Now, even more than the night of the auction, she wanted to accept. To forget�for one final night�who she really was.

Why she was really here.

Charley burned with guilt. Even at his most commanding, Dorian had shown her nothing but pleasure and kindness.

Looking at her now, awaiting her answer, his eyes held a glimpse of vulnerability�there and gone in a blink.

There has to be another way. We can�t rob this man�

Charley sighed, resting her palm against his perfectly-stubbled cheek. "Dorian, I don�t�"

A loud rap on the front door saved her from answering.

"Redthorne?" a man called. "You in there, you bloody traitor?"

Dorian cursed under his breath.

"I�m busy," he snapped, but he was already heading for the door.

"Armitage is looking for you," the man said. His accent was English, like Dorian�s, but less formal. "He thinks you�ve ditched him."

"I have. Now, if you don�t mind�"

"Actually, I do."

Charley pulled the dress up and grabbed her purse, heading off in search of a bathroom.

Dorian was clearly annoyed at the interruption, but to Charley, the man�s timing couldn�t have been better.

Now, staring at her stained lips in the bathroom mirror, Charley was truly afraid.

Not of Dorian, but of herself.

How could I be so careless?

She touched her fingers to her lips, the ghost of his kiss making her ache.

That�s how, girl. That is exactly how.

It reminded Charley of a paper Sasha had written for her psychology class. Check this out, Sasha had said, thumbing through her source material over breakfast one morning. Doctors say the line between passion and madness is so thin, the chemical profile of the brain of a person experiencing the early euphoric stages of love is nearly identical to that of a person going insane.

The girls had joked about it at the time, vowing to stay single and sane for life. But now, thanks to Dorian Redthorne, Charley was beginning to understand exactly what the doctors meant.

She closed her eyes as a sharp pain split her skull, feeling like her brain was fracturing into different people. One wanted nothing more than to finish the job and make a clean break, becoming no more than a distant memory for Dorian. The other wanted to call the police and turn herself in, saving Dorian a whole lot of trouble and heartache in the process.

But there, somewhere in the middle, lived a woman who wanted something different. Something better.

Freedom. JrNovels.com