Page 7 of The Forbidden Bride He Stole

“Mmm, possibly.” Of course, none of their customers could ever hold a candle to Apollo. She had looked at him with rose-colored glasses for so long. And why? Because he was stunningly attractive? Because he was over six feet tall with broad shoulders, arresting features, a square jaw, a blade-straight nose, and lips that looked like they might soften if he smiled. But he never did, so it remained nothing but a theory?

This was her problem. She was a cliché. An absolute cliché. Hideously lousy for the older man who had stepped into her life as an authority figure. Which was problematic and unrealistic. Many would argue that she did not have the agency inherent in the situation to feed feelings like that. So there, stupid heart.

She had never interrogated her life before she’d gotten this job. She was just thankful that she had a group of friends who had encouraged her to do that.

“I googled him,” Pablo said. He stole a cherry from her drink and popped it into his mouth.

“Who?”

“Apollo Agassi. Your stern daddy of a guardian. He’s a snack.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” said Hannah.

“I’m just saying,” said Pablo. “It’s completely valid that you have a thing for him.”

“I want to see,” said Mariana, taking out her phone. “Wow. I’m so sorry I mocked you for wanting to bang him because—OMG.”

“Right?” Pablo said.

They passed Mariana’s phone around and gaped at the pictures of Apollo.

“He’s hot,” Gigi said.

“Wouldn’t know,” said Rocco.

“Yes,” Mariana said. “You’re straight. We know. Thank you.”

“So, get on your knees for him and take control of the situation,” said Pablo.

That image was instant, and graphic.

“I’m sorry,what?” Her cheeks felt like they’d been scorched.

“There’s no way he hasn’t noticed that you’re an attractive woman.”

“He thinks of me as a child,” she said, but then she thought of how he had looked at her last night, and she wondered.

“He’s a man. And men are simple. Get on your knees, do something better with your mouth than just talking back, and see what happens.”

“What?You think he’ll just... He can’t give me access to my trust fund. He isn’t legally in charge of that. He’s just in charge of me. Kind of? I don’t know. It’s convoluted.” She didn’t even bother telling them that he could extend the length of time that she had to stay on the guardianship because it was just unhinged. “I can’t just... Dothat. It would...”

“What? What’s the worst that could happen?” Mariana pressed.

Well. He could use that as an excuse to extend the time between now and when she got her money. But, most likely, knowing him, it would make him want to push her away. Apollo was exacting. He didn’t expect people to do the unexpected, and it was one of the reasons that he had found her behavior over the last six months so challenging. She knew that. Nobody defied him. And it was why she was fighting him with such intensity tonight.

You wondered about this...

Yes, she had. But that meant like...wearing a low-cut top in front of him, not actually touching him. Tasting him.

She’d wanted a little plausible deniability with her behavior, and something like that would leave no room for her to pretend that maybe he’d imagined it all.

“If you want your freedom,” Pablo said. “Take your freedom. In your mouth.”

“Ugh,”said Mariana, taking a cherry out of her drink and throwing it at him.

I’ll think about it,” she said, and it made her feel all warm and uncomfortable.

“Hannah is a virgin,” Mariana said.

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