In Bed With...Collection

‘If you think this means I’m a pushover for the taking, it doesn’t,’ she blurted out. ‘The chemistry between us is just chemistry and I won’t be losing sight of that, so don’t imagine it gives you any power over me.’

He nodded a few times, then shot her a wry smile. ‘Well, you’ve certainly slapped me down.’

Not for the kiss. For the possible motive hidden behind it because the kiss had got to her, more powerfully than she cared to admit. She tore her gaze away from his tantalising little smile and stared at the waterfall, wishing it could soothe the deep disturbance this man had caused.

‘Not so much a slap, Jake,’ she said more calmly. ‘Just letting you know how I feel about it. My father is obviously pushing me at you. Maybe he wants you as his son-in-law. No way will I be used as a step up your career ladder.’

No comment from him.

His silence went on for so long it began to shred her nerves. ‘Sorry if I’ve dashed your hopes,’ she said bitingly.

‘Not at all.’ He sat up, hooking his arms on the backrest of the bench in a totally relaxed manner, smiling at her as though he was perfectly at peace with her decision. ‘I’m not looking for a wife at this point in my life and you’re not looking to fill that position. With that understood, do you want any part of me, Laura?’

Which put her right back on the spot.

His eyes glittered with the knowledge that she did, but wanting and taking were two different things. As Eddie said, she’d be better off not going there. Jake could be lying, secretly thinking he could seduce her into becoming his wife. Not that he’d be able to, but if she entered into any kind of relationship with him, he could report to her father that everything was sweet between them, and she’d hate that.

Yet looking at him, remembering how it had felt with him, the thought of not experiencing more of him actually hurt. Which was probably another danger signal. He did have power over her.

‘I want you,’ he said quietly, seeing her struggle with his question. ‘Not because you’re your father’s daughter. I think the chemistry between us makes that totally irrelevant. I want you because I can’t remember wanting any other woman quite as much.’

It echoed her response to him. Jake Freedman was definitely the ultimate ten out of ten. But he could be saying those words because they were what any woman would like to hear. He was such a sexy man, he might affect every woman this way and she was no exception at all to him. Clever, playing all sides, Eddie had said.

She eyed him sceptically. ‘Is that the honest truth, Jake?’

‘Much to my own dismay, yes,’ he said with a rueful grimace.

It was an odd thing to say and she looked at him in puzzlement. ‘Why to your dismay?’

The riveting brown eyes bored into hers with heart-stopping intensity. ‘Because I don’t want to want you, Laura. Any more than you want to want me. And with that said, why don’t we both take time to think about it?’

He rose from the garden bench, apparently preparing to leave her. Laura was so startled by the action, she simply stared up at him.

‘Do you have a mobile phone?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’

‘Give me your number. I’ll call you at the end of the week if I’m still thinking of you and you can then say yes or no.’

It was so abrupt, hard, cut and dried, and the turbulent feelings it set off inside her made it difficult to think. Time…yes…time to decide if she couldn’t bear not to know more of him…or time to have his impact recede to something less significant.

He took a slim mobile phone out of his shirt pocket and she rattled out her number for him to enter it in his private file.

‘Thank you,’ he said, pocketing the phone again and flashing an ironic smile at her. ‘I’ve seen enough of the garden. You might like to join Eddie and your mother playing Scrabble. I’ll say goodbye to them and then to your father on my way out.’

Relief poured through her. No more stress today. Decision-making could wait. She returned his smile as she rose from the bench. ‘I didn’t have you pegged as a garden man.’

‘I shall take up smelling roses.’

‘You need a garden for that. The hothouse ones don’t have much scent.’

He raised one eyebrow in a lightly mocking challenge. ‘Perhaps we can give each other new experiences.’

She shrugged, deliberately noncommittal. ‘Perhaps we can.’

No more was said.

He accompanied her back to the dining room and with every step she sensed him withdrawing from her, wrapping himself in self-containment. It was a weird, cold feeling—in sharp contrast to the wild heat of their physical connection. He was leaving her alone and that troubled her far more than it should.

Eddie and her mother said all the polite responses to his polite appreciation of the day spent with them. Her mother took him in tow to the lounge room so he could say goodbye to her father and she was left behind in the dining room with Eddie, whose eyes were full of questions.

‘So?’ he asked, as soon as their visitor was out of earshot.

