Page 26 of After You

Dammit, she’d loved him. He would put everything he had on that. It had been real. There was no way in hell he was going to let her stick around here for six weeks and not think about all of those things.

Alice wanted to remind Hannah of all these things in an attempt to keep her around. Kyle knew that wasn’t going to happen. But he wanted to remind Hannah of all of these things because it was wrong for her to have forgotten or to pretend they hadn’t happened. And he wanted leaving here this time to be the hardest thing she’d everdone.

“So this is what this visit is going to be like?” Hannah asked. She was breathing faster than she was before.

He nodded as more of his plan came together in his mind. “Yeah, this is what this visit is going to be like.” Definitely.

“Then I’ll absolutely be avoiding you,” she decided. She started to move aroundhim.

Kyle stepped in front of her. He didn’t touch her, but he wasn’t letting her go that easily. “Good luck with that,” he said. “This is Sapphire Falls.”

“You’re going to harassme?”

He lifted a shoulder. “I wouldn’t call itthat.”

“What would you callit?”

He gave her a slow smile. “I’d call it a seduction, Hannah.”

* * *

Her entire body wenthot.

Holy crap. She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard Kyle Ames use the word “seduction” before. Because she was really sure she would have rememberedit.

She was squeezing her hands so tightly into fists that she felt her nails digging into her palms. “Wha—what do youmean?”

“Seduction. Temptation. Enticement. Pursuit.”

“Stop just giving me synonyms,” she interrupted.

“But we haven’t even gotten to my favorite yet,” hesaid.

She did not want to hear it. He wasn’t even touching her, in fact there was about a foot between them, but she felt her nerve endings jumping and snapping like she was covered in the candy that popped in your mouth. Yeah, he was shirtless and that wasn’t helping anything, but how could she feel this hot and bothered? It had been a while since she’d had sex. In fact, the last time had been that time Kyle had described in his shower. That had to be it. It had to just be her body and hormones rememberinghim.

Or something.

“Don’t you want to hear my favorite synonym for seduction, Hannah?” he asked.

Had he ever said her name with that rough, husky edge to his voice? Good Lord, she would have never kept her panties on around him if he had. And yes, they’d spent a lot of time naked together over the years. But she didn’t remember feeling this…stirred up. Dammit.

That was exactly what she did not want tobe.

“Hannah,” he said softly, his eyes locked on hers. “Ask me what my favorite synonym for seductionis.”

He really needed to stop saying seduction. She shook herhead.

But he gave her a slow, sexy smile. “Conquest.”

He said it anyway.

And damn…that one sucked the air right out of her lungs.

Conquest. Conquest? Kyle Ames had just used a very dominant, very alpha, very unlike-him word withher.

And…yeah, damn.

“I don’t understand why you would do this,” shesaid.

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