and sunlight burning through c

. 8:

and professional and pretending I hadn't spent half the night

prayer. Coffee burned my tongue as I threw on the first suit I could find-navy blue, co

inch of my skin while he whispered filthy promises in that whiskey-rough voice. I'd woken ach

dn't begin

ushed past, but her assistant flagged me down with

le. Patricia wants to see you the

, spreading the documents across my desk with shaking hands. Sexual as

d tilted

at all-he was Kane Drax, and somehow the universe

, exactly the kind of he-said-she-said that could destroy a career. But I'd been there.

venge, pure

e with the man who'd starred in every fo

uld think about was how Kane would look in that orange jumpsuit. Would it stretch acro

al. Stay p

on that had nothing to do with legal strategy. When the guard

the shackles. The jumpsuit should have made him look like any other inmate. Instead, it clung to every ha

d the sharp angles of his face, and when those hazel-go

his lips was pure sin.

f how his gaze tracked every movement. The space between us felt electr

wn with hands that trembled slightly.

our mothe

and demanding. His intensity pinned me

sor

ntoxicating scent from Eclipse-leather and motor oil an

She'd been dead over a decade, killed in the line of dut

e of her name to

" My voice came out sm

ered across his feat

in the room dropped ten degrees, and I felt t

antly. "She died protecting

finished, his vo

le. For a moment, he towered over me, and I felt the full weight of his presence-da

of heat in his eyes. The way his pup

nted

ng ablaze. Kane Drax-criminal, everything I should avoid-want

ant you as

ce crumple before I could stop it, the rejection hitti

. D

h distance between us as the small room allowe

oken glass. When he looked at me again, his eyes

over me, lingering on the conservative cut of my suit, the c

But it landed like a physical blow, an

y his rejection felt like losing something I'd never had. I bar

I

that shook despite my best efforts. "I'll

al

ne was pressed against the wall like he was trying to

oice was rough, desperate. "At Eclip

ome shred of professional dignity. But

es

t's why you can't be my lawyer. That's why

ut

apped open, burning with inte

any rational woman would. Instead, they sent heat spiraling through my

before I said something that would destroy us both. The moment my skin

hand in shock. When I looked at Kane, he was froz

that," I

hen, in a voice like broken glass:

t like

e way he made me feel to call him on it. I fumbled the door ope

ed in my car did I l

ing to understand why a stranger's rejection felt like the end of the world. I hadn't flirte

had looked at me a

was how much I

plete dismissal of professional courtesy. Instead, I felt hollow,

made n

total. There was no logical reason for his rejection to hurt this muc

d, all I could think about was the desperation in Kane's voice when he'd w