Sweet Seduction ✔︎

|3| 𝑫𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒚

She was off limits. He’d been telling himself that for the past year. Every. Fucking. Time.

Every time he saw her in her short little skirts and tight sweaters, her thick blonde hair falling like spun silk down her back. Every time she made a suggestive comment in her honeyed voice, her body almost vibrating with a plea for his response. Every time his guard slipped and he caught himself staring at her round ass or her perfectly shaped lips.

Every time he imagined those lips wrapped around his cock.

Off limits, Knight.

She hadn’t been off limits in his head. There, he’d done a thousand dirty things to her—twisted her hair around his fist, pulled her head back, and devoured her rosebud mouth. Turned her around and spread her over the arm of the sofa to fuck her from behind. Ordered her to spread her legs and finger herself for him. Watched her twist her nipples as he came on her tits.

More than once he’d been tempted to break all his rules and teach her a lesson. Put her over his knee, lift up her skirt, and spank her for being a tease.

She’d been an increasingly painful test of his self-control. Only his dedication to Josh King and his family, which would soon officially include Jupiter Rhoades, prevented Gavin from crossing the line. As Jupiter's best friend, Freya was close enough to the family that he’d kept his distance.

Tough to keep his distance when she was this close, though. Close enough that he could smell her sweet, citrusy scent. See the flicker of her tongue as she closed her mouth around a spoonful of ice cream. Her proximity was distracting.

At the bakery he could always sit a few tables away from her. He disliked acknowledging he needed a physical barrier from a seemingly harmless, fairy-like girl, but the more he saw her breasts rounding out her sweaters or her long legs in flower-patterned tights… the less he trusted his restraint.

Even now, his blood was on low simmer. He was trained to read people, to anticipate danger, to let nothing get in the way of keeping his principals safe. Not even his longstanding friendship with Josh had affected his ability to do his job. In some ways, his personal bond to the King family had intensified his effectiveness.

Not that he was searching for a justification to start up with the blonde beauty sitting across from him.

“Any public spectators will be restricted from entering the outer ring.” He tapped his pen on the map again. “I’ll be working with local law enforcement to provide a visible presence outside the venue. Has anything changed in the reception floor plan?”

“We added a few more tables to accommodate all the guests.”

“I’ll need to see the seating arrangements. And the entry procedure from parking to the venue is far too long and complicated. I will also be strengthening the parking control measures.”

“Well, the reason for the entry procedure is that guests need to walk from the parking lot to the courtyard,” Freya informed him, a sarcastic bite to her tone. “And Julia Bennett wanted them to enter through a wing of the villa that isn’t usually opened to the public. Like entering the Sistine Chapel through the Vatican museums.”

For Christ’s sake. Gavin barely suppressed a snort.

“That’s the way she described it, anyway,” Freya said.

He glanced at her, gauging that she wasn’t too intimidated by the beautiful and formidable Julia Bennett. The sister of Warren King’s late wife, Julia was a force to be reckoned with. Unexpectedly Gavin liked the idea that Freya Donovan could hold her own against the older woman.