Beguile her: Laws of Seduction Book 2 Read Online Free Page A

disappear,” I protest.
    “This won’t take long.” He pulls me close, and turning, he presses me up against the door. His mouth swoops down and covers mine in a blazing kiss. I resist the urge to respond in kind and shake him off. Putting my hands on his chest, I push him back. He steps back, and, with his breathing labored, he stares down at me.
    I take in the firm set of his jaw and his flashing eyes and realize that he is angry, really angry. “What is the matter with you?”
    He scoffs, “Don’t play dumb with me, Lainey. We both know perfectly well what you were doing out there. Are you sleeping with him?” The power of speech deserts me as outrage floods every pore of my being. “Well, are you?” he snaps.
    “Who are you talking about? Davis?” I struggle to keep my voice steady.
    “Of course, Davis, unless you have another date hidden in your pocket,” he chides snidely as he rakes his eyes down my body.
    James is not touching me, but his gaze alone sears me more than a touch from any other man. This fact enrages me further. I wish the door behind me wasn’t preventing me from stepping back and gaining some   distance from him. “That is none of your business. What kind of dog in the manger behavior is this, James? You don’t want me, but nobody else can have me either? Is that it?”
    Looking away from me, James runs both hands through his hair and grips his head in agitation. Holding my breath, I wait to see what he will say next. He steps back and sits down on the couch, bending over and placing his elbows on his knees. “I don’t know what to do anymore, Lainey.” His words surprise me. He is always so self-assured and confident, and this hint of uncertainty melts my anger. I walk over and sit down beside him on the couch. “Jesus, Lainey,” he continues, raising tortured eyes up to mine. “The thought of someone else touching you makes me insane. I feel like tearing something apart with my bare hands,” he states fiercely. 
    I take in his words, and they make me feel lighter. “I guess you wouldn’t be into a ménage a trois?”
    He snorts out a laugh. “God no. At least not where you’re concerned.”
    I bristle, “But it would be okay for you?”
    Clearing his throat, he clarifies, “I was referring to the past.”
    I roll my eyes. “Of course you were.”
    Turning towards me, James picks up my hand and brings it to his lips. He holds my hand to his mouth for several long seconds before kissing the sensitive skin on the inside of my palm. Retaining his grip on my hand, he brings our joined hands down to rest on his knee. “Lainey, I have tried to stay away from you. You know I have tried, but I can’t do it. I want you too much, and I can’t stop thinking about you.”
    I squeeze his hand. “What is so terrible that you feel like you can’t be with me?” Everything inside me pleads for him to answer.
    “I’m damned if I do, and I’m damned if I don’t,” he answers cryptically.
    “Please just tell me.”
    James gives a resigned sigh. “Ask your brother.”
    “What? My brother? Do you mean Jett? What does he have to do with anything?”
    “We were in law school together. Just ask him about me.”
    I sit quietly and allow this new information sink in. Jett and James were at Columbia together? Why am I just now hearing about this? Thinking back, I realize that I never gave James’s name to Jett. It had all been so new when I spoke to Jett on the way back from the Hamptons. Hadn’t I detected a coolness in James when he dropped me off at my apartment on Sunday night? I had just told him all about my brother Jett. He must have realized that my brother was someone he had known in law school. A lightbulb goes off in my head. That is why I hadn’t heard from him at all the following week. 
    Why won’t he explain this mysterious problem with Jett to me himself? I look up at James, and as if reading my thoughts, he says, “I want you to draw your own conclusions.”