‘So, nothing,’ she answered. ‘I showed him the garden.’

She couldn’t bring herself to open up a discussion on what had happened between her and Jake Freedman. Somehow it was too personal, too private.

Besides, it would probably come to nothing.

And it was probably better that way.

Probably.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE end of the week, he’d said.

It was the first thought Laura had when she woke up on Friday morning.

If he was still thinking of her, she mentally added, half-hoping that he wasn’t so she wouldn’t be faced with the decision of whether or not to see him again.

It had been impossible to get him out of her head. She couldn’t look at a guy without comparing him to Jake Freedman. None of them measured up to him. Not even close. Her uni studies had suffered with him slipping into her mind when she should have been concentrating. As for being a Director of First Impressions at her receptionist job, no impressions at all had got through to her. Directing the doctors’ patients had all been a matter of rote this week. It was like her whole life was revolving around waiting for his call.

Which was really, really bad.

What had happened to her strong sense of independence? It should be rising above this obsessive thinking about a man, putting him in a place of relative unimportance. She didn’t like not being in full control of her life. It was as though a virus had invaded her system and she couldn’t get rid of it. But as all viruses did, it would run its course and leave her, she told herself.

Especially if Jake didn’t call.

However, if he did…

Laura heaved a fretful sigh and rolled out of bed, unable to make up her mind on what she should do. Would she always wonder about him if she didn’t try him out?

It was an unanswerable question. Nevertheless, it plagued her all day, distracting her from the lectures at uni. By late afternoon she had decided it was best if Jake didn’t call so a choice wasn’t even available. She felt so woolly-headed, it was a relief to board the ferry from Circular Quay to Mosman and stand on the outside deck, needing a blast of sea breeze to whip away the fog in her mind.

The ferry was halfway across the harbour when her mobile phone rang. Her heart instantly started hammering. It might not be him, she told herself, plucking the phone out of the side pocket of her bag. He would not have finished work yet. It wasn’t quite five o’clock. Her father rarely arrived home before seven.

Gingerly she raised the phone to her ear and said, ‘Hello.’

‘It’s Jake, Laura.’

His voice conjured up his image so sharply, her breath stuck in her throat.

‘Would you like to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night?’

Dinner! Her head whirled. To go or not to go…

‘I thought we could try Neil Perry’s Spice Temple. A new experience for both of us if you haven’t been there.’

Neil Perry…one of Sydney’s master chefs! His restaurants were famous for their wonderful food. The Rockpool. The Rockpool Bar and Grill. The Spice Temple. She would love, love, love to eat there, but…

‘I can’t afford it.’

‘My treat. You gave me a great meal last Sunday.’

True. He owed her. ‘Okay. I’d like that very much,’ she said recklessly. A Neil Perry dinner was worth one evening with the man, regardless of what inner turmoil he caused. And maybe that would stop on further acquaintance. ‘I’ll meet you there,’ she quickly added, not wanting her father to know she was seeing Jake Freedman again. ‘What time?’

‘Will seven o’clock suit?’

‘Yes.’

‘You know the address?’

‘I’ll look it up.’

‘It’s a basement restaurant. Go straight downstairs. I’ll wait for you inside.’

‘I won’t be late. Thanks for the invitation.’

She ended the call, quite pleased with herself for handling it with a fair amount of control. This meeting could be contained at the restaurant…if she wanted it to be. Eddie would let her stay over at his apartment in Paddington on Saturday night so being taken home by Jake could be avoided, too.

Excitement buzzed through her…wicked, wanton excitement.

A sexy man, a sexy meal…impossible not to look forward to experiencing both.

Jake steeled himself for the Friday afternoon wrap-up meeting in Alex Costarella’s office, suspecting there was only one issue of real interest on the agenda. He was right. After a half-hour chat about the week’s work, Costarella leaned back in his executive chair, a smug little man-to-man smile on his face as he asked, ‘Will you be seeing Laura this weekend?’

‘Yes. We’re having dinner together tomorrow night,’ he answered, hating this matchmaking farce, but knowing that going along with it was to his advantage, keeping his position in the company ripple-free until he was ready to strike.

‘Good! Good!’

Jake smiled back, playing the game to the hilt. ‘Thank you for introducing me to her.’

‘Pleasure. Laura needs a man to take her in hand and I hope you’re the man to do it, Jake.’

