Taste of Temptation by Moira McTark Read Free Book Online

and the bride and groom were walking toward them. Jason gave her bottom a little pat and turned to head back inside, letting Laine direct the happy couple in their next activities. Cocktails on the sixth floor balcony, and then across to the reception hall for dinner and dancing.
    * * * *
    Jason leaned forward in the chair in his office, elbows resting on knees, one hand yanking at his hair, the other fisting the phone against his ear. He didn't want to make this call. Didn't want to have to think about the woman whose slow sultry voice poured through the line like acid into his ear.
    "What do you want?” came her lightly-accented demand.
    "You know what I want, Sophia. Don't play games with me."
    "Well ... you knew what I wanted, but I didn't get it, now did I?"
    Jason sat up and spun in his chair so it faced the back wall of his office. “How's Enrique?"
    "Who?"
    A long pull on a thin cigarette filtered through the line, conjuring a million unwanted memories. He waited her out.
    "Oh, of course. Enrique. I barely remember his name. It seems he meant more to you than to me."
    His hand balled, his lips pressed together in a hard line. “Sophia, think of this as a business opportunity."
    Another drag and a short laugh. “But, Jason, I always have."
    Gritting his teeth, he berated himself. Even now she had power over him. It infuriated him that she maintained that control—that she could influence his emotions in the slightest. Young and stupid, he'd blindly given her that control and, when she'd abused it, he spent years defending himself against any such marauder again. No one got close enough to touch his heart. No one mattered.
    And then Laine strolled into his life on her four-inch heels with wild demands and sassy attitude, and, bit by bit, unwittingly, she chipped away his resolve. He'd fought against it, told himself it was too late, but in the end all she had to do was walk into a room and he was smiling. All he had to do was think of her, and everything seemed better.
    Everything was better.
    Laine.
    His fists relaxed, and he leaned back in his chair, letting go of his anger. “Good, then, Sophia. If it's business, we should have no problem coming to an agreement."
    Following some debate, they worked out a time and set up a meeting. Jason hung up the phone and pulled open the center drawer on his desk, slipping out a single photo that lay atop the clutter. It was Laine, leaning against a pillar in the lobby. She was watching one of her brides kiss the groom before they left the hotel. Jason had seen the photographer snapping photos that day and paid him for the shot. It was money well spent.
    Jason stared at the sweet smile on her face. He was a fool for waiting so long to go after her. From the beginning, she was the woman he coveted, the one who stirred feelings he was unwilling to act on. For so long he thought he could be satisfied with a relationship that didn't breach the professional barrier between them. Being close to her made him feel alive, challenged, interested. And under the pretense of building up the nuptial business, he was able to spend time with her without the risk of getting in too deep. He'd gone on like that for nearly a year, fantasizing about her, but refusing to move. Pretending that he didn't need more. That he hadn't fallen completely in love with her.
    But when she'd been threatened by that asshole in the kitchen, something snapped inside him, and he couldn't pretend anymore. He wanted to be the man she ran to, the man to comfort her, to hold her, to make the jackass who thought he had the right to touch her pay.
    He wanted her.
    She hadn't taken him seriously last week when he'd asked her out. And even after they'd made love, she didn't seem sure of his intentions or her own feelings about them. But Jason knew what he wanted. He wanted Laine, and he was going to do whatever it took to convince her that he was worth taking a chance on.
    * * * *
    The cake was served, the band played