Claimed By My Ex-Fiancé's Ruthless Brother

d like almonds and

e Waldorf-Astoria ballroom and pressed two fingers to her te

mario Vance had put t

e exact one the society pages photographed. "One glass, and I sign the hospital

ad dr

ntilator that breathed for him cost four thousand five hundred dollars a day. Because th

burned from t

e. "You're flushed, sweetheart. Go up and lie down.

tant steer her into the eleva

oor was carpeted and silent. Her

ite wa

io's cloying citrus cologne, but cold cedar, rain

n, Miss

Low. Unhurried. The voice of a man who had

lighter

with no interest in smiling, and a pair of slate-blue eyes fixed on her with the flat

ame we

w. "Did Demario send you? Becaus

ou," the man said.

back, and tilting made the room swim. He crossed to her in

was chilled tailored wo

, hating herself. "G

e you th

ugh; it came out broken

world tilted. She should have shoved him away. Instead her hands found the hard plane of his ch

ul," h

s fisted in his shir

k at

coul

ut the skyline through the window was enough - and whatever

you," he s

n it dissolved, because she was already rising on her toes,

came dow

lips that she would spend the next three days trying to forget, and he

free and held he

that door. Get in the elevator. Go back down to the ballroom,

him without

er palms flat against his chest, and she heard herself

eas

g in him

rious syllable - and s

tarting against the glass, and put her down among cold sheets. She reached for him without thought. He followed her down without a word, a

stood absolutely, and she sti

when she did it - not pleasure, something darker - and then the storm that had been gathering over the harbor all evening break

d not

at up against the tufted headboard, a thin column of Cohiba sm

vibrated against th

assistant illumi

tationed by the service elevator. They're

silk on the floor, the long red marks down his back where she had clawe

d his thumb moved o

rase every card and d

set the lighter down beside the phone

r to learn what happens when he