How To Host a Seduction by Jeanie London

she had last night.
    Ellen slid the door open so hard the glass rattled.
    â€œDon’t go?” She repeated his words of the previousnight—his only words. Ignoring the gravelly sound of her morning voice, she met his surprised gaze head-on. “We haven’t spoken in three months and all you can say is ‘Don’t go’? Couldn’t resist the challenge of getting me to sleep all night with you, could you, even though you know how I feel. And I was a total pushover. Of all the low blows—”
    Ellen suddenly found herself struggling to remain upright as he dragged her inside the shower stall. Hot water shot over her as the spray bounced off his head, leaving her sputtering and clutching the sheet, although she was getting soaked. Indeed, half still trailed through the open shower door, but Christopher didn’t seem to care about the mess they were making….
    Planting a foot on the hem, he crowded her back against the tile wall, forced the sheet from her grasp.
    â€œChristopher!” She gallantly hung on.
    He wrestled it away without bothering to meet her gaze, kicked the drenched fabric into a bundle outside the stall and pulled the door shut. Only then did he lift that too-blue stare.
    â€œGood morning, love,” he said cheerily, as though everything was as right as rain in his world. “I thought we should get the ‘spending the night together’ business out of the way since we’ll be roommates. And you needed your rest.”
    Needed her rest? She glared, refusing to rise to the bait. Of course she’d needed her rest. He’d nearly killed her with what Lennon always referred to as “death by orgasm.”
    Clearly misinterpreting her silence as meaning everything was as right as rain in her world, too, he asked, “Sleep well?”
    Sleep well? Oh, sure, she’d slept just dandy for a womanwho’d broken her cardinal rule for relationships: Senators’ daughters do not get caught sneaking out of anyone’s bed the morning after.
    Sequestered as they were at Félicie Allée, the chances of being caught by anyone who’d alert the media were slim. She supposed that counted for something.
    â€œI slept fine.” There, she’d managed to sound reasonably composed, despite her froggy voice.
    â€œI’ve missed you.”
    That potent blue gaze slipped to her lips, gleamed with a lightning fire that brought to mind all the intimacies they’d shared. And when he brought a hand to her mouth, traced her lower lip with a gentle caress of his thumb, Christopher made a huge dent in her composure. One touch and he dared her to tremble, to sigh, to pull away in indignation… any reaction would have sufficed, would have proven he still commanded the same power over her that he’d wielded so skillfully last night.
    Through sheer dint of will, Ellen held his gaze, steeled herself as he trailed his wet fingertips along her jaw, over her chin, exploring every angle and curve through touch.
    She wanted to deny that she’d missed him, but she’d gone to pieces in his arms. She knew it. He knew it. The only thing to do now was step back, reassess the situation and come up with a new game plan to handle this man’s reappearance in her life.
    When the answer isn’t clear, step back and take another look at the question, her mother was fond of saying.
    But stepping back proved impossible, literally. The tile wall came up behind her and Christopher’s big-bodied self crowded her against it. Skimming his fingers down her neck, he traced each hollow as though he’d never before had the pleasure. Then his gaze flicked to her hair and hisexpression softened. That same look of approval that had undone her last night.
    How could she have forgotten how his beautiful features mirrored his emotions?
    Maybe she hadn’t forgotten at all, rather had managed to bury the memory deep, in self-defense.
    But denial was