The Challenge

      by

      Megan Hart

      Hello Twelve Shades of Surrender reader,

      Congratulations! You clearly have excellent taste, for you are holding in your hands one of Mills & Boon’s exclusive Twelve Shades of Surrender. Curious graduates of Fifty Shades wanted more, and we at Romance HQ rose to the challenge…

      Daring and seductive, with similar themes to Fifty Shades, all twelve stories promise not only scorching hot reads, but emotionally powerful romances that will stay with you long after the happy ending!

      If you like what you read, why not tweet @MillsandBoonUK using #12shades. We’re really proud of our stories and always love to know what you think.

      Finally, remember there are eleven more Shades to explore!

      Happy reading!

      The Mills & Boon Spice team

      “You’re late. Again.” Katie Donato barely glanced away from her laptop as Dean Manion slipped the nonfat, sugar-free white chocolate latte onto her desk and his lean, long body into the chair next to hers.

      “But I brought lattes.”

      She glanced at him then, taking in the smug grin, the artfully careless hair, the slightly loosened tie. “You know, traffic is a good excuse for being late. Lost car keys. Forgetting you had to pick up your favorite suit from the dry cleaner’s, even. But not last-minute blow jobs from the dude at the Copy Cabana.”

      Dean laughed and sipped from his own cup. “Not last-minute, not Copy Cabana.”

      At this, she swiveled in her chair to study him. “Don’t tell me you had a sleepover last night?”

      Dean grinned in answer and drank deeply. “Ahhh, sweet caffeine. I’m going to need it.”

      “Is that your subtle way of saying you were up all night fucking?” Katie lifted a brow and sipped at the drink, then tipped the cup toward him. “This is a peace offering but it still doesn’t let you off the hook. We have a meeting with Smith and Simon in half an hour and I’ve been here since eight putting this proposal together.”

      “Sorry.” Dean’s brows knitted and he leaned forward to rub his knees against hers, but Katie pushed him away with a laugh.

      “Stop. I’m not some eighteen-year-old, just-out-of-the-closet emo-banged pretty boy. I’m immune to your wiles.”

      “Bullshit.” Dean said this with the utter and absolute confidence of a man who oozes sensual appeal and knows it. He leaned back and propped his feet, shod in expensive Italian leather, on her desk.

      Katie shoved them off. “It’s not bullshit. I know you too well, Dean. You’re like a Lladró figurine. Pretty to look at but too expensive to be practical and not at all useful.”

      “Hey.” He frowned at this and set his cup on the desk to lean toward her again. He touched her knee. “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

      Katie, spreadsheet completed, hit the Print button and stood to smooth the wrinkles in her skirt. “It means you should’ve been here at eight this morning to do your part of this project and you weren’t, because you were too busy getting your dick sucked.”

      She wasn’t angry–not really. Annoyed but not furious. She’d worked with Dean long enough to understand him, so when he sidled in late to work with a latte for her, she knew better than to be surprised. Didn’t mean he was free of blame, though.

      “I said I’m sorry.”

      She knew he meant it, even as she knew without even looking at him he was giving her a patented Dean sexy stare guaranteed to bring most anyone to their figurative knees. She pulled the papers from her printer and stapled them, then slipped them into the presentation folder she’d carefully prepared. She gathered the rest of her materials while he watched in silence, but damn it, lost it all when she could no longer stifle the yawn that had been doing its best to sneak out of her.

      “Ha!” Dean stood, looming. “What’s that?”

      Katie feigned innocence and swigged coffee. “What?”

      “You yawned.” Dean had no problems invading anyone’s personal space if it benefited him, but he was one of the few who could get away with such a thing with Katie. Now he sidled up close, blocking her retreat by pressing a thigh against hers to keep her pinned with the desk at her back. “Up late?”

      Katie bit hard on the inside of her cheek to keep from giving in to a grin. “None of your business.”

      “Katie,” Dean said in a low, sultry tone. “Of course it’s my business. Who was he? Guy from the dry cleaner’s? The gym? Don’t tell me he’s that loser from college who looked you up on Connex.”

      “Time for the meeting.”

      It was useless, and Katie should’ve known better. Dean put out one long arm and kept her from moving past him. “Spill it.”

      She sighed. “Fine. You don’t know him because I’ve never mentioned him before. I met him in a coffee shop a few months ago.”

      “The Green Bean? Which guy?”

      “No. The Morningstar Mocha. And you wouldn’t know him, he’s straight.” At least she thought Jimmy was straight. She hoped he was.

      “A few months ago? You’ve been holding out on me?” Dean frowned. “Damn.”

      “Not holding out.” Katie rested her butt on the desk, an eye on the clock, and drank her coffee. “There isn’t anything to tell you. Unlike you, I don’t bang just any guy who comes along.”

      Dean put a hand over his heart. “That hurts. You act like I don’t have standards.”

      It was nice to have a friend good enough to understand that a single raised brow meant so much. “Uh-huh.”

      He leaned against the filing cabinet across from her. “He kept you up late. That’s something.”

      “We weren’t fucking, Dean.”

      He made a face. “Why the hell not?”

      “I don’t know,” Katie teased. “Maybe I’m wrong and he is gay.”

      Dean snorted into his coffee and tilted his head to study her. “You like him?”

      “You like the guy you were with this morning?” She deflected the question easily enough.

      “I like all the guys I’m with, at least at the time.”

      Katie ticked off the list on her fingers. “You let him sleep over and were late to work because of him. Granted, that doesn’t mean much, but add to that the fact you haven’t been describing every inch of his cock to me in precious, explicit detail, and I’m pretty sure that means you like him.”

      Dean’s gaze shifted. Ah, she was spot-on. Wow.

      “Dunno what you mean.”

      “You only keep quiet about the dudes you like, which are few and far between lately.” Actually, there hadn’t been any. Katie kept the tone light, not wanting to bring up old flames just for the sake of needling her friend–there was plenty to tease Dean about without bringing Ethan into it.

      “Sure, I like him. I like lots of stuff.”

      Katie laughed. “I know you do.”

      With this laid out between them, Dean seemed satisfied. “So long as he’s not that douche from Connex. That guy was bad news.”

      Katie laughed at the way Dean bristled on her behalf.