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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have control over and does not have any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
TEMPTED TO POSSESS
An InterMix Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
InterMix eBook edition / February 2013
Surrender to Temptation
copyright © 2013 by Lauren Jameson.
Excerpt from
Blush
copyright © 2013 by Lauren Jameson.
All rights reserved.
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375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-62076-2
INTERMIX
InterMix Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group
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Chapter One
Waiting on my desk for me the next morning when I arrived at the office was a small package wrapped with exquisite attention to detail. I knew it was from Zach before I opened the card.
My inner voice told me to hurl the small gold-wrapped box down the building’s garbage chute. Miserable as I was to be apart from him, I had had enough of Zach’s games.
The night before had left me a mess. It was Friday, but I had an entire day to get through before I could be finally, blessedly alone. And after the way in which Zach had collected me from the office the previous morning, I knew that I was about to be the subject of gossip everywhere I went, some benign, most malicious.
“Fuck.” Slumping down at my desk, I poked a finger into the curled ribbon that adorned the box. If I wasn’t going to throw it away, then I should probably open it before my coworkers arrived for the day, before the office was filled with eyes eager for more details in the saga of Devon and Zach.
My hands trembled as I pulled the ribbon off the parcel, then slit the tape with my nail. Inside the paper was a velvet jeweler’s box—and even though I knew better by now, hope ran through me in a torrid rush. What was this?
Holding my breath, I opened the box. A handful of silver and blue fell into my palm, catching the light of the room and shining brightly.
It was a bracelet, made of delicately etched platinum holding a stream of small blue stones. Each stone was opaque, and when the light caught it at the right angle, I could see a white star