To say that Elvie was annoyed is an understatement. It had taken her almost an hour to sort her dress and clear her head before she called Bella for help. She told her that she got locked up inside the closet and had a panic attack. Luckily, Bella didn't ask her anything.She knew involving herself with Zander Asshole Stanton was a mistake, and what happened between them was beyond stupidity.Falling in love with Zander would be asking for the sort of trouble she helps other women extricate themselves from on a daily basis. Love does weird things to women. They got blindsided, hoodwinked, and charmed into looking at their men through rose-tinted glasses that failed to show up their faults until it was too late.Elvie wasn’t going to be one of those women—a victim of some man’s power game, leaving her as vulnerable as a rain-soaked kitten. "Listen, I appreciate your concern about my cubicle and my very important job to look at the monitors, such as they are, but I’m busy. Now, if you’l
Jesus, Elvie, what on earth are you doing? Stop responding to that man! You know better than that! Stop! The alarm bell of her conscience shattered the moment she pushed against his chest and stepped back to create some distance between them. "Stop! Don’t even think about it, Zander!" His mouth tilted in a knowing smile. "It's not like we haven't done it earlier. But okay, I’m a patient man. The longer I wait, the better the satisfaction." Wait for what? She pondered. Elvie had a feeling there would be a heck of a lot of satisfaction going on if she were to submit to his passion again. The sort of satisfaction that had mostly eluded her in her previous encounters. She wasn’t an expert at sex, or at least not with a partner. She could get things working fairly well on her own, but at least she had been able to fudge her way through it. So far. What happened to them earlier was stupid and damn her for thinking about it again.But she suspected Zander wouldn’t be fooled. Not for a m
Zander brought her chin up, so her gaze meshed with his. "Stay right by my side; you won’t regret it. I can guarantee it."You think? Huh! Stay right by his side and be naive every time he looked at her like he was about to devour her? Yeah right. Her hormones were on edge.However, Elvie brushed his hand away from her chin and took a step backward. "I’m not agreeing to this for any other reason than to save my friends. Are you absolutely clear on that?"Yeah, right. Whatever she was saying, she sure as hell didn't understand any of it while his hands felt so warm on her skin. Screw hormones; right now, all she ever wanted was his lips on hers.Zander’s eyes shone with a triumphant gleam that made the backs of her knees tingle. "But of course, wife."Elvie disguised a swallow, trying not to notice the way his eyes kept glancing at her lips. "When are you thinking of doing it? I mean, officially making me your assistant’s assistant?"Whatever the hell it was, her brain isn't working. H
When Elvie left, Zander picked up his champagne glass because, unless he gave his hands something to do, he knew they would be tempted to jump ahead a few spaces. He could wait. Sure, he could. Elvie was all for keeping things on paper, but he knew she would crack before her brother’s release from the mental institution.He knew she was still attracted to him. What happened earlier in the closet was never a mistake, and they both knew it but tried to deny it. Yes, he had a moment of weakness, but how could someone blame him? He was a man in his prime.However, he knew Elvie had a teenage crush on him, which had amused and annoyed him in equal measure back in the day when he and her brother were still the best of friends. He’d been a little ruthless in handling her back then, but he hadn’t been interested in messing with a teenager, especially so soon after his break-up with the ex he’d thought he was going to marry. Back then, Elvie had been young and starry-eyed, fancying herself in
Elvie stood by the door, ready to sprint any second.Zander smirked. He loved how he made her relentless. "I understand you’re a little apprehensive about sex, but I can assure you, I’m excellent at it," he winked. "You moaned my name earlier, remember?" Twin pools of bright pink flared on her cheeks. "I am not apprehensive about sex. I have sex—I have it all the time. I just don’t care to have it with you again." It was the biggest lie in the century, and her husband’s eyes knew about it. But Elvie didn't care anymore, she just wanted to get rid of the silly grin on his face.However, he wanted to make her eat every one of those words and lick them away with that hot little tongue of hers. He wanted that tongue all over his body. He wanted to taste every inch of her again. His desire pulsed through him like an ache. He’d been too long between relationships. It had been weeks—no, months—since he’d had decent sex, and earlier was beyond amazing. He’d been too busy, distracted by work
Later that night at Zander’s mansion, Elvie didn’t know how she got through the rest of the evening, with Zander and her brother, Joey, chatting away over dinner like two good friends who’d just nailed a successful business deal. Damn it. She was the business deal. How could this be happening? Married to her worst enemy! And it was happening so quickly. Her phone hadn’t stopped buzzing with incoming messages because Zander had taken the liberty of announcing their marriage on social media and in the press. She thought he wanted their marriage to be private—out of the media’s eyes.Her friends and colleagues had been calling her since earlier, and even though she ignored their messages, her phone hadn't stopped ringing.And Joey? Her brother? She didn't even know what happened to him that made him surrender himself to the mental institution, and now that his doctor said that he was clear to get out and was now cured of whatever was happening to him, She had so many questions that her h
Zander turned and saw her looking at him, and before she could put any distance between them, he lifted a finger to her face and tucked a breeze-teased tendril of her hair back behind her ear."You are my wife, Elvie. Mine. You need to remember that."His face was mostly in shadow, but she could see the moonlight reflected in his gaze like a glint of quartz in black marble.Elvie knew she should step away; she also knew she should brush his hand aside, frown at him, and tell him to back off in her sharp, schoolmistress-y tone. But it seemed her mind and body had other ideas. Wicked ideas. Dangerous ideas. Ideas that made her picture her body crushed beneath his, his mouth clamped to hers, their bodies writhing in mutual, skin-shivering ecstasy. She drew closer to him as if someone had a hand in the small of her back, her hips brushing against his. The shock of the erotic contact made her insides twist and coil with lust, her breath hitch, and her heart race. She saw her hands slide up
Zander bit her lips in a sensual way that made Elvie want to just kiss his lips again. "Are you sure, wife?" One side of his mouth came up in a slanted smile. "You seriously think you can maintain that, even if by some remote possibility I agreed to it?""Of course," she said with much more conviction than a person who would have then lied about having botox. "What happened in the closet stays in the closet and must never be repeated ever ever ever again.""Wow! That's a lot of EVER."Elvie raised her chin. "I'm serious, Zander. Those are my rules.""Are you sure, wife? I can be persuaded, you know.""What the hell are you doing? You hate me, and I hate you. The feeling is mutual. Can we just get this over with like two civilised people?"He raised his brow. "Here’s what I think of your rules." He stepped back into her body space, standing close enough for her to feel the tug of attraction pulling at every one of her organs like invisible silken cords. His eyes moved back and forth be