CHAPTER FORTY NINE – THE POWER OF SEDUCTION

Possessed an almost hypnotic effect on her senses that left Karina feeling dangerously unraveled the longer she was in his presence. John loomed over her now, near enough that she could smell his crisp, masculine scent and make out the tiny flecks of gold threading through the green of his intense eyes. He reached out with one hand, fingertips trailing a feather-light path along her jawline that made her breath catch in her throat. "So let's stop playing games, Karina," he murmured in that low, mesmerizing timbre. "We both know there are...undercurrents here that have gone unacknowledged for far too long." His thumb brushed over the swell of her lower lip, igniting sparks of heat that shot straight through Karina's body. She knew she should pull away, put a stop to this before it went any further down such a forbidden path. And yet, she remained utterly immobile, caught in the inescapable gravity of John's intoxicating orbit. Some deep, primal part of her psyche had been aching for