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Brent,” she said, once again forcing herself to do something she didn’t want. She placed the phone in its receiver, cutting the line. He isn’t for you. Don’t lead him on.
    Hell, don’t lead yourself on.
    So why did she suddenly want to cry?
    The door to Anne’s office opened and that blond god of deliciousness peeked out. He stared down one end of the hall, then the other.
    â€œLooking for Jillian?” she asked. He and Jillian must have come to blows because he seemed every bit as infuriated as Jillian had.
    He didn’t say anything, just scowled at her and closed the door again.
    â€œThat went well,” she muttered. Time to get back to work. She’d think about the Greenes later.
    Â 
    I NSIDE A NNE’S OFFICE , Marcus stomped to the desk and plopped into the swivel chair. He crossed his arms over his chest. He stared at the door, his nose twitching at the lingering scent of luscious female. A mysterious scent he couldn’t quite place. Maybe a sunset. Maybe a midnight ocean breeze. Maybe sulfur and brimstone.
    Okay. So. The meeting hadn’t gone as planned. He blamed Jillian, of course. Infuriating woman.
    He’d worked in this strip-you-of-your-innocence business for a long time, but he’d never encountered bait quite like her. She was…unpredictable. A sweet smile one moment, a tongue-lashing the next. Mmm, tongue-lashing. He frowned. Don’t go there.
    He’d meant to behave, to show Jillian his polite side. She’d walked in, however, looking eatable in a scrap of nothing, and that intention had been blown straight to hell. At that point, the only politeness she’d have gotten from him would have been if she’d asked him to take her up on her clothing’s unintentional offer and eat her. He would have said thank you.
    Hence the reason he’d done everything in his power to piss her off.
    If she despised him, she’d continually push him away and he’d never have to worry about giving in to temptation. Or trying to seduce temptation. Firecracker that she was, she’d ignited at every barb he’d tossed her way. That shouldn’t have been such a turn-on. Insulting her shouldn’t have been such a turn-on. But they had been. Oh, they had been.
    Sadist, he berated himself. He didn’t usually allow women to affect him on any level except a sexual one. But Jillian had done that and more—and she’d done it while looking at him as if he were a pus-filled wound on a horse’s ass one moment and a platter of chocolate-dipped strawberries the next.
    Anger? Yes, he’d felt angry. She’d accused him of fucking the boss to land a job. Admiration? Definitely. She’d faced him nose to nose, matching him in insults and in (pretend?) disregard. Excitement? Abso-freaking-lutely. More than he’d experienced in years.
    Conclusion: buying CAM from Anne without personally meeting all her employees first had been a mistake. One it was too late to rectify. He’d gone through their files, of course, but hadn’t considered their actual personalities. Or clashing with their personalities. Or lusting after their personalities. In his defense, he’d simply wanted to expand his business and had been blind to everything but the profit margin.
    He wasn’t blind anymore.
    After calling and offering him the company, then changing her mind the next day, then changing her mind yet again when he visited her, Anne had suggested Jillian Greene as his second-in-command. No way in hell he’d consider that now. One, he was attracted to the infuriating demoness. He’d never been attracted to bait before and didn’t like that he was now. To this woman. Two, Jillian was a danger to society with her innocent face, killer body and forked tongue. And now she was his.
    His body instantly hardened in all the right places. Whoa, boy. Not mine personally. My employee.
    Fighting the wildfire in his blood, he