid my cards out. “Four o

I never, ever imagined I’d see George again. I still didn’t believe I had. I couldn’t believe he’s fucking with my twenty-four-year-old mind as easily as he stole my seventeen-year-old heart. And that, in essence, was everything this trip was. A mindfuck. I didn’t believe he wanted to get to know me at all. Hello, this was the twenty-first century—you use coffee for that shit. Not a six-week worldwide trip. No, the second the shock faded from his eyes, an age-old hunger took over. All George Stone wanted was what’s inside my very pretty pink lace thong. Well, mostly inside. He was playing the game well. He could get it any time he wanted. It was what he was paying for, essentially. Hell, the guy could tell me to get on my knees and wrap my lips around his cock and I’d be completely powerless to deny him it.

I pulled back and looked him dead in the eye. “Don’t ever confuse a natural response to kissing with my being seduced. The last client that did that found himself without a regular fuck for six months.” “You’re so difficult,” he murmured. “I don’t remember you ever being this headstrong.” “I wasn’t.” I stepped from his hold. “But a lot of things can change in seven years. You ought to remember that.” **** ****** ****** ******* ****** ***** It was nine a.m. on a Monday fucking morning, and I was not in bed. There were so many things wrong with that, least of all the fact I was in the building that housed Stone Advertising’s offices, ready to sit by idly as my ‘boyfriend’ picks two new models. Yep. Casting call number one and I had no coffee. Even if I did have coffee, I’d need something stronger in it because acting like a coolly

Silence hovered between us for a moment, growing steadily more tense and awkward.“If I believed in romance, I’d be a puddle right now.” I took the last bite of my lunch and wadded up the wrapping.“You believed in romance once.”“Once.” I crossed the room and dropped the wrapper in the trash can. “That was before I realized love hurts. I gave love up the day I signed the contract with my agent. Love hurts, but pleasure doesn’t and neither does power. I had to choose, and I chose pleasure and power.”“There isn’t a part of you that believes in love? Really?”I glanced over my shoulder. “Do I believe it’s possible? That it’s real? Tangible? Yes. I believe everything you can tell me about love, but that doesn’t mean I have to believe in it. It doesn’

I think I just heard the greatest love story of the twenty-first century. I also think I need to vomit. “You look tense.” George stepped behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders, his thumbs digging in at the bottom of my neck. I bent into his touch, unable to help the sigh that escaped me. “So would you if you’d had the night I have.” “Same again.” He nodded at the bartender and sat me on a stool. “Let me guess. You got the soap allergy story too?” I turned. A small smile played on my lips. “For real? He told you too?” “Oh yes. He wants us to do his marketing.” “No wonder his wife was so far up my ass she could see my brain,” I muttered. George laughed, a rich sound that curled my toes. “Gina,” he admonished. There was nothing to it. He was merely masking his amusement. “Behave.”