Moment of Weakness: One Moment, Book 1 by Toni J. Strawn Read Free Book Online Page A

yet.”
    The words were spoken so low she wasn’t sure she’d heard them right.
    And she didn’t want to find out either. Because she wanted them to be true. The thought scared her more than anything that’d happened so far and helped to shore up the last few cracks left in her façade.
    “You came. You saw. I conquered.” Abby threw Marcus an uncompromising look as she opened the door.
    “The game isn’t over yet,” he warned.
    “Yeah. It is,” Abby informed him. “And you lost.”
    Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
    Marcus stepped into the lift and waited for the swish of doors to close him in. He might as well have chased Abby down the hallway with a shotgun. That probably would have been more merciful than asking her back to his room for the night.
    He groaned and closed his eyes. Abby was the clever one. She’d run, too scared to face what had happened between them. Because something had happened. Something that had lulled Marcus into thinking he’d been winning. It didn’t sit well that he’d cracked first. Hell, he’d practically begged.
    Why now? Marcus had experienced temptation like Abby before. Shit, he’d even had a girlfriend or two in between acquiring and dismantling his conglomeration of companies. But none had ever held his interest once the competitive thrill of the chase had passed. They’d soon figured out his need for control and been so damn agreeable it stripped Marcus of any sense of satisfaction. There’d been no point in continuing. Their acquiescence was tantamount to subservience and subservience amounted to giving in. Marcus couldn’t abide weakness.
    Abby wasn’t weak. She hadn’t just tweaked Marcus’s interest tonight, but come straight up and given it a good yank. An intriguing mix of need and control, domination and supplication, three hours and she’d burrowed deep under his skin.
    How much was an act and how much was Abby? The game had been furthermost from Marcus’s mind when they’d been playing , but he’d liked it a little too much to let her go sweetly into the night.
    Because he hadn’t won? Maybe. But he hadn’t lost either. And Abby didn’t know Marcus at all if she thought he was giving up. She might think she was tough, but he’d been up against tougher. He hadn’t put up with six years of taking it from the rich, arrogant assholes like Logan to fall over at the first hurdle. Or the second. Or even the last.
    Marcus smiled grimly as the elevator opened at the top floor, trying not to notice his and Abby’s own subtle scent unfurl around him. With a groan, he turned down the hallway, ignoring his stiffening cock and the fact that the woman who could alleviate the ache slept in a room somewhere beneath him.
    There would be a next time. He dug into his pocket for his phone and put through a call to his home.
    “This better not be about work,” Cole grumbled as he answered Marcus’s call. “It’s late.”
    “Since when has that ever stopped you from working?”
    “I’m a reformed man,” Cole retorted. “A few weeks of looking after your companies while you swan off playing consultant and I’m thinking of giving it up.”
    “Bullshit,” Marcus scoffed. They’d known each other too long for him to believe it. “You love it. Anyway, if it is true, you’ll be happy to know I’m on my way back tomorrow. So, what am I walking into?” He glanced past the elevator to the stairwell. If business was still solid in Wellsford, a part of him was toying with the idea of tracking Abby down tonight. No more games. This time, he’d be the one making the rules. And she would obey them.
    “Well, since you ask, things are turning to shit in New Zealand.” Cole broke the news about Marcus’s latest software acquisition apologetically. “Nagasaki wants an earlier release on the new game, but I can’t get a firm grip on whether we have the resources to do it.”
    Marcus’s lips thinned, his attention immediately switching to his business. “So get more