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  In the act of taking a sip from her glass, Isla nearly snorted her water instead as she desperately tried to hold back her laughter. If what she recalled of her French cooking class was correct, wasn’t that last bit referring to a particularly fancy variety of cheese that also happened to smell like a pair of old socks?

  Placing her glass back on the table, she waited until the server left before asking with a grin, “Would it be safe for me to think Mrs. Carmichaels doesn’t like you too much?”

  “Is it that obvious?” Sean asked dryly. Everything that happened and would happen in the next two days – from the very moment he had “fallen head over heels” at his first glimpse of Isla at the lobby and including even their orders for their “first” date at Alexio’s – had been pre-planned by the CEO of Heart’s Match.

  “You must have done something horrible,” she guessed.

  He grimaced. “Let’s just say she still hasn’t forgiven me for dating her sister and then breaking up with her after three weeks.

  Isla’s amusement turned into shock. “Three weeks?”

  “We were thirteen.” Isla’s aghast expression made Sean feel slightly defensive. “No self-respecting thirteen-year-old boy would even think of sticking to one girl at that age.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Sean shot her a dry look. “Were you this suspicious towards your brainless ex?”

  “Didn’t you say I wasn’t supposed to think about him?” she hedged.

  “That’s not an answer to my question, sugar,” he taunted.

  No, it wasn’t, and Isla made a face at the way he had so easily turned the tables around, and she now felt incredibly foolish at how naïve she had been with Jonathan. The truth was that everyone had been dropping obvious hints about Jonathan in the weeks leading to their breakup, but she had refused to see the writing on the wall until it was too late, and she had to literally walk in on Jonathan and her sister making love—-

  Stop. Isla quickly hit the brakes on her thoughts. If she wasn’t careful, she would end up wallowing in thoughts of self-pity again, and hadn’t she come all the way up to Aspen to do the exact opposite?

  Gesturing to his plate, she said with false gaiety, “Our food’s getting cold.”

  The too-cheerful tone from his would-be wife was easy to interpret, and as he saw the way she fed herself a bite of fish in a mechanical fashion, Sean once again battled against the urge to beat her ex into a pulp. But more than that, he had an even greater need to curse her entire family for their cruelty and insensitiveness towards Isla.

  Thanks to Heart’s Match’s extensive profile report, Sean knew that Isla’s parents had convinced their older daughter it was better to cover up Jonathan’s infidelity for the sake of their future grandchild. And so instead of the truth of Jonathan and India’s perfidy coming out, everyone in San Diego believed it was Isla’s selfish pursuit of career advancement that had pushed her boyfriend to find comfort in her sister’s arms.

  Sean’s gaze drifted to Isla, thinking that the emerald color of her eyes suited her, but the pain he glimpsed in them did not. He wanted it gone, and so with all things he wished to eliminate in his life, Sean wasted no time in making his move.

  Nodding towards the strip of fish she had stabbed with her fork, he asked casually, “How is it?” He had never deliberately sought out to charm a woman before - in truth, there had never been a need – but for his future wife, he was simply going to have to make an exception. He would make her talk, smile – he was determined to do whatever it took to make her forget her sadness.

  “It tastes heavenly—-” Isla wrinkled her nose. “As it should, considering how much it costs—-” She stopped speaking, realizing too late how her words could be misconstrued.

  “It’s just our first date, sugar—-” Sean pretended to wince. “And you’re already being a cheapskate?”

  His words almost made her sigh in relief. Oh, thank God he wasn’t being sensitive about the whole thing. Another condition set in their contract was for Isla to shoulder a majority of the expenses for this weekend as well as the agency fee, leading her to believe that Sean’s income was a lot smaller than hers.

  “So...” Isla cleared her throat. “We never got around to talking about money.”

  “That’s because there’s nothing to talk about, darlin’.”

