Free Playing His Dangerous Game by Tina Duncan

sighed and leaned across the table. ‘Well, I hate to tell you this, Shara, but caution just isn’t going to cut it.’
    She read the determination written on his face. It was unsettling. ‘You’re serious about this?’
    He nodded. ‘I am. Very serious.’
    Shara gripped the edge of the table. ‘What you’re suggesting is suicide.’
    ‘No, it’s not. Brady can’t touch you without going through me first.’
    Shara eyed the rock hard muscles of his shoulders and arms.
    Of all of the things Royce had said to her—the promises and assurances—what he’d just said was the most reassuring.
    If Steve came up against Royce it would be like pitting a domestic cat against a lion or a tiger.
    Royce was a professional.
    He’d proved that more than once.
    Maybe it was time she started listening to his advice.
    She nodded before her courage deserted her. ‘OK. I’ll do it.’
    ‘Good. I’ll get Jackson on to it right away.’
    ‘Jackson?’
    ‘Jackson Black. He’s a friend of mine and a very good lawyer,’ Royce explained. He paused for a moment, then asked, ‘Can I take it that you’ll co-operate from now on? There’ll be no more incidents like the one this morning?’
    Shara nodded.
    ‘Good. We have a much better chance of success with us both working together.’
    Shara grimaced, not so sure she wanted to work together with Royce.
    After that near-miss kiss earlier, working together could prove altogether too dangerous.
    ‘What is it?’ Royce demanded when he saw her grimace.
    ‘Nothing. I’m just being stupid.’
    ‘I’ll be the judge of that.’
    She shrugged. ‘When I left Steve I promised myself that I’d stand on my own two feet.’
    ‘You are.’
    She shrugged again, drawing his attention to her breasts. ‘It doesn’t feel like it. Not when I’m relying on you to protect me.’
    ‘Give yourself a break, Shara,’ Royce said, speaking in no uncertain terms. ‘No one is completely self-sufficient. If you have a leak you call a plumber. If you have car trouble you take it to a garage. If you’re sick you go to a doctor. There’snothing different about this situation. You’re being threatened and I’m an expert at protection. End of story.’
    ‘I suppose so.’ She paused. Looked away then back again. ‘How long do you think this is going to take, anyway?’
    She rested her elbows on the edge of the table. The action squeezed her breasts together, deepening her cleavage in the low neckline of the white T-shirt she was wearing. Royce found it difficult not to stare. In fact he found it impossible not to.
    She had a fantasy-filled bra. He was a man who liked curvy women. Maybe it was because he was such a big man himself. Skinny women did nothing for him. Somehow he knew Shara’s breasts would fill his hands perfectly, and his fingers itched to pull off her T-shirt and bra and discover the truth for themselves.
    As he watched her nipples tightened to beads under the thin fabric. She’d noticed him staring and her body was reacting.
    Suddenly the air around them was filled with electric tension.
    His eyes shot to her face. She was staring at him, twin stripes of colour flagging her cheeks.
    The realisation that she was being turned on by his look sent a surge of hormones racing through his body. His erection was hard and fierce and instantaneous beneath the zippered seam of his trousers.
    Shifting on his seat, he willed his body under control.
    He didn’t want to be attracted to Shara. Not only was she the principal, but she was cut from the same mould as Fiona.
    Both came from rich families and both had been raised by doting fathers who had spoiled them rotten at every turn. The result, of course, was that they were selfish and self-centred. They took more than they gave.
    Royce preferred women who’d forged their own path in life the same way he had. They could be models or lawyers.
    It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that they appreciated what they had because they’d earned