The Dare Collection January 2019. JC Harroway

jaw ached with keeping in all the words I wanted to fling at him. The need to tell him he was a controlling douchebag and I’d rather crawl naked over broken glass than work for him or do a single thing he said.

      But...the promise of that internship was enough for me to swallow any sarcastic comebacks.

      ‘You’re serious about this reference?’ I asked instead.

      He moved purposefully towards me, obviously expecting me to get out of the way of the door. But I didn’t.

      I stayed exactly where I was.

      He came to a stop in front of me and at last that stony expression on his face flickered. ‘One thing to understand about me is that I never lie. You’ll only get the truth from me. So if I promise you a reference, I mean it.’

      I tried not to feel satisfied at that flicker of expression. ‘Well, I guess that’s—’

      ‘But you’ll only get a good reference if you perform to my satisfaction,’ he went on coldly. ‘If you don’t then you don’t get a thing.’

       Perform to my satisfaction...

      The words echoed weirdly in my head and I became suddenly aware of how close to me he was, towering over me, his gaze like black ice.

      Heat began to prickle across my skin.

      He was so tall, so broad, and he wore some kind of subtle cologne that smelled fresh, like water or rain, with an edge to it, a darkness. A rainstorm...

      My mouth dried, my heartbeat thumping uncomfortably in my ears. Standing here had been a mistake. But then if I moved, I’d be betraying something and one thing I knew was that I couldn’t betray any kind of weakness in front of this man. I’d already given him power over me by admitting how much I wanted the internship. I couldn’t afford to lose any more ground.

      I pushed myself away from the door and took a step.

      Towards him.

       CHAPTER THREE

      Xander

      POPPY TOOK A step towards me, her copper eyes full of challenge, clearly having no idea how fragile my control was.

      Apparently, she’d been put on earth solely to test me.

      In the normal scheme of things I had no problem keeping myself in check. But this woman... Christ, she’d done nothing but push me from the moment she’d stepped into the room. And now my patience—usually limitless—was almost extinct.

      Then again, I didn’t know what I’d expected. She’d been doing that since she was ten years old.

      At first, I’d been happy at the thought of having a little sister to spoil since I’d been rather isolated as a kid. But then she’d turned up, made of nothing but anger and spite, and had decided, for some reason known only to herself, that I was the worst person on the planet and had treated me accordingly.

      Things had gone downhill from there.

      I’d known at the time that she’d just lost her father and so, for at least a year after she came to live with us, I tried my best to be friendly towards her. But she never softened. Nothing I did was right and nothing I said changed things. She either ignored me completely or picked at me constantly, pushing and pushing to get a rise out of me.

      She didn’t treat either Ajax or Leon like that, only me.

      So I stopped trying to be nice and simply ignored her. Which would have worked fine if I hadn’t accidentally caught her skinny-dipping in the pool early one morning. She’d been eighteen, rising from the water like a sea goddess, her hair dripping and glossy down her back. Her skin had glistened a deep bronze, her lovely face devoid of its usual angry scowl, and she’d stood there by the edge, her arms raised, squeezing the water from her hair, looking out towards the ocean since our house was built on a cliff. And she’d smiled.

      It slew me, that smile.

      That was when my dick had decided it wanted her. And the damn thing hadn’t let up since.

      Now, I tried to hold onto the last fraying shreds of my control, but then she took that step, getting close, inches away from me, pushing me the way she always did. And I could smell her, that sweet jasmine scent, feel the heat of her lovely body. And all I could think about was turning her around and pressing her hard against the door, dragging her jeans down and getting inside her.

      Shutting that smart, beautiful mouth with my palm. Getting her smoky voice screaming into it with pleasure. Or maybe putting her on her knees and making her beg. Or even turning her over my knee and spanking that perfect ass red.

       You’re supposed to take care of her.

      Yes, I’d made that promise. And I wouldn’t break it, no matter how hard she pushed me. My control might be in shreds, but I would never lose it completely. I kept my promises. I always told the truth.

       Except when you lied about not wanting her anywhere near your dick.

      I ignored that thought.

      ‘So basically I have to do whatever you say.’ She came to a stop and folded her arms, giving me a belligerent look. ‘Sounds to me like you have all the power.’

      ‘No one is forcing you to take the job.’

      ‘But I have to if I want to get the internship.’

      ‘Of course not.’ Did she really need this explained to her? ‘You could call the firm yourself and ask for one. You don’t have to have a reference from me.’

      ‘Yeah, but it’s not like they’re going to pay any attention to some nobody from Australia asking for an internship.’

      ‘No, they won’t.’ The truth had to be said, even if it made her uncomfortable. ‘Internships there are incredibly sought after.’

      ‘How convenient.’ She glared at me.

      ‘Don’t take the job then.’ I was getting more and more irritated. By her proximity. By that maddeningly soft-looking cloud of black hair. By her delicious scent. By the pulse at the base of her throat that I was somehow becoming acutely aware of with every passing second.

      Jesus, I had to get her out of here. Ajax was going to arrive at any moment and the last thing I wanted was to have a meeting with my brother with an inconvenient hard-on.

      She scowled. ‘You could just give me the reference.’

      ‘You could just take the job.’

      ‘You promised your dad you’d look after my mother and me,’ she shot back. ‘Wasn’t that what you told me?’

      She wasn’t wrong. I had told her that.

      Over the past five years, after Dad had gone to prison, I hadn’t seen much of her, though not for want of trying. I’d wanted to keep that promise I’d made him, but almost the very second the prison doors had closed, both Lily and Poppy had disappeared. I’d tracked them down eventually to a very upmarket apartment in Bondi, which was a surprise given that the few assets in Lily’s name had been frozen along with Dad’s. Poppy had some kind of waitressing job which only paid meagrely, so it wasn’t as if she was supporting her mother.

      I had my suspicions about how they managed to afford such an expensive place, but it wasn’t my job to interfere in my father’s ill-conceived marriage, so I decided not to ask her any questions. Instead, I told them about my promise to Dad, offering them some monetary help. Naturally Lily instantly accepted, which didn’t surprise me. My stepmother never let an opportunity go to waste.

      However, that promise had been between Dad and me, a private agreement, and it was what set me apart from him. He had no honour, but I did. I kept my