Page 25 of Forbidden Romeo

“Ah,” Jack replies, looking far too pleased with himself as he raises his glass to his lips. “You’re a clever girl.”

His praise does something to me I can’t quite explain, but it has me squirming in my seat. I clear my throat. “What do you play?”

“I box,” he says easily.

“Like, with the gloves and everything?”

Jack puts his hands out in front of me, revealing his hardened knuckles. “Bare-knuckle..”

Bare-knuckle boxing. I shudder, remembering how one of my first patients back in LA received a nasty slash across his eye from a BKB fight. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

Jack seems to consider this. “For the other guy, sure.”

I can’t help but giggle at his show of unyielding confidence, only to feel his soft hazel eyes on me again.

I scowl at him. “You have to stop staring at me like that.”

“Why?”

“It’s unnerving.”

“But you’re so very beautiful.”

His eyes go dark as he looks me over hungrily. There’s nothing I want more than to reach over and start tracing the scars across his brow. To feel his skin on mine…

I swallow before my imagination gets away from me. That wine has clearly gone straight to my head.

“So, what did you give the receptionist earlier?” I say, trying to change the subject.

Jack looks a little surprised. “You saw that?”

“Mmhmm,” I confirm, waiting for him to answer the original question.

Jack smirks and leans in closer. His hand returns to my thigh, stroking up a little higher, and I feel myself gravitating toward him like a magnet. “Just a little incentive not to give away the master suite this evening.”

My breath catches, and I let it out shakily. “You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“I’m good at what I do.”

The unspoken question hovers in the air between us.

I pick up my glass to disguise the slight shake in my hand. “I have work tomorrow evening.”

“Then don’t stay until the evening.”

I swirl what’s left of my wine in my glass, wondering why this feels like such a compelling argument. But as I take the last sip, I figure out why.

My sister’s words come back to me.

We’re young, free, and single in New York City. We can be whoever we want to be.

Tonight, I want to be the kind of girl that lets herself be seduced by a handsome, rich stranger.

Chapter Seven

Aimee

Jack pulls me through the hotel, pointing out more of the beautiful paintings when he notices me staring at them in passing. The views out of the windows are stunning on every corridor we turn down, and the neon lights cast his features in mysterious darkness.

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