Coming on Strong Read online

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2018 Faye Avalon

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-605-7

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  For AJ

  COMING ON STRONG

  Faye Avalon

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  Staring at the woman on the other side of the threshold, James Mallory felt his first real trickle of apprehension since he’d left the military behind a little over a year ago. He hadn’t known his next step then. He didn’t know it now.

  He swallowed, trying to ignore the sultry quality in her blue eyes, the flushed cheeks, moistened lips, and, damn it to hell, the low-cut dress that left precious little to his rapidly overheating imagination. “Just what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  Did she actually thrust those deliciously plump breasts for effect? “I’m opening my apartment door to my date for the evening. Are you coming in? Or would you prefer to wait out there in the hallway while I get my coat?”

  He had no inclination to do either, but since he didn’t relish their conversation reaching the prying ears of neighbors, James walked into the freaking lions’ den.

  She stepped back, a slight smile on her red-lipped mouth, and closed the door behind him. “Can I get you a drink? I seem to recall you enjoy a beer.” Her seductive gaze slipped over him. “Although I’m thinking a man who wears designer suits and Italian leather shoes probably has more discerning tastes these days. Am I right?”

  “Cut it out, Lexi. It’s a dangerous game you’re playing.”

  “It is? I wasn’t aware I was playing any sort of game.” Her sashaying hips declared otherwise, as she sauntered past him toward the little kitchenette. Reaching into a cupboard, she took out two crystal glasses. “All I did was hire an escort for the evening.”

  “The escort-plus package,” he said through gritted teeth. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what that means.”

  She smiled in a catlike way, reminding him that she was no longer the naïve, sweet, little eighteen-year-old who had nursed a crush for him, but a woman in her twenties who seemed to have it all figured out. She had no freaking idea.

  “Well, how could I deny it?” She put the glasses on the counter and reached into the refrigerator. “Considering I’ve temped at the Talbot Agency for the last two weeks.”

  “Exactly,” he said, watching her pour the wine. “It’s unethical to say the least. Hiring me when we’re both employees.”

  That cat-smile again. “Not anymore we aren’t. My assignment came to an end last night.”

  Shit.

  She came around the counter and handed him a glass. “Why don’t you sit down? We can catch up, seeing as you’ve largely avoided me for the last couple of weeks. For the last few years, come to that.”

  Damn sure he had. He wasn’t about to open up cans of worms now so old rust had formed around the edges.

  Lexi sat on one of two sofas and patted the cushion beside her. When he chose the opposite sofa, she smiled again. “Are you like this with all your clients?”

  “You’re not a client.” Because his throat was burning, and because she’d crossed her legs and her skirt had risen up to reveal milky thighs, he took a healthy swig of his drink.

  “I’ve paid in full,” she said and took a sip of her own drink. “That means you’re mine for the evening.”

  Thrown off balance, James determined to take back control and show her nothing had changed in the past seven years. “I get to choose who I spend the evening with.”

  “And you’ve never once refused an assignment. I checked your file.”

  She was right, of course. He’d never refused a client. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons the Talbot Agency held him in such high-esteem, and why he was earning the big bucks. He didn’t care much what he was requested to do, or with whom. He’d learned that sex was best kept on a purely physical level. Cold. Emotionless. Vacant.

  He narrowed his eyes. “As a temp you wouldn’t have had clearance to check personal files.”

  “It’s common knowledge,” she acceded. “You’re known for your professionalism. So, I’m sure you won’t want to break your exceptional record and tarnish your reputation, and that of the Talbot Agency.”

  Little minx. She knew damn well that would hit home. He’d worked long and hard to become the man he was now. “What’s going on?”

  “Like I said. I need an escort for the night.” She sipped her wine again, licked her lips, all the while watching him. “And at the end of the night, I want to get laid.”

  He nearly choked on his drink. Okay, escort-plus was the deal when a client wanted exactly what she’d outlined, but to hell if he was going to do it with her. With Lexi McKenna. Kid sister of his once best friend. Youngest child of two amazing people who had welcomed him into their home even knowing he was trouble.

  “Forget it. It’s not going to happen.”

  She uncrossed her legs and leaned forward, placing her glass on the coffee table separating them. “Would you prefer that we part ways at the end of the evening and I go trawling a bar or two to get what I want?”

  “Don’t be an idiot.” The thought of some drunken lout with his hand up her skirt at some dive had his brain going into overdrive. But then he’d once been a drunken lout and he’d done more than shove his hand up her skirt. “Don’t you have a boyfriend, or something?”

  “Please. I’m studying every minute I get, and working in the uni bar at nights and weekends. Not to mention taking temporary jobs during term breaks. When do I get time for a boyfriend?”

  He might have given her a wide berth over the years, but he’d heard she was studying veterinary medicine. He was pleased that she’d stuck to her guns and had found a way to pursue her dream despite the challenges of dyslexia.

