Captive but Forbidden Read Online Free

tonight was an unrelated incident. That didn’t mean the rest of her staff was incompetent.
    “Then you are either naive or stupid, Madam President,” Raj Vala said.
    “I am neither one,” she replied, bristling not only at the way he’d pronounced her incompetent, but also at the condescending tone he’d used to say the last two words. As if he didn’t think her worthy.
    She might not be, but it wasn’t his place to say so. He was not Alizean. “Not everything is as straightforward as you might think. There are many options to be considered.”
    His thumbs worked magic. Tingles of sensation streaked up her arm, over her scalp. Down into her core. She couldn’t stop the little moan that escaped her.
    Damn him. And damn her reawakened senses.
    Wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong man.
    It was the situation, she told herself, the fact she now found herself alone with a dynamic, sexy stranger who touched her as if he had a right. Because she’d allowed no man to get close to her since the miscarriage, she was now suffering from sensory overload.
    “Would you like me to tell you the best option?” he asked.
    “Do I have a choice?” she snapped.
    “You always have a choice,” he replied evenly. “Except in instances where your immediate safety might be at stake.”
    She wanted to tell him to go to hell. Who was he to walk in here and try to take over this aspect of her new life as if he had a right?
    But he kept rubbing, soothing her sore wrist, and she didn’t say a word because she selfishly didn’t want him to stop.
    A minute later, the fingers of one hand slid up her arm, over her jaw, her chin, across her lips. She didn’t know why she allowed it—
    No, that wasn’t quite true. She allowed it because it felt shockingly perfect to let him touch her. He made her feel normal, and that was something she hadn’t expected to feel ever again. It felt surprisingly good to be touched after all this time.
    She trembled at the featherlight stroking of his finger across her mouth, and she bit down on her lip to keep from nibbling him in return.
    Oh, he was good. Good enough that she began to wonder if he hadn’t missed his calling in life. Gigolo seemed a perfectly acceptable occupation for a man with his skill set.
    “Then tell me this option,” she stated, hoping she sounded businesslike and cool as she dragged her attentionback from the summit. “Let’s see how good you are.”
    His fingers slid along her jaw now, so light, so erotic. His soft laugh was a sensual purr in his throat, and she knew she’d made a mistake. A dreadful, heart-pounding mistake.
    “It’s quite simple. You need to acquire a lover, Madam President.” His voice was so sexy, so mesmerizing, his slight British accent combined with another she couldn’t quite place.
    Everything inside her stilled. Her stomach clenched painfully.
Of course.
    He might be here to help her, but he wasn’t above helping himself, either. Men like him made her sick. Always wanting something in return. Brady might truly care, but this man did not.
    “It’s out of the question,” she said, her voice tight. “I don’t want to hear another word of this—”
    “Ah, but you will listen. Because you’re smart, Veronica.” His fingers continued their damning track across her skin. She felt his presence in the dark as a solid wall of heat, and she tilted her head back, sensing somehow that he loomed over her, that his mouth was only inches from hers.
    She should pull away, and yet she couldn’t seem to do it. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”
    “Why deny the truth? You know it as well as I do.”
    Heat suffused her from the inside out. Somehow she managed to scoot backward on the bench, to put distance between them. Was she that transparent? “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    But she did. Because he touched her so lightly, so expertly, that her body was tightening like a bowstring.
    There was definitely something there, somethingbetween