Free Trapped with the Tycoon by Jules Bennett

soaked,” he told her. “The snow went right into my boots.”
    “Let me have those.” Placing the water on the floor at the foot of the bed, Zara reached out and took the soaked, icy socks.
    “My pants are wet, too.”
    Her eyes darted up to his. That smirk on his face had her shaking her head. “Oh, no. Don’t even think of stripping. You can roll the pant legs up and come sit by the fire.”
    His big hand stroked over the cat as the damp animal snuggled deeper into her cream duvet. “You’re no fun at all.”
    “Oh, I’m loads of fun. I’m an events coordinator. I get paid to be fun.”
    After she laid his socks by the gas logs, which she cranked up because she was still shivering, she turned back to see Braden feeding the kitten small bites of a cracker. For a second she just stood there and stared. She’d not met many men like Braden, hard and powerful on one hand, soft and compassionate on the other.
    “You’re staring,” he stated without looking up.
    She remained where she was because the sight of him on her bed being so...adorable was not something she’d planned on. She’d had a hard enough time resisting him when he’d been flat-out sexy. Now that an adorable factor had slipped right in, she was losing what little control she had left.
    How would she handle another night with this man?

Six
    S o now Zara was not only nervous around him, she was nervous over a cat. This woman had so many complex layers, and damn if he didn’t want to peel back each one.
    “I’m going to take my pants off if you keep looking at me like that,” he threatened. He didn’t know what was going through her mind, but he couldn’t handle her looking at him as if he was some savior or something.
    “I’m just trying to figure you out.”
    His hand stilled on the kitten’s boney back. “Don’t,” he told her, meeting her gaze across the room. “That’s not an area you want to go to.”
    Zara crossed to the chaise and shoved her blanket aside before taking a seat and curling her feet beneath her. “Oh, I think maybe I do want to go there. What makes a rumored bad boy go all soft with a kitten?”
    “I wouldn’t have left any animal out in this. Would you?”
    He needed to turn the topic of conversation back to her. Nothing good would come from her digging into his private life, but he wanted to know more and more about hers. Suddenly, finding out more intimate details had less to do with the scrolls...not that finding those weren’t still his top priority.
    “Honestly, if I’d been alone, I wouldn’t have known what to do. I guess maybe I would’ve brought it in, but I seriously thought animals were made to be outside.”
    Braden reached into the sleeve of crackers for another and broke off a piece for the kitten. “Why no pets growing up?”
    He watched from the corner of his eye as she toyed with the edge of her sweatshirt a moment before speaking. She was either nervous or contemplating how much to tell—most likely a little of both. Fine by him. He would wait.
    “My parents weren’t the most affectionate,” she started slowly, as if finding the right way to describe her mom and dad was difficult. “To be honest, I never asked for a pet. I figured they’d say no, so I didn’t bother.”
    When the kitten turned away and stretched before nestling deeper into the covers, Braden set the crackers on the nightstand before shifting on the bed to face her.
    “Were they affectionate to you?” he asked, wondering why he was allowing himself this line of questioning. Seduction was one thing, but finding out about her childhood was a whole other level he didn’t need to get into in order to do the job he came to do.
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    Suddenly it did. Braden came to his feet and padded over to join her on the narrow chaise. Easing a knee up on to the cushion, he turned sideways.
    “Were you abused?” he asked, almost afraid of the answer. “Is that why you had such a strong connection with