The Seduction Game

“To be blunt, yes,” he said, though his tone was gentle enough. “This development is going to create office space, spots for coffee shops, bistros, not to mention some apartments. It’s going to become a real hub for the area. We’re talking jobs, Kate. Jobs while we’re building and then afterward. People need those jobs, not to mention the fact that a whole portion of the apartments will be affordable housing. You know how badly the area needs that.”

“Well yes, it all sounds super a—”

“It is, and to make it happen I need you to say yes.”

Kate tore her eyes away from Will’s intense gaze and shifted uncomfortably. She was being pushed in a direction she did not want to go, yet she didn’t know how to stop it. She tried to remember all those letters from Chris-the-sleaze, all the hassles, the continuous sound of drills, and all the dust in the air. All Will’s fault! But here he was, so close to her, his scent tickling her nose and her heart thudding, and darn it, she was finding it difficult. “Well, why can’t you build around me?”

“You sit right in the middle of the whole development. We’re going to raze that area and replace it with a three-story residential complex.”

“Maybe you should have considered all of this before you started building?”

“Maybe, but it’s a bit late to go back to that now.”

“You would say that, wouldn’t you, Thornton.”

He laughed again and then, to Kate’s intense shock and embarrassment, reached out and took her hand. She tried to pull back but he gave her no opportunity, smiling in a way that made her shudder. “Kate, I find this alternation between my first and last name to be of real interest.”

“What do you mean?” she squeaked, because he was rubbing his thumb over part of her hand and Kate could already feel goose bumps flaring. Worse, little tingles were racing from her thumb and up her arm, and they were tingles that Kate had never felt before. Almost like a tickle but a shade different. The end result not being the need to laugh but more like the need to sigh…

“I guess you don’t even realize it,” Will said slowly. “But you swap my name out depending on how pressured you feel.”

“I do not.”

“You do. It’s Will when you feel okay about things and I’m Thornton the moment you don’t.”

She tugged again and this time he let her hand go. The tingles remained. “Fine. Thornton it is from now on.”

“I’d prefer Will.”

“I bet you would, and it’s all about what you prefer, isn’t it?”

A wicked grin blossomed and Kate was almost positive he tried to move even closer. “I can name you several situations when it is most definitely not about what I prefer.”

She opened her mouth to demand he do just that, but their eyes met again and the emotion she found in his stopped her words dead in their tracks. She couldn’t even quantify what it was, but it made her pulse accelerate and her stomach flip. Ridiculous. “There’s no need for that,” she said quickly.

He raised an eyebrow and Kate thought he was going to give her a thorough, and detailed, explanation, despite her hasty words, but to her intense gratitude, and after the smallest of pauses, he let it go. “Another time then.”

She looked away, pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, then looked back again, in no way planning to respond.

He smiled, waited a moment, and then spoke. “It probably must seem all about what I need to you, Kate, but I can promise it is not. May I show you around tomorrow? Show you what I’m trying to do?” He held up his hands as if to ward off the refusal that might come. “That’s all I’m asking. You can get a feel for how everything will come together and then, who knows? Maybe you’ll change your mind?”

“And if I say no?”

“Then I’ll leave you alone, just as I promised,” he said in a solemn sort of voice. “You’ll never see me again, I promise. No more letters and certainly no more visits.”

Kate opened her mouth to tell him no and Leave me the hell alone. But for some reason the words would not come out. They seemed to be stuck somewhere in the back of her throat. She had no idea why, because she wanted Will to leave her alone, didn’t she? Never wanted to see him again? That was what she wanted, right?

“But there also will not be any kind of resolution,” he added, almost like he knew she was weakening. “And like it or not, sooner or later our situation will have to be resolved.”

“Thornton—”

“Didn’t we just agree on Will?”

“Will, then,” she whispered. “My point is you are manipulating me. Meg was right. You should have been the Borg king.”

“You lost me.”

And she would lose him if she said no…no more visits…and certainly no resolution, the situation continuing for who knew how long, and the weird panic continuing to flex inside her.

Kate spoke without giving herself a chance to even think about what she was saying. “Fine. I’ll come see your plans and let you show me around if it’ll shut you up. But it probably won’t make any damn difference.”

He smiled and she paused, not quite able to believe the words she’d just said. But it was too late to take them back without seeming like any more of a freak, and so Kate did the only thing she could think to do to get a little bit of distance and work through the feelings kicking her ass.

“But it can’t be tomorrow, I’m very busy,” she said quickly. “We’ll do the day after and I can only spare an hour at the end of the day.”

“Okay.” He drank the last of his Coke, his smile widening over the rim of the glass. Had it been a victorious sort of smile Kate might have backed out, freakiness be damned, but it wasn’t. It was wicked, and—she swallowed—almost seductive…

“I appreciate it, Kate,” he added. “More than you realize. I promise you won’t regret it.”

And his smile didn’t falter. And his thigh continued to press against hers and he was just too freaking close. And because of that, not to mention the frantic racing of her own heart, Kate was almost positive that she would, and what that meant she didn’t know, but it was too late now.

She was trapped.

By him, by her.

By the whole darn game.





Chapter Six


Almost twenty-four hours later, Will pulled up outside his youngest sister’s house. She’d called him last night begging him to come see her and his nieces, and because it had been almost twelve weeks since he’d last visited, he’d agreed readily.

The family lived in one of the new developments on the outskirts of the city. In fact, it had been one of Will’s very early projects and Jenny had been pregnant with her first baby at the time. Still in college and worried half to death, she’d been torn over what to do. It had pleased Will immensely to be able to give her the house as a gift, to ease her worries.

Knowing that his family was taken care of made all the months of backbreaking work worthwhile. His parents lived just around the corner, his other sister in an apartment on the harbor, and various uncles, aunts, and cousins not far from them. All of Will’s family lived within a five mile radius. It made the holidays easy.

Will eyed the house now as he got out of his truck and smiled. It was a basic design. He hadn’t been able to afford the best architects back in those days, but it was still a hell of a house. Two stories high, it boasted four bedrooms, a large double garage, and a decent-sized yard both front and back. The front lawn was currently littered with the evidence of three children all born within a twelve-year time frame. A trike was propped up next to two “big girl bikes,” balls were falling from a net bag on the side of the garage, and a hoop was hanging a little drunkenly from the middle of the garage. He opened his trunk, grabbed his toolbox, and made his way over to the hoop. A minute or so later and it was back in the proper position.