Free Secret Confessions: Sydney Housewives--Willow by Christina Phillips Page A

helped boost the ratings of his best selling syndicated In Your Hands self-help show by snaring the libidos of countless women across the world.
    But she had seen that smile first. Before he’d become a hot commodity and darling of the celebrity set. Before he’d even sold his first international blockbuster at the crazy age of twenty-two; the catalyst that had catapulted his career on its current trajectory.
    â€œI didn’t think you’d be coming back to Sydney before your book launch. It’s next week, isn’t it?” She knew exactly when the launch for his third book was. Next Tuesday in New York at three pm local time.
    â€œYeah. I was going to fly straight there from Melbourne but I had a change of plan.”
    â€œWell, it’s always good to see you.” Despite her best intentions, her gaze slid over him. His shirt collar was undone, giving a tantalising glimpse of bared chest, and the casual pants hugged his tight butt and did nothing to disguise the mouth-watering vision of his hard thighs.
    Not that Seb needed designer clothes to look good. She should know. The first time she’d seen him he’d been wearing paint-splattered shorts that had seen better years and a well-worn t-shirt that had showed off his ripped muscles as though he was an exotic dancer.
    He was like no other guy she’d met before. From the wrong side of the tracks, barely twenty and lounging on one of her mother’s kitchen stools as though he had every right to be there, his easy charm and fascinating conversation had enthralled her.
    Her stupid heart was half in love with him by the time her mother got home and she discovered Seb was more than just a labourer working on her mother’s renovations.
    He was her mother’s latest plaything.
    Even after all these years she couldn’t bring herself to think about that. It was gross and humiliating and so she turned and went inside the house, Seb by her side.
    Every piece of furniture, rug and accessory in the room was aligned to allow the harmonious flow of chi and Seb had been here together with her countless times in the past. But today, as his arm casually brushed hers, a rush of energy swirled around them both, sucking the air from her lungs and leaving her oddly light-headed.
    She cast him a furtive glance. He appeared supremely unaware of the shift in the delicate balance of yin and yang that she strived so hard to maintain in her life. It was a crazy thought, but she had the strange conviction a powerful dragon had entered her ordered existence.
    But then if anyone embodied the dragon’s powerful energy, it was Seb. She pushed the thought aside. She wasn’t going to start thinking of him as a dragon. Because that conjured up erotic images of chains and fire and a smoking hot dragon shifter that just so happened to have the wild black hair and tautly muscled body of Seb.
    She smothered a groan. She was in desperate need of some sex. If only Sebastian Wallis wasn’t so totally off limits.
    â€œI need a favour.”
    Willow dragged her mind from the gutter, where it was enjoying itself far too much, and raised her eyebrows. “Sure. What is it?”
    â€œTo crash here until my flight on Thursday.”
    She stared at him, trying to figure out if he was joking. He didn’t look as though he was. She cleared her throat and tried not to imagine him crashing in her bed. Because it would never happen, no matter how outrageously Seb might flirt with her on occasion.
    â€œIsn’t that inconvenient for you?” He had an apartment in the city. Why did he want to stay here with her? For three nights ? She wasn’t sure any amount of meditation would get her through the trauma of having Seb living with her 24/7. Not without him guessing she didn’t, and had never, looked at him in a purely platonic way.
    â€œI thought the kitchen renos would be finished by the time I got back, but it’s chaos.”
    He was