Free Shayla Black by Strictly Seduction Page A

becoming stern.
    Aimee’s shoulders sagged visibly as she left the room. Brock found himself smiling at the girl.
    “ Goodbye, Aimee,” he called.
    “ Bye,” she muttered, punctuating the dejected syllable with a half-hearted wave.
    Brock wondered about Maddie’s rapport with the child, but the mixture of guilt, exasperation, and fear on the determined oval of her face told him there was more to the mother-daughter exchange than any man would probably ever understand.
    “ She’s really quite imaginative,” Brock offered, somehow reluctant to allow Maddie to be upset with the little scamp.
    As if she remembered his presence, she turned to him with a stiff spine. Her unique scent, vanilla and jasmine, rolled over his senses. He was too aware of her, the dewy texture of her skin, and that damned soft mouth he couldn’t forget. A surge of yearning to taste it hit him hard.
    “ I’ve waited for you at the cottage,” she murmured.
    Desire jolted him, and he stifled it ruthlessly. She had married Sedgewick, born him a child, and warmed his bed for two years. Maddie had, no doubt, buried her memories of her serving-class lover with dirt beneath his fingernails the moment he’d left Ashdown Manor. Now, she wanted to use his desire for her against him, ensuring that he forfeited the railroad that would finally make him one of England’s wealthiest men. Despite his burning to bury his cock deep inside her and obliterate her memory of Sedgewick’s touch, she didn’t stand a bloody chance.
    “ I told you my answer, Maddie. No.”
    She walked to him, hips swaying with allure, with ripe promise of pleasure so sharp, he nearly shuddered. Though sweat beaded on his brow, Brock swallowed against the temptation.
    “ You owe me, Maddie. Think of this visit as a friendly reminder of that fact.”
    Her seductive smile slipped. “I’ve no need for friendship.”
    “ I think you do. I think you need it very badly.”
    Maddie sidled closer. “No, Brock. I need you to be my lover.”
    Her words punched him in the gut, challenged him to take her. Now. God help him, he wanted to do just that, claim her in a way so carnal, she could never forget him again.
    Get a hold of yourself, man . She wanted him to lose his head, do something rash. He couldn’t.
    “ Today, I came as a friend.”
    A flash of anger overtook her face. “If all friends threaten me as you have, God spare me such kindness.”
    “ Maddie—”
    “ I only want you as a lover, Brock, in the terms we discussed.”
    Someday he would be her lover, her husband, the father of her future children, in his time, on his terms. But not today.
    “ For argument’s sake, say you considered me a friend. What would you expect me to do for you? Forget what you owe me?”
    The implausibility of that suggestion rang in the thick air between them.
    She hesitated. “No. I would merely ask for an extension or a compromise, both of which you have refused me so far.”
    “ Because, as you say, I am not your friend. I seek a wife, not a mistress, nor a debtor.”
    Maddie raised her gaze to him again, her stormy gray eyes locking with his, conveying her anger and some other tempestuous emotion with their darkening color.
    “ I made you an offer of repayment,” she reminded in a low voice reminiscent of honey and late-night whispers. It nearly undid him. “Repayment beyond your expectations.”
    She knew nothing of his expectations. Nor did he want to know what Sedgewick had taught Maddie about bed sport. He must distance himself from her—or she would drive him to something reckless.
    “ I did not ask you to repay me with sex.”
    Brock expected her to flinch at his deliberately blunt statement. To his surprise, a smile played at the corners of her succulent mouth instead.
    “ And such a suggestion offends your delicate sensibilities?”
    “ No, just my financial ones.”
    “ Then why are you here?” She scowled.
    “ To remind you that you owe me.”
    “ You will never let