Page 8 of The Billionaire's One-Night Baby

‘Good job, Elodie Kate.’ Elodie Kate? Her grandmother was the only person who had ever called her by her full name—Dodi was a nickname everyone used—and she swallowed, emotion closing her throat. Man, she still missed Lily with every beat of her heart. She should be here, running this shop, bestowing her wide smile and good sense on neurotic brides, scared brides, spoiled brides. She could charm bridezillas into behaving better, shy brides into happy conversations and tame off-the-wall brides.

Unlike Dodi, she hadn’t pulled on a mask and gritted her teeth as brides gushed and giggled, cried and cooed.

Really, what the hell had Lily been thinking, leaving her L&E?

And why did Jago’s compliments make her feel warm and wonderful? They had a tenuous connection because of her friendship with his sister, and shared a brief kiss years ago, nothing more. They were, essentially, little more than strangers.

Maybe it was because he was so difficult to impress. He set, as she’d heard from Thadie, impossibly high standards for his employees.

And himself.

Jago looked at the expensive watch on his wrist and grimaced. ‘I should go. I still have a lot to do tonight.’

She looked up to find his eyes on her face and she sucked in a sharp breath, unable to look away. Those eyes! Intense and piercing and so very, very captivating. He had the eyes of a warlock, she decided. And his face and body weren’t too bad either.

Not bad? He was utterly gorgeous! Why did her skin feel too tight for her body? Why did she suddenly want his lips on hers, his hands on her back, her breasts, her bum? What was happening here?

His gaze travelled up and down her body, and flames licked her skin. Her feet were glued to the floor and the room felt smaller. And a hundred degrees hotter. Dodi heard Jago release a small expletive, and within a second, maybe two, he crossed the space to where she sat, slid his hands under her elbows and lifted her to her feet. His big hand slid around to her back, and he held her against him, but Dodi knew that with a small push he’d release her and step away.

Honestly? She rather liked where she was, thank you very much. His chest was broad, hard muscles covered by hot skin and fine Egyptian cotton. He smelled like summer, of thunderstorms and hard rain, lemons and deep forests.

She lifted her hand to touch his jaw, trailing her fingers through his surprisingly soft stubble, enjoying the feel of his hard, square jaw. Her thumb brushed over his bottom lip, and she heard his low growl again, the one that made her feel squidgy and soft, super-feminine.

This was crazy, this was wrong...this was Jago! But she couldn’t, wouldn’t, step away, not until she’d reacquainted herself with how he tasted, until she’d discovered whether there was still passion behind his inscrutable, abrupt facade.

Despite being tall, Dodi still had to lift onto her toes for her mouth to reach his. Please, please don’t rebuff me, she silently begged. Give me this one kiss, this one moment out of time.

She tasted his sigh, sweet and a little desperate, and when his lips didn’t move to meet hers she thought, for one awful moment, that she’d miscalculated, that he didn’t want to kiss her.

But she caught the smallest twist of his lips, a flash of lightning in his eyes, and his mouth covered hers, a petrol bomb tossed into a dry wooden shack. Flames, hot and insistent, scampered across her body, and her nerve endings caught fire. Dodi slid her hand under the collar of his shirt to find warm male skin and curled his fingers around his strong neck. She sighed, and when Jago’s tongue painted the seam of her mouth with need and fire she opened her lips and...

Boom! Electricity shot to her toes, up her legs, into her womb. She wanted to protest, rail at him for making her feel so out of control—no one had ever made her feel so alive!—and at the same time she wanted to climb inside him, be part of him. His arms tightened around her, and his big hand slid down, cupping her butt and pulling her closer so that her stomach pushed into his heavy, hard erection, as he easily held her against his hard, muscular frame.

This was heaven, she decided, and hell. Heaven because his kiss was more powerful than the one they’d shared before. Hell because she knew they had to stop before they went too far. She couldn’t make love to her best friend’s brother on her shop floor on a Wednesday evening in late summer.

She couldn’t make love to her best friend’s brother at all!

This was an aberration, a crazy, tiny rip in reality. And this didn’t mean anything, it couldn’t. She wouldn’t let it.

But surely she could keep kissing him, just for a little while longer?

His stubble tickled as he dragged his lips to her cheekbone, teased her jawbone. Keeping one hand on her butt cheek, he moved the other between them and found her breast. The material of her dress and bra was an unwelcome barrier as he massaged her nipple and teased it into a hard peak. She felt her panties dampen and when his hand rucked her dress up her thigh and his fingers encircled the top of her leg she knew they had to stop because if he kissed her one more time, if he touched her there, she would be lost...

And she didn’t know if she’d be able to find her way home.

Dodi, reluctantly, it had to be said, pushed her hands against his chest. ‘Jago, stop.’

It took a couple more kisses and his fingers skimming the front of her panties before her words registered. He pulled back and glowered at her, disappointment in his eyes and rushing across his face. ‘We’re stopping?’

‘Yes.’

He dropped a harsh curse into the heavy silence that followed her answer.‘Why?’

Dodi stepped back and shook out her skirt. ‘Because I’m not making love in front of floor-to-ceiling windows, because you’re Thadie’s brother, because, despite that connection, you’re just one step up from being a stranger!’

‘I’ve known you since you were eighteen years old! We’ve even kissed before!’

‘That kiss didn’t count!’ Dodi retorted. ‘I was sad and hurting and you were trying to comfort me, to make me feel better. And in the ten years we’ve known each other,’ Dodi added in a rush of words, ‘we’ve never had a conversation that went beyondHi, how are you?I don’t know what madness this is but it’s stopping right now. I’m not interested in a relationship—’

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