  “Well, I’m not going to fuck you at the end of the evening,” he said, all but cursing himself for a fool. But what could he do? She was an innocent, for God’s sake. Despite that sexy dress and her seductive gaze, she was a kid from a small town who struggled with school, was protected by three big brothers, and worked all hours to help finance her dream of helping animals. Shit. He could all but see the little unicorns flying around her pretty pixie-cut hairdo.

  “Because you still see me as little Lexi, is that it?”

  Spot on.

  He simply shrugged.

  “Well, you listen to me. I’m going to get my coat, and you’re going to accompany me to my friend’s engagement party. At the end of the evening you’re going to bring me home, and you’re going to be the consummate professional that I’ve heard so much about.” She came across to him and poked him in the chest. “You are not, I repeat not, going to walk out on me again, because this time I’m calling the shots, get it?”

  Before he could refute that she stormed into what he assumed was her bedroom, leaving him to wonder how the hell he was going to get out of this without dumping her like he had seven years ago. Something that obviously still stuck in her craw if the glare in her eyes and the haughty tilt of her chin were any indication.

  He hated what he’d done back then, how he’d reacted, but in truth he hadn’t given much thought to her fee
lings. He hadn’t even stopped to consider how embarrassing and hurtful his actions were.

  She might have grown up in the intervening years, but she didn’t know the half of it. What did she know of the world and all its harsh realities? She didn’t know what it was like to see your comrades blown to kingdom come, or to press a hand to their chest in a futile attempt to stop them bleeding out. She hadn’t attended countless memorial services and watched loved ones grieve. But he had, and it haunted him. Why had he survived and they hadn’t? What made him so different? Up until he’d joined the military he’d been bad news. In and out of foster homes, in and out of trouble. The army had changed him, forced him to grow up, made him take stock. But damned if he could ever make peace with the fact he still drew breath and so many other good men didn’t.

  When he’d left the military, he’d buried his scars by throwing himself into mindless sex. He’d tried a few jobs, but had soon realized that his most pleasurable pursuit could become his most profitable one. He’d worked his way through the ranks at the Talbot Agency, starting at the lower end of the client base and working his way up to the bigger fishes, the ones that carried bonuses larger than the actual fee.

  He placed his glass down and stood. Okay, he’d take her to this engagement party, after which he intended shoving her in a cab and sending her home. Alone.

  She came out of the bedroom, a navy coat over her arm, and grabbed her purse. “Ready?”

  “I’ll take you to the party,” he said firmly. “I’ll play the escort. But as for the ‘plus’ part of the package? That’s not going to happen, got it?”

  She tilted her chin and headed for the door. “We’ll see.”

  ****

  The night had a chill to it, but Lexi didn’t need the warmth of her coat. She was all heated up, and the man standing beside her as the cab pulled up was responsible for that. Almost from the time she’d first become aware of such things, James Mallory had been the man at the heart of every fantasy she’d ever had. She’d been fifteen when he’d moved to town and had become best friends with her oldest brother. From the first look, he’d made her heart flutter and everything inside her yearn. She’d fallen hard, but he’d never so much as given her the time of day, except to confirm that he thought her a pest of the highest order. Then, on her eighteenth birthday, he’d noticed her. And promptly broken her heart into a million painful pieces.

  Well, now she was a woman. He was about to find out just how much of one. If she could control her stupid nerves enough to pull this off.

  One night, she thought. One measly night in which to show him what he’d missed. To leave him begging for more. Then she’d be the one to dump him.

  “You can come a little closer,” she said as the cab pulled away and he continued to sit as far from her as possible. “You’re supposed to be my date.”

  He didn’t move, but spared her a look. “I thought we’d established that I’m your escort. Nothing else is on the cards. End of.”

  Taking matters into her own hands, she sidled up to him, making sure their thighs touched. “Do you remember Caitlin Rivers? It’s her engagement we’re celebrating.”

  He raised his eyebrows, an uneasy look in his deep brown eyes. “Yeah, I remember.”

  “Caitlin is going to be floored when she sees me walk in with you.”

  He removed the hand she’d placed on his leg. “More likely she’ll take a swing at me.”

  Lexi laughed. She’d considered that possibility herself. Caitlin had helped her nurse her heart back together after James had broken it. She was the one who had suggested making an effigy of him and plunging a trillion needles into his chest. “She’ll be too busy ogling her fiancé. She’s ridiculously in love.”

  He said nothing, but his look was contemptuous to say the least.

  “What’s with the look? Don’t you believe in happy-ever-afters?”

  “Nobody with a thinking brain does.”

  A chill moved through Lexi. She knew a little of what had happened to him in the army, of the friends he’d lost in conflict, and she imagined what that could do to a person. It haunted him as it did her brothers. But was there another reason James was so negative about love? “That’s a pretty grim outlook.”

  “It’s a realistic one. And if you put your hand on my leg again I’m going to throw you out of this cab.”

