Broken: A Billionaire Love Story
was beautiful and hot and wonderful and Olivia had never been so turned on in all her life.
    Her lips ran over his, sliding up and down his mouth, her fingers digging into his sides and then his chest.
    For several beautiful, perfect moments, she forgot everything in her life. There was only this strong, warm man, filling her up with wonderful warmth from the chest outward. His lips were soft, a little dry, and her tongue ran over them with luxurious heat
    From down the hall, she heard voices approaching. That was...that was a problem...a problem because...because—
    The door was open, oh god!
    Cutting off their kiss, she sprang away from Shane, practically leaping back behind her desk. Barriers, barriers! Plenty of barriers. No one could suspect.
    Shit.
    He was so much trouble for her. Why hadn’t she seen that the door was still open, for god’s sake?
    She recognized the voices outside—her boss, Albert, and a couple of the orderlies, discussing football.
    “So wonderful to have some time with you,” she said loudly, loud enough for them to hear outside. “I’ll see you tomorrow, all right?”
    Shane gave her a slightly quizzical look, but then smiled and left out through the door.
    “That...” she shook her head. “That was a mistake.”
    But she had to admit, it was a very nice one.

Chapter 10:
    After the kiss with Olivia, the rest of the day raced by and the evening arrived quickly for Shane.
    His thoughts tried their honest best to be filled with her, and only her. She was beautiful, and brunette, and soft, and honest, and nice, and he wanted her.
    But of course, his thoughts already had a very concrete appointment with much, much older desires than any newly springing wells of affection for Olivia Martin. Try as he might to silence them, all his brain really wanted to focus on was having another drink.
    And so, even though he wasn't sure he wanted to—in fact, he was pretty sure he would hate himself for doing it—he planned his escape, bit by bit.
    Shane found his opportunity to leave just as Rawls had said, when the orderlies changed posts. He had a distraction planned—accidentally spilling the coffee or something similar—but it ended up not being necessary. There was a football game on, and everyone was glued to the television—kept on for an extra half-hour to watch the fourth quarter.
    Sports, Shane guessed, were as good of an escape as any if you didn’t have any drugs available.
    Maybe he’d find out soon. But not until after tonight. He snuck out through the front door, and slipped out into the night. It was cool—but not so cold. His flannel sweater kept him warm enough, and a drink would warm him up plenty.
    This was a perfect time for a drink, he thought. A perfect time for one last drink, definitely. One last couple of drinks, he meant. One last good drunk, anyway. That would take more than just a drink or two. Just one good honest drunk, where he had the kind of night he wanted and he was in control of his pleasure. He just needed to eject it from his system, that was all. Once he did that...once he did that, he could really focus in on those burgeoning feelings of peace he felt when he was talking with Olivia.
    So really, it was for her, it was for his sobriety, that he did this. It was a good decision, he told himself.
    All that raw, hot emotion that he felt for Olivia—god, she smelled so nice—and he could get this one last drunk out of his system and focus on sobriety forever.
    Or, for the rest of his life, anyway. And he could work on getting her in the sack—because no way would she want to be with a drunk.
    He, so far, had enjoyed this flirtation with sobriety. The idea of life where he could be largely in control of his actions and his emotions—which is what the groups promised him—interested him a great deal. Shane’s life so far was a mess of sorrow, and it made sense that drinking had something to do with it.
    But again, he couldn’t really focus on it until he got

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