The Dare Collection: June 2018. Lauren Hawkeye

‘I don’t do girlfriends.’

      ‘Not ever?’

      He shook his head, a slow measured action that gave his stare plenty of time to scrape over her heated face. ‘Not for years.’

      So the ex hadn’t just hurt him, she’d ruined him. He really was as closed off as she’d suspected. She took pity on the grey tinge to his handsome face. ‘Human interpersonal relationships are...complex.’ Hers included. All she knew about the opposite sex, beyond the theory she’d got from books and lectures, she’d learned from the behaviour of her selfish, largely absent father and her cruel, manipulative ex. She swallowed down the familiar lump threatening to make her feel two inches tall and changed the subject.

      ‘Fun fact—did you know that having an older sibling can positively improve your mental health?’

      He frowned as if she’d spoken in Russian.

      She nodded, warming to her favourite subject. ‘It...it’s been scientifically proven. Ben and I have only connected recently, but...’ She shrugged. She hoped it was true. Hoped what she found with Ben would positively impact both their lives for years to come.

      His eyes narrowed slightly, as if he were seeing her for the first time. ‘So Frank Newbold and your mother had an affair?’ His lips formed a grim line, judgment hovering in his stare.

      Essie squirmed as the acid in her throat burned its way through her internal organs. She bristled, lashing out instead of curling in on herself. ‘Not exactly. Not every relationship is sordid—sometimes people are duped, lied to, manipulated.’ The excuses kept on coming, as if she’d waited too long to purge. ‘My mother didn’t know about Ben and his mother until after I was born. Frank spun her the usual bullshit about having a rocky marriage and leaving his wife when the time was right...’ Essie herself hadn’t known until her fifteenth birthday. ‘By then I was Daddy’s little girl and Mum couldn’t bear to break my heart with the truth that he’d probably never fully commit to us. I guess she always held out hope that one day we’d be a proper family.’ Her throat burned so badly now she was surprised she could speak at all.

      ‘So you didn’t know about Ben?’

      She sighed and shook her head. ‘I was fifteen when I found out.’ He stayed silent so she continued. ‘My father was overseas, and I was angry that, yet again, he wouldn’t be home for my birthday.’ The burn invaded her eye sockets. Why tell him this? Speaking the words aloud wouldn’t lessen the impact of the events. ‘I stayed awake until the middle of the night, crept downstairs and called him at work. He wasn’t at the office, but I was given another number I assumed was a hotel. A woman, Ben’s mum as it turned out, answered the phone and I said I was his daughter. I’m not sure who was more shocked.’

      A disbelieving frown. ‘That’s how you discovered you had a brother?’ Ash stopped just short of allowing his jaw to drop open.

      She nodded, her face flaming. Not a pretty story, and one it seemed, despite his friendship with Ben, he’d never heard. She wasn’t surprised. Why would Ben want to advertise such a sordid tale?

      Ash’s skin took on a green hue, his mouth now a fully blown grim line. Was he that appalled by her tawdry past? How dared he be so...judgmental?

      The question stuck in her throat. She ripped it out, needing confirmation. ‘Ben...never talked about me?’

      He sighed. ‘Not much. A mention here and there. But I...was busy...with work stuff at the time.’ He grew pensive and turned to look out of the car window again. ‘Perhaps if I’d known more about you, we might have avoided this...situation.’ He spoke quietly, almost to himself. But the words stung just the same.

      So now she was a situation? She wasn’t the only one to blame for where they found themselves. ‘So you usually screen all the women you sleep with, do you?’ That must take up all his spare time, if the reputation Ben hinted at and the pictorial evidence was accurate.

      He turned an inscrutable expression on her, but his eyes blazed. ‘No. You didn’t screen me, either, your first one-night stand. Perhaps we should both be a little more selective in future.’

      She jutted her chin forward, humiliation making her irrational. ‘What, next time you find an obliging stranger in the park?’ She couldn’t look at him, but she couldn’t look away.

      ‘Hey, you came on to me—all I did was make the mistake of sitting in a public place.’ He leaned in, hard shards of metal in his stare.

      What was wrong with him, making conversation one minute, lashing out the next?

      What was wrong with her, digging for answers and then shooting the messenger?

      ‘Well, all I did was make the mistake of sleeping with some sort of...Jekyll and Hyde character.’ Could his signals be any more mixed? Just like the justifications and excuses currently spinning through her head and making her seasick.

      They’d hissed the last few comments to each other, their faces drawing nearer and nearer as they made their respective points. Now, only a couple of centimetres separated them.

      His warm breath caressed Essie’s parted lips.

      Her pants forced her breasts closer and closer to his chest with each breath.

      His bold stare dipped to her mouth.

      Her fingers curled into the leather upholstery.

      She leaned in...

      ‘Sir, we’re here,’ said the driver.

      Essie flopped back, spent. This couldn’t go on. They’d never survive sharing a workplace sexually sparking off each other like this, and the minute Ben came back from New York, he’d see straight through them and their barely contained animosity. Perhaps Ash would get his way—perhaps Ben would fire her.

      Drastic circumstances called for drastic measures.

      Damn, what was a girl to do?

       CHAPTER FIVE

      ‘YOU HAVE GOT to be kidding me...’ Essie spun on him the minute they boarded the cute little Learjet he’d hired to take them to Paris. Her baby blues flashed and she popped out one hip as she glared in slack-jawed astonishment.

      ‘What do you mean?’ He was used to impressing women with his wealth. He’d never experienced whatever snit had worked its way beneath her creamy skin.

      She scanned the sumptuous interior, which was starkly white, from the plush carpeting to the soft leather seating.

      ‘All this?’ She spread her arms wide to encompass the luxury, her nose wrinkled as if he’d offered her a ride to Paris inside a dumpster. ‘Ever heard of global warming? Carbon footprints? Scheduled flights? The Eurostar?’

      Was she for real?

      He swept past her, loosening his tie and shrugging off his jacket to drape it over one of the wide white leather seats that offended her so much.

      ‘I’ll plant a damn forest. Sit down.’ Damn, she riled him up. Bubbly and playful one minute, vulnerable and hesitant the next and then hissing and wild when he overstepped some line he couldn’t see. His cock stirred for the hundredth time that day. This torture had to end. One way or another.

      After she’d left his apartment last night, his balls had been so blue he’d returned to his en-suite, switched the water to arctic and banged one out. Then he’d put out some feelers among his fellow legal professionals in the UK to see if anyone was looking to take on a new partner. As soon as Ben returned, he’d distance himself from the day-to-day running of The Yard. His commitment was always supposed to have been financial, with a spot of legal work thrown in pro bono.

      When he’d walked into the bar this morning to see her smiling at Josh, he’d been so desperate to quench his constant need for her, his testosterone-addled