He didn’t care. Not one little—
He shot to his feet, the abrupt movement making Sienna stumble backward.
Fuck. She’d done it. Beaten him. Controlled him.
“I don’t…” Confusion etched her face. And yet despite that, heady passion still smoldered in her eyes, making them greener than ever. “What’s going on?”
Disgusted at his lack of restraint, he glared at her.
She studied him, the confusion and passion seeping from her face, replaced by an expression he couldn’t read. Was it triumph?
“I think it’s very obvious what I’ve done to you.” She ran a slow gaze over his body. “Tell me, how does it feel?”
Before he could respond, she turned and left, leaving him standing beside his desk, his open shirt askew, his body screaming for fulfillment.
A growl vibrated low in his chest. For all his talk and thoughts of dirty play, she had won the first round.
He clenched his jaw, cold resolution licking through him even as his body hungered for release he feared only she could provide.
It was time to move to the next stage of his plan. It was time to sever Sienna from her benevolent benefactor Mason Xavier.
It was time for James to put the mysterious businessman to rest. Time to end the alter ego he’d created in phase one of his plan, a man wealthy enough to commission work after work from Sienna.
Time to destroy any hope she had of surviving without turning to him, Jamieson Xavier Dyson.
But first, he had to lay some groundwork for his place in her life.
He crossed to his desk and pressed a button on the intercom. “Tracy, get me the principal of The Point High School please.”
“Yes, sir.”
His father had taught him many things over the years, but the one he had found most valuable was simple. There was always more than one way to destroy an enemy. And one of those ways was to make your enemy your friend first.
Chapter Six
What the hell was that?
Sienna barely made it to her car, an old Honda Accord she loved dearly, before her calm facade fell in a crumpled heap.
Collapsing into the driver’s seat, she grasped at the worn steering wheel and dropped her forehead against it.
What did I almost do?
She stared at the Honda’s floor without seeing it. If James hadn’t stopped her, she would have done the unthinkable right there in his office.
So much for proving to him I’m not the slut he thinks I am.
Nothing made sense. It was like she’d just stepped out of some demonic carnival ride that didn’t affect her physically but left her emotions all over the shop.
No. That was wrong, as well. Physically, she was also a mess.
She had never been so ready for sex as she was now. Despite the emotional chaos raging through her head and heart, if James opened her car door at this very second, she would throw herself at him and beg him to finish what they’d started. What he’d stopped.
She lifted her head from the steering wheel. What is going on? What is his game?
“His game?” She snorted. “What’s my game?”
Her game had been to persuade him to let her enter his portrait into the Barton, and, if she still sensed that powerful attraction between them, invite him to dinner with her and Zach. She sighed. Yeah, so much for that game. Oh God, how close had she actually come to…to…
A burning blush heated her face. So much for being a conquest he would have to work for.
She shook her head and started her car. Over. It had to be over. When she got home, she would ring Mason Xavier and tell him she couldn’t fulfill his commission. If she had to spend any more time with James Dyson she’d end up hating herself. For what she’d let him do to her, for what she’d do to him. Sex for sex’s sake was all well and good, but not at the cost of her soul. And damn, she’d lose her soul to James. He was too damn potent, too damn overwhelming.
Too damn addictive.
“The way you’re going,” she muttered, pulling into the flow of morning traffic, “you’d throw yourself at his feet and offer your body for use as his own personal sex toy.”
Didn’t I almost just do that?
Her blush intensified. “It’s over.” There had to be another way to fix up her financial woes. Hell, she’d cleaned motel rooms to pay her way through art school. She could do it again to pay the bills.