Working with the Enemy (Small Town Sizzle Book 1) by Lilian Monroe & Mandy Michaels

Author:Lilian Monroe & Mandy Michaels [Monroe, Lilian & Michaels, Mandy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Method and Madness Publishing
Published: 2024-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

SEBASTIAN

My mind was still swimming as I let the cool water rinse the soap from my hands. I almost hated to wash her off of me. And the way she’d sung my name when she came was even better than I imagined. I’d never, ever forget that sound. I rolled my head back with a sigh. Finally, some relief from her beautiful torture. I’d only been away from her for a minute and my body was craving more of her. I dried my hands and hurried back to the woman who’d awakened something inside me that I was too afraid to name.

The room was quiet. Almost too quiet. No sign of life anywhere. Where was she?

“Charlie?” I called, and I peeked in the hall bathroom but it was dark and empty. A creak above signaled her whereabouts. She’d left. Why would she run off?

Flitting my gaze over the scene of our fondling, I recalled her resentful words—This changes nothing—the taste of her tongue the moment she let me in, and the hot tears in her anguished eyes when she explained about her parents. I hate you, she’d said with such deep animosity.

Fooling around didn’t change the fact that she saw me as the enemy. Not for the first time, I wondered whether I was doing the right thing. But what choice did I have? My chest ached. I didn’t want to hurt her.

What was I doing?

From the moment I spotted this Second Empire shack from the road, I’d been champing at the bit to tear this place down. But thinking about that look on her face, the dimple in her chin as it trembled, I didn’t know anymore. When I stacked up all my reasons for going through with it against the pain written on Charlie’s face, I didn’t know if I could do it to her.

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist. Damnit. This was supposed to be simple. Clean. Transactional. This was exactly why I didn’t want to get involved. Especially with her. But like it or not, now I was. I couldn’t help the little thrill I got seeing her face every day. How her mouth drew my gaze, even when she was snapping a quippy comeback my way. And the way her brow furrowed when she was determined to do what she stubbornly thought was right.

I glanced around the apartment in an attempt to see the place through her eyes. She loved this place. It wasn’t just four beat-up walls to her. It was her home, the place where she was loved and wanted for the first time in her life. Maybe her passion wasn’t about preserving structures from times gone by, but what they meant to the people they sheltered.

Even if I wanted to keep these walls upright, my hands were tied. I made a deal. Theo wanted the land Radcliffe House Apartments sat on. Without it, there was no deal, which meant there was no buying my dream company. And if that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be able to give my mother back what she lost in the fire.

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