Everything You Need: Everything For You Trilogy Book 1 by Orla Bailey Page A

he says it.
    My stomach flips. My heart misfires. Tonight I’m this god’s plaything, nothing more. Icarus flying too close to the sun.
    I confront him and my past. “Until something shinier catches your attention.” I’m here for CaidCo’s survival and want to show him I can handle him and his business. And protect myself too.
    How easy that will be when my body’s already responding to his, is anybody’s guess. Anyone would think he had the power to fry every impulse between my brain and my body.
    “What could I possibly find more captivating to me than this?” Jack’s eyes devour me. He’s a practiced seducer and it hurts to think how he honed those skills. Without me.
    Not enjoying the sensations I’m feeling one little bit I turn to stare back out into the twilight.
    “Tabitha, let’s leave the world outside just for one night.” Jack splays his hand below the small of my back and turns me into the room. How easily all will escapes me.
    “Your home’s beautiful, Jack.” My eyes journey the masculine elegance of the furnishings, the indefinable class of the décor.
    He takes my hand in his. “You’re beautiful. And a little scared, I think.”
    I pull my hand from his, unwilling to be read so easily.
    He simply captures it again. “Don’t you trust me? You’re here now.”
    I have to wonder if he thought I’d change my mind. He tugs me gently forward returning to the distractions of a mini tour. “It was an old warehouse but achieving potential takes energy, creativity, patience and desire.” He thinks he’s diverting my nervousness but he’s feeding it.
    Defining his own boundaries, his hand brushes casually over the filmy silk at my back as I walk but there’s nothing casual in his touch for me. He leads me to a group of three large, cream leather sofas closing a square before an open central fireplace with a massive Persian rug lying before it.
    “Anything can blossom in the right hands.”
    I stiffen, wondering if he’s still talking about his apartment conversion. He seems pleased his words disturb me. And he takes far too much pleasure observing my figure in this dress, examining me at leisure all over as I mentally fend off the psychological invasion.
    “I’m staring.” He shrugs as if to excuse himself but doesn’t stop. “But you look spectacular in that dress. I remember you wore something the exact same colour. It always looked so pretty against your hair.” He lifts a lock of it and lets it run silkily out through his fingers. “You’re a very desirable woman.”
    The dress tightens around me. The strong clench of its bodice barely confines my shape. “I’m not as skinny as I used to be. I think maybe you don’t realise how much I’ve changed.”
    He laughs, his eyes lingering unashamedly at my cleavage. “I realise perfectly but it’s quite exquisite. The fit is perfect.”
    I’m embarrassed.
    “Sit, Tabitha. Make yourself comfortable.”
    “Comfortable? This all feels rather awkward.”
    “I don’t want you to think that.” He scowls, the familiar lines appearing; the sudden drive of his respiration suggesting he’s controlling his displeasure at my words. He sighs like he’s forcing himself to unwind again. “You’re being honest. Harsh. But honest. And I demand your honesty.”
    “Demand it?” I know I sound surprised.
    “You know why you’re here. What do you expect?”
    Not that. “What do you expect?” Do I really need him to say it out loud?
    “I expect plenty, Tabitha. Including your resistance. That doesn’t worry me.” He visibly relaxes. “It excites me.”
    I drop onto one of the sofas weakly.
    Jack lifts a bottle of vintage Krug from an ice bucket and peels the foil, dropping it onto an ebony and smoked glass side table. “If you don’t wish to be here, you can leave at any time. You’re not my prisoner. You’re here because you want to be.” He loosens the wire cage from the cork, keeping both covered by his hand and well