Taking Him (Lies We Tell) by Jackie Ashenden Page B

working on before she’d left to see Kara that morning.
    Perhaps she was crazy to keep thinking she could get what she wanted from him. Perhaps she should pack up her stuff and leave. Not that there was anywhere else for her to go, of course.
    She shifted in the chair and tried to get back to her email, desperate for any kind of distraction. But ten minutes later, she still hadn’t typed another word.
    Then a movement at the door made her look up. Hunter stood there, leaning one shoulder against the doorframe, hands in the pockets of the faded black jeans he wore.
    “What?” she demanded. “Thought of something else patronising to say?”
    He didn’t respond to that, merely looked at her, his gaze unreadable. “What do you want, Ellie?”
    “I told you what I wanted and you told me no. So actually, I should be the one asking you what you want considering what happened yesterday. Oh and by the way, if you say ‘nothing happened’, I swear to God I’ll kill you.”
    Again he gave her silence. Waiting motionless, watching her. And it struck her then that she’d never really noticed how quiet and still he so often was. As if observing everything, measuring everything. He seemed so calm on the surface, like a pool of black water. Yet underneath there were currents. Powerful currents.
    “I’m sorry,” Hunter said at last. “I shouldn’t have touched you.”
    That did not make her feel any better. “Are you? That’s a shame. Because I’m not.” She swallowed, looked away. “So why did you then? Did you feel sorry for me or something? Because yeah, desperation is so attractive.”
    He didn’t answer her directly. “Do you want me to touch you again? Is that what you want?”
    Her throat tightened. “You know what I want, Hunter. I told you. Jesus Christ, I begged for it, didn’t I? But what’s the point? When you don’t want me.”
    He shifted against the doorframe. “I didn’t say that.”
    It took Ellie a second to understand what he’d said. “What do you mean?”
    Slowly, he pushed himself away from the doorframe and came into the room. Something had changed in his face, his expression becoming intent, and Ellie’s heart suddenly climbed into her throat.
    Because he came straight over to her, prowling like a lion, stopping right in front of her. And then he bent, putting one hand on each arm of the chair she sat in, caging her into it.
    His eyes were so dark, fathomless. “What do you think I mean?” he said softly.

Chapter Six
    He should not be doing this, leaning over her like a predator. Should not be anywhere near her. And yet here he was, his hands on the arms of his office chair, looking down into her eyes, watching them widen, her pupils dilating. Hearing her breath catch.
    He’d tried to get back to work on the Norton, but he hadn’t been able to concentrate. First time ever that hadn’t worked. And when he’d taken his hand out of his pocket, seen the blood all over his fingers, he’d known pain wasn’t going to work either. Nor was continuing to deny what his body insistently told him it wanted.
    Ellie Fox had got under his skin. Had changed things between them. And by touching her, he’d been complicit in that change. He’d crossed the line and no matter how much he wished he hadn’t, he couldn’t cross back again. The only direction to go was forward.
    Which meant admitting the one thing he was afraid of—that she wasn’t the child he’d once escaped to and hadn’t been for years.
    It wasn’t what he wanted. But that choice had been taken from him the moment she’d undone her jumpsuit in his truck. And when your choice had been taken from you, there was nothing to do but embrace what fate had given you in its place. Make it your own.
    The sound of his pulse beat loud in his head. Insistent. He felt breathless, aching. Adrenaline moved like lightning in his blood.
    Desire. Yes. This was what he felt. For her. For Ellie. He wouldn’t fight it, wouldn’t deny it. He