“Doesn’t matter. You started it and I’ll finish it. And if I do it right, you’ll be more than ready to follow me inside.”
“I’m ready now.”
She grinned slyly, her plan coming together. “You will stay here.”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am, and…” his eyes dropped briefly to caress her breasts then returned to her face, “you’re beautiful, Addie.”
“So are you, Cade.”
She stepped out into the darkness, her confidence swelling inside her. Then the brilliance of the spotlight fell on her and she cringed.
No one’s out here, she reminded herself. She dropped her arms that had automatically crossed over her chest, straightened her shoulders, and continued.
Coyotes yipped in the distance and a gentle breeze soughed through the grass. Nervousness and pride swelled within her. Ten yards from the barn and halfway to the house, she spun to face Cade, her generous breasts swaying freely with the motion, but she didn’t try to hide them.
His gaze burned her when she met his eyes. They slowly swept over her, lingering on her breasts before rising to her face once more.
“Like what you see?” she asked, dragging her hands over her hips and belly to cup her breasts.
“Yes,” he choked out, “very much.”
Her hands slipped down to the front of her jeans. “Would you like to see more?”
His mouth fell open as she popped the button on her jeans and slowly lowered the zipper. He nodded.
She kicked out of her boots. “You’ll have to pick those up for me,” she said, dancing backward a few steps, her breasts once again swaying with her movements. Then she turned and bent slightly, slowly sliding her jeans over her backside and down her legs to reveal the lacy white thong that matched the lacy white bra hanging from his back pocket. She stepped out of the jeans and looked back. “Grab those for me too, will you?”
She winked and he took a step out of the barn. His face flushed, his eyes blazing with desire.
“Uh-uh,” she said, waving a finger at him like a naughty child, even though she was feeling a bit naughty herself. “No, you stay there until I reach the door.” She was nearly there, but if she was going to walk naked then he was going to have to watch and wait. And she only needed a few more seconds to entice him.
He stopped and stood stone-still, like a statue of a Greek god. His chest heaved beneath his gray T-shirt and the thick bulge in his jeans seemed to have grown bigger in the short time since she’d left the barn.
Standing in the grass of her front lawn, she tucked her thumbs into the hip straps of her thong and tugged them outward. “You want to see what’s under these?”
He nodded slowly, his mouth still hanging open.
God, this made her feel so powerful, so desired, and as beautiful as he’d said she was.
Smiling from ear to ear, she gradually, ever so deliberately, slipped the straps over her hips. Just as she was about to reveal it all, the motion light switched off and darkness encompassed them.
She let the straps snap back to her hips and giggled when he gasped with regret and maybe a little frustration.
“I guess you’ll have to come and take them off yourself,” she shouted as she ran for the door.
The light came on again as he crossed the yard, and she yelled a reminder about her clothes. “You’ll get nothing from me without them.”
He skidded to a halt and dashed back a few steps to grab her things.
Giggling and excited, she ran into her house and down the hall to her room, eager for his response to her little striptease in the yard.
Chapter 14
Cade hastened into the house, juggling Addie’s jeans and boots in his hands and searching the front room for any sign of the temptress who’d just left him granite-hard and sweating in the yard. But she was nowhere in sight.
“Where the hell did she go so fast?” he muttered to himself.
One of her boots clattered to the floor. Startled by the unexpected thump, he looked down at the footwear and then dropped the other one next to its pair and tossed her jeans on the couch as he crossed to the hall at the center of the house.
She had to be in one of the back rooms, but was she in his room or hers? Did she run from him to get away…or to entice him to follow?
He hadn’t expected her to take up his impetuous dare, but he’d been impressed and amazed by her audaciousness when she did. Addie was a strong woman, but he’d wanted her to know she was beautiful, too. That she could capture a man—capture him—with just a look.
The way she’d smiled at him when she slowly lowered the thong off her hips had been so damn hot. He could tell that she’d felt her power then, and his body had reacted to her display. Even now, standing in the front room, undecided about which way he should go, his cock strained against the zipper of jeans that had grown far too tight.
Guessing she’d be more comfortable in her own room, Cade turned down the hall away from his room.
Her door stood ajar and a shaft of light slashed through the hallway. She had to be inside.
Stepping up to the door, he peeked through the crack, but all he saw was a good-sized bed with its pale green comforter and white sheets pulled back. No sign of the woman he sought. But she had to be in there…
“Addie?” he called and knocked on her door. It swung open slightly to reveal more of her bed and her room.
“Come in, Cade,” she said from somewhere inside. Something about her low voice dug inside him, warming his chest even as it ached with anticipation and something else that he refused to examine.
He pushed the door
