Sizzling Seduction by Gwyneth Bolton

sooner than we think. But if you expect me to cover for you, you’d better believe that something has to be in it for me.”
    Sophie took a deep breath, composing herself and trying to come up with a way to salvage the situation.
    “Patrick is not seeing anyone. Don’t you think if he were seriously seeing someone, I’d know about it? My nephew and I are very close. He would have told me. He probably just told you that to lash out because he’s stil hurt by your betrayal. Tel me what happened and don’t leave a word out.”
    Courtney went on an angry frustrated rant about what happened when she had gone to Patrick’s home.
    Sophie wanted to know who in the world told the girl to get darn near naked and place herself in the man’s bed?
    Didn’t she see that those whorish ways wouldn’t get her anywhere?
    Maybe she isn’t the right one for this job after all…
    But who else could she get? Time was passing and she wasn’t getting any younger. It would be nice to be at peace and to go out in the same home she had come into the world in. And Lord knows it was way past time for that two-faced, fraud sister-in-law of hers, Celia, to be out of the Hightower home.
    She listened to the tale Courtney told and became increasingly horrified. “You told him that I told you where the spare key was?”
    “Wel , you did,” Courtney snapped.
    “You’re just messing everything up, Courtney. First of al , you shouldn’t have tried to win him over with sex. Have you ever known a Hightower man to have his head turned by such common actions? They have women offering them that al day, every day. You’re going to need some better tricks than that, young lady.”
    “I shouldn’t need any tricks! He should be glad I even want him back, after the way he treated me.”
    Lord, the poor child is delusional.
    “Do you want him back or not?”
    “I want him back. But he is going to have to pay for treating me so rudely.”
    Delusional. Sophie shook her head.
    This was her only shot at besting Celia once and for al .
    And she needed to have the last laugh. So Courtney would have to do. She only hoped the girl hadn’t ruined everything beyond repair. “What are you doing for Thanksgiving?”

    “You mean she showed up at your house when you weren’t home, let herself in and proceeded to get undressed while she waited?” Lawrence frowned as he stretched. “You should have pressed charges. Wait—don’t tel me you stil have feelings for the woman. What about the nun?”
    “I hope you changed the sheets?” Joel shuddered.
    “There ain’t no tel ing where that skin has been.”
    Looking at his two brothers, he almost wished that he hadn’t asked them to meet him at the gym this morning. He knew they were going to have jokes.
    “Anyway, clown one and clown two. Aisha is not a nun.
    And I’m working on that. I’m making slow progress, but I am making progress. And I did change the sheets, threw those bad boys out, as a matter of fact. But that’s not why I asked you guys to meet me here this morning.”
    “Yeah, I know. You wanted my help to get you in shape so that you can woo your schoolteacher.” Lawrence stood up and stretched some more. “So whaddya want to start with—some hoops? Wanna hit the track a couple of times?
    Want me to spot you on the weights? What’re you pressing?”
    “He doesn’t want help getting in shape. He wants help reviving his old-school playa skil s. Being an original playa from the Himalayas is played out now, huh? You wanna learn from a new-school playa who has turned in his playa card but left the game so much better than he found it.
    Someone like your younger brother…Me.” Joel popped his col ar and grinned.
    “Umm…” Patrick turned to Lawrence. “No, and…” he turned to Joel. “Hel . No.” He shook his head. “I asked you here because I knew after I told you about the stunt Courtney pul ed you’d go running to tel your wives. So I wanted to let you know that you are not