In His World (For His Pleasure, Book 28) by Kelly Favor

make.”
    “Your mistake,” her mother clarified.
    Chloe shrugged. “Yeah, probably.”
    Dana turned to their mother. “Mom, let it go. Any girl would go with Brody Hawk if he asked.”
    In response, Chloe’s mother sighed. “What do I know about anything? I was married, divorced, raised two girls, I’ve seen relationships come and go. But apparently two twenty-something’s know more about life and love and men then I do, because I don’t have an Instagram account.”
    “Mom, it’s got nothing to do with Instagram,” Dana laughed. “But you should get an account—you’d love it.”
    Chloe’s mother looked at her sadly. “I wish I could still send you to your room like I used to do when I didn’t think you were spending time with the right friends.”
    “You never needed to do that with me,” Chloe said. She smiled and touched her mother’s shoulder. “I never hung out with the wrong crowd.”
    “Until now,” her mother said.
    And then they hugged and said goodbye, and there was sadness, but also excitement too. Chloe turned and left her mother’s house, waving goodbye one last time before making her way to the car.
    She got inside and slid in next to Brody.
    He was on his phone, texting.
    “Well, I’m here,” she said, as if fate had forced her hand. And maybe, in a way, it had.
    Brody looked up at her. “As you should be,” he said, before turning his attention to the driver. “We’re ready to head to the airport,” he said, before turning to a small attaché case on the floor beside him. He opened it and pulled out a document and a sleek black pen, both of which he handed to her.
    “Oh,” she said, faintly surprised as she held the contract.
    Now it was really real. Paper-clipped to the first page of the contract was her signing bonus—a check for thirty thousand dollars.
    “Your contract.”
    She stared at it a long time. “Everything looks in order,” she muttered.
    “For someone who seemed anxious to get the deal in hand, you sure don’t look very happy to have it in front of you right now,” Brody said.
    “It’s a lot to process.”
    “And thirty thousand dollars is a lot to spend. But you’ll have it in your bank account once you sign those papers.”
    She sighed. Of course he was right. She was being silly, once again trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
    Just sign it.
    And then…
    Then what?
    She looked up from the contract to find Brody staring directly at her with those magnetic eyes that promised such dark magic to be made real, the undertow pulling her down into the sweet depths of total ecstasy.
    Just sign it.
    Before she could talk herself out of it, Chloe found her hand grasping the pen and quickly scrawling her signature across the line, and then Brody was taking the papers and placing them in his satchel.
    He handed her the check. “Keep it safe.”
    She took it and put it in her purse, as if she held it too long it might burn her fingers.
    “I guess that’s done,” she said.
    “Finally,” he said, raising the privacy glass between them and the driver as the car glided towards its destination.
    Chloe felt a surge of excitement in her belly. “It didn’t take that long for me to sign it,” she said, rolling her eyes.
    “That’s not what I meant,” he told her, turning his body towards hers.
    “Then what did you mean?”
    “I mean, finally I have you alone,” he said. His hand reached out and touched her cheek, softly.
    The moment his skin touched hers, it was like a flame had been ignited. Her heart began racing, her face flushed. She was spinning.
    Just from one touch of his hand.
    “Now that I work for you,” Chloe said, “shouldn’t we…I don’t know…be more professional?”
    “Oh, of course,” Brody said, suddenly pretending to be serious. He pulled his hand back and sat stiffly beside her. “Professional.”
    Her face flushed harder. “Don’t, Brody.”
    “Don’t what?”
    “Make fun of me.”
    His eyes flashed.