Taken by Chance Read Online Free PDF

people. You wanna come?”
    Lena tried to hide
her reaction. Well, if she hadn’t believed him before when he’d said he hadn’t
seen the pictures, she did now. Because if he had seen them, claimed not to,
and then he’d invited her to an obviously BDSM-themed party, he would be kind
of a jerk. And whatever else was going on, she had confirmation that, at the
very least, Chance Dalton cared about doing the right thing.
    “I don’t know if
that would be such a good idea,” she said. “Under the circumstances.”
    Chance flashed
those dimples again. “I think you might change your mind. And there’s always an
open invitation for the girl next door.”
    Awkward moment.
Made even more awkward when Lena saw someone she actually knew from real life
in the milieu: Adra , her agent’s former assistant.
She hadn’t seen Adra in months, but had always liked her, especially in
comparison to Lena’s sleazebag agent, Dan. The guy kept trying to get her to
“cash in” on Richie’s leaked photos. He’d even wanted to know if there was a
video. Lena had just stopped taking his calls, which maybe wasn’t the smartest
career move, but it wasn’t like she had a shot at the career she wanted now,
anyway.
    And she really
didn’t want to talk about all that with someone who had probably seen her naked
in the last two days.
    “Chance, can we
maybe go somewhere with fewer people?” she said.
    The moment Lena
recognized someone, the crowd of people began to press
in on her. All she could think about was that they all knew. What they all
thought of her. What they’d all think of seeing her here, with Chance.
    And then her inner
cynic thought, Maybe that’s what he
wanted all along. Maybe he is just trying to drum up publicity for the club . Or maybe I’m just a fun conquest.
    She hated her inner cynic. But it didn’t
matter. Inner cynic would speak, and Lena would be unable to ignore her,
because her inner cynic was almost always right. And now all the progress she’d
made—getting comfortable with Chance, getting comfortable with anyone who wasn’t Thea—seemed to
evaporate.
    Chance looked at
her with those blue eyes, and she felt transparent.
    “Yeah, come on,”
he said, and led her to a stairwell.
    They climbed
forever in the dim light of the back stairs, Lena doing her best not to watch
Chance’s ass in those jeans. When they finally emerged, it was on a roof deck,
but not the dry, arid concrete of most Venice roof decks. Someone had
landscaped this one. It was just as green and lush as the gardens downstairs,
and felt just as private, with vines and flowers and even one tiny tree.
    Chance walked over
to the wall around the edge of the roof, most of it covered with honeysuckle,
and took in the view. When he turned back to Lena, his smile was dazzling.
    “This better?”
    Did this man have
any idea how beautiful he was? It was almost harder to look at him than it was
to look directly into the sun. He stretched out his arms and threw his head
back, just an animal happy to be out in the world, and oh God, there was that V
right over his hips again, the bottom part of what Lena knew would be an eight
pack, leading directly down…
    Her inner cynic
went nuts.
    “What are your
three biggest fears?” she blurted out.
    Chance snapped his
head down to pierce her with those eyes again. Lena felt her embarrassment
rising from her toes up, like she was a freaking mercury thermometer measuring
the level of social awkwardness. But she couldn’t help it. The more she felt
drawn to this man, the more vulnerable she felt, and the more vulnerable she
felt, the more her defenses kicked in. She was freaked out because for some
reason she wanted to please him, and she was desperate for a reason to trust
him, or at least a reason to feel like she knew him, even a little bit.
    Because her heart
already felt like she did. And her inner cynic knew her heart was a moron.
    And it was her
stupid, idiot heart that was threatening to take