The Dare Collection: June 2018. Lauren Hawkeye

turned back and offered a single, decisive nod. End it now. With his sanity and dignity intact, his fresh start still tenable and his principles only slightly grubby.

      For the longest beat she stared, her expression neutral but her eyes stormy. Wordlessly she skirted him as if he were a shark and walked to his bed. She collected the file he’d tossed there earlier and returned to stand in front of him.

      ‘So, counsellor—’ she blatantly eyed the bulge in his jeans ‘—the defence rests?’

      His fingers curled into fists to stop himself from kissing her sassy mouth once more. Pissed at him and flushed from her orgasm, she was even more breathtaking.

      He ground his jaw clenched. ‘I think it’s best.’ He’d never needed his attorney poker face more.

      She barked a humourless snort. ‘Don’t worry. I may not be an expert at casual sex, but I am an expert at surviving rejection.’

       What the fuck...?

      She pressed the file to his chest, holding it there until his hand replaced hers.

      ‘This needs to be scanned by six.’ She slid one last look down his torso to his still-hard dick. ‘Have a good evening.’

      And she left.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      ‘EVERYTHING’S FINE,’ Essie said to Ben. His partner wanted to replace her as if she were...an inconvenience. She’d thrown herself at a man who’d had the sense to resist. And she had no idea where Ben’s head stood and was too scared to ask. Sure, everything was fine.

      Essie hunched over the desk and rubbed at a non-existent scratch. Perhaps that was why her joy at his call was diluted. Fear that Ben, too, would agree with Ash and fire her, then disappear from her life as quickly as he’d appeared.

      ‘Are you sure?’ said Ben.

      She pressed the phone to her face and hoped her brother couldn’t hear the blood pounding through her head. She shouldn’t be wallowing—she had work to do. ‘Of course. The decorators finished up today and I’m meeting your head barman soon.’ Ben trusted her with his club, and she wouldn’t allow her frenzied attraction to Ash to make waves or damage his business venture.

      No. She and Ash were done.

      But the years of self-doubt had infected her fresh start with Ben. Every childhood disappointment, every time her father let her down and every cruel taunt from her overcritical ex rattled in her brain until nausea threatened.

      Perhaps Ash was right. She should walk away.

      No. She wanted a future as part of Ben’s life. And their father had already robbed her of a past with her only sibling.

      ‘How are things in New York?’ Had he seen their father? Had Frank Newbold asked about her? She shouldn’t care, but that little girl part of her, the part that had idolised him, had flown into his outstretched arms every time he’d come home, still craved his attention, even when she’d declared herself done with his toxic brand of parenthood.

      ‘Someone’s putting their hand in the cash register.’

      Essie gasped. ‘Oh, no, Ben. That’s terrible.’ A slab of guilt settled on her shoulders. Ben needed drama at The Yard as much as she needed another brush-off from Ash.

      ‘I’ll sort it out, don’t worry. Did the bank get their signature in time?’

      Essie’s face heated with the reminder of what she’d done last night.

      ‘Yes.’ Despite all the reasons not to, despite Ash’s obvious ability to resist, she yearned for the full-on repeat performance Ash had denied her yesterday.

      He’d wanted her—the physical evidence, thick and hard behind his fly, had been irrefutable. She’d never have guessed a sexually charged man like Ash possessed so much command over his body. Or her so little.

      The trust between her and Ash was non-existent. He seemed to think she was some sort of industrial spy out to ruin his investment and she couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t sack her at any moment, regardless of her relationship to Ben. But she wanted him anyway. Physically. Another new experience for her.

      She’d trusted her ex with a blind faith that left her curled into a tight ball. She’d been so desperate to make just one relationship work that she’d ignored the warning signs—the criticisms, the bullying, the control. When he’d finally grown bored and left her on the grounds that she was too clingy, and she’d seen clearly for the first time how dysfunctional the relationship had been, she’d vowed never again to give someone that kind of power.

      And she certainly wouldn’t give it to Ash.

      But, she’d known the minute he’d stepped from his en-suite bathroom, droplets of water dotting his sculpted torso with only the towel and his scowl as a barrier, she’d intended to make good on her plan to seduce him then walk away. A plan that had put the control of their rampant sexual attraction firmly in her hands.

      But that chemistry between them had become a magnetised force field drawing her in, and her plan had backfired. She’d seduced him all right, but she’d bungled it. Failed to put a stop to the wild kissing and grinding that had scored her another orgasm, but scored Ash another point on his ‘ability to resist her’ scale.

      ‘Are you and Ash getting to know each other?’ Ben’s voice pulled her back from thoughts of Ash’s naked body, every inch of him hard and straining...

       No.

      Ash was getting to know how easily he could turn her on to the point of spontaneous combustion. How eagerly she surrendered to their physical need that flared to life like a science experiment gone wrong. How her traitorous body succumbed to the pleasure he crafted so effortlessly.

      The only positive outcome, aside from the fantastic sex, was that her blog post on one-night stands had been quoted on one of the UK’s top online women’s magazines and reposted over and over on social media. It seemed people loved Illegally Hot. The spike in followers and comments had, only this morning, spurred Essie into publishing another article featuring the panty-melting Illegally Hot, entitled Dares, Disasters and Don’t Go Theres—those relationships we knew were bad for us, but we craved them anyway—drawing on last night’s disappointing disaster. As if purging her thoughts, her fears, her doubts in cyberspace would cure her of her irresistible and seemingly one-sided attraction to Ash Jacob.

      It was wrong, but she couldn’t deny the buzz that the soar of popularity delivered. She’d always considered her blog as something of a hobby, but, with her PhD complete, perhaps the boost in credibility was just what she needed to take herself more seriously as a writer. She could even start running some pay-per-click ads...invite experts in the field to guest blog... She scribbled down some ideas while she zoned back to answering her brother’s question. ‘Not really.’ Apart from Ash’s bedroom skills and his considerable control, she knew zilch. A fact her analytical brain tolerated poorly.

      ‘What’s his deal? He seems a little...uptight.’

       Plus he hated her, wanted to fire her and didn’t trust her.

      ‘Has he upset you?’ The fact that Ben had protective instincts towards her left her gooey inside. But the only thing she needed protection from was her own reckless libido. The goo turned to brittle concrete.

      ‘No, of course not.’ Another lie. Because she was upset. Upset that she’d buckled to her searing attraction to the infuriating man, who displayed enough warning signs to send her running. And furious that she couldn’t be certain, given half a chance, she wouldn’t do it all over again.

      ‘He...he said he doesn’t trust people.’ What was that about? Just her? Women in general? The entire world?

      ‘He