Wicked. Tori Carrington

to orgasm. But when he’d convinced himself she was going to return the favor with some primo, long overdue sex, she’d buttoned up her blouse, kissed him lightly on the mouth, then thanked him before handing him his coat, so to speak.

      Will’s teeth had been set so tightly together his jaw had hurt.

      It was a good thing Janet seemed to meet some internal criteria that he’d set up long ago with her fresh good looks and her bubbly disposition. Still, he didn’t know how long he could stand it.

      He pulled the door to the building open and froze. Considering the sad state of affairs, this would happen to him, only to him.

      On the stairwell coming down stood the number one billed star of his fantasies from 3B, Renae Truesdale. Will squinted at her. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she was wearing what looked like…what appeared to be… He swallowed hard. She was wearing a bloody belly-dancer outfit. At eight o’clock in the morning.

      Oh, he really didn’t know how long he was going to be able to stand it….

      RENAE TRUESDALE KNEW two things for sure: that sexy doctor Will Sexton from 2B thought she was hot, and that sexy doctor Will Sexton thought she was a lesbian.

      She slowed her steps on the staircase from her third-floor condo, the gold disks that made up her top and the low waist of her belly-dancer costume giving an enticing jingle. Of course, it went without saying that she’d had the hots for the doc since she’d moved in six months ago. Who wouldn’t, what with all that wavy, slightly disheveled light brown hair, bedroom-blue eyes and lopsided naughty grin? Oh, and then there was that irresistible British accent and his hesitant mannerisms that made it seem that he was thinking bad, bad thoughts every time she ran into him.

      And now was no exception.

      Of course, she wasn’t a lesbian. Her roommate, Tabitha, was, but she wasn’t. But she had come to enjoy playing up Will’s misperception to delicious perfection. There were few things more satisfying than watching a man as attractive as he was treading foreign waters. No matter how acceptable the alternative lifestyle was becoming on television and in the media, the simple truth was that not very many people actually knew someone gay or lesbian, much less could call one a friend.

      From personal experience Renae also knew that certain men were turned on by the thought of two attractive women living together, whether or not they were homosexual. Will, with his throat clearing and hot gazes, definitely fell into that category.

      “’Morning, Will,” she said, purposely swaying her hips as she descended the remainder of the stairs with suggestive jingles and shakes until she stood in front of him.

      She watched a swallow make its way down his throat, past his Adam’s apple even as his gaze plastered to her breasts, then lower to her bare stomach and the red crystal navel ring she wore.

      “Um, yes. ’Morning.”

      At some point she really should put the poor guy out of his misery and tell him that she wasn’t a lesbian. Her smile widened. But not this morning. Not when he looked about a breath away from climaxing on the spot.

      As the only daughter of a stripper, she’d learned long ago that it wasn’t so much what you said that mattered, but the time you chose to say it. No one had to know of her challenging upbringing unless and until she decided to share it with them. The same went with her friendship with Tabitha. She and Tabby had been best friends ever since high school, well before Tabitha’s coming out of the closet, and when her friend had said she’d needed help with the condo payments six months ago when she’d been laid off, Renae hadn’t hesitated to move in and share the financial burden, no matter what everyone thought.

      Especially no matter what handsome doc Will Sexton and countless others believed.

      He cleared his throat again and gestured toward her apparel, the back of his hand nearly grazing the tips of her breasts. “Um, going to work, are we?”

      Renae couldn’t help a small laugh. He looked so uncomfortable, so damn sexy. “Yes, I am.”

      Oh, she knew full well that he had no idea what “work” for her constituted. Seeing what she was wearing at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, she could only guess what he was thinking. And shoot her if she was wrong, but she was pretty sure his idea didn’t include the Women Only shop where she did retail work along with teaching belly-dancing classes. While she normally didn’t wear her costume to work, she’d been running late this morning and had discovered that she hadn’t any acceptable clean clothes to wear. So she’d improvised.

      Besides, she’d reasoned, who was going to see her that early on a Saturday morning?

      She’d forgotten that was the time Will usually came home.

      She pulled the side of her bottom lip into her mouth. Then again, maybe she hadn’t forgotten at all.

      “Do you, um, you know, give private shows?” he asked.

      Renae raised her brows. While she normally enjoyed teasing Will, this was the first time he’d come out and said something so blatantly and directly sexual to her. She’d figured it was because he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the whole lesbian angle. That he was coming on to her now marked a change of sorts. A change she wouldn’t mind encouraging.

      “Mmm,” she said evasively, a shiver running over her exposed skin at his continued visual interest in her and her costume. “It all depends on who wants the performance.”

      Something about the way he stood gave her the distinct impression that he was about to grab his wallet out of his back pocket and offer her any amount she wanted to perform for him.

      Little did he know she’d do it free of charge.

      “I see,” he said, clearing his throat again.

      Renae gave a wicked shimmy. “Don’t you just love the costume?”

      His gaze flew to hers. “Love…yes. I daresay it is an intriguing bit of apparel.” He gestured again, his hand brushing against her breasts this time before he quickly drew it back. “There do seem to be parts of it missing though.”

      “Do you think?”

      She swayed her hips, the metal disks clinking together again, drawing his gaze there.

      While Renae didn’t fool herself into thinking she was a perfect female specimen, she did know she was attractive, despite her shorter stature and her fuller curves. The ample size of her breasts alone was known to stretch a few necks. And giving belly-dancing classes over the past four months had honed the muscles of her stomach until they were defined, firm and supple. Her skin was tanned warm gold from the swims she took in the community pool every morning and afternoon when she knocked off of work.

      Will’s quiet chuckle surprised her.

      “You’re a tease, do you know that, Miss Truesdale?”

      She considered him leisurely, suggestively. “Who said I was teasing, Dr. Sexton?”

      His blue eyes darkened as he looked at her, plunging them both farther into uncharted territory.

      Renae blinked, caught off guard by the rush of hormones through her system. What had been harmless flirting before had just moved into more serious, more sensual terrain. And, she was surprised to find, she wanted to explore it. If just for a little while.

      And Will appeared equally willing. “Then what is it you would call what you do every time our paths cross?”

      “Oh, I don’t know,” she said ambiguously. “Issuing you an invitation?”

      “An invitation?” he echoed.

      “Mmm-hmm.” She stepped closer, smoothing down the collar of his crisp white shirt, the sleeves of which were rolled up to reveal his strong, hair-covered forearms. She’d meant to put him on alert, but found her own palms sensitized as she stroked the Egyptian broadcloth, feeling the heat of his body just below the material.

      “An