Free Code of Control by Jevenna Willow

tuck
your tail between your legs and hide from your extreme phobias?”
    “I don’t have extreme
ph—”
    His arched brow had
reached his hairline, stalling this lie.
    “Fine, I have a tiny
phobia about chickens. Sue me.”
    “Tiny?” he
asked, his dimples sinking in.
    “Okay. Huge.
Happy now? They do say confession is good for the soul.”
    Nolan stood
tall. He held out his hand toward her. “Come with me.”
    Charlotte
refused to take it, Nolan lowering his arm. Yet, her curiosity urged her onward
with only words. “Where to?”
    “Outside.”
    She instantly
balked, taking a firm step backward. “You are not forcing me into a chicken
coop, Nolan Morgan.”
    His grin
widened. “I’m not going to make you touch any chickens, Charlotte.”
    “Good,” she said
loudly.
    “I’m going to
force you into facing the rest of your phobias.”
    “My what?”
    “Your phobias,”
he repeated.
    “I don’t have
any—”
    Again, his brow
touched his hairline.
    “Dammit,
Charlotte. I know everything there is to know about you. Don’t try to hide things
from me. The sooner you open up about your fears, the better for our
partnership.”
    She took offense
to this. “What about you? I don’t know a damn thing about you. You could have
told me you’re a twin. You could have said a lot of things to me last night.
Instead, you hid like a coward behind a locked door, avoiding contact with me.
If anyone has a phobia…”
    “Done ranting?”
he asked, the corner of his mouth lifting.
    “Done… what ?”
she sputtered. “I don’t—”
    “You sound like
an old woman right now,” he interrupted.
    “That’s funny.
You sound like an ass.”
    “Braying?”
    She shook her
head. “No. Pompous, presumptuous, egotistical, arrogant…”
    He was in her
face within seconds; his arms wrapped around her, holding tight. “Care to
finish this while I’m holding you in this way?”
    “Demented,
chauvinistic, desperate…” she said softly, hiding her grin.
    “Desperate?” His
chuckle loud, his head drew back to stare at her face. “I am assuredly not
desperate, Ms. Raven.”
    “Yes, you are…desperate
enough to hold what you can’t have for the next two weeks.”
    His brow lifted
higher than before. “Can’t Charlotte? I do believe you are mistaken on that.”
    She glanced
away, enjoying his arms around her. He was everything she wanted in a man,
everything she needed, and everything she could not have. “Fine, what you don’t
want…even if handed to you on a silver platter,” she adlibbed. “And last night
could have confirmed this to you.”
    His frown came
back swift. “I never said I don’t want you.”
    “You don’t want
me in your bedroom, contradictive to what your body language is telling me
right now. That’s saying to me you’d rather I was anywhere else but here.”
    Nolan’s smile
grew, his lowered lids hiding his possible feelings about her. “I can’t help holding
you when you’re near me,” he said, rakishly. “You smell good, like roses in
bloom.”
    Charlotte felt
the bulge in his pants pressing against her inner thigh. “You can’t help it?”
    “Yes, Charlotte,
I can’t help wanting you. I said it to you before and I’ll say it to you again,
I want to make love to you, knowing how great it was when he did, but until you
can trust me I’ll have to abstain as best I can.”
    “I trust you,”
she said. “Trust should not be the issue here.”
    He did not look
convinced of this lie.
    “I do,” she
repeated.
    “Your mouth says
one thing, your eyes another,” he warned.
    “I can’t help it
my eyes don’t match my words. It’s a hereditary defect, that’s all.”
    “If anyone knows
hereditary defects, it’s me, sweetheart.” His head jerked to the closed bedroom
door.
    “You’re not
defective,” she disagreed.
    “Prove it.”
    “How?”
    “By coming with
me outside. We’ll face your fears head on, no holds barred.”
    Charlotte slowly
removed her body from his