  Isla cringed. Crap. She hadn’t meant to make him admit he had no money to speak of like that. “It doesn’t matter that you don’t,” she told him quickly.

  “Doesn’t it?”

  Isla’s guilt grew at Sean’s bleak note. “I promise it doesn’t—-”

  “Because now that I’m thinking about it, maybe you’re right and we shouldn’t be married. I’d be a failure as a man if I force you to live a life that you’re unaccustomed to.”

  By now, Isla felt like she could hang herself. “You have it all wrong, Sean. You know how things turned out between Jonathan and me. By marrying you, I was hoping you’d take care of me...in a different way.” She could barely get the words out – they were such a huge lie – but she had no choice, knowing it was the only way to salvage Sean’s pride.

  “A different way?” Sean slowly ran a hand over his face, knowing that his beautiful redhead would assume he was struggling with hurt pride - when in reality all he wanted was to make sure she didn’t accidentally catch him smiling.

  “Like, you know, emotionally?”

  Sean let his eyes widen. “You mean that, sugar?”

  Isla tried her best not to throw up. “Absolutely.”

  “To help you get over Swanson?”

  “Exactly.” She could say anything at this point as long as it would have him forget her stupid faux pas.

  “And sexually, I presume.”

  “Yes, of course—-” Wait. An appalled look crossed Isla’s face when she realized what she had accidentally agreed to.

  “I’m glad we had this talk, sugar,” Sean said warmly.

  Dismay welled up inside of her, and Isla hurriedly protested, “But I’m not—-I didn’t—-”

  “I feel much better now,” he assured her, “knowing that I won’t be a burden to you. I’ll be counting the number of times you have to pay, darlin’—-” He wagged his brows suggestively. “And I’ll make sure to help you the same number of times.”

  Great. Just great. She might have succeeded in restoring Sean’s ego to a healthy state, but in the process she had also inadvertently turned herself into an emotionally imbalanced, sex-starved tramp in his eyes.

  Isla cleared her throat. “Look, I think we’ve got our wires crossed—-”

  “Did we?”

  “I didn’t really mean I’d need you to—-” Her gaze narrowed.

  There was something about the glint in his eyes that seemed suspicious...

  And then she saw him smirk, and all at once Isla realized he had been playing her all along.

  Again.

  “You brute!” She wanted to sound angry, but the laughter that bubbled past her lips completely took the edge off her words.

  “I love the sound of your laugh, sugar. You should do it more often.”

  “I hope you mean that,” she grumbled, “since you seem to have a knack for cracking me up.”

  “I always mean what I say, and I’m willing to bet it’s not the only part of you I’ll end up loving before this day’s over.”

  “Sean!” What an irrepressible flirt he was, and oh, there it was again, too – that look in his eyes which made him seem like he was just seconds away from pouncing on her, and another peal of laughter slipped out at the way Sean grinned unabashedly at her.

  “Sean.” This time, she uttered his name in warning.

  “Isla.” His voice, on the other hand, was of pure silken mockery, and one made more beguiling by the way he deliberately stretched his legs under the table until his knee bumped against hers.

  Crap. It was the most short-lived of contact, but it was enough to have her entire body tingle – the way it had never
done before. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Seducing you, ma’am.”

  “Are you crazy?” She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He was so shameless!

  “It’s part of Charlotte’s script,” Sean said innocently. “We’re supposed to act madly attracted to each other—-”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to seduce me in public—-”

  “Then you’re saying I can have my wicked way with you once we’re alone?”

  She started to answer but ended up choking again, with Sean’s legs once again moving under the table, this time trapping her legs between his. He felt long, hard, and muscular against her softness, and heat wrapped around her like an insidious, unstoppable force meant to take over her body.

  Hating and fearing the way he made her feel so out of control, she muttered under her breath, “You’re horrible.”

  But hazel eyes only gleamed back at her. “I’m sorry to hear that as, on the contrary, I think you’re perfect.”

