Page 55 of Start With A Slap

One hour ago:

Guess you’re out. Hope you’re safe. Call me.

Two hours ago:

Trying to call you on cell and at hotel all day. Where are you?

And the first, received during the banquet, when she’d turned off her phone:

Hey babe, sorry I missed your calls. I’m gonna try you at hotel. P.S. Don’t worry none about Kara. She got nothin on you.

She shut her eyes, let the tears spill down her cheeks. Jason hadn’t done anything wrong, and all this time, she was secretly hoping he had.I’m so sorry, Jason...

“Dearest Ivy,” she heard Sever say behind her, tone clipped and irate, “can’t talk now, too busy shagging slut lawyer. All my love, Jason.”

She turned to slap him, then stopped herself.

“Do it, Ivy,” he said, challenging her with a sneer. “Slap me.Touchme. I dare you.”

She stared into his eyes, her breath sawing in and out, faster and faster as if she was about to go underwater — and then she grabbed his head and kissed him.

Their tongues touched, and suddenly he was all over her, pressing against her, hands magnetizing to her spot.

Yes! No. No. No. No!

“Mmnah!” She pushed him off, slapped him as hard as she could, and ran out into the night.

She turned back just once to see him at the open door, eyes dark and predatory. The monster was back — and would be coming after her, she was sure.

Sever’s mouth spread into a grin.

Best things in life start with a slap. If you let them.

CHAPTER 17

Revelations

Best things in life start with a slap,Sever mused with a wicked grin.

It was a truth he couldn’t ignore. Each time he’d felt the sting of a woman’s hand, it left an indelible mark: one launched his career, the next stole his heart. The last two? Raised him from the living dead and brought him roaring back tolife, in that order.

And Ivy... she must have known what she’d unleashed. Off she dashed like a frightened rabbit, sloshing through rain puddles in her flimsy stilettos and curve-hugging frock, hoping to escape the inevitable consequence of her actions. It was adorable, really. Adorably futile.

Sever set after her.

Quite the twist of fate, this was. Just when he thought he’d bombed; just when he got fed up with her and himself and his so-called friends and his rubbish calculator andbloody fucking Paris, she kissed him.

For weeks, he’d expected this kiss and easily visualized his suave reception. But when it happened, he was thrown. Stunned. Abnormally aroused. Turns out, kissing a beautifulwoman after an eight-year dry spell can regress even the worldliest of men: his teeth scraped hers, he got rough and grabby; there may have even been a girlish moan.

It was warranted, though. That crude, tangled little clinch told him so much.

I want you more than I can possibly understand,it said.Take me, fuck me senseless, teach me everything you know, make me beg and crawl and scream!Then the slap said,Just don’t hold me accountable.

“Hmpf.” Be right tidy for her, if he forced her. She’d get the satisfaction she ached for, no heavy cross to bear.

Like he’d let her get away with that.

Yes, he’d catch her, yes, he’d be there to aid and abet her disgrace, but this chase would end only with her consent. He wasn’t a monster, after all.

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