Seducing Avery

by Barb Han

“Evening.”

  “Breathtaking. It shouldn’t take long to pull together,” she said, trying to refocus. As it was, she felt like they were the only two people in the world. She needed to remind herself there were others. Many, many others. Especially for him.

  “Good. You don’t have long.”

  “When did you have in mind?” she asked, her nerves tingling again.

  “Next weekend.”

  “But that’s only...only...” Panic rose inside her like a wildfire burning up her throat.

  “You have nine days.”

  “I’ll never be able to pull it off in nine days.”

  His gaze was intense and meant to melt cold hearts. “I believe you can.”

  “You can’t even get invites out that quickly. I’m sure your friends are important people. They’ll need time to clear their schedules,” she choked out.

  “They’ll come.”

  On second thought, an invitation from an important man like Ryker Li, and she had no doubt they would come. In droves. An invitation like that had a way of opening up calendars and booking flights. He’d snapped his fingers and had her on a plane in less than twelve hours.

  “But I’ll need supplies. We haven’t talked menu or theme.”

  “I have no doubt you’ll do fine.”

  “Fine? This is impossible. A hundred people? That will take months to put together.”

  His cell phone buzzed, and he held up a long lean finger to quiet her before more words fumbling around in her head took form in her mouth. He spoke quietly into the phone, turning his back on her and strolling inside the lounge.

  Avery waited as patiently as she could before she walked inside. Bad news only got worse with age, and she needed to tell him she was quitting.

  He was still on the call that she presumed was business, but who could honestly tell? Avery didn’t plan on standing around endlessly, waiting to find out.

  “We need to talk. Now.”

  Impatience shot out of his ice-cold glare, and it stifled any thought of her repeating the gesture. Sheer amazement at the power he possessed to make humans freeze like statues stunned her, because she stood there rooted to her spot waiting as though she’d been cast and dyed. She’d be damned if she could muster the courage to twitch.

  Looking at him as he stood there, commanding, masculine, and all male, her breath caught in her throat.

  Okay. Fine. She conceded he was probably on a business call so she would give him another minute to wrap it up. She made a hand gesture to emphasize her point though—he needed to move it along.

  He’d said he wanted her here for his event. She hadn’t come begging for work. As far as she was concerned, she held the power in this exchange. Even if her heart told her that he’d chosen her for his prized event meant more to her than it did to him.

  Not that he hadn’t hinted he wouldn’t mind a little extra on the side. It would be one night she was certain she’d remember for a very long time. Or maybe nine nights of rapture. He wanted her to stay on to plan the party. She couldn’t for the life of her figure why he wanted her for more. Even for a minute. Or was it down to basic laws of nature and simple hunter mentality? She being the hunted. And was she also subconsciously playing hard to catch? That would certainly explain a few things, several of her irrational actions.

  Either way, she wanted to peel herself out of her skin for how uncomfortable he made her by sharing the same space. He almost had her believing the lies that rolled so easily off his tongue, especially the one about her being beautiful.

  The second she saw him hit End, she jumped right in. “Look. This so-called event isn’t happening. It’s impossible. I won’t have my name attached to something doomed to failure. This is all a very bad idea. I think I should go now. I’m ready to be taken home.”

  “You’ve come all this way to quit?” His voice was low and slow, and confidence dripped from his accented tongue.

  It was unnerving how calm and under control he could be. “Right.”

  Bemused, Ryker leaned against the wall. “I’ve offended you. I hadn’t intended to. Accept my apologies. You will have full access to my staff. They will do as you wish.”

  Frustration had Avery ready to unleash a scream that would surely crack the windows of the villa. It wasn’t until Ryker stood to his full height—at least six feet, four inches—that she felt somehow small and shriveled by comparison. The raisin standing next to the grape.

