Read Flirting With the Forbidden for Free Online Page B

want to become—because I know that you will whirl back in here in two weeks’ time and take over again.’
    Blue eyes held green and Hannah’s mouth eventually twitched with a smile. She nodded, looked around the table and pulled on her cloak of business. ‘Okay. Now, we’ve wasted enough time on our family drama. Back to work, everyone.’
    * * *
    By the end of the two-hour meeting Morgan felt as if her head was buzzing. She desperately needed a cup of coffee and some quiet. Just some time to think, to process, to deal with the events of the morning.
    She wanted to run up to her studio, lie down on her plush raspberry love seat and just breathe. But instead, because Hannah had asked her super-nicely, she was accompanying Noah to the Forrester-Grantham Hotel—the oldest, biggest and most beautiful of Manhattan’s hotels. It had the only ballroom in New York City big enough to accommodate the ball’s many guests, and the fact that it was lush, opulent and a six-star venue made it their instinctive hotel of choice.
    Morgan had been delegated, by her mother, to introduce Noah to the hotel’s Head of Security and discuss the current security arrangements for the ball.
    Yippee.
    Riley, the last to leave, closed the door behind her and Morgan was left alone with Noah. She watched as he unfurled his long body and headed for the refreshment table in the corner. He placed a small cup beneath the spout of the coffee machine and hit the button marked ‘espresso’. He was different, Morgan thought. His body, under that nice grey suit, still seemed to be as hard as it had been eight years ago, but his hair was longer, his face thinner. Okay, he was older, but what felt so different? Maybe it was because now he radiated determination, a sense of power...leaving no one in doubt that he was a smart, ambitious man in his prime.
    Noah snagged two bottles of sparkling water from the ice bucket, held them loosely in one hand as he picked up the small cup and brought it back to the table. To her surprise, he slid the cup and a bottle towards her.
    ‘You look like you need both,’ Noah said, pushing away the chair next to her with his foot and resting his bottom on the conference table so that he faced her. He picked up a bottle of water, twisted the cap off and took a long sip.
    Morgan lifted the cup to her lips, swallowed and tipped her head so that it rested against the high back of the leather chair. Her mind skittered over all the questions she wanted to ask him: where did he live? He wasn’t wearing a ring but was he married? Involved? Why had he said no to her all those years ago?
    She opened her mouth to say... what?... and abruptly closed it again.
    The right corner of Noah’s mouth lifted and Morgan felt her irritation levels climb. ‘What are you smirking at?’ she demanded.
    ‘You, of course.’
    Of course.
    ‘Well, stop it! Why?’
    Noah lifted one shoulder and looked at her as he put the water bottle to his lips. Lucky water bottle... Really, Morgan! Do try to be less pathetic, please .
    ‘You’re sitting there thinking that politeness demands that you have to talk to me and the only thing you want to talk about is why I walked away so long ago.’
    The ego of the man! The arrogant, condescending, annoying son-of-a... He was so right, damn him.
    ‘I haven’t thought of you once since you left,’ she said, with a credible amount of ice in her voice.
    ‘Liar,’ Noah said softly, his eyes sparking with heat. ‘You’ve also wondered what it would’ve been like...’
    Also wondered? Did that mean that he had too? And why was she even having this conversation with him? In fact, why was he talking at all? The Noah she knew needed pliers and novocaine to pull words out of him.
    ‘Well, I see that you’ve grown some social skills. Have you found that talking is, actually, quite helpful to get your point across?’
    See—she could do sarcastic. And quite well. Hah!
    ‘My partner nagged me to improve.’
    His