Still, surely it was only this provocative situation that had her in this aroused state-and nothing to do with Adam himself. After all, what they’d shared together was long over. Besides, what woman wouldn’t find herself aroused by lying on satin sheets, wearing exquisitely expensive silk lingerie while being photographed by a sexy, gorgeous man?

He’d always been attractive-not handsome in a pretty-boy, conventional way-but in a ruggedly masculine way that made it seem as if he spent all his time outdoors rather than on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. With his thick dark hair and deep blue eyes, she’d liked the look of him the instant she’d laid eyes on him ten years ago.

An image flashed in her mind of the first time she’d seen him. She’d been seventeen and sulky, convinced her life was over because she and her mom had just relocated-for the sixth time in twelve years-from Chicago to Long Island, New York, forcing her to attend her upcoming senior year of high school at a new school. She’d prayed that her mother’s position with the orchestra in Chicago would last just one more year, but no such luck.

As a professional cellist and financially strapped single mother, Emily Altman moved to whichever city’s orchestra made her the best offer. Because of their transient lifestyle and the fact that money was forever tight, they’d always lived in apartments-until the move to Long Island where, as a concession to Mallory for leaving her friends and steady boyfriend, her mom had splurged and rented a small house. For Mallory, the profound sense of stability, of permanence, she’d felt at finally living in a house had almost made up for having to move again. She’d actually considered staying in Chicago, living with a girlfriend’s family to finish out her last year of high school, but in the end she just couldn’t let her mom go alone. Since Mallory’s father had walked away before she’d been born rather than accept the responsibility of a pregnant girlfriend, Mallory and her mom had always been the two musketeers. So she’d packed up and moved. Again. And had met Adam.