“Because I don’t. Didn’t you just admit you wanted him to look earlier?”
I have no defense because she’s right. For a split second in that moment with Aaron, I wasn’t Attorney Minji Lee. I was just Minji, a woman who felt seen for the first time in over a year.
“Fine,” I concede grudgingly. “He’s attractive. I’m not blind. But that doesn’t mean I want to sleep with him. That’s unprofessional.”I’ve probably slept with him already.
“Oh shut up!” she says. “Actually, how about you listen to the entire series? Book one isSinful Sinner, thenSinful Lies, and lastlySinful Love.” Her mind is already at full speed, miles ahead. She pauses, almost as if she’s catching her breath. “But if you finish the last book and you’re not willing to spread those legs for Aaron Singleton, you, my friend, might be the only woman on the planet immune to his voice, and not only will that Birkin be yours, I will even give you that Hermes bag.” She’s relentless, but I know she loves a bet as much as I do.
“Deal!” I smile. “I’ve listened to plenty of audiobooks. Not romance but same difference,” I add, hoping she’ll hear the confidence in my voice and realize she’s underestimated me again. I’ve tackled legal texts longer than this man’s entirecollection and lived to tell the tale. “I have a bet to win, so I’m going to let you go. I’ll give you an update after book one.”
“Sounds like a plan!” she chirps, and I can already tell she’s planning a victory speech for the end of this. “Oh, and babes, please use AirPods and a friendly reminder.” She pauses dramatically, milking the moment. “Try not to touch yourself.” She laughs as the call disconnects.
I shake my head at my phone, trying to push away the images she’s planted with her risqué commentary. Touch myself? Please. Does she really think I’m that desperate?
I purchased the other two books and pressed play on book one. I can see those bags in my possession now because the first ten chapters of this novel do not give whatever Demi thinks it was supposed to give. I must admit, Aaron does have a way with words and a knack for hooking you into the story in a way that could be dangerously addictive. But when it comes to the main character, Janessa, I just can’t relate. She’s the kind of heroine who would be killed off first in a horror movie—clueless, wide-eyed, and somehow always needing rescue.
It’s like she’s totally out of touch with reality, and as far as I’m concerned, she might as well live on a different planet. It’s not surprising she doesn’t resonate with me and my pragmatic, real-world approach to life. If you’re missing a few brain cells, then maybe you would connect with Janessa.
As the night draws on, I get comfortable in bed, finally putting in my AirPods. Perhaps that is why I can’t get into this book; I’m not listening to it like Demi said to. Maybe the AirPods add more oomph to the story. Taking a deep breath, I settle under the covers like I’m about to embark on a serious mission and hit play.
Aaron’s voice is deep and commanding, and I find myself closing my eyes, picturing myself as the one with her hands tied above her head. I’m the one with her legs wide open for himto do as he pleases. The first moan he makes, I turn to lie on my back. The second moan, my hands are dangerously close to slipping under the waistband of my panties.
“Do you like the way I make you feel?” I slowly circle my tongue around her nipple, and she withers beneath me. “I can’t wait to taste you.” I work my way down her body, kissing her pussy lips. “Tell me you want me to taste you. Tell me you want me to tongue kiss you here. Say it out loud.”
“Please, Aaron, please… please.” I sit up, pulling the AirPods out quickly, pausing the audio. Did I just answer? Shit. No more of this tonight.
My heart is racing, and I’m clenching my thighs together like I’m trying to protect something precious. This is ridiculous. It’s just a book, just words strung together by a man who makes his living selling fantasies to lonely women. Women like me—so maybe, in a sense, I am Aaron’s target audience.
Hell.
Demi can keep those damn bags.
CHAPTER 5
MINJI
My eyelids snapopen at 4:47 AM, twenty-eight minutes before my alarm. I lie there, heart hammering, tangled in sheets that are too confining. I sort through the fragments of my dreams that it takes a moment to confirm I am in my own bed, alone. My dreams were so uncomfortably vivid. Aaron’s voice lingered in my subconscious all night, wrapping around my thoughts like silk ribbons, binding me to fantasies I’d never admit to in daylight. But if that wasn’t enough, all the nonsense Demi was spewing and my subconscious, such a sneaky bitch, started to pull in the Aaron from college, mixing the two and refused to stick to a chronological script.
I’d find myself drifting between two beds. The Aaron from college and the Aaron shadowing me. In both beds I’ve been thoroughly fucked. Sometimes at the exact same time. Sometimes on opposite ends of a bed while I split myself down the middle, two perfect halves: the practical Minji who only believes in prenups and statistical probability, and the one who, if she believed in magic, would say she’d been cursed by a pair of dimpled cheeks and a voice designed to subvert self-control.
There’s no way I can look Aaron in the eye again. If he so much as glances at me, I know my face will betray me and it’s over—he’ll see everything.
“This is seriously ridiculous.” I drag myself out of bed, heading towards the bathroom.
I splash icy water on my face, but it does nothing to drown out Aaron’s voice still reverberating in my head. Inhale. Exhale. Somehow, I complete my morning ritual without his name crossing my mind again—progress, at least. My fingers quiver slightly as I fasten each button of my cream silk blouse, then smooth down my charcoal pencil skirt. The woman in the mirror looks composed, controlled. Attorney Lee reporting for duty. Whatever happened last night was an anomaly. A temporary lapse in judgment.
Right.
My heels click against empty hallways when I reach the office. Nobody else arrives this early, but my apartment walls had started closing in, with that damn audiobook pulsing from my phone like a homing beacon. Not that escaping helped. Chapter fourteen still calls to me, even here. At least at my desk, surrounded by case files and legal briefs, I can keep my hands occupied with work instead of… other activities. I settle into my chair behind the desk and click on the Audible app to finish it. I slip my AirPods in and press play, Aaron’s voice filling my ears once again. I’m being masochistic, I know. But I need to prove to myself that I can listen to this without losing composure. It’s just an audiobook, just a voice. Just words.
Except it’s not.
Chapter fourteen is worse than I remembered. Baron—Aaron’s character—is describing in excruciating detail exactly what he plans to do to Janessa once he gets her alone. The imagery is vivid, the language both poetic and filthy in a way thatmakes my thighs clench involuntarily. I press my knees together under my desk, willing my body to behave.
“You’re stronger than this,” I whisper to myself, gripping my pen so tightly it might snap. “It’s fiction. Fiction.”
“Janessa spread your legs for me…wider.”Aaron’s voice commands in my ears making me gasp.“A little bit more.”
“Like this?”Janessa asks and I picture her—no, me—spreading my legs for him.
