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as looks go, I’m so far out of his league, I doubt he even sees me.”
    “Which is why he had sex with you yesterday.”
    Marla raised her hands in surrender at Layla’s exaggerated sigh.
    “And I am indebted. For what he’s done for me, for what he did for Ma. I can never repay him.”
    “I’m certain he wants you to feel that way. Look, honey, you’re an adult, you make your own decisions, but be careful, okay? If you want to continue this thing with Leighton, then fine, you deserve to have some fun. But don’t let him make you lose sight of everything else. I know you don’t believe me, but he didn’t make you, and you don’t owe him anything, least of all your love.”
    And with that, Marla left to serve the customers who’d just walked in.

Chapter Three
    M arla’s words still weighed heavy on Layla’s mind that Saturday as she ran errands, and she had to acknowledge that Marla had hit closer to home than she was comfortable with. Though she hadn’t seen Leighton for the remainder of the week, her mind was a jumble of conflicting thoughts and emotions. But out of that morass, she’d determined that she wanted Leighton, and that she couldn’t work for him anymore. Two indisputable facts that were totally incompatible, each a different but no less certain path to her doom. She could sleep with him, knowing the price was the death of dream and eventually the loss of her heart. She could quit and destroy one of the most important relationships in her life. And leave an angry Leighton hell-bent on punishing her, unwilling to stop, she knew, until she had nothing.
    A tear slipped down her cheek.
    Ma, I wish you were here.
    She tried to pull herself together. She’d faced challenges before. She could do this.
    She turned onto her street and almost turned right back around when she saw the $200,000 sports car parked in her driveway—in her spot no less. The car was beautiful, as was the man behind the wheel, though the pissed-off glare he shot her when their gazes met through the window gave him an edge of danger.
    She wasn’t altogether surprised to see him, though she’d hoped she wouldn’t. She was too raw to think clearly around him, and the rush of awareness that sizzled through her at the sight of the broad expanse of his back as he got out of the car proved as much.
    She parked on the curb in front of the house and got out of the car.
    “Who wears a suit on Saturday, Leighton?”
    He didn’t say anything, just watched and waited as she walked up the driveway to unlock the door, but, as seemed to be the case recently, his disproval was clear.
    “Please come in, Leighton,” she said in a sarcastic tone and ushered him into the house.
    She dropped her keys and purse, removed her shoes, anxious to shift her focus from the alien feeling of Leighton in her home. Strange, but in all the years she’d known him, he’d never been to her house. In fact, she wasn’t even sure he’d known where she lived.
    She turned to face him and said, “How did you—”
    His lips, pressing down insistently on her own, cut off her words. He kissed her hard and deeply, forcing her to yield to his command.
    He pulled back as abruptly as he’d started. “Why weren’t you here earlier? You knew I was coming.” His tone was even, but she felt the tightening of his arms around her waist.
    Layla’s mind was fuzzy from his kiss, but his words brought her to full alertness. She tried to pull herself from his hold. He was unyielding. She looked into his gray gaze, and as the moment stretched, Layla slowly inclined her head and stood on her tiptoes, a rare experience for a woman of her stature, and captured Leighton’s lips with her own. She felt his confusion and smiled, happy to have the upper hand for once.
    Her advantage was brief.
    Leighton quickly took control, thrusting his tongue between her lips and pushing her against the foyer wall, lifting his left hand to her neck, while roaming his right over her back and