Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 149209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Shanna nearly choked. It hadn’t occurred to her that Kristoff would find out. In retrospect, she should have known. He was a member. She hadn’t seen him there, but clearly someone had told him.
He laughed. “I heard it was very hot and that you had a rapt audience.”
“I did what needed to be done to lure our blackmailer.”
Or had she really done whatever she had to in order to achieve those stunning pair of orgasms. She’d barely resisted Alejandro’s offer of a third, which he’d promised to give her in his bed, just the two of them on soft satin sheets.
“And you did it very well, I hear.”
Shanna rolled her eyes and turned away so he wouldn’t see her cheeks turning pink.
But she wasn’t fast enough.
“You’re blushing. You?” Astonishment laced Kristoff’s voice. “I have never seen you do such a thing.”
It was rare, and all because Alejandro had blown her away, and she hadn’t recovered yet. She had never craved sex or ached for any man. Until him. Last night, before she’d lost herself in the sensations of self-pleasure while thinking of Ali, she’d wondered exactly what he had done to her and why she was so fascinated by him.
How had he gotten under her skin so quickly?
Pretending to walk across the studio nonchalantly, Shanna sought her bottle of water and drank deep, then turned back to Kristoff. “Apparently, our plan wasn’t good enough. We didn’t catch anyone in the act of filming us, as we’d hoped. No one has sent me another blackmail video or threatened me as a result of the whole thing.” She shrugged. “I guess it was a waste of time.”
But it didn’t feel like a waste, given what he’d done next…
After the scene had ended, Alejandro had pressed a button to drop a partition between them and the audience. Shanna heard the watchers filing out, which filled her with a sense of both loss and relief. Then he had turned her to face him and taken her into his arms. For a simple hug. He’d said not a word, asked for nothing else for long moments. He just held her, stroked her hair. She hadn’t had that in a long time. Years. Her father and brothers certainly never gave affection. And she had needed it even more than she’d realized.
Shanna had clenched her eyes shut tightly, resisting an urge to crawl deeper into his embrace and cry for all the fear—and conversely, the bliss—soaking her body. In the aftermath of their sex, her emotions had tumbled, jumbled, whirled all around. Up was down, backward was forward; nothing made sense except holding onto him.
Somehow, she’d managed to restrain her tears, tear herself from his arms, and reach for her clothes.
Within minutes, Del emerged into the room with the unhappy news that security had been scouring the footage of the event and found no one in the audience with a camera of any kind.
After Del left, Shanna had lost it. Tears had fallen hard and fast. But silently. She’d hoped Alejandro had noticed.
Wishful thinking.
“Don’t cry,” he’d whispered as he swooped her up into his arms.
She’d been too weak to fight Alejandro, especially when he’d felt so strong while he’d settled her against his solid body and in the shelter of his arms. As he’d kissed his way down her face, he’d been so tender, as if he’d known exactly what she needed. He’d ripped right through her fragile barriers. She’d opened up to his whispered words and tender mouth…
Then he’d taken her hand and led her out of the main house, down a pathway hidden by tropical plants and climbing ivy, softly lit by the full moon, then pushed his way toward a luxurious cottage.
His private quarters.
Being alone with him when she was so emotionally raw…not smart. Downright scary, in fact. Even the idea had made her heart skid, her palms go clammy.
Clutching her keys, Shanna had mumbled something about a fictitious early-morning practice and fled.
So, it was done. They were done. Now, she needed to get her mind off of the repeated messages he’d left since and focus on dancing. She had the biggest competition of her career to prepare for. He had a business to run. Why he continued to pursue her, she had no idea. They had nothing in common.
Except great sex.
“Earth to Shanna,” Kristoff joked. “Are you with me?”
“Yes. Sorry. I have a headache.” That wasn’t a lie actually…just not the whole truth.
“Sorry. What should we do next about…the problem? Perhaps you should seek out a new partner.”
He looked so sad at the prospect. Something in her chest twinged, and she tried to shove it aside, but that wasn’t working.
“We don’t have time to talk about this now. You have to be at work in two hours, and I have to meet with the costumer shortly. Let’s focus on today.”