Serial Book 1- Tempted to Submit by Rob Page A

couldn’t find something to entice him with?
    Inhaling deeply and avoiding the sight of my naked flesh in the mirror, I tugged the slip off of its Surrender to Temptation Part I: Tempted to Submit / Jameson, Lauren 5
    hanger and over my head. It felt lovely, the material moving in a sensual glide over my skin.
    With my eyes squeezed shut, I turned back toward the mirror, sucked in my tummy, and, after a lengthy internal pep talk, peeked at the reflection staring back at me.
    “Oh.” The woman in the mirror smiled with surprise and pleasure at the same time that I did.
    Smoothing a hand over the length of my now-messy blond ponytail, I scanned the image nervously, looking for the flaws that I saw every day—the swell of my stomach, the slightly too-heavy breasts, the hips that were a hint too wide.
    I saw none of it. The incredibly sheer lace kissed my curves rather than clinging to them, and this made my waist, my belly, and hips all look just right. My breasts rose enticingly out of the low neckline, and the hem of the little slip hit midthigh, covering my butt yet hinting at more.
    I looked . . . well, I looked hot.
    It was a strange sensation.
    Before I could convince myself otherwise, I stripped off the slip and put my office clothes back on.
    The knee-length skirt, blouse, and cardigan sweater were all solid black—bright colors made me feel fat.
    The monochromatic look worked just fine for the office, however—Cambridge-Neilson and Sons, the law firm where I was an administrative assistant.
    The law firm where my boyfriend, Tom, was a junior partner. The slip that I was buying was in an effort to please him. No , I corrected myself as I brought it nervously to the front counter; it was about pleasing me . About looking—and feeling, I supposed—sexy enough to entice Tom into being a little more adventurous in the bedroom.
    To possibly, maybe, encourage him to do some of the deliciously naughty things that I thought about nearly all of the time. Dreamt about, too.
    “Your total comes to two hundred dollars and seventy cents.” I’d been playing it cool until that moment, acting like I bought expensive lingerie all the time, but the sum that the tall, slender brunette salesgirl announced very nearly made me choke.
    6 Surrender to Temptation Part I: Tempted to Submit / Jameson, Lauren
    Two hundred dollars ? For that little scrap of lace?
    I couldn’t afford it. I should have just let it be. Did I really want to spend that much in order to please Tom?
    The salesgirl, whose nametag read Bernadette in swirling cursive, saw my wistful glance at the swath of midnight blue that she was wrapping in silver tissue. I forgave her the stylish boots and fresh salon haircut when she gave me a kind smile and said, “It’s expensive, but we’re all worth it, aren’t we?”
    I thought of how I looked in the slip, and then thought of someone looking at me as I wore it. Of his dark eyes taking in the way the blue set off the pale cream of my skin, of the way my nipples flushed through the soft lace.
    Yes. I had to have it.
    “It’s fine. I’ll put it on credit.” Rummaging through my large leather satchel, I finally found my wallet. It caught on a cardboard envelope as I pulled it out, and the print that I had just picked up from the photography place next door slipped out and onto the counter.
    Bernadette glanced over, and I saw her study it for a moment longer than necessary. “He looks familiar.”
    I turned to study the picture, too. It was of Tom and me, posing rather seriously at the beach. It had been a rare, unplanned moment in our courtship, on a business trip to Los Angeles, when I had begged him to pull over the car so that we could watch the sunset. Surprisingly, he had agreed. With the sun setting in a riot of glowing shades behind us, and the angle clearly showing that the picture had been taken by one of us with a cell phone camera, it should have been a romantic shot. Instead, we looked so incredibly