  Looking up into the eyes of the most powerful businessman on the planet could cast a spell over her senses similar to eating conches in the Bahamas, and his sensual power gripped her. As his arm slipped around her shoulder, awareness sensitized her body, sending warm currents to every uniquely feminine place.

  ****

  “Now, let’s talk about what I had in mind for this party,” he said walking her back to the terrace. Glancing down at her, seeing that frustrated smile, aroused a fresh surge of desire and a not-so-subtle pressure in his pants. If he got any harder, he’d no longer care. He’d whisk her off right then and there to a suitable place to lay her down and show her what was really on his mind.

  Her sun-kissed hair lit up like a halo with the light behind her, and her skin was pure as silk. Passion pulsed through him, and Ryker was fixated for the first time in his life, unable to bend another to his considerable will.

  She proved a challenge.

  He’d never allowed his passion to go this far with no certain prospect of releasing it. This unwelcome swell of desire was becoming a problem. Yet this woman appeared intent on making him suffer.

  Fine, he lied to himself.

  Was that the reason she was so irresistible?

  Ryker had every intention of finding out.

  Chapter Six

  “By the way, you should know you are the most amazingly sensual woman without even trying.” The words came out low and gravelly through stilted breathing.

  Avery pulled on every last ounce of strength to step away from the physical force that was Ryker Li. “I’d rather talk about the event,” she managed to get out through air that had become uncomfortably thick. Or they’d never get anywhere because she could stand here all day and gaze into those brilliant dark eyes of his. And he could tell her a thousand secrets, and she’d believe every one. Until he became bored and broke her heart into so many tiny pieces there’d be nothing left to glue together. Just brilliant, shiny bits of glitter, small as sand, to be swept off the floor. And you will break my heart. The admission startled her.

  With brooding intensity, Ryker tore his gaze from hers. “I have no idea as to a theme.”

  Breathless, Avery said, “Do you like gambling?”

  “For excitement?” The laugh that came next was haughty and arrogant. “I can think of better ways to spend an evening with a room full of women.”

  “Well, uh.” Avery’s conversation skills had dipped thirty IQ points again. Ryker was the only man she’d ever been around who’d had that effect on her.

  Regaining a slightly clearer mind, Avery straightened her shoulders. She dismissed the tingly sensation that sent ripples of desire straight to her nipples as being chilly, and said, “I’m here for work. If you have another idea...”

  Before she could finish, Ryker’s hand slid around her waist. “I do have another idea. Many, many other ideas.”

  Avery’s mind, still swimming in a fog of sensual arousal, betrayed her better judgment. Even as she knew she shouldn’t allow this seduction to go any further, she could not bring herself to stop it.

  Because she wanted this to happen.

  And she couldn’t think much past that at the moment.

  Instead, she focused on the curve of his chiseled jaw, so strong, so powerful. Ryker was mind-numbingly perfect. Mesmerizing.

  ****

  In Ryker’s estimation, he had a very big problem. Restraint was not generally something he struggled with. And yet, here he was, doing just that—struggling to hold back, making the thought of bedding Avery
that much more enticing.

  Her lips were swollen with desire. He forced himself to stop looking at them. If he took those lips, he wouldn’t be able to stop. He’d take all of her right then and there. And Ryker Li never forced himself on anyone. But then, he’d never had to. Most women jockeyed for the chance to spend an evening with him.

  Not Avery. She stood there, arms folded, like he was a cobra about to spit venom on her most of the time.

  His anticipation mounted.

  Warring against a passion of this magnitude took a toll. His head pounded worse than thunder cracking between his eyes. He couldn’t remember when a woman had stirred this kind of need, lust, inside him. Not that the thought didn’t have its appeal.

  But restraining himself, forcing himself not to act on what nature surely intended him to feel in this woman’s presence, gave him a headache. Blinding and dull and right between his eyes.

  Simple, naturally beautiful Avery had him swimming in desire. And hadn’t the unfamiliar always seduced him? He wanted a new experience. This could only be the reason he struggled, or why his control faltered. He needed to explore what that meant. How that might change the experience of sex.

