Seducing His Opposition Read Online Free PDF Page B

they stepped out into the warm early-evening.
    “I told you I like to know my opponents,” he said.
    “I can see that,” she said. She did as well. Normally when she was negotiating something for her company she spent a lot of time researching the players involved in the deal. Winning almost always came down to who had the most information. “You were trying to throw me off my game a little, right?”
    “In part,” he admitted. “But honestly, you aren’t what I was expecting from the Gonzalezes’ lawyer.”
    “Because I’m a girl?” she asked using his term. “You know that calling me a girl wasn’t exactly flattering?”
    “I didn’t mean it that way,” he said. “It’s because you’re so sexy. I can handle going up against a girl but when she is making me think of long, hot nights instead of business—well I figured turnabout was fair play and I should do something unexpected like ask you out.”
    She bit her lower lip. He was a very frank man, which shouldn’t surprise her. From the moment they’d met he’d been that way. He was the kind of man who shot from the hip and didn’t worry about the consequences.
    And she was a woman who’d been damned by the consequences of her reckless heart before. She had to remember that her grandparents were in this situation with the Luna Azul Company specifically because she’d followed her heart and they had paid the price.
    “I’m not looking for a relationship,” she said. “I am focused on my career.”
    “I can see that,” he said. “But unless you’re into lying to yourself, you’ll admit that there is something between us.”
    She could admit that. There was a powerful attraction between them. Something that was more intense than anything she’d ever experienced before. She wanted to blame it on Miami and her old self, but she knew that it was Justin. If she’d been here with any other man she wouldn’t have felt like this.
    That was enough to make her pause. Justin was different and that very difference was enough to make him dangerous.
    “Lust,” she said. “And that is nothing more than a chimera.”
    “An illusion? I don’t think so. Lust is our primal instincts telling us to pay attention. You could be a potential mate for me,” he said.
    She stopped walking on the wooden boardwalk and turned to face him. He’d put on a pair of aviator-style sunglasses and with his jacket slung over his shoulder he looked like he’d stepped off a yacht. He seemed like a man who was used to getting everything he wanted.
    “What?” she asked. “There is no way you and I couldever be mates. I just don’t know if I should believe you or not. You’re not really looking for a mate for more than one night, right?”
    “Usually, I’d say so, but the way I am reacting to you throws my normal playbook out the window.”
    She shook her head. “Your playbook? Any guy who has one of those isn’t someone I’m interested in.”
    “That sounded worse than I meant it to. I was trying to say that this attraction I feel for you is making me forget every rule I have about mixing business and pleasure.”
    “I can’t afford to take a chance like that with you, Justin.”
    “Because of Tomas?”
    She wished it were that simple. “If it didn’t involve my grandparents…”
    “What do you mean?” he asked.
    She had no idea. She wished she had some answers. “Say I met you on vacation, I’d jump into a fling with you. But this is my home and my family and I can’t afford to compromise anything.”
     
    “There is no need to compromise anything,” Justin said, putting his hand in the center of her back and urging her to start walking again.
    She shook her head and the scent of gardenias surrounded him. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Why was it that everything about Selena was a turn-on for him? “I’m not going to take no for an answer. We are both good at negotiating.”
    “This isn’t easy for me. My grandparents deserve my