Sweet Seduction Surrender by Nicola Claire Read Free Book Online Page A

the neckline not exactly slutty, but low enough to show off my meagre assets to their best advantage. The skirt was above knee, and sitting here it had risen further, to mid thigh. I was also wearing heels, that I knew made my calf muscles look damn good from behind.
    I wasn't even seeing a client today. I'd done this because Jason Cain was in my house. It was armour, my armour. With dawning mortification I realised he was right. I did dress for the battlefield, albeit a battlefield of potential contracts and button pushing ex-soldiers. It might not have been a fight to the death, but it was a fight.
    At the moment I was fighting to throw Jason off balance, and therefore survive the next few hours in his presence without losing my head. Or heart.
    Jason leaned back in his chair and let his eyes flow over my outfit. They rested on my legs for an extended period of time. Without raising them to my face, he said, "There's nothing wrong with using what you've been given to get what you want."
    Chocolate eyes flicked up to mine.
    "You just gotta be sure you really want it," he added.
    I was losing this round, and the Anscombe in me was disappointed and irritated that I'd let Jason have any ground at all.
    No, my life wasn't cut-throat, but with Jason in it, it was definitely a battle to be won. I held his gaze for several seconds, unwilling to back down, and then swiped my plate up off the table and headed to the sink. My back to the table and Jason, I leaned down and emptied what was left on my plate into the rubbish bin.
    Jason started laughing behind me. I swung back and arched a brow, the emptied plate still in my hand.
    "This is a bad idea," he muttered, shaking his head.
    "What is?" I demanded, not liking the way he was looking at me. I couldn't decide if it was appreciative or not.
    "You don't even know you're doing it, do you?" he murmured.
    "Doing what?" I asked, placing the plate on the bench so I could give him my full attention. When I turned back around he was standing right there. I hadn't heard him move, not the scrape of his chair or the sound of his rubber soled shoes on the wooden floor.
    I pressed my back into the bench, unable to retreat further. Then cursed myself mentally for trying to back up at all. I straightened my shoulders and raised my chin. Receiving that smirk of his for my efforts.
    "Life is what we make of it, Kate," he whispered, his eyes searching my face as though looking for something there.
    "Very Zen of you, Jason."
    He shrugged, then took a step back and it felt like all the warmth in my body had left with him. This physical attraction was getting too intense. It was ruling my every thought now.
    I struggled to think of something to level the playing field with, to distance myself from what his proximity did to my pulse. But I was rattled, no witty words sprang to mind. There was much more to Jason than I had realised. Oh, I'd suspected, but never truly seen. He was observant, calculating, intelligent and two steps ahead of me. Nothing he'd said this morning didn't ring true. Rather than deter me, it made him even more fascinating to my eyes.
    I was in so deep and I didn't know how I'd actually got there. But the real question? Was Jason in deep with me too?
    "And what do you do to close a deal, Jason?" I asked, my eyes flicking over his face to see his reaction to my words.
    He smiled, it wasn't a smirk. It was impressed, I think. He knew I'd been floundering, and he was surprised and pleased that I'd found my voice at last.
    "Whatever I have to do, Kate," he replied. "Whatever it takes." I could believe that.
    "Then maybe we're more alike than you realise," I pointed out, pushing past him to gather his plate from the table. He watched my every move.
    "Maybe," he agreed, voice soft. My eyes automatically drawn to his. The tone of his voice sounding so intimate. I wondered briefly what that tone would sound like when whispered in my ear. "Or maybe opposites attract," he added, making all