Free Lucky Break by Carly Phillips

asked.
    â€œYou have to agree to my rules.”
    â€œAnd what would those be?” he asked, amused.
    â€œAll work and no play. So do we have an agreement?”
    He burst out laughing. Did she honestly believe they could work together and not act on their crazy attraction?
    â€œSomething funny?” she asked.
    He shook his head, sobering fast. “There’s nothing remotely amusing about that rule,” he said.
    â€œI agree. So?”
    He swallowed a groan.
    What choice did he have if he wanted entry into her life? He also wanted entry into her body again, but he was a long way from that particular goal. Unless he could figure out a way around her stipulation, he was destined for cold showers for the next few weeks.
    Her hand remained inside his. He caressed her palm with his thumb and she inhaled a barelyaudible sigh. It was low but he heard it and his body reacted, hardening in an instant.
    That’s when he realized he had a solution. “We have a deal,” he said, adding one qualification. “As long as I have the right to try and change your mind.”
    Since he’d effectively cornered her into hiring him, his addendum wasn’t fair and he knew it. But she obviously wanted him, too, which to his way of thinking put them on equal footing.
    Her eyes were glazed with desire, narrowed in thought.
    But in his mind it was a win-win situation. They’d get to know each other again in the time she had left. That she was leaving soon helped ease his mind about getting involved with a woman who had always affected him so strongly. So did her reticence.
    He’d been recently burned by a hot and heavy romance with Kristina, but this one with Lauren had a beginning, middle and predestined end.
    Surely she was smart enough to realize the same thing.
    â€œWell?” he asked, staring pointedly at their intertwined hands.
    She drew a deep breath and looked him in the eye. “Jason?”
    â€œYes?” He held his breath.
    â€œTomorrow morning, my house. Game on.” She pulled her hand from his and straightened her spine, swinging her hair over her shoulder in a sassy display of attitude surely meant to cover her uncertainty.
    No way was she sure of victory. Not the way she’d been nearly panting from just holding his hand. Damned if he wasn’t rock hard and ready to go, too.
    She turned and started for the door.
    â€œSee you then…sweetheart.”
    She missed a step, righted herself and kept on going.
    Satisfied, more than satisfied really, Jason folded his arms across his chest and glanced down at Fred. “Game on, Fat Man,” he said to the dog.
    Tomorrow morning at nine, their battle of wills would begin. As a competitor of the fiercest kind, Jason looked forward to the challenge.
    Â 
    P ROGRESS WAS a thing of beauty, Clara Deveaux thought as she dusted the old treasures in Edward’s house. Things he’d accumulated over the years. Some might call them clutter, but she respected them because they had meaning to the man she loved. She’d always been a believer in good Wiccan magic, never a believer in bad.
    She emulated her Jamaican grandmother’s waysand lived by the saying, first do no harm. It had worked well for her until that fateful day her father had arrived from Jamaica, determined to marry Clara off to a man he’d chosen. She’d already met and fallen in love with the gruff, eccentric Edward Corwin by then, but she hadn’t wanted to disappoint her father. Never mind that she was already forty years old, the situation had been a tricky one since she was raised to respect and honor her parents.
    She’d been planning to tell her father the truth, but her two worlds collided; the tall Jamaican with the flowers, her father moving fast and discussing wedding plans, and the wounded man she loved. Edward had walked into the shop and correctly interpreted the men’s intent. He hadn’t trusted in Clara’s