Beyond Seduction. Kathleen O'Reilly

what’ve you been doing for the past twelve months—besides writing a book?”

      “Not a lot. This. That.”

      “Nothing else to keep you busy? No personal obligations, huh?”

      “Are you asking if I’m involved?” she said, meeting his eyes squarely. Mercedes had never been one to tiptoe around something; she wanted people to know she was coming.

      One side of his mouth curved up, a rueful look that shouldn’t have touched her like it did. Mercedes knew her way around men, she knew her way up, down, and four-way sideways. She didn’t trust them as a rule, but that small hitch in his mouth tempted her to bend her rules. Just a little.

      “Yeah, that’s what I’m asking,” he said, surprising her with his honesty.

      “Free as a bird,” she answered easily, her tone light.

      He nodded once, only once, a supremely male nod of satisfaction, and her stomach knotted, excitement and nerves all pitching together into one tangle. She pushed the hair from her eyes with a shaking hand. It was sex.

      Just sex. The one reason she had flown across the country was because she wanted him. Even after twelve months, that ache hadn’t eased, it ate at her, pouring into her fantasies, her dreams, her writing, turning into something living, breathing inside her. Something more.

      Abruptly she pushed that thought away, needing to regain her footing. “Thank you for asking me to dinner.”

      He leaned in closer, the candlelight touching off the tawny streaks in his hair. “Don’t thank me, Mercedes. I really don’t deserve it.”

      “This bothers you, doesn’t it?”

      He laughed, a rusty sound without humor. “You have no idea how much.”

      She flashed him her best smile. “Yeah, I think I do.”

      She watched as he deftly made patterns with the last of the silverware, and was pleased to see him uncomfortable, pleased to know she wasn’t the only one whose nerves were shot to hell. Finally he raised his head, his jaw tight. “I didn’t plan to have this conversation over dinner.”

      “Is there a right time and a right place, Sam?”

      His eyes glittered, more brown than green in the dim light, his desire apparent. Mercedes shifted in her seat, trapping the pulse between her thighs. “Yes,” he said harshly, his carefully modulated television voice now gone.

      Mercedes smiled. “In bed.”

      “Preferably before then.”

      “Maybe I like to know what I’m getting into.”

      “Mercedes,” he started, then stopped. “No. Would you like some dessert?”

      “What’s on the menu?” she asked.

      He closed his eyes. “Are you going to behave?”

      “Dinner was your idea, not mine.”

      He pulled some cash from his pocket and laid it on the table. “Can we go?”

      “Now we’re in a hurry?” she asked.

      He lifted their jackets from the coat hook at the table. “Dinner was a stupid idea. In a long line of stupid ideas. But I’ve waited twelve months, and right now, every minute counts.”

      Mercedes felt a sharp pull of excitement in her stomach. He held out her jacket, and she backed against him. Closer than she should. Close enough to brush against him. Close enough to feel him jutting thickly against her bottom. Close enough to hear his indrawn breath.