Page 1 of Undeniable Temptation

Prologue

Leah staredat the glossy paint of the door, the heavy wood holding back her dreams and protecting her from stupidity.

“Ryan, let me in.” Fantasies and idiocy be damned, she needed to be in there with him. “Talk to me.”

The response was an eruption of noise—a harsh shout, a smash, a thump. He was going postal, entirely destroyed from the news of his impending divorce.

“Ryan.” She banged her fist against the wood. “Open the fucking door.”

Whispers skittered toward her, the flutter of curiosity coming from other hotel guests who cautiously stepped into the hall to snoop.

If she didn’t smother this outburst it would become gossip column news. All those tabloid bastards needed was a sniff of drama and they’d pounce. There’d be photos, old or new, it didn’t matter, and a provoking headline that lacked an ounce of truth. Then she’d have to deal with more chaos. More than the monumental amount she already predicted with his inevitable divorce.

“Ryan…Please.”

The heavy thud of approaching footsteps made her inch back. Then the door flew open, and before her stood the man she adored, his pain and anger transforming his usual at-peace appeal into something toxic.

“Ryan—”

“What do you want?” he sneered.

His gorgeous ocean eyes tried to belittle her, and the heavy rise and fall of his chest aimed to intimidate. His ferocity would’ve worked if she hadn’t anticipated it. She had already prepared herself for the worst, because this moment was exactly that for him.

It was his time to break, and she had to be the one to pick up the pieces. Not because she hoped it would save their rocky friendship. Not because it was her job to do so. And definitely not because her feelings for him were far from platonic.

Nope. His appeal to her needy senses had nothing to do with this. None whatsoever.

She wanted to fix this because he deserved to be the one who was coddled for once. Every other member of Reckless Beat had stolen the dramatic limelight more than a handful of times over the years. Mason, Sean, Blake, and Mitch had all driven her crazy with moments of melodrama, while Ryan had been the peace and civility. The charmer. The goodness that kept her smiling.

“Get out of my face, Leah.”

OK, so maybe he wasn’t the peace and civility right now. But it was only a matter of time before the restoration of the man she admired.

She raised her chin, meeting his defiance with a dose of her own. “Let me in.”

“Why?” He scowled. “Why do you care?”

Ouch. That hurt. “Don’t take your anger out on me.” She strode forward and squeezed past him into the suite. “We’ll talk this out. It’ll ease the shock.”

She could smell alcohol. Scotch. It was potent, the mere scent like a tranquilizer to her senses. Obviously, she’d made the wrong decision to wait in the lobby for ten minutes so he could pull himself together. The only thing he’d been amassing was a more delirious arsenal for the impending explosion.

He wasn’t himself. She couldn’t see the gentle friend under his wavy shoulder-length hair and the close cropped beard. His fierce scowl washed away his easy charm, making her the tiniest bit fearful for his mental state.

“Yeah, we’ll just talk this shit out and all my troubles will disappear.” His tone dripped with sarcasm. “Then we can hug and laugh and braid each other’s hair. Right?”

“Just get in here and take a seat.” She entered the main room and winced at the opened bottle of Johnny Walker on the coffee table, half the contents already consumed. She hoped, for his sake, that he’d cracked the cap before today, otherwise he’d soon face plant into the carpeted floor.

“Come on, Ryan.” She strolled into the kitchen, retrieved two glasses from the cupboard beside the fridge, and started to fill them with tap water. “Talk to me.”

“About what?” He came into view at the end of the hallway. “You know as much as I do.”

That was a lie. They hadn’t been close for a long time. Not since Australia when she’d made the mistake of keeping the gossip about his wife’s questioned fidelity to herself. Now she was banished from the insider knowledge of his private life. He didn’t confide in her at all.

“I gather you weren’t expecting the process server to show up today?” She turned off the tap and kept her gaze downcast, measuring her dosage to his pain.

The divorce papers had been handed over in a hotel ballroom across the city, while the band had been watching Sean and his dance partner rehearse an upcoming music clip. Ryan’s enraged reaction to his induction into single status had been witnessed by the film crew, along with the security and dance team. All of them possible gossip leaks to the always starving paparazzi vultures.

“No, Leah,” he grated. “I didn’t know.”

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