Bad Boys Southern Style. JoAnn Ross

with some nice, ripe berries,” he decided.

      She pleased him by laughing at that admittedly over the top sexual metaphor. He was less pleased when she lightly slapped his hand away.

      “You are so bad.”

      “Sweetheart, you’ve no idea.” He cupped the back of her neck. “But you’re about to find out.”

      Encouraged when she didn’t back away, Sloan gave her the warm, seductive smile that had always been one of the most devastating weapons in his arsenal.

      Then lowered his head.

      Eight

      Roxi was not inexperienced. She’d been kissed hundreds of times before. Thousands. But never had the mere touch of a man’s lips against hers caused her world to tilt on its axis.

      Amazingly, it was just like she’d dreamed. His mouth was firm and hot and outrageously clever, just skimming her lips, drawing forth a ragged sigh, before moving on.

      His warm breath fanned her cheek. Her temple. Her other cheek.

      “Sloan.” Her voice sounded far away, as if it were coming from the bottom of the sea.

      “What, sugar?” He nipped at her bottom lip, just hard enough to make her shiver.

      “Kiss me.”

      “I am.” He soothed the tender flesh with the tip of his tongue. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been wanting to do this?”

      “All of thirty minutes?” She realized she’d totally lost track of the time since arriving at the restaurant.

      “Longer than that.”

      “An hour, then.” Her breath was clogging in her lungs. Which was ridiculous, since he hadn’t even properly kissed her yet.

      “Longer.” His tongue slid silkily between her parted lips, tangling with hers, engaging it in a slow, sensual dance.

      “That’s impossible.”

      “Nothing’s impossible.” His mouth skimmed down her throat, across her collarbone. At the same time his hand glided tantalizingly up her leg. “When you’re talking about magic.”

      Her skin felt hot. Her dress, suddenly too confining.

      “I fell in love with Morganna back when I was in film school at USC,” he said conversationally as his fingers traced seductive figure eights on the inside of her thigh.

      “If I’d known she actually existed, I would’ve dropped out and hightailed it down to Louisiana and proposed.”

      “It would’ve been a wasted trip,” she managed in a ragged voice choked with need. How did he do it? His stroking touch was making her nipples ache and her clit pulse, yet he was chatting away as if they were having an ordinary dinner date conversation.

      “You sure of that, are you?” His Georgia drawl had thickened to that of whiskey-drenched bread pudding. Roxi could’ve eaten him up with a spoon.

      She closed her legs, capturing that roving hand between them. “As sure as I’m sitting here talking with you.”

      Trying to talk when what she wanted to do was strip off her dress, and climb into his lap, and have him take her aching breasts in his mouth and…

      “Not that I’d want to go braggin’ on myself or anything,” he was saying as a red haze shimmered over her mind and her blood boiled and thickened in her veins. “But I’ve been told that I can be irresistibly charming.” Those treacherous fingers crept higher. “When I put my mind to it.”

      “I’ve not a single doubt of that.” She gasped when he pinched the flesh at the inside of her thigh, hard enough to leave a bruise.

      At the same time her body arched toward his wicked hand.

      Wanting.

      No, dammit, needing more.

      “But back when you were sitting around your dorm room, lusting after a comic book witch, I was a mere girl of fifteen.”

      A virgin who, despite all those erotic novels she’d hidden beneath her mattress, had no earthly idea that someday she’d actually meet a man who could have her on the verge of orgasm with such a tantalizing, feathery touch.

      “And since even down in the swamp we girls didn’t marry at fifteen, Daddy and Maman never would’ve allowed me to accept your proposal.”

      “Fifteen might have been a bit young,” he allowed. “Though I’ll bet you were hot even back then.”

      She nearly screamed when his hand, mere inches from her clit, which had begun to burn with need, reversed direction.

      “Fortunately for us,” he continued, “that six-year age gap doesn’t make a difference anymore.”

      His fingers were now massaging the back of her knee, which she’d never realized was an erogenous zone.

      Roxi heard a ragged whimper, only to belatedly realize that it’d been ripped from between her own suddenly parched lips.

      She drew in a breath to steady her breathing. “I think it’s that time of the evening where we set some ground rules.”

      He leaned forward again. Touched his mouth to hers. “I’ve never been all that fond of rules.”

      “Neither am I.” The kiss was light. Almost tender. But it still had her lips tingling. Along with the rest of her. “But they do help keep things civilized.”

      “That may be. But I have to tell you, sugar, I’m not feeling all that civilized right now.”

      He was looking at her as if he’d like strip her naked, drag her off to his cave, and ravish her. Once again she considered how cavelike this cellar actually was.

      She wondered if that thought had occurred to him when he’d made the reservation. Wondered if he realized that if he actually dared to try to take her right here, right now, she’d help him.

      “There’s something you need to know before this goes any further.”

      He lifted a dark brow. His hand, which had been moving back up her leg, paused.

      “I’m not in the market for marriage,” she said.

      A smile quirked. Wicked laughter sparkled in his green eyes like sunshine on a tropical lagoon. “I believe that’s my line.”

      “It may be.” She sighed prettily. “But believe me, cher, I’ve heard those words before. Yet, invariably things between a man and a woman get complicated. Especially once sex gets added into the mix.”

      “Are you telling me you’re not in the market for sex, either?”

      She tilted her head. Studied him. It would be a little hard to claim that now. Without seeming like the world’s worst prick-tease, but she had to ask. “Would if make a difference if I wasn’t?”

      “Like you said, sex always makes a difference.”

      He retrieved his hand, took a long drink of water, and eyed her thoughtfully over the rim of the crystal goblet.

      “But I’ve moved beyond thinking with my glands. At least I thought I had until you climbed out of that limo. You are the most stunning woman I’ve seen in I don’t know how long, you smell fabulous, and”—his appraising gaze skimmed over her—“until you decided to have this rules discussion, I was about ten seconds away from biting your thigh. And that was just for starters.

      “But even if we back away from what we’re both feeling, I’d honestly like to hear your take on Morganna. Maybe get some background on this witch business you’ve got going.”

      “Hex Appeal.”

      “That’s it.” When he smiled again, she had to restrain