One Night to Risk It All Read Online Free PDF

intact? Is that it? Or are you just pissed because I planned it?”
    “Yes! I am pissed that you planned it. I thought we had something... I thought...” Her throat closed off, emotion, anger choking our her words.
    “Such a virgin, Rachel,” he said, his tone dry.
    “No, I’m not, and I think we both know it. Because of you!” And even before that she’d lacked innocence. Which meant she should have known, she did know. But he’d made her forget.
    “Because of you, agape, ” he said, tugging his slacks up and doing the button. “You made your choice. Don’t be angry with me because I outed you as being faithless.”
    Before she could measure her response, his wallet was sailing out of her hands, skimming his ear, hitting the wall behind him. “Out!” she screamed.
    She had just destroyed her engagement. The future of her family’s company. All for sex. Sex with a man who’d been using her. Tricking her. Trying to hurt Ajax...
    Ajax, who hadn’t deserved this treatment at all. Who cared for her. And her father... After all he’d done for her...
    She pressed her palms into her eyes, trying to keep the tears at bay. “Out. Out. Out,” she said.
    “Rachel...”
    “You ruined my life!” she screamed, flinging her arms wide. “I thought you were different. I thought you made me...feel something and you were just lying. I blew up my life for you and it was a lie!”
    “I never promised you anything. You made a mistake. Unhappily for you.”
    “Don’t call him,” she said, her stomach sinking. “Just don’t call him.”
    “I don’t have to,” he said. “You won’t marry him.”
    “One night with you and I’m going to leave the man I’ve been engaged to for years? I hardly think so,” she said. Only a few moments ago, she would have. Just a few short moments ago.
    She would have exposed herself to scandal, exposed her family to it. She would have destroyed everything she’d spent years rebuilding for him. What had she been thinking?
    And now...what had she done? What was wrong with her? She hadn’t thought, not for a moment. She’d been feeling. Lost in some inane fantasy that had no hope of ever coming true.
    Now she was sitting here, all of it burned down, ash at her feet, the hero of the story revealed as a villain.
    “Just go. And please don’t contact me. Please don’t call him, don’t... Don’t.”
    “Now, why,” he said, his lip curling, “would I agree to that? I got exactly what I wanted. I am a man who makes careful plans, agape, and I don’t plan on changing them just because you shed a tear.”
    He strode across the room, to the hotel door, and walked out. He didn’t even look at her again. Didn’t spare her one more glance as he closed the door behind him.
    Rachel sank onto the floor, her knees giving out entirely. And it was then she realized that she was still completely naked. But it didn’t matter. Putting on clothes wouldn’t make her feel less exposed. Wouldn’t make her feel less...dirty.
    That’s what it was. She felt dirty.
    She’d betrayed Ajax.
    That was the truth no matter who Alex really was. But his betrayal was like salt in her wounds, as they would be salt in Ajax’s.
    Ajax...
    She would have been prepared to end the relationship if there had even been a chance that...
    That Alex wasn’t a lying, horrible, hideous bastard. But there wasn’t. He was. And that meant she had to go back home. The wedding had to go forward. Her life had to go forward. As if this hadn’t happened.
    This was why she’d avoided passion. This was why she’d avoided doing things that were risky, and crazy. Because when she took chances, she got hurt. Because when she trusted, it came back to haunt her. On her knees, her chest burning so bad she could hardly breathe, she remembered exactly why she’d taken to hiding herself.
    Never again. She would go back to Ajax, to safety. And if Alex told him about tonight, she would beg for his forgiveness. She stared ahead, eyes