  But not until he was certain she was his. Why the hell did that suddenly matter?

  ****

  Avery knew, without a doubt, she was in trouble. She turned her face away from Ryker in time to catch a flash of light out of the corner of her eye. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “A flash. Out there.”

  Ryker’s muscles tensed as he looked out onto the ocean. “Might be a storm.”

  Glancing up at a clear blue sky that looked to go on for miles, Avery said, “Funny, there isn’t a cloud in sight.”

  “Storms roll in fast here. We’d better get back inside.”

  Avery turned to face him, and she couldn’t help but notice how a muscle in his jaw clenched.

  Lunch, which waited in the dining room facing the sunny south side of the island, helped ease the acid lining her stomach.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I have to make a work call,” he said.

  Avery should have been relieved as he walked away, but a sense of disappointment washed over her instead. The whitewashed mansion, the idyllic island, might entice her to relax if the memory of Ryker wasn’t everywhere she looked.

  She ate her lunch in silence, trying to get a handle on her emotions and her focus back on her job.

  When the tiny hairs on the back of her neck tingled, she knew he was back. She turned, and there he stood, glorious and sexy, a halo-effect created by the sun to his back.

  “You’ve eaten?” he asked.

  “I was hungry. Didn’t know for sure when you’d show up,” she said, her response fully loaded.

  He ignored it. “The food was good?”

  “Yes. Very nice.” She pointed to the few bits left on her plate, trying to deflect attention away from the fact she couldn’t stop from looking at the curve of his perfect jaw. “What are these?”

  “Wild greens.”

  Avery relaxed her shoulders. “Bitter, but really good. And these. What are these round things?”

  “Lychee.” He smiled his satisfaction. “Local fruit. Peel them first. They’re sweet inside.”

  The flesh was tender, sweet, and juicy. “This is amazing.”

  The rest of the meal was quiet. Not the awkward silence of strangers, but of companions who didn’t need to fill the air with words.

  “As to your theme,” Avery said when the last bite was taken. She needed to focus on work to override the swell of passion that filled her chest whenever he was near.

  “Your choice.”

  Her phone buzzed. “Sorry.”

  She rejected the call. “You were saying?”

  “Theme doesn’t matter to me.”

  Her phone buzzed again. His gaze traveled from her face to her phone. Embarrassment heated her cheeks as she rejected the call again. “It’s nothing. Not important.”

  When her phone buzzed for the third time during the meal, he pinned her with his gaze. “Someone’s being persistent.”

  “Oh, it’s nobody. Probably work.”

  The look he gave her said he doubted it. His gaze traveled down her chin to where her pulse throbbed at the base of her throat. “You’re a desirable woman, Avery. I don’t believe there’s no one back in New York,” he said as if he’d decided she had to know that on some level.

  She saw something darken in his eyes that looked like a flicker of jealousy. “It’s not what you think.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “It’s probably my mother.” She paused as his eyebrow quirked. She couldn’t meet his gaze when she said, “You met her in my office.”

  Reality dawned on Ryker as a flicker of compassion crossed his exotic features. “You don’t have to be embarrassed with me about your mother.”

  “How’s that? You know I’m talking about Alexandria Chase, right? You saw her. You were witness to her, um, charms.”

  “Is calling her Alexandria your idea or hers?” he asked, unmoved.

  “Hers. Says she looks too young to have daughters this old and doesn’t want to confuse people,” Avery said, exasperated. “Of course she started this when I was twelve.”

  “This bothers you?”

  “Sadly, no. It did when I was little but not anymore. I’m kind of relieved.”

  “Because?”

  “You know the saying about birds of a feather.” She pushed her food around with her fork.

  “You don’t want to be flocked with her?”

  “I’m more like my dad, when he was alive. I’ve always known I was different.”