  She lifted her chin even as something inside her turned warm at his too-sweet words. “Spare me, please. I’m not buying it.”

  “Because your ex’s known you your entire life and he’s never told you anything even half as sweet?”

  Isla’s teeth gnashed against each other. Why was he so good at reading her mind? She opened her mouth to deny his words, but Sean’s sudden movement served to distract her again. He had just pulled back, his legs freeing hers from its trap, but even before she could let out a sigh of relief, Isla’s second round of torture had already begun, with his hand reclaiming her still-sensitive knee.

  “No,” she hissed in alarm under her breath. “Don’t—-”

  But then his fingers started to move up her thigh, and her voice trailed off.

  Jonathan had never touched her leg before.

  And yet now...this man who was and wasn’t a stranger had his hand on her thigh.

  “Your body’s shaking, sugar,” Sean crooned. “Have I upset you?”

  Isla could only glower. Sean had started stroking her thigh as he spoke, and the indolent caresses had robbed her of the ability to speak.

  “Would you like me to stop touching you?”

  The sudden flush of color in her cheeks should have been answer enough, and perhaps it would have been so for a far less dominating man.

  Unfortunately for Isla, it was all or nothing with Sean, and his next words made this all the more obvious.

  “I want to hear you say the words, sugar. Do you want me to stop or not?”

  Yes. Say yes. She had to say yes and tell him to stop. But in the end, the remembered, pervasive heat of his touch won over her sanity, and Sean’s fingers resumed its stroking caress the moment she shook her head.

  Her eyelids fell closed.

  Oh, how good his touch felt on her skin...

  So dangerously good...

  But for some reason, it was no longer enough –

  “You want something else, don’t you?”

  Her eyes flew open. How did he know? How did he always know?

  “If you want something else, something more—-” His voice was rough and thick. “You only have to say it.” His fingers moved up to curve around one jean-clad thigh, and she hastily swallowed back a whimper as he squeezed her too-sensitive flesh. “My body is yours to command, sugar.”

  Oh, how he tempted her...

  “Simply speak of what you wish, Isla.”

  Just this once, she would let herself surrender and do what he ordered.

  And so she heard herself say, “Kiss me.”

  Chapter Five

  With how he seemed to enjoy teasing her and making her laugh, a part of Isla had expected Sean to take a soft, playful approach to their first kiss. But the moment their lips touched, she realized that no technique could make any difference to how she felt, their attraction to each other too combustible that at the merest brush of his lips, it was all over for her –

  Isla was his for the taking.

  His hand curved around her nape as their mouths met. His grip felt both masterful and gentle, making her toes curl, and when he softly nibbled on her lips, her toes curled even harder.

  In Charlotte’s extremely detailed outline, their first kiss was supposed to happen later – much, much later. She thought vaguely of telling him this, but the moment her lips parted, his kiss deepened, and Isla’s brain cells scattered to the air like useless confetti as the kiss turned into something else – the kind that stole her breath and made her entire body catch fire, the kind of kiss that made her panic, thinking, This was definitely NOT Step 2!

  As if sensing her rising alarm, he breathed soothingly against her lips, “It’s okay, sugar.” His hand tightened around her nape as he traced her mouth with his tongue. “Sssh.” His tongue eased between her lips, exploring the intimate shape of her mouth with slow, sweeping strokes. Each stroke was a seductive command, demanding and tempting her to succumb to his passion. Her surrender was inevitable, and as the pressure from his mouth gradually increased, she found herself yielding with a soft moan.

  Her tongue slipped out to mate with his. She vaguely heard him growl just before the kiss changed once again. It was so unapologetically male now, nothing at all like the chaste, fleeting pecks that Jonathan had given her over the years. This kiss was raw, intimate, and intoxicating, torching her senses until she was delirious in her need.

