Chapter 38

She had known on an instinctual level that the man wanted her, so she wasn't entirely surprised by his response. She stepped back, attempting to put space between them. His hand dropped from her, but his knuckles brushed across the peak of her breast, tightly wrapped in the dress. Her body responded involuntarily, a spear of attraction shooting through her.

"What if I say no?" she asked, breathlessly. "What if I want to leave? Will you let me go?" She knew the answer before he spoke.

"No, I'm afraid that's not an option, Claudia."

"Why?" she asked, the constrictive band tightening around her chest once more. "That's that's kidnapping."

He stepped back, pulling his suit jacket off his huge shoulders and laying it casually across the back of a couch. "For several reasons," he spoke, as he pulled cufflinks off his shirt, dropped them into his pocket and rolled the white sleeves of his dress shirt up his muscular forearms. Dark tattoos swirled up his arms drawing her eyes. They loo