The only way he was going to take her in hand was in bed, if she agreed to it. ‘She’s certainly very attractive.’

It was a noncommittal statement but Costarella found it encouraging enough to let the matter pass. ‘Enjoy your weekend,’ he said, and Jake was free to leave.

He’d thought a lot about Laura Costarella since last Sunday. She was hostile to her father, hostile to his wishes, and he’d anticipated her saying no to the dinner invitation. Since he very much wanted her to say yes, he’d deliberately used the Neil Perry draw-card, knowing that her interest in cooking had to make her something of a foodie.

Temptation…

The stronger it was, the harder it was to resist.

She wanted him, too. No doubt about that. If she was up for a wild fling with him, Jake would be only too happy to oblige. He’d been itching to oblige all week. Satisfying the lust she’d triggered in him was fast becoming a must-do, though he did feel ambivalent about taking on Costarella’s daughter. He hadn’t counted on liking her and he certainly didn’t want to begin caring about her.

Spicy company, spicy food, spicy sex.

That had to be the limit of his involvement with the daughter of his enemy because a line would be driven between them when he brought charges against her father, ensuring that the corrupt insolvency practitioner could never again bury another struggling business to secure his obscene liquidator’s fee.

Lust always burned out after a while, he assured himself.

In the meantime, the fire had been lit for tomorrow night and he looked forward to some very spicy heat.

Laura stood in front of the billowing turquoise hologram that gave an exotic curtain illusion to the doorway leading to the Spice Temple. It should have added pleasure to her dressing up for this dinner date. She was wearing her sexiest dress—a short turquoise silk bubble skirt attached to a tightly fitting black silk bodice—and the gorgeous black-and-turquoise high heels her mother had bought her for Christmas. Nothing, however, could dispel the anger festering in her mind and churning through her stomach.

Jake Freedman deserved to be stood up. Only the lure of Neil Perry’s food had brought her here and she was owed a dinner. As for her outfit, she hoped it made Jake Freedman want her all the more because he could eat his heart out for sex tonight. No way was he going to get as much as a piece of her.

‘Have a nice night with Jake!’

Her teeth gnashed over those words—accompanied by her father’s beaming smile of approval. He’d been told about this date. Maybe the two men had plotted it together. Whatever… Tonight was no longer a private and personal meeting. It reeked of other agendas in the wind and she hated the thought of playing a part in either man’s scheming.

Determined on focusing on the food and giving Jake Freedman a very cold shoulder, she stepped past the doorway and made her way downstairs. Red dominated the decor of the basement restaurant. The scent of joss-sticks wafted through it. Definitely the hot, in place to be, Laura thought, noting that most of the tables were already occupied, even at this relatively early hour.

Jake had a table for two. He rose from his chair as he saw her being led to it, his gaze swiftly raking over the high points of her femininity, before shooting her a look of sizzling appreciation. Laura sizzled, too, not only with the acute, physical awareness he sparked off, but also with resentment at the sheer animal magnetism that clutched at her heart and turned her insides to jelly.

His clothes were completely nondescript—white shirt, grey slacks. They were irrelevant to the stunning impact of the man, as though it was his natural right to hold centre stage anywhere, in any company without any effort whatsoever. He waited for her with easy confidence and Laura wished she could knock him down and sweep him out of her life as though his existence was of no account.

Somehow she had to make it of no account.

‘You look spectacular,’ he said in greeting, grinning wickedly as he added, ‘Great shoes!’

‘They’re good man-stomping shoes,’ she replied, doing her best to appear cool and collected.

One black eyebrow quirked upwards. ‘About to do some stomping?’

She returned a glowering look. ‘I’ll eat first.’

‘Good idea! Work up some energy.’

He was amused.

Laura seethed over his amusement as she sat down. They were handed menus by a waitress who offered to help them make choices if they wanted anything explained.

‘Not yet,’ Laura said firmly. ‘I want to salivate over every dish before I start choosing.’

‘We’ll call you when we’re ready,’ Jake put in, smiling his charming smile, which, of course, would bring the dazzled waitress running the moment he caught her attention.

Laura fixed her attention on the menu. She read the Spice Temple philosophy first. It described what the restaurant aimed for—unique and special dishes, seasoned by an unmistakable Chinese flavour and driven by a long-fostered passion for Asian cuisine, all designed to delight the senses with their contrasting tastes and textures. She hoped they would dominate her senses and block Jake Freedman out.

