The Billionaire's Wife (32 page)

Swallowing hard, I reached up to adjust the light for him. “This
isn't that hard,” I said after a moment. “Are you just pretending to never have
used this to get me to come over here?”

“No, of course not. It was installed just this morning.”

I paused, processing this. “Excuse me?” I said at last. “You had
this studio installed...
this morning?”

“Yes. I did.”

Taking a deep breath, I tried to control my irritation. “So you
aren't
an amateur photographer?”

He laughed, a rich, deep sound, as he leaned around me to see
what I was doing with the various knobs on the back of the light. The heat of
his body rolled into mine. “Of course I am. I'm a very
new
amateur.”

Don't think about how close he is,
I commanded myself.
“So you draw, then?”

“Not yet.”

“Paint? Sculpt?”

“Nope. Not yet.”

“So last night, when you told me you were an amateur artist, you
were lying.” My voice was flat and angry. I hate being lied to.

I heard him breathe in sharply, and he moved back slightly. “No,
I didn't lie,” he said. “The moment I saw you from across the room, I decided I
wanted to be an artist so I could capture you in whatever way I could. I have
decided to become a brilliant and tortured artist, inspired by you.”

I am not falling for this. I am
not.

“Really,” I said flatly. “You just decided to be brilliant and
tortured?”

“Yes. I am going to be a madman in touch with the pulse of the
universe through my art, and you are my inspiration.”

My lips thinned down into a line. “Yeah, well, I guess it's easy
to be a starving artist when you have billions of dollars.”

“Only one point four billion,” he said. “There are far more
cells in the human body than I have dollars. It's all relative if you think
about it.”

Only a rich shithead would say something like that. Anger rose
in me, and I whirled around, meaning to confront him. But the sight of him
stopped me in my tracks.

He was looking down at me, his expression open and curious, as
if he really
didn't
understand why what he had just said had infuriated
me. In the bright light of the studio, his beauty shone, probably far better
than my paltry looks ever would. His clear skin, tinged with the hint of a tan,
glowed with health and vigor, and the sandy locks of his hair spilled over his
forehead in golden waves. The brown of his eyes startled me, deep and intense,
with hidden depths, like well-polished cherrywood, and his mouth, full and
soft, quirked at my dumb, wide-eyed staring.

I couldn't help the sudden picking up of the pace of my heart in
my chest. He was near, too near to me, but even though this room had to be over
a thousand square feet, I couldn't move an inch. I
wouldn't
give an
inch. I absolutely could not let this guy know how much he affected me.

The shadow of his beard, now almost two-day's growth, stubbled
his cheeks, and I found myself aching to run my own face over his skin, to feel
the rough evidence of his masculinity on my smooth, feminine jaw. It was an
impulse I was almost entirely unaccustomed to. Deep, raw. Primal. An animal
attraction I hadn't felt since the heady days of doing E at raves in college.
And I was one hundred percent sober right now, feeling everything, feeling it
all,
and it was entirely in response to Malcolm Ward's proximity.

It scared me.

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About the Author

Ava Lore was raised by wombats and lives to corrupt the innocent.
When she's not writing erotic romance, she spends her time thinking about
writing erotic romance and drinking enough iced coffee to kill a musk ox.

Discover more titles by
Ava Lore at
Kobobooks.com
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You can email Ava Lore at
[email protected]
,
follow her on twitter (@authoravalore) or visit her at
authoravalore.com
. She yearns for your
approval and always loves to hear from fans. Want more BBW? More Billionaires?
More aliens? More menage? Something entirely different? Let her know!

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Maddy Calls a Meeting (BBW Billionaire Menage Erotica)

Maddy Shifts the Paradigm (BBW Billionaire Menage Erotica)

Her Alien Abductor: Galactic Concubine, Part 1 (Alien Erotica)

Her Alien Instructor: Galactic Concubine, Part 2 (Alien BDSM Sex
Slave Erotica)

Solstice Sacrifice (Reluctant Virgin Beast Erotica)

The Billionaire's Wife (A Reluctant BDSM Erotic Romance):

Bartered Proposal: The Billionaire's Wife, Part 1

Bartered Seduction: The Billionaire's Wife, Part 2

Bartered Bride: The Billionaire's Wife, Part 3

Bartered Desire: The Billionaire’s Wife, Part 4

Bartered Submission: The Billionaire’s Wife, Part 5

Bartered Passion: The Billionaire’s Wife, Part 6

Bartered Pain: The Billionaire’s Wife, Part 7

Bartered Betrayal: The Billionaire’s Wife, Part 8

Bartered Surrender: The Billionaire’s Wife, Part 9