Why Not Tonight?

asked.

A muscle jerked in his jaw, then he blew out a long, slow breath. Regarding her with a heated look that made her feel as if she stood in a circle of fire, he slowly erased the distance between them until less than a foot remained. Bracing his hands on the pillar, he bracketed her in.

“Make my fantasy come true? Sweetheart, I can’t believe you’d even need to ask.” A flicker of concern flashed in his eyes. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“Sweetheart, I can’t believe you’d even need to ask,” she said, mimicking his response. Any more than she could believe that arousal was nipping at her again.

“I don’t usually…” He shook his head and frowned.

“Don’t usually what?”

“Lose control like that.”

His admission stilled her. She recalled that he’d often lost control like that with her. With flattering frequency. Just as she had with him. Just as she hadn’t in quite the same way with anyone else since.

Walking her fingers up his shirt, she looped her arms around his neck. “I, um, really liked your fantasy.”

“That makes two of us. And if you keep looking at me like that, you’ll be making my fantasy come true all over again.”

She heaved a dramatic sigh. “Yeah, and I’d hate that. Really.”

“So now that you know all about my behind-the-stadium fantasy, how about sharing one of yours?”

“Hmm… Mine would involve an unexpected encounter with a well-dressed man. Everything would be very businesslike, but then he’d take off his suit jacket. Unbutton the top button of his shirt and loosen his tie. Roll back his shirtsleeves.” She heaved out a sigh. “For reasons I can’t explain, that loosened-tie, rolled-up-sleeves look on a man turns my knees to jelly.”

“And then what?”

“And then all talk of business would go out the window, I’d bring him back to my place and we’d have a nooner.” She grinned. “But your fantasy wasn’t too far off from another one of mine.”

“Don’t tell me-doing it with the captain of the football team?”

“Well, face it. Not too many girls fantasize about doing it with the vice president of the photography club.” She bent her knee and rubbed it against his thigh. “Although I’m guessing you easily could have changed that.”

“Hey-I didn’t need the stadium. I had the darkroom.”

“And now you’ve had the stadium, too.”

“I think that makes me all kinds of lucky.”

“Funny, I was just thinking it had made me all kinds of lucky. Three times.”

He waggled his brows. “Wanna go for four?”

“Wow. Forget the amusement park, this is the happiest place on earth. Probably wouldn’t take much to hit four. I find your presence quite…stimulating. Not to mention I, uh, seem to be without my skirt. Or panties.”

“That’s a shame. But as I recall, you didn’t have any panties to start with.”

“Oh. Right. I forgot.”

“I don’t see how you could forget. I sure as hell never will.”

He removed one hand from the column and his fingers slowly traced a line down the center of her torso to tangle in the curls at the apex of her thighs.

Mallory sucked in a quick breath as her libido snapped to instant attention at his gentle, teasing caress over her sex.

He lowered his head and kissed the side of her neck. “You realize I can’t keep my hands off you.”

“I’m flattered. And…ooooh, yeah, right there…grateful.” She slid one hand down his body and rubbed his hard length through his jeans. “I don’t suppose you brought two condoms?”

“Sure did.”

Her soft chuckle turned into a moan as he insinuated his knee between her thighs and spread her legs wider to stroke her with that same relentless perfection that had already sent her over the edge.

She flicked open the button on his jeans and lowered the zipper. “You know we’d be more comfortable in my bed. But I’m thinking we may not get back to the house before dawn.”

“I’m thinking maybe you’re right. Besides, I’m so unbelievably hard, comfort is kinda secondary at this point.”

She slid her hand beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs and wrapped her fingers around him. Oh, my. He wasn’t kidding about being hard. “Secondary?” she crooned, gently squeezing him. “What’s primary?”

“I’m so glad you asked, brown-eyed girl. Because I’d be delighted to show you.”

And boy, was she delighted to be shown.

12

Sunday, 4:00 a.m.

SURROUNDED BY DARKNESS, hot, humid air and the music of crickets, they slowly walked, arm in arm, back to the house-after having put the other condom Adam had brought to very good use. They hadn’t taken more than a dozen steps before he decided he very much liked the weight of Mallory’s head leaning against his shoulder. Liked the way her hip brushed his with their every step. Liked her delicate scent filling his head every time he inhaled. Having only to turn his head to kiss her temple. The soft texture of her hair brushing his chin.

Liked everything about her.

Just like old times.

Being with her felt so damn good. But then, it always had. And not just in a sexual way-although he couldn’t name another woman who’d ever aroused him so completely. And so damn fast. Hell, it seemed that all she had to do was look at him and he was hard. And God help him, now whenever he heard “Brown Eyed Girl,” he’d have a whole new set of Mallory-induced memories to think about.

But even taking the amazing sex out of the mix, he just liked being with her. He remembered how she’d make him happy just with a smile. Just by standing in the same room with him. She made him laugh, and he enjoyed talking to her. He even enjoyed not talking to her-like now-when they just walked along in silence. An image popped into his mind, of his upcoming European vacation, of the two of them walking like this along the Seine in Paris, or through the cobblestone streets of Rome. Too bad she couldn’t come with him-

His footsteps faltered and he sliced that thought right off. What the hell was he thinking? He was only the rebound guy. Besides, talk about a bachelor style-cramper-bringing a woman with him on his vacation.

“Watch your step so you don’t fall,” she said softly, rematching her steps to his. “The sidewalks aren’t always even.”

Watch your step so you don’t fall. Good advice. Only problem was that he was starting to suspect it was coming a bit too late-and had nothing to do with uneven sidewalks.

Her hip bumped his and she splayed her free hand against his stomach, gently rubbing his abdomen. An oddly contradictory sense of contented peace and undeniable lust coiled through him, and he was inundated with the unsettling notion that maybe his plan to date a string of different women wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. That it wouldn’t provide him with this same sense of “rightness” being with Mallory gave him. And damn it, try as he might to picture his arm wrapped around another woman, walking with another woman, hell, making love to another woman, all he could see was Mallory. It was as if she were branded on his retinas.

She lifted her head from his shoulder and skimmed her hand over his belly again. “Have you given any thought as to what sort of new career you’d like to try?”

He latched onto the conversational gambit like a lifeline thrown to a drowning man. “Given it a lot of thought, but haven’t reached any definite decisions yet. It’s come down more to knowing what I don’t want to do, so I figure I’ll get there eventually by process of elimination.”

“What are some of the things you don’t want to do?”

“Sumo wrestling.”