Sweet Seduction Sacrifice by Nicola Claire Read Free Book Online Page B

roses, he'd been in my office - a private space only my staff and I have ever entered - and now he would see my sanctuary. The place I had turfed Brett Elliott out of and then taken him back in four times over the past year.
    Embarrassment washed over me in an all consuming wave. I was such a screw-up and dork. Why hadn't I just sold the flat and moved somewhere new? I knew why, it was within walking distance to the shop and I had chosen it, purchased it with my own deposit, furnished it with my own furniture, made it my home. Brett had lived there, but it had never actually ever been his.
    Still, it felt a little dirty now, which reflected on me. It was my home, I'd bought it, fashioned it, made it what it was, and let Brett Elliott in it. His stink defiled it and washed off on me. I dropped my head in my hands, elbows to knees and groaned loudly. My life was screwed up and it looked like it was going to get worse. I just had to keep repeating to myself, that for Sweet Seduction I'd do anything, even survive an embarrassing day such as this.
    It was in that position, lamenting the state of my life and the choices I had made, that Kelly found me. The door opening softly, indeterminate music wafting in as she held it briefly open, and then silence as she sat her butt against the edge of my desk off to the side.
    "So, I guess my dibs no longer counts," she said as she flipped a pen end to end in her hand. My head shot up and I stared at her.
    "Dominic was the hottie you dibbed?"
    "Well, duh! He is the hottest of the hot-rush bunch," she declared, smiling down at me. "Well done, you, bagged a hottie."
    "I have not bagged a hottie!" I proclaimed with much gusto.
    "You have so bagged a hottie," she argued with a wry grin.
    "Have not!" I shot back.
    "Have too," she answered and then giggled like a school girl. "He is fine, girlfriend," she announced.
    "Don't girlfriend me," I said snottily. Her giggles segued into raucous laughter. "Anyway," I added, feeling I had to clarify things so she didn't get too carried away with the wrong idea, "he's just being kind because his partner is my lawyer and his brother is in on the case."
    "Yeah, I bet that's the only reason," she sarcastically remarked.
    "It is!" I all but shouted.
    "Yeah, you're right," she conceded. "It had absolutely nothing to do with the near drool-like gaze he had on you whenever you leaned forward over the coffee table and flashed your bra, or the way he shifted his body to get a better view of your fine arse as you bent to pick up those roses in front of the counter. Or, I'm so sure, it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact he moved in lightning speed to help you sit when you looked like you would faint, or the fact that he wouldn't let you go afterwards. And it abso-fucking-lutely, posi-fucking-tively had nothing to do with the way he looked when you were going all psycho rose killer on that bouquet outside, and he instructed your lawyer to hang the fuck back when he made an attempt to come out and calm you, so he could instead," she finished.
    "How did he look?" I asked, what to me seemed the most pertinent question. Kelly obviously agreed.
    "Lost," she whispered. "As though it was tearing him apart too."
    "That's impossible," I whispered back.
    "I know," she whispered in return, reaching over and taking hold of my hand and squeezing it. "But you've bagged a hottie and you can't deny it.
    "He's insane," I announced in a louder voice.
    "No, he knows a good thing when he sees it and he's one of those guys who takes what he wants no matter what. I've always wanted one of those guys," she said wistfully.
    So had I, I agreed just as wistfully in my head.
    "So what did you guys get up to in here? Did he kiss you? Was it good?" she demanded, then added, "Of course it was good, he's the hottest of hotties, he'd know how to kiss. Did he slip you his tongue?"
    I stared at her, mouth open and eyes wide. Was she insane? I'd met the guy that morning, if you call sharing a two