Chapter 43

• The heated intensity blazing in Michael's eyes made the air thick and charged between them. Valerie felt utterly bared before that smoldering emerald gaze, every inch of her exposed flesh prickling with heightened sensitivity under his ravenous perusal.
• Yet rather than consume her with his trademark unchecked passion, Michael seemed to hover in the threshold, giving her space to accept or retreat from this monumental new territory they were primed to explore together.
• Valerie's breath emerged in a trembling exhalation as the weighty significance of the moment stretched taut between them. This went so far beyond the motivations that had initially propelled their unorthodox arrangement into being. What started as a mere business compact had rapidly transcended into something deeper, more primal, more... profound.