Free Watch Me by Shelley Bradley Page B

puppy in his expression.
    Damn it, had the handful of orgasms Alejandro had given her softened her that much? Shanna stiffened her spine. She couldn’t afford to think with her heart—not if she wanted to win. And winning was all she had, even if it sounded so…empty. No, she was just tired or something. She’d worked too hard to lose focus now. If she couldn’t figure out who was behind this blackmail before the competition, she was going to have to cut Kristoff loose. Period.
    -67- Shelley Bradley
    “We can win if we get that DVD out of circulation. I’m working on that.”
    “Is that why you went to Sneak Peek and performed a public scene with Alejandro Diaz?”
    Shanna nearly choked. It hadn’t occurred to her that Kristoff would find out. In retrospect, she should have known better. He was a member there. Clearly, someone had told him.
    He laughed. “I heard it was very hot and that you had a rapt audience.”
    “I did what needed to be done.”
    Yeah, she’d done whatever she had to in order to achieve that first orgasm, and the second. She’d barely resisted his offer of a third, which he’d promised to give her in his bed, just the two of them on soft satin sheets.
    Bad girl!
    “And you did it very well, I hear.”
    Shanna rolled her eyes and turned away so he wouldn’t see her cheeks turning pink.
    But she wasn’t fast enough.
    “You’re blushing. You?” Astonishment laced Kristoff’s voice. “I have never seen you do such a thing.”
    It was rare, and all because Alejandro had blown her away, and she wasn’t sure she had recovered yet. She had never craved sex or ached for any man. Until Alejandro. Last night, before she’d lost herself to the sensations of self-pleasure, she’d wondered exactly what Alejandro had done to her and why she was so fascinated by him. How was it possible he’d gotten under her skin so quickly?
    Pretending to walk across the studio nonchalantly, Shanna sought her bottle of water and took a deep drink, then turned toward Kristoff.
    “Apparently, our plan wasn’t good enough. We didn’t catch anyone in the
    -68- Sneak Peek: Watch Me
    act of filming us, as we’d hoped. No one has sent me another blackmail disc or threatened me as a result of the whole thing.” She shrugged. “I guess it was a waste of time.”
    But it didn’t feel like a waste, given what he’d done next…
    After the scene had ended, Alejandro had pressed a button to drop a partition between them and the audience. Shanna heard the watchers filing out, which filled her with a sense of both loss and relief. Then Alejandro had turned her to face him and taken her into his arms. For a simple hug. He’d said not a word, asked for nothing else. Just held her, stroked her hair, for several moments. She hadn’t had that in a long time. Years. Her father and brothers certainly never gave affection. And she had wanted it so bad.
    She’d clenched her eyes shut, resisting an urge to crawl deeper into his embrace and cry for all the fear—and conversely, the bliss—soaking her body. In the aftermath of their sex, her emotions had tumbled, jumbled, whirled all around. Up was down, backward was forward; nothing made sense except holding onto him.
    Somehow, she’d managed to restrain her tears, yank herself from his arms, and don her clothes.
    Within minutes, Del emerged into the room with the unhappy news that security had been scouring the footage of the event and found no one in the audience with a camera of any kind. After Del left, Shanna had lost it. Tears had fallen hard and fast. But silently. She didn’t think Alejandro had noticed. She’d been wrong.
    He’d swooped her up into his arms. “Don’t cry.”
    She’d been weak, and Alejandro had felt so strong when he’d settled her against his powerful body, in the shelter of his arms, and kissed his way down her face. He’d been so tender, as if he’d known exactly what she needed. He’d ripped right through her fragile barriers.