“Whatever your decision, I will abide by it.”

Stefan watched Jessica intently. Her normally shuttered expression had been replaced by a constantly changing canvas of emotions. As he held her tightly, he silently willed her to take a chance on what was happening between them.

Rinnngggg. The shrill peal of the phone cut through the silence. And shattered the moment. Stefan saw the instant that Jessica regained her composure. He felt it as well. Up until the ringing of the phone, the beautiful lawyer had been molded to him. Now she pulled away under the guise of answering the phone.

“Hello?” Jessica kept her back to him. “Tom . . .”

Stefan's eyes narrowed at the tone of relief in her voice. After the veiled warning he'd received from Thomas Hughes earlier, he was convinced the man had protective instincts where the woman standing before him was concerned.

Such an occurrence was not unusual, Stefan thought, reflecting on his feelings for his half-sister Natasha. But Hughes' timing could not have been worse. Stefan knew that Jessica had been on the brink of surrender. Now he would be forced to begin his sensual assault anew.

‘Forced' was not the correct word in this case. The handsome regent of the Cassadine family smiled to himself. Up until this point, he had thoroughly enjoyed the hunt. The thrill of the chase was a thing nearly forgotten by him.

The Cassadine wealth was public knowledge and Stefan's status as a seemingly eligible bachelor was also well-known. It had become a commonplace thing for him to rebuff the advances of women seeking to secure their place - and futures - through him. Jessica's retreat from his presence was refreshing.

Stefan's initial pursuit of Lucinda's beautiful attorney was nothing more than a visceral male response to female beauty and aloofness. When Jessica, calm and withdrawn, had first held out her hand to him in that police station, Stefan was filled with an irrational need to shake her composure; to provoke within her that jolt of attraction he'd felt upon seeing her.

It had grown to be much more.

The sound of the phone being returned to its base interrupted his thoughts. Jessica turned to him. “Shall we eat?”

Stefan's admiration for the lady grew. It would have been so easy for her to beg off the remainder of their evening. Yet Jessica had marshaled her defenses and now stood unshaken before him. There were obviously depths to her that Stefan had not begun to fathom.

“Of course,” Stefan replied smoothly, following her lead. For now he would allow Jessica to step back from him. But one day when she least expected, he would strike.

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