‘Why do you want to stomp on me?’

She set the menu down and glared at the curiosity in his eyes. ‘How many brownie points did you get for telling my father we were meeting for dinner tonight?’

‘Ah!’ He made a rueful grimace. ‘I didn’t offer the information, Laura. He asked me directly if I was seeing you again. Did you want me to lie about it?’

She was unappeased. ‘I bet you knew he would ask. That’s why you called me when you did. Before you left work yesterday.’

He cocked his head on one side, the dark brown eyes challenging her stance on this issue. ‘I thought you were determined on not having your father rule your life.’

‘He doesn’t.’

‘He’s influencing your attitude towards me right now.’

‘Because you told him.’

He shook his head. ‘You should make decisions for yourself, Laura, regardless of what anyone else knows or says. You made yours yesterday. Why let him change what you want? You’ve brought him here with you instead of moving to your own beat.’

She frowned, realising she had let her father ruin all her pleasure in anticipating this date. Although how could she be excited over being used?

‘What about you? Are you here for me or for him?’ she asked, watching for any shiftiness in his eyes.

He grinned a wickedly sexy grin. ‘When I was watching you walk to this table, I can assure you I was not thinking of your father.’

Heat bloomed in her cheeks at the provocative statement. She lifted her chin, defying the desire he wanted her to share. ‘I decided to flaunt what you weren’t going to get.’

‘Decisions, decisions,’ he mocked, gesturing an appeal. ‘Can we leave your father out of them for the rest of this evening? Just enjoy all there is to enjoy just between ourselves?’

He was very appealing.

The man had everything—looks, intelligence, the sexiest eyes in the world, and he was undermining her prejudice at a rate of knots. Nevertheless, she couldn’t quite set aside an ulterior motive for this date with her. On the other hand, why shouldn’t she take pleasure in being with him, move her father to the sidelines, denying him any power to influence the play between her and Jake? After all, she was the one with the power to decide how far she would get involved with this man.

She gave him a hard look of warning. ‘As long as it’s kept between ourselves, I’m happy to take a more positive attitude towards you.’

‘And I’m happy to be your secret lover,’ he replied, his eyes dancing with unholy teasing.

Her heart performed a somersault. ‘I didn’t say anything about becoming lovers.’

‘Just assuring you that private moments will be kept private.’ He opened up his menu. ‘Let’s salivate over what’s on offer together. Did you see that the hottest dishes are printed in red?’

He was the hottest dish.

Laura dragged her mind off visualising him as her lover and reopened her menu. ‘I prefer spicy to hot, hot,’ she said, looking at the list of entrées.

‘Okay. We cross out the red print ones.’

‘You don’t have to. Choose whatever you like.’

‘There’s so much to like, it will be better if we can share, don’t you think? Have a taste of each other’s choices? Broaden the experience?’

Sharing the taste… Laura’s stomach curled. It sounded intimate. It was intimate. And suddenly she didn’t care about other agendas. She wanted this experience with him.

‘Great idea!’ she said, and allowed herself to smile.

His eyes twinkled with pleasure, completely dissipating the anger she had carried to this meeting.

‘You’re incredibly beautiful when you smile,’ he remarked. ‘I hope I can make you smile all evening for the sheer pleasure of looking at you.’

She laughed. ‘No chance! I’m going to be busy eating.’

‘I’ll try for in between bites.’

‘I’ll be drooling over the food.’

He laughed. ‘Speaking of which, what entrées would you like to try?’

A smile was still on her face as she read the yummy list. The happy excitement about tonight with Jake had come bouncing back. He was right about making decisions for herself. She should trust her own instincts and go with what instinctively felt right.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE waitress advised them to choose only one main course with a side dish of vegetables to share since they were ordering two separate entrées. The helpings were large and they would surely want to leave room for dessert.

‘Definitely,’ Laura agreed. ‘I have to try the sesame ice cream with candied popcorn and chocolate.’

‘And I want the Dessert Cocktail,’ Jake said with relish. ‘Sounds wonderful—caramelized pear, London gin, lillet blanc and crème de cacao shaken and served with the chocolate, sesame and cashew bark.’