  When Sean ordered her to suck on her tongue in a harsh voice, she could only close her eyes and do as he bid. Without even thinking why she was obeying, without even caring – all Isla knew was that she had to do as he commanded, and as his tongue drove deeper, it felt as if he was consuming her – was it bad that she liked how helpless he made her feel, wanted it so much that she wished he would keep consuming her?

  In the end, it was Sean who finally had the presence of mind to put an end to a kiss that threatened to burn them alive. If he had not lifted his head and pulled back, she was afraid she would have ended up begging him to finish what he started.

  Even now, the words were close to brimming past her lips as it was, and Isla had to swallow them back while struggling to regain her composure. Dear Lord. What a kiss that was. She had never thought a kiss had the power to drive one crazy – and if she had thought of asking Sean at that moment, she would have been surprised to know that he suffered from the same shock as well.

  Sean was panting, his body still clenched hard in arousal. It took every bit of his control not to haul her close with the way she looked, clouded green eyes and trembling, passion-bruised lips that begged for a continuation of their kiss.

  She wanted him to fuck her – that was damn clear now and impossible for her to deny – and he wanted the same thing.

  “Be mine, Isla.”

  Isla stilled. She hadn’t expected him to say that at all. “But Charlotte’s outline—-”

  “Fuck that. I want you now.” Not a single trace of the charming lightness Sean was so known for could be found in his voice, and there was a grimly resolved quality to the hardness of his darkly handsome features. “And you want me just as much.”

  He saw Isla jerk at his words, and the face she showed him was an open book, telling him exactly what had her disconcerted: the Sean in her letters had been a sweet, funny, lighthearted rogue, and nothing in his words or his manners had indicated he could be this domineering in sex.

  It was the exact kind of thought an innocent like her would make, and if he were the type to listen to his conscience, her reaction should have been enough. He should back off now, be a lot gentler, kinder.

  Too bad for her, he wasn’t that type of man. If their marriage was to work, she had to accept him for the man he was, and that was someone who reserved all his darkness for the bedroom.

  His gaze returned to Isla: she had a determined look on her lovely face, and the stubborn line of her jaw was proof of how hard it was for her to resist reacting to his scrutiny. Her shock hadn’t completely faded either, her dazed
green eyes indicating her shock and confusion. She couldn’t understand why her body was so responsive to anything he did, and a humorless smile touched his lips, with Sean grimly aware that she wasn’t alone in her disbelief at the way things had turned out between them.

  It’s you and me both, sugar...

  And that was not a fucking good thing, considering that he planned to let her go in a couple of months’ time.

  Sean had never been an angel where women were concerned. He was the love ‘em and leave’ em type, and he was ruthlessly set in his view of the opposite sex: he needed them to slake his sexual drive, nothing more, nothing less. Those who understood this were extremely well compensated; those who did not he had no time to waste for.

  But Isla...

  Isla was like no other woman he had dated.

  The first time he saw her photo, he had known right away his chemistry with her would be explosive, and when Sean had read her profile report, he had known right away that she was the only woman he could tolerate being married to. He had been around enough women to know at first glance if a woman would be able to hold his interest for more than a night, and Isla, he was certain, would be able to keep him pleasantly diverted for as long as it was needed.

  It should have ended there, with everything tied up with a neat little bow, but now that he had kissed her –

  It changed everything. The mind-blowing heat of their kiss had surpassed even his wildest imagination, and even now, the mere sight of Isla, with her naked gaze unconsciously pleading him to kiss her again –

  Ah, fuck.

  “I’m willing to wait for you to make a decision,” Sean ground out, “but you have to help me here.” He had never had to control his desire before for anything, and the unfamiliar need for abstinence had his whole body aching while his manhood had long swelled to painfully engorged proportions under his jeans. He had a feeling it would be so until the very end, and he’d have no choice but to walk out of this restaurant while sporting a raging hard on.

  “Help you?” Isla’s gaze was glued to Sean’s handsome face, which was a picture of torment. “How?”