Free Bound (Forbidden Series - Book 1) by Melody Anne Page A

reactions to him. Damned if he knew why, but he was also enjoying the fire that seemed so easily to light up within her eyes.
                  Blake walked up the stairs, entered her bedroom, and looked over at the closed bathroom door. Hearing the shower running, he found himself wanting to join her, wanting to speak to her. What was her story? How had she ended up at Relinquish Control? And why in the hell did she fascinate him so much?
                  Leaving the room, he went into his own and shed his clothes. As he climbed into his shower, he decided against spending the night in the same bed with her. He wasn’t in control enough to know how he would respond when he sank inside her, and he couldn’t take the chance that he might be consumed by any emotion.
                  He really might have to send this woman back.
                  He almost panicked at the thought. “Not yet,” he said aloud, shocked when the two words resounded off his shower walls. Now he was talking to himself. Maybe he should spend a day with his brothers. They could assure him he wasn’t crazy or they could at least throw some light on what in the hell was going on with him.
                  As Blake got into bed, he wondered what Jewell was doing right then. Was she applying some of the expensive lotion sitting on her bathroom vanity? Was she slipping on the silk pajamas he’d had laid out for her? Was she thinking about him?
                  He shouldn’t give a damn, but he wanted to know what was happening inside her head. He wanted to know desperately. He’d never before brought a woman to his apartment. It was his sanctuary. It was a place to which he certainly didn’t invite strangers. That was thoroughly practical. If women didn’t know where he lived, there was less chance they would hassle him when he was finished with them.
                  So why had he brought Jewell here? Damned if he knew.
                  His personal assistant had been shocked when he called her a few hours earlier and told her to find night wear and women’s toiletries along with a collection of clothing that would be suited for any occasion. Of course Jewell came with her own clothing, but he didn’t like the sort of outfits McKenzie chose for her escorts.
                  His assistant hadn’t questioned him, and he was grateful that he had a semblance of respect for one woman in his life. More than a semblance, actually. He liked her as a person.
                  Now, if only he could find some solace in his own apartment. After fifteen minutes of lying on his bed wide awake, Blake knew the only thing that was going to help him was some intense sweating.
                  He threw on some workout clothes and went out into the hall. Walking past the room Jewell was in, he paused, his hand lifting toward her doorknob for only a millisecond. He turned away and went down the main stairs, then down another set of stairs to his home gym.
                  Turning the setting on his treadmill to a respectable speed, Blake ran until Jewell was flushed from his mind. Then, after climbing back up both sets of stairs, he rinsed off in the shower again and collapsed onto his bed. He was thankful when he finally felt sleep claiming him.

Chapter Nine
     
                  Jewell felt as if she had sandpaper in her eyes. She didn’t want to open them, didn’t want to wake up. It had taken her hours to fall asleep the night before. When she was slipping on the pajamas she’d found laid out on her bed, she’d heard Blake’s soft footsteps in the hall outside her room. He’d paused by her door, and she’d held her breath.
                  She wasn’t sure whether it was from anticipation or fear. But when he continued walking, she’d let out her breath and slid onto the bed, her knees unable to hold her.