It sounded very James Bond to Laura who couldn’t help grinning over the thought. Jake might not be 007 but he was certainly tall, dark, handsome and dangerous, especially to any peace of mind. Somehow peace of mind wasn’t rating highly at the moment. A thrilling buzz was running through her veins and she was now determined on milking maximum enjoyment out of the night, throwing caution and the Machiavellian shadow of her father to the winds.

‘That’s a big smile,’ Jake commented, his eyes simmering sexily.

‘Loving the idea of having a piece of your dessert,’ she tossed back, knowing she wanted a piece of him, too.

‘Food, glorious food!’ he quoted from the musical Oliver, half singing the words and making her laugh.

‘We have to decide on which one of our main courses to go for now,’ she reminded him.

‘We’ll go with your choice—the stir-fried pork, bacon, smoked tofu, garlic shoots, garlic chives and chilli oil—and I’ll pick the vegetable dish.’

‘Which will be?’

‘Stir-fried wild bamboo pith, snow peas and quail eggs with ginger and garlic.’

‘We’ll probably end up with garlic breath.’

‘We can try washing it away with wine.’

He ordered an expensive bottle of sauvignon blanc.

The waitress departed, having assured them of prompt service.

Laura heaved a satisfied sigh as she sat back and relaxed, happy to enjoy the ambience of the restaurant and the company of the man she was with.

‘How was your week?’ she asked.

He gave her a very sensual smile. ‘All the better for ending here with you. How was yours?’

‘Annoying.’

He raised a quizzical eyebrow.

She made a rueful grimace. ‘I couldn’t get you out of my head.’

He laughed. ‘I’m glad the problem wasn’t entirely mine. The question is whether to feed the fever or starve it?’

‘I’m all for feeding tonight.’

‘So am I.’

His eyes said he wanted to eat her all up and Laura couldn’t deny she wanted to taste him again, too, but she wasn’t ready to commit herself to becoming lovers on such short acquaintance.

‘I meant here at the restaurant, Jake. I don’t really know you, do I?’ She eyed him seriously. ‘My father obviously likes you very much, which isn’t a great recommendation. I think from your visit last Sunday, you can draw a fairly clear picture of my life, but I don’t have one of yours, apart from your mentioning that your mother has passed away. What about the rest of your family?

He shrugged. ‘Both my parents died when I was eighteen. I was their only child. I’ve been on my own ever since. My life is not complicated by having to manage relationships, Laura. As I saw you doing last Sunday.’

‘You move to your own beat,’ she said wryly.

‘Yes.’

‘No live-in girlfriends along the way to here and now?’

He shook his head. ‘I haven’t met anyone I wanted to be with every day.’

She nodded, extremely wary of the live-in situation herself. ‘It’s a big ask, day in, day out. I can’t see myself even wanting to try it.’

He smiled, eyes twinkling with understanding. ‘You wish to be a free spirit.’

‘I’ve seen my mother compromise too much,’ she shot at him.

‘Not all men are like your father, Laura,’ he said seriously. ‘My parents’ marriage was very happy. I grew up in a loving home. I wish I still had it.’

She felt a stab of envy, though his loss triggered sympathy, as well. ‘You were lucky to have what you did, Jake, but I guess missing that home life leaves you feeling very lonely.’

His eyelids dropped to half-mast, narrowing the flash of dangerous glitter. Some powerful emotion was coursing through him, belied by the offhand tone he used in his reply. ‘It’s been ten years, Laura. I’ve learnt to live with being alone.’

She didn’t think so. She sensed anger in him at the loss, a deep abiding anger, so intense there was an edge of savagery to it. The image of a lone wolf endlessly prowling for some measure of satisfaction leapt into her mind.

Had he been looking for it in the career he had chosen? The bankruptcy business was centred on loss and he’d spoken almost passionately about the trauma of it and wanting to help when she’d taken him out to the garden last week. It had surprised her at the time. The conviction started to grow in her that he was not like her father. Not at all like him.

Which made the pleasure she could share with him much more acceptable.

‘The self-sufficient man,’ she said, smiling.

‘Who doesn’t want to be alone tonight.’

His smile was definitely wolfish, exciting her with the wild thought of howling at the moon together, mating on top of a mountain under the stars. Ridiculous since they were in the middle of a city, but the female animal inside her was strongly aroused, wanting to explore intimate possibilities with Jake Freedman.

The waitress returned with the bottle of wine and filled their glasses for them. Jake lifted his in a toast. ‘To learning a lot more about each other.’

