The Seduction Scheme by Kim Lawrence Read Free Book Online Page A

lip curled with genuine scorn. ‘This is sexual harassment.’
    â€˜This is mutual attraction; we both knew that from the moment we set eyes on each other. If I wasn’t a gentleman I’d have done more than kiss you goodnight. Only I wanted to know if the attraction wasn’t totally the forbidden fruit thing. I see now it isn’t.’
    â€˜Your ego is unbelievable!’ she gasped. ‘I wouldn’t have you if you came gift-wrapped.’
    â€˜Is that a fetishist thing? he enquired. ‘Because I have to tell you I’m not really into that sort of thing.’
    â€˜And I’m not into smutty innuendo!’
    â€˜If you prefer, we’ll keep our personal and professional relationship strictly separate. That’s fine by me. A freak set of coincidences is the only reason this conversation is taking place in the work environment. We needed to clear the air.’
    And he thought the atmosphere was clear! The only thing that was clear to her was that she ought to keep her dealings with Benedict Arden to a minimum.
    â€˜We don’t have a personal relationship,’ she felt impelled to point out.
    He was persistent; you had to give him that. If her circumstances had been different she might even have been flattered. Be honest, Rachel, he is extraordinarily attractive, she told herself.
    If she’d been a carefree, single thirty-year-old, who knew? Temptation might have overcome good sense. But she wasn’t. She had a child, responsibilities. She didn’t act on impulse—she couldn’t act on impulse. She’d done that once when she was a naive nineteen-year-old and she knew allabout consequences—not that she’d ever regretted the decision to keep her child.
    â€˜We will, Rachel,’ he said with an unshakeable confidence she found disturbing.
    â€˜I’m a single mother.’
    â€˜So? I’m not applying for the post of father. Do you only date potential daddy figures, Rachel? Had you decided what you were going to do when Steve knocked on your door?’
    The sly question slid neatly under her guard. ‘You! Given a choice, I wouldn’t have you within a fifty-mile radius of my daughter!’ His words had held an edge of mockery that made her long to hit him. What did Benedict Arden, the self-confessed hedonist, know about bringing up a child alone?
    â€˜You know something? You’re even more shallow and two-dimensional than office gossip has led me to believe. It may shock you but it’s not all that unusual for people to consider someone else’s feelings other than their own.’
    â€˜You want to know what I think?’ He remained palpably unmoved by her passionate annihilation of his character.
    â€˜Would it make any difference if I said no?’
    â€˜I think you’d decided to open the door to Steve, and not just to prove you’re not a snob.’
    Rachel fixed a scornful expression on her face, though she knew his words would return to haunt her when she was alone later. Steve hadn’t existed but this man did and he had all the same bold sexuality. She instinctively knew that Benedict Arden was the more dangerous of the two.
    â€˜You’re flesh and blood, not a machine; you can’t control your feelings. You’re a single woman who happens to have a child. You’re never going to marry good old Nigel, because when it comes right down to it, despite all his admirable qualities, he bores you rigid.’ He nodded with satisfaction as a revealingly guilty expression crept across her features. ‘I’m not asking you to do anything that will emotionally scar yourdaughter, I’m asking you to break bread with me and possibly open a bottle of wine—even two if you’re feeling reckless.’
    â€˜Do you always do exactly what you want?’ she asked resentfully.
    An odd expression flickered across his face, deepening the lines around his mouth and bringing an