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"Courtney, do not step outside your own bounds," Khalid warned her then, his voice worried

She laughed at the concern, flashing hiestive look

"Do you think I haven’t done such things, Khalid?" she asked hi with her body, she tries in, a very experienced virgin, in Ian’s bed One did not get the experience one needed without a sinally, as they seeain Good Lord, the ernail against the table, aware of both Alyssa and Khalid watching her warily

"Very well" She made up her mind quickly As far as she was concerned, there was no sense in debating thewould tempt his control She would be able to feel it, his arousal, reaching out to her, fueling her own

She had no intention of re a nun all her life, and the fact that she was unaroused with any other-- to irk her to no small amount

"Courtney…" Despite his obvious arousal, Khalid leaned forward, his expression warning

She frowned, ire heating her expression "Khalid, as much as your concern is appreciated, it is unwarranted I never do anything I believe will har to be har tired of the other wo the relationship she knew she could have with Ian "I a to lose every dream I’ve had in my life because of her destructiveness I, Khalid, will do whatever it takes to make Ian see that But never, ever, will I do more than my own conscience, or decided lack of boundaries, is comfortable with"

She was not an i nutcase She was simply a woman in love with a man ould walk away rather than risk the possibility that his hungers were destructive A er he could not deny he felt, and one whose loneliness filled every part of his soul That loneliness, that haunted ache she had gli her heart

She needed to see laughter there She wanted to see warmth and love She needed to see his acceptance of her and of himself

It was an ah chance of failure, though she refused to accept that it could happen

"You could be a very scary woentle smile as she tossed back the rest of her whisky

"And so I should be," she sighed as she glanced at Alyssa, ht otherwise" Alyssa held her hands up in surrender "But we aren’t the ones you need to convince And on’t be the ones to hurt if the convincing doesn’t work, Courtney Ian is a dear friend of ardless of our faith in your sanity…" A smile tipped her lips "Or your lack of it"

"Some days, where Ian is concerned, I’hed, the nervous excitey that was difficult to ta the tension in his large body, the obvious arousal He was anticipating Ian’s reaction to as to coh for different reasons

As he lifted the bottle of whisky he had brought to the table to refill her glass, Tho close, heaway once again

"Okay, ladies" A gleaaze "Ian just pulled into the driveway I would say the fireworks are about to begin"

Chapter Twelve

Ian stared at the back entrance to The Club, the double wood doors with their lantern lights at the side The stately brick surrounding it gave the entrance an iain Courtney had broken that long-held tradition

What was it oh to allow Tally to seduce Lucian and Devril in a e out of her book and revising it enough to tempt Ian’s very sanity

What it did to hih she were so hi him, in ways no other woht sht She was a wildcat She took every caress, every touch and turned it back on hier that never failed to surprise him She accepted him so easily, that the firers, was slowly slipping

Sheloneliness he had lived with so many years dissipate Shewas thea deep breath, he stepped fro at the doors to The Club with a sense of fatalism She was there, in the very heart of all he was The ruers had nicknamed the their women But it went so much deeper than that It was a part of the concerns that lifestyle brought It wasn’t just any woman who could deal with the fact that her husband or lover needed to tie her up, use exotic toys on her, or allow other men to watch or touch what should be prih Not that Ian wouldn’t kill the man who dared to touch Courtney without his implicit permission Club member or not, the results wouldn’t be pretty

He shook his head Realizing instantly that he was already accepting the fact that he couldn’t hold out against herleft but the prayer that some part of the past affection would survive this new relationship when she realized it wasn’t really what she wanted and that he had destroyed the innocence that was so much a part of her

She wouldn’t be the first

Kia Stanton’s sense of betrayal and fury wasn’t necessarily unfounded when her husband had surprised her with his desires Carl should have revealed his sexual tastes to her before their ht have worked had he been honest in the beginning

Courtney lacked the boundaries other women did She amazed him on a daily basis, with her view of the world, her acceptance of things she had no experience with, not just sexually, but life in general She never ments, and always tried to understand each side of the coin