Laura nodded agreement. ‘I’ll drink to that.’

She clicked her glass to his and they both sipped the wine.

‘I heard you tell Eddie that you worked out at a gym. Do you go often?’

‘Usually after work. It’s a good way of winding down.’

And every woman in the place would be eyeing him off, Laura thought, wondering if he also used the gym for casual pick-ups. She couldn’t imagine him not having a very active sex life. Which, she strongly suspected, he kept completely separate from his work life.

‘You said last Sunday you didn’t want to want me, Jake,’ she reminded him. ‘Is that because it’s difficult to avoid it touching on your career with me being my father’s daughter?’

He made an ironic grimace. ‘I think it’s a complication we’d both prefer not to have.’ He leaned forward, his dark riveting eyes shooting a blaze of purpose at her. ‘Let’s shut the door on it. Just do what we want to do together, regardless of other issues. Are you brave enough to go down that road with me, Laura? Strong enough to make the choice for yourself?’

The challenge propelled her pulse into overdrive. Brave? Strong? She wanted to belief that of herself, but was it really true? She’d always shied clear of intimate entanglements, afraid of how they might affect her. The couple of sexual experiments she’d allowed herself had been more out of curiosity—a desire for knowledge—than a wish for a closer, more possessive attachment.

Jake Freedman tapped something far more primal in her and that was scary because it was uncontrollable. She wanted to explore it, to feel whatever he could make her feel, but she couldn’t quite override the sense of danger with him. Already he had taken up far too much possession of her mind. Would that go away with passion spent or would she end up losing the mental independence she needed for self-survival?

She could not—would not—end up like her mother.

‘I like to come and go as I please, Jake,’ she said firmly. ‘I don’t think I’d mind joining you along the road now and then, but…’

Her mouth dried up as a dazzling grin spread across his wickedly handsome face.

‘Fine…perfect…we can draw a map and meet when the time is right for both of us.’

She laughed with nervous excitement. He was so obliging, so tempting, so incredibly sexy, and surely there was nothing too scary about having an intermittent adventure with him.

The waitress arrived with their entrées. Laura had chosen the fried salt-and-pepper silken tofu with spicy coriander salad and Jake had decided on the Northern-style lamb and fennel dumplings. Both dishes looked and smelled deliciously enticing.

‘We divide them in half. Right?’ she said eagerly.

‘Sharing is the deal,’ he agreed, obviously enjoying her keen anticipation. ‘Go ahead. Divvy up.’

Jake watched her halve the portions on each plate, liking her meticulous care, liking everything about her, especially the determination to run her own life as she saw fit. It freed him of any guilt over pursuing what he wanted with her. She was not looking for a happy-ever-love with him. She didn’t believe in it.

Given what he’d seen of her parents’ marriage, he understood where she was coming from and why she would shy clear of serious attachments. Alex Costarella had wrought damage on his own family, as well as on many others’. He’d robbed Jake of his parents, but unlike them, Laura was alive and kicking. She would survive. An intermittent relationship with him should not create a problem for either of them.

‘We should start with the dumplings and finish with the salad,’ she said authoritatively.

‘Yes, ma’am.’

It startled her into a laugh. ‘I didn’t mean to be bossy.’

He grinned. ‘I don’t mind taking advice from a serious foodie. In fact, I would like you to extend my education on gourmet delights.’

She blushed. ‘You’re teasing me. I think I’ll just shut up and eat.’

‘Enjoy.’

She ate with obvious relish. It was a pleasure watching her appreciating each different taste. ‘Please feel free to comment,’ he urged. ‘I wasn’t really teasing you, Laura. I want you to share your thoughts on these dishes with me.’

‘Tell me what you think,’ she countered.

He did and she happily responded.

The whole meal was a pleasure, not only for the wonderful variety of tastes, but also Laura’s delight in them. She made it a great sensory experience and not only on the palate. The licking of her lips, the heavenly rolling of her eyes, the rise and fall of her lush breasts when she sighed with satisfaction, the warm smiles that fuelled a burning lust to have all of her…Jake itched to sweep her off to bed and take his fill of Laura Costarella.

He couldn’t recall ever having enjoyed an evening with a woman so much. It was impossible to tolerate the thought of it ending here. He had to persuade her to want what he wanted. And not just tonight. He knew one night wouldn’t satisfy him. Not now.