Free Exposing Alix by Inara Scott Page B

my
job. That doesn’t mean I don’t want you.”
    She closed her eyes, swayed, brushing her breasts against
him as she turned back toward the bed. “But you don’t trust me.”
    He paused and then slowly shook his head.
    She placed her hand on his forearm, a breathtaking picture
of vulnerability. “I don’t care. Just kiss me. Please kiss me.”
    Jake stared at her, jaw flexing as if he fought some inner
battle. Then, eyes open, he slowly lowered his mouth.
    She leaned against him, sliding her hands up along his
chest. Their mouths meshed, and he groaned, burying his hands in her hair. His
mouth slid along the edge of her jaw, then dipped lower, tracing the edge of
her collarbone. She offered herself to him, shaking her hair behind her like a
cloud and arching her back to press her chest closer to his. Without pause, he
took what she gave, pulling the thin spaghetti straps of her nightgown over her
shoulders and exposing her perfect white breasts. His fingers moved over the
hard brown peaks, and she moaned.
    “NC-17 rating okay with you?” Alix asked.
    “We’ll edit out the racier stuff.”
    Jake returned his attention to her mouth. Bodies intertwined,
they fell backward on the bed as he licked the edges of her lips, slid his
tongue between them, claimed her like a prize.
    That was when it all began to go wrong. What had been an
ordinary love scene, albeit one without much emotion, turned into a battle. He
struggled to maintain control while she fought back, her mouth moving faster
than his, her tongue slipping between his lips, her fingers catching him around
the waist. Though to the casual viewer it might not have been noticeable, to
Alix it was almost painful to watch, their bodies full of barely repressed
anger, any hint of romance diluted by the far greater sense of fury. When he
covered her with the weight of his body, it was an act of dominance, not
passion, and when she rolled him onto his back and straddled him, it was tit
for tat, push for shove.
    Alix watched for a minute before she covered her eyes and
waved a hand at the screen. “Is it all like that?” she asked, her voice muffled
behind her hand.
    “We did a number of takes,” Ryker said wearily. “That was
the worst. By the end of the day, they’d worked through a lot of it and had
reached a truce, I think. All I can say is that it didn’t look quite that bad
when we were filming.”
    She observed him from the corner of her eye as he slumped
back against the cushions. He rubbed his eyes and slouched down farther into
the couch. He hit Fast Forward, and the film spun through a number of versions
of the scene, then changed to a kitchen. Lena sat on a kitchen counter,
laughing. Jake leaned between her legs. Ryker hit Play, and for a minute, the
couple looked happy, their cheeks resting against each other. Jake eased his
fingers through her hair, from her temple to the side of her neck. He took one
long black curl and wound it around his finger. He dropped a kiss on her
shoulder, and she froze. The look of ease disappeared, though she tried to
maintain the same expression. A cold, tight smile replaced the sensual heat of
the moment before.
    Ryker hit Pause again. He muttered an expletive under his
breath. “I thought they were professionals.”
    “She’s in love with him, Ryker,” Alix said softly. “You
can’t blame her for that.”
    “What?” He looked amazed. “She hates him. It’s as plain as
the nose on her face. She must still be pissed about that wardrobe girl.”
    Alix shook her head. “I always try to give men the benefit
of the doubt, but you really don’t get this stuff, do you?”
    He sighed. “If you’re considering giving me a lecture
about true love, you can stop right now. I’m not interested.”
    “Whether you’re interested or not, Lena’s still in love
with Jake. She’s terrified to let him touch her. That’s why she looks like
that. She’s using her anger to mask her fear. If we don’t figure out some