  “Sorry about your father. But there’s nothing wrong with you.” he said, a hint of anger in his tone. “You must know that.”

  “Tell that to a little girl,” Avery said wistfully.

  He took her hand in his and braided their fingers together. Turning her palm up, he pressed a kiss to the soft skin of her wrist. “I’m sorry.”

  She forced her gaze to his and found a deep well of understanding there. Her body was flooded with fire and warmth. She ignored it. “So. My name is Chase.”

  “Are you hiding from it? Is that why you changed your name?”

  He took this well, like he understood, and that caught her off guard. “No. I didn’t want to be successful because of it. I had to know Avery McAdams could do it. Probably sounds crazy to someone like you.”

  He smiled at her. The earlier tension around his eyes had eased. “Makes perfect sense. Believe me, I know the blessing and the curse of a prominent family name. Mostly the curse.” His eyes darkened.

  “That why you—”

  “Went rogue? Rebelled?” He stopped for a long moment and focused on the circles he drew in her palm. “That came from anger.”

  “Seems like your life would have been so wonderful. Born into one of the most prominent families in Hong Kong. I can picture servants and doting parents.”

  “Only male son.” His jaw ticked. “Then again, I guess I could say the same for your family if I hadn’t met your mother. You have yet to meet mine. You will. Chase or McAdams—what do your friends call you?”

  “Chase.” But she wanted to know more about him, and he’d glossed over his own background.

  “Then Avery Chase, it would seem we have a lot in common.”

  Her gaze darted somewhere else, anywhere else but to his, which had softened. “Not like we get to pick family, right?”

  “You’re smart. Warm. Interesting,” he said, and his voice was soft.

  Avery couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, as his lean fingers stroked her arm, sending devastatingly light chills up and down her arm. Her eyelids lowered. Her body hummed with awareness. Her heart opened a little, and she wanted to know more about Ryker.

  Their hands were still joined, and the link solidified the growing force between them.

  Avery’s phone buzzed again, bringing Alexan
dria’s accusations back. You’re not good enough for a man like him. Exactly the reason Avery ignored her cell, no matter how much it buzzed. Oh, but Alexandria was persistent.

  Still, Avery was certain of one thing—she could not allow this to go any further.

  She struggled her way out of the fog of desire that being near Ryker created by clearing her throat, standing up, and taking her hand back. When she could finally speak, she said, “I need to return a few phone calls. I’m going to my room to work. I’ll send the invites out tonight.”

  “Thought you needed your theme?”

  “I’ll figure something out. Give me a list of names. I’ll send a teaser for them to save the date and attach your name to the invite. I’m sure that’s all I need to do to catch attention.”

  She left the room, and he didn’t say anything.

  ****

  Ryker immediately followed her. Beautiful, sensuous Avery—she had no idea the effect she had on men. On him.

  But she was about to find out.

  Ryker took hold of her arm to stop her from going inside her bedroom, knowing it would be far too tempting if he followed her.

  A little gasp escaped.

  Ryker pinned her with his solid mass, his erection pressing against her belly.

  She moaned before clearing her throat. “I need to freshen up. I trust there is a lock on the bathroom door.”

  “There’s no need for a lock,” he said plainly.

  “I disagree.”

  “I only go where I’m invited,” he countered.

  “Not in my opinion,” she argued, but didn’t move.

  “I never said the invitation had to be spoken out loud. Did I?” His gaze took in her sensual curves.

  His thumb grazed her bottom lip, culling an immediate reaction. Pressed to his, her body quaked. “I don’t remember asking for this.”

  He released a haughty groan. “Then stop inviting me to touch you.”

  “Is that what you think I’m doing?”

  If Ryker were a betting man, he’d go all in to answer her question. Taking her wrist instead, he slowly, ever so slowly, lifted it to his lips and brushed a kiss on the tender part where her arm joined her hand. Quietly, he whispered a few soft-spoken words in his native tongue that she would understand on a primal level.