  She winced, the warning too stark a reminder of what happened seven years ago. She forced a slow smile, remembering her role for the evening, and her plans to have him begging for more. “I’d have expected a harsher punishment than that. You could at least threaten to put me over your knee.”

  “Cut it out, Lexi.”

  She looked down to where he was about to remove her hand again and noticed the bulge in his pants. Well, despite his protestations, things seemed to be progressing in a very gratifying manner, thank you very much.

  They arrived at the venue. Opulent and swanky. The fiancé’s family was loaded, it seemed. Lexi had met Caitlin’s intended once, and he seemed nice enough. Theirs had been the proverbial whirlwind romance, and as Caitlin’s parents were no longer alive, she had given her parents-to-be free rein over the proceedings.

  James paid the cabbie, opened the door, and held out his hand to Lexi. She met his gaze, pleased when he glanced at the flash of thigh her dress afforded. His nostrils flared slightly. The fact he was affected by her gave her confidence an added boost. While they’d run into each other a few times over the intervening years—mostly when he’d been bamboozled into attending family weddings or other celebrations—he’d barely spared her a glance. At least now he was forced to look at her, and a reluctant interest shone in his eyes.

  He turned to the hotel entrance. “Did your friend rob a bank or something?”

  Lexi slipped her hand through James’s arm. It felt so amazing to be close to him after so many years, to feel the heat of his body, smell the spicy scent of his cologne. But she wasn’t here to be amazed. She was here for closure. Even if it would leave her picking up the pieces of her heart again in a few short hours’ time. “This isn’t Caitlin’s doing,” she said as they entered the glittering foyer with its throng of beautiful people. “Her future in-laws are organizing everything.”

  “You don’t sound too enamored with that.”

  “I’m not. They’re bamboozling her into this big ritzy wedding when what she really wants is a small affair. She’s not the most extroverted of people.”

  “That’s not how I remember it. As I recall, she threatened to slice off my balls.”

  Lexi laughed. “She’s a tigress when one of her cubs is threatened. I’m going to ditch my coat. Why don’t you grab us a glass of that champagne?”

  She went into the cloakroom, checked her coat, and bumped right into Caitlin.

  They screeched and fell into each other’s arms. “Oh, my God,” Lexi said. “You look gorgeous.”

  Caitlin beamed. “You like it?” She twirled in the azure blue dress that floated in layers of soft chiffon around her knees. “Mother-to-be doesn’t approve, but I dug my heels in. I’m going to at least wear what I want.”

  “You should have what you want in everything. Just tell her to back off.”

  “Can’t. She’s been really good to me. Anyway, is he here? Did you pull it off?”

  “Sort of.” Lexi lowered her voice. “Reckons he isn’t going to bang me, but we’ll see about that. He’s interested, I know that well enough.”

  “Why wouldn’t he be? You’re hot. You can reel him in like a minnow.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  Linking arms, they walked out into the reception hall and found James in conversation with a group of people. He had an easy grace, Lexi thought, an affability that drew people like flies. But there was an edge to him. She wondered if everyone saw it, or just her.

  After a fairly frosty exchange of greetings, Caitlin went off in search of her fiancé, leaving Lexi alone with James. He handed her a glass of champagne.

>   “This doesn’t seem like your friend’s style,” he said with a glance around the glitzy ballroom. “She always seemed more like a burger and beer gal to me.”

  “She’s far from that. But I agree, it’s not really her style. She prefers the simple pleasures in life, and tends to go with the flow.” She cast him a sideways glance. “Unlike me. I like to plan everything to the nth degree.”

  His look said he remembered that only too well, and he had the grace to look unsettled by the memories.

  “You didn’t say you liked my dress.”

  “No.” Looking away from her, he sipped at his champagne. “I didn’t.”

  “You didn’t say? Or you don’t like it?”

  “None of my business what you wear.” After another sip he turned to look at her. Up and down. Her pulse hiked with the very male appraisal. “But if it’s my opinion you’re after, it’s too revealing.”

  Enjoying herself, and the effect she obviously had on him, she smiled. “In what way?”

  “In a thrusting your breasts in my face kind of way.”

  She thrust a little more. “You don’t like that either? My breasts in your face?”

  Narrowed brown eyes all but glared at her. “Not a question of what I like. It’s a question of you wasting your time.”

  Okay. This was going nowhere fast. She needed a more tactical approach. “Maybe I am wasting my time, at least with you.” She sighed, theatrically, and sipped her champagne. “I’m starting to wonder if the praise regarding your prowess is much exaggerated. You know, an emperor’s new clothes kind of thing.”

  He only raised his eyebrows.

  “Well, I’m not about to waste this dress, or what’s in it,” she said and handed him her glass. “I’ll be looking for my money back, and I’ll be writing a scathing review of the Talbot Agency and how unprofessional their escorts are. See you around.”