Fearless Maverick by Robyn Grady

           ‘Remember,
take a rest until I see you next.’
                 Clutching
that towel, he walked forward to see her out. ‘I won’t lift a single weight,’
he confirmed. ‘I won’t even think of this room.’
                 I definitely won’t think of you .
                 Her
brow slowly creased; she’d noticed him advancing and took a step back. ‘I can
see myself out.’
                 ‘If
you prefer. There’s just one thing.’
                 ‘What’s
that?’
                 ‘What
happened …’ His hand fisted in the towel before he tossed it aside. ‘It’s not
in the past.’
                 Her
eyes rounded with alarm. ‘Alex, you agreed. There’s nothing more to say.’
                 ‘Correct.
I’m all done talking.’
                 With
his good arm, he reached and drew her near. He saw her eyes flare and knew a
moment when she might have told him to back off and let her be. But then the
breath seemed to leave her body, her lids grew heavy and he saw her heart
glistening there in her eyes. He was right. This situation—this maddening push
and pull—couldn’t go on. Now was the time to end it. And end it his way.
                 Even
as Alex’s head slanted over hers and Libby drifted off into the caress, some
weak, desperate part of her cried out that this should not, could not, happen. But as the kiss
deepened and her head grew light, eventually she forgot the reasons why. The
slow velvet slide of his tongue over hers, the way his hands pressed her
gloriously near … she could only wonder at the amount of strength it had taken
yesterday to tear herself away.
                 This
may be dangerous, but it felt so infinitely right. This minute she only knew
she was absorbed by sensation. Absorbed, and lifted up, by him.
                 Her
palms ironed up over his bare hot chest at the same time his hands pressed down
over her back. His head angled as he curled over her, his touch sculpting her
behind, hooking around her thigh and urging it to curl around his hip as his
pelvis locked with hers. She felt the perspiration building on his skin, the
glide of his hand scrooping around her thigh, sliding lower toward her knee—
                 Breathless—terrified—she
yanked away.
                 Oh,
God, she’d vowed this wouldn’t happen again.
                 She didn’t want him to know .
                 ‘This
is a working relationship,’ she grated out, trembling.
                 ‘Who
says it can’t be more?’
                 Alex
gathered her in and the next she knew they were kissing again, and this time he
wasn’t playing. Now he delivered his full punch, and the effects left her
reeling, helpless. Giddy. He whipped up a hurricane inside of her, a dark
powerful storm that tossed her off course and hurled her places that promised
such blissful satisfaction. But the edges of her mind were still calling. As
much as she might want to—and she wanted to so badly—she couldn’t go through
with any of this.
                 This
time when she broke the kiss, their lips remained close. She couldn’t get
enough air. Couldn’t stop the hot flood of emotion.
                 ‘You
don’t … don’t understand.’
                 His
brow furrowed and eyes turned dark. He shook his head. ‘No, Libby, I’m afraid I
don’t.’ He searched her eyes. ‘Has someone hurt you?’
                 She
wanted to tell him everything. Say, yes, as a matter of fact she had been hurt and deeply. She’d had a
wonderful life, what she thought had been a wonderful fiancé, then the world
had crashed in and she hadn’t been with a man since. When Scott had rejected
her—when his tight expression had told her the thought of touching her repelled
him—it had left