Jinxed!

She came fast. And hard. Throwing her head back and pulsing around his fingers while her body arched and quivered and her long, guttural groan of pleasure filled the room.

He slipped his fingers from her body, and still breathing hard, she raised her head and looked at him through glittering eyes. “Wow. Thanks.”

“My pleasure.”

“More mine.” She reached out and trailed her fingers over the bulge in his jeans. “Looking forward to returning the favor.”

“That makes two of us.” Stepping back, he lifted each of her feet and slipped off her shoes. “Raise your hips.” After she complied, he slipped her pants and panties down her legs where they joined the rest of the clothes on the floor.

“I have a condom in my purse.”

“I have one in my back pocket.”

She opened the button on his jeans with one hand while reaching behind him with the other. The whisper of his zipper opening tightened his muscles in anticipation. “Condom in your back pocket, huh?” she said, drawing her hand forward and wiggling the packet between her fingers. “Pretty sure of yourself.”

“More hopeful than sure. But I figured I’d better keep protection close by. I knew if I got my hands on you again, all bets would be off.”

“I like your hands on me.”

“Again, that makes two of…us.” The last word ended on a hiss of pleasure as her hands slipped beneath the waistband of his boxer briefs. He toed off his sneakers, yanked off his socks, then held his breath while she slid his underwear and jeans down his legs. He kicked both garments aside with his foot.

“Oh, my,” she purred, touching the base of his straining penis with a single fingertip and dragging it slowly upward. “You’ve managed to change my opinion about you being prim and proper, but rigid is obviously still a problem.”

“You’ve no one to blame but, ahhhh, yourself.” The erotic sight and feel of her fingers surrounding him, cupping him, gently squeezing him was driving him insane. “You have no idea how incredible that feels.”

Her lips curved upward in a lazy, sexy smile. “Bet I do-thanks to you.”

“I don’t know how much more I can take.” He watched a drop of pearly fluid bead on the head of his penis, a drop she captured with her fingertip and slowly spread over the sensitive head. “I’m done,” he ground out, reaching for the condom.

He quickly sheathed himself, then settled his hands on her thighs and urged them wider apart. Lacey wrapped her legs around his waist, and grasping her hips, he lifted her over his erection and then slowly lowered her.

Once he was buried to the hilt, he settled her back on the desk and rolled his hips. A hum of approval rumbled in her throat, and he withdrew nearly all the way from her body then sank deep again, the slick pull killing him with pleasure. Again, another long, slow thrust, then another, faster, harder. He fought the need to come roaring up his spine, knowing he couldn’t hold it off much longer. The instant she cried out and he felt her tighten around him, he let himself go. His orgasm exploded through him, shudders racking his body. When they subsided, he hauled her against him and she buried her face in the spot where his neck and shoulder met.

“You’ve certainly given me something new to think about every time I sit at this desk,” he managed to say.

“Good,” she said, her warm breath caressing his skin. “Listen, except for Saturday night, it’s been a while since I’ve done that, so I’ve gotta ask-and I want the unvarnished truth. Was that as incredible as I think it was?”

“I think so. But I think we should do it again. Just to make sure.”

Her huff of laughter blew against his jaw. “Good thing I brought a condom, too.”

“Very good thing,” he agreed, dipping his chin to brush his mouth over hers. “And maybe we can actually make it to a bed, or at least a sofa at some point.”

She smiled. “There you go, being all prim and proper again.”

He skimmed a fingertip down one of those sexy dimples. “You said it’s been a while. How long?”

“Since I’ve had sex? Other than Saturday night, a few months. Since a man made me feel like that? Umm, I don’t know. I don’t think any man has ever made me feel like that.” She ran her tongue over his bottom lip. “You’re…potent.”

“That makes two of us,” he said, echoing the earlier sentiment. He lightly ran his hands up and down her smooth back. “You know, I think I’ve figured out how we can spend our time while we un-curse ourselves.”

She looped her arms around his neck, leaned back and smiled. “Is that an invitation to have yet another bout of wild sex?”

“Another bout or two or twelve or twelve dozen.”

“Twelve dozen? We’re gonna need a lot more condoms.”

“Got plenty at my place.” He cupped her face between his hands and tried to name the warm feeling spreading through him. He wasn’t quite sure, but it felt suspiciously like…happiness. “Wanna come home with me?”

The invitation surprised him since it broke his own rule of not bringing women to his house. But he couldn’t deny he wanted her there. In his home. In his bed. Her serious eyes searched his and he wished he knew what she was thinking. Then her lips twitched. “You have a desk there?”

He nodded. “And a hot tub. And a nice big bed.”

“Sounds good to me.”

A smile lifted his lips. “That makes two of us.”

9

ON A FRIDAY EVENING one month after that first night spent with Evan, Lacey locked the door to Constant Cravings and headed across the Fairfax courtyard. She’d arranged to take the weekend off, and anticipation curled through her at the getaway she and Evan had planned. He needed to be in San Francisco next week for business and had invited her to drive up with him two days early so they could enjoy the weekend there. Lacey planned to fly home Sunday night while Evan remained.

As she made her way across the courtyard, she realized that next week would be the first time in a month that they wouldn’t be together. And she further realized that she was going to miss him-more than she ever thought she could miss a person.

She continuously marveled at how things could change so drastically in a matter of only a few weeks, and pinched herself at least twice a day to make sure this relationship with Evan was real and not some figment of her imagination.

She’d spent the first week of her time with him convinced that their attraction was nothing more than sex, a firecracker of lust that would quickly burn out after a few sparks. Simply a case of wildly aroused libidos colliding.

But the exact opposite had occurred, and as that week rolled into another and another, she realized this was not just sex. Every moment spent with him was a revelation, showing another aspect of his personality, stripping away another layer of the soulless clone she’d mistakenly believed him to be.

Given their explosive first encounter in her shop, she’d fully expected to enjoy spending time with him in bed- where she’d quickly learned that there was nothing prim or proper about him-but this… this was different. She’d enjoyed good sex before. Had even experienced what she’d thought, at the time, to be stupendous sex. But making love with Evan was like the opening of a new dimension. He engaged not only her body, but her mind and spirit as well, touching her on every level in a way no other man ever had.

Every day she realized something new about him, and she’d yet to learn anything she hadn’t liked. What was there not to like about a man who was kind to his neighbors, adopted a zany stray dog and, as she’d discovered, had single-handedly arranged for GreenSpace Property Management to make a sizable contribution to the local children’s hospital? He loved surprises-both giving and receiving them-and had greatly appreciated her efforts when she’d baked him a batch of bed-shaped cookies, which she’d dubbed Take Me to Bed. He’d loved the sweet treats, and she’d loved the way he’d done just that-taken her to bed. Again and again and again. He equally enjoyed the ice-cream-cone cookies she’d baked him last week called Lick Me-as had she when he’d taken the command