Sizzling Seduction by Gwyneth Bolton

he’d ever seen, even when she was angry, especially when she was angry. As if brown-sugar daggers could real y do him any harm. Her glare didn’t scare him at al . It made him want her even more.
    “I’l let you go for now. But I want you to know that we are going to have our date sometime in the near future.” He ran his hand across her cheek again just so he could feel the jolt. “I’l see you around, Aisha. You can count on that.”
    He turned and walked away then, because he wasn’t exactly sure that he wouldn’t pul her into his arms and kiss her senseless if he stood there looking at her a moment longer.

    Sophie Hightower glanced at her watch and frowned.
    Courtney was late. Why she stil bothered with the girl was beyond her. She had al but made sure her favorite nephew met and fel in love with Courtney years ago, and the sil y girl had cheated and broken Patrick’s heart.
    Sophie glanced around the smal eatery. Courtney had picked this little sandwich shop. Sophie brushed a crumb off the ecru tablecloth. Courtney certainly wouldn’t be al owed to pick again. With crumbs on the table and the dingy tablecloths, how could she trust that the silverware would be clean?
    If Sophie didn’t know that Courtney was a good girl from a strong, upstanding family, she would have given up on the girl a long time ago. Even though she had cheated on Patrick, Courtney was stil a mil ion times better than those unworthy women her other nephews ended up marrying.
    And if Sophie could find a way to get Courtney and Patrick back together, at least she would have an al y in the family.
    And she needed an al y badly.
    “Hi, Sophie. Sorry I’m late.” Courtney swept into the restaurant, gave Sophie a peck on the cheek and sat down opposite her at the smal table.
    “It’s okay, Courtney. I was just busying myself thinking about what we can do to get you back in the good graces of my nephew.”
    Courtney laughed. “If you can think of something I hadn’t thought of and tried when he first filed for divorce, then by al means do so. I tried every trick in the book to make him forgive me for my mistake, and he wouldn’t budge. I hope that time and space has mel owed his stubborn streak and his anger. Because I want my husband back.”
    Sophie studied the young woman. She had certainly matured over the years. Truth be told, neither Courtney nor Patrick had been ready for marriage. They were both young and stil way too selfish at the time. Sophie could see that, and if she hadn’t been worried about what kind of woeful y inappropriate woman Patrick might end up with if he listened to his mother, Celia Hightower, the constant thorn in Sophie’s side, then Sophie would have told them to wait awhile.
    “You do seem like you’re a little bit more ready to be a wife now. And I have to say I would love it if you and Patrick got back together. Once Patrick has a wife and a family, my brother wil pass the house down to his oldest living son.
    And it would be nice to have a woman worthy of bearing the Hightower name in that house again. Do you know that Celia has had my brother James ban me from the house?”
    “Again? What happened this time? What’s her problem?
    Lord knows she never liked me and I never liked her, either.
    She never real y got in our business or anything like that,”
    Courtney paused and glanced at Sophie with a smirk. “But I just know she didn’t try to get Patrick to take me back.”
    Sophie wondered what that little smirk was about.
    Courtney needed to be glad Sophie had been in their business. If she hadn’t been, Courtney would not have married Patrick in the first place. Some people needed to have a little more gratitude. But she couldn’t be concerned with that now. There was no time.
    “At least it would have been time wel spent getting you and Patrick back together. You should have seen how hard Celia worked to get Jason back together with that video vixen daughter of a crackhead, Penny Keys. Now