The Price of Inertia (The Seven Sins #4) - Lily Zante Page 0,46

sorry for what she said. She’s right.

“I am a nightmare. I admit that I’m not easy to work for.” I put my hands into my pockets and wait for her to say something. “Anything else you want to say to me, now that we’re at this juncture?”

“How frank can I be?”

“As frank as you want.”

“Can you handle it?” she asks.

My cock twitches some more. She’s putting more ideas in my head.

“Slob,” she throws at me.

I fold my arms. “Go on.”

“How about lazy, and filthy, and rude?” Her confidence is at full-throttle. She’s trying me. She’s saying the things she held back from saying before.

“Anything else?” I ask her. It turns me on even more, having her hurl these words at me, showing me that she’s not scared.

“That pretty much sums up what I think of you.”

“Are you sure that’s it? Because if there’s more, I can definitely handle it.”

She gives me a caustic smile. “That’s all for now.” Then, “Why aren’t you going to fire me?”

“Do you want me to fire you?”

“No.”

“Then why ask?”

“You fired Trevor for less.”

“You need the job, and I need a housekeeper.”

Her mouth twists.

“So, we’re even,” I state.

As I head towards my study, with the new insults she’s hurled at me, it’s not anger that simmers beneath my skin, but arousal.

MARI

I wait a moment after he leaves, and then I draw out my long held breath. He’s closed the door, but I go and stand against it., making sure it’s closed and he can’t come back in. Not because I’m scared of him, or because I feel threatened, but because my heart is thumping wildly. I try to still it. Try to force my breath to regulate. Try to dismiss the throbbing between my legs.

What did I just do?

How was I so bold and confident, standing in front of him half naked and wanting him to see me?

I experienced a type of strength I haven’t felt around him. The man who managed to strip me of my confidence, wants me.

I could see it in the way his dark hooded eyes bore into me. He ravished my body with his stare.

I saw his erection.

Hard to miss something that big.

This is dark, and dangerous, and taboo.

He’s Ward Maddox, a reclusive author.

I’m ... a mess.

Dale cheating on me has shaken my self-belief. I’ve been surviving, driven by the need to move on and put behind me all the bad things that have happened lately, things over which I have no control.

This just now, it gave me power. Having Ward Maddox devour me with his eyes.

I can’t tell Jamie. This is private. This is me being provocative, wanting, needing, to know that another man finds me attractive. Just thinking about Ward sets my heart racing. Makes my skin tingle with excitement.

Could something have happened between us if he hadn’t left the room?

I imagine him taking a step towards me, tugging my hair back and lifting my face, then crushing my lips with his. I imagine his hands skimming over my belly and his lips …

The sound of my phone ringing snaps me out of my sultry daydream.

It’s the nursing home. The air in my lungs is sucked out.

The nursing home staff only call if they have a problem.

Chapter 19

WARD

I walk down the stairs with a boner the size of a truncheon.

I don’t need this.

My head is filled with her and it will mess with my writing.

I should go back to New Orleans.

Or get Freya to come here. This never happened with Freya. Or anyone. Mari is a different creature.

She didn’t care. She showed no embarrassment or shame. Not that there was anything for her be ashamed about, not with a body like that.

But I didn’t expect that from her.

That woman is full of surprises, and that is the hook that reels me in. She might be my housekeeper, but just now, in her bedroom, she was the temptress.

I want to take her over my knee and run my hands over her smooth bottom. I want to trail my fingers all over her body. I want to explore, and suck and kiss her everywhere.

I head back into my study and sit at my desk but I still I have no pen, and I still can’t write.

I can’t function.

I can’t create.

Everything is messed up so soon after I had managed to get myself back on track. Now, not only do I have no pen, I have a boner which needs to be taken care of. I also have that image of Mari