The Naked Truth. Shannon Hollis

rustled in the trees. “I need some breathing space. You wore me out.”

      She leaned on the stone balustrade. “I doubt that. You strike me as a man of endurance. You probably run marathons in your spare time.”

      “If I had spare time, I’d do something less masochistic.” His voice warmed with a smile as he leaned beside her. “Back home, if I wasn’t doing something related to music, I’d ride my dirt bike in the pine forest. I never made it up to the top of the sandstone mesa behind our house, but I spent a lot of summers trying.”

      As he spoke, he moved behind her. She felt his warmth down her back as his arms slipped around her and held her, loosely, giving her the choice to pull away.

      Or not. She settled herself against his chest, her head leaning on his shoulder as they looked out over the darkened gardens. Tomorrow she’d remember that he was CWB’s scout and probably didn’t have her best interests in mind. On Monday, when he reappeared in her studio, she’d send him on his way with another firm no.

      But tonight belonged to her and Mitch, their careers and worries stripped away, leaving only this elemental desire and the sense of anticipation and possibility that thickened the air.

      She felt his warm breath on the side of her neck a moment before he tasted the bare skin where neck met shoulder. His tongue was hot and he took his time, as though kissing her there were all he had to do for the rest of eternity. Eve sucked in a breath and felt a jolt of pleasure arrow through her. Her nipples tightened, and her breasts seemed to swell in the satin prison of her strapless bodice.

      “Do you like that?” he whispered against her skin.

      “What if someone sees us?” she breathed.

      “It’s dark over here.” He kissed her again, moving an inch up the side of her neck. “No one can see a thing. And you didn’t answer me.”

      Now he nibbled her earlobe, running the tip of his tongue just behind the post of her earrings.

      “Yes.” He pressed against her from behind, and even through her skirts she felt the hard demand of his erection. “You’re being honest again,” she whispered.

      “I can’t help it. I’ve been holding you all night and doing math equations in my head so I don’t embarrass myself on the dance floor. Again.”

      “And now?” She knew she was being deliberately provocative, but she couldn’t stop. Okay, she wasn’t going to sleep with him, but there was nothing wrong with flirting. Nothing wrong with appreciating the attention of a very attractive man.

      “Circumference equals two pi R,” he murmured. “No, that’s no good. It just makes me think of—” He stopped.

      “What?”

      “I don’t want to spoil the moment by having you slap me.”

      “I promise I won’t. Tell me.”

      “Circumference makes me think of round things. Which doesn’t help my situation.”

      “What things?” Her voice had gone low and throaty. Who knew that talking about geometry could be such a turn-on?

      She could feel his breathing change rhythm now. “Oh, things hidden from view in green satin. Very round, very beautiful, very distracting things, for instance. Among others that don’t even have geometric definitions. They need to be explored. Measured. Mapped for posterity.”

      Amazed at her own daring, Eve took both his hands in hers and slid them up her bodice until they cupped her breasts. “Tell me about how you measure,” she said.

      He made a choked sound and his hips surged against her backside, pinning his erection against her softness. Under her fingers, his hands tented over her breasts, gently squeezing and shaping…and inadvertently pulling her bodice down until his sharply indrawn breath beside her ear told her that, from his vantage point, he’d just caught a glimpse of her nipples.

      And she wanted his hands on them, wanted his mouth, wanted him to suck and lick and drive her wild with desire. Wanted him to throw her skirts up and drive himself into her right here on the terrace, where she’d brace herself against the balustrade and take every hard inch of him into the vast, soft, dripping ache inside her.

      Oh, God, what was she thinking? Was she crazy?

      As if he’d heard her thoughts, he hooked his thumbs inside the whalebones of her bodice and pulled it up to a respectable level. He dropped his hands to her waist and stepped back. “Eve, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for things to go that far.”

      She turned, and realized that she was partially in the light from a window overhead, