Scandal (Tainted #1) by Aimee Duffy Page B

training.
    ‘The next time anything like that happens … it can’t. You know that, don’t you? My job is to help you keep your sponsors,’ she said.
    Sebastian let his cutlery clatter on the table. ‘Say it, Alicia. Tell me what that was.’
    Her cheeks flushed a pretty pink and her eyes glazed over. ‘It was our libidos getting overexcited. We can’t let that happen.’
    ‘Our libidos.’ If he sounded incredulous, he didn’t care. ‘You’re putting the attraction between us down to misbehaving libidos ?’
    She cleared her throat. ‘That’s what it was.’
    ‘And I suppose letting your libido have what it wants isn’t right or proper?’
    She squirmed in her seat, and he knew he should stop pushing but he couldn’t. No woman had ever put attraction down to an unwanted itch she refused to scratch.
    This was the most ridiculous conversation he’d ever had. ‘Well?’
    Alicia’s throat was so dry she wished she’d topped up her glass with wine, but it was still empty and in the living room. Those weren’t her words, not even her beliefs, but the speech her father had given her all those years ago. She shrugged, hoping Sebastian would drop it.
    Unfortunately, he was relentless.
    ‘At least tell me you know how crazy you sound. The way you’re talking, it could have been anyone next to you on the sofa. Does your libido play up around Maine? Tony?’
    His eyes were hard, his jaw tense, and she’d take a guess his hands were probably fists beneath the table. Then it struck her; she’d dented his ego. It had nothing to with him being hurt because she didn’t want him. The thought stung as it burst the fantasy that a man as virile and gorgeous as him would find her more attractive than the usual women he slept with.
    Not that she should want him to.
    ‘Does it matter? We’re working together, not getting involved with each other.’
    He actually snorted. ‘If you think we can ignore the spark between us without wanting a taste of each other, you are crazy.’
    Alicia’s breath caught. There was a spark, but she’d thought it’d been one-sided. Now she knew it wasn’t, a wild image of her swiping the table clear and crawling over it to get to him flashed into her mind. Her heart beat too fast as her lungs stuttered and her every pulse point tingled.
    This was bad. Really bad.
    She’d smothered this part of herself a long time ago and after a couple of days with Sebastian her ‘wild side’ had clawed its way back to the surface. Kicking it back down was a reflex she’d developed over the years, and it wouldn’t fail her now. Not when everything she wanted for her career was finally happening, when she was becoming the new and improved version of herself that would make her father proud to call her his daughter, not the ‘troubled one’.
    Pulling out her well-bred accent, she said, ‘Then perhaps I am. We will work together and nothing else. Keeping our distance unless we’re in public will help.’
    Sebastian shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips, and she almost rolled her eyes. The dented ego had obviously bounced right back.
    ‘You can’t hide behind that façade forever, you know.’
    He leaned closer, resting his elbows on the table as he did. She really hoped her mother’s engagement party plans didn’t involve dinner because she didn’t think teaching Sebastian table manners would go down well, or be any easier than keeping her hands off him.
    ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is me, it’s who I am.’ She drove the point home with a glare.
    Sebastian rose, the smile still in place, then cleared his plate. After scraping his barely touched meal into the bin, he returned to tower over her and tilted her chin so she had to face him.
    ‘You and I both know that’s not true. We’re going to finish this, there’s no other option.’
    Alicia recalled the conversation before she’d lost her cool and climbed onto his lap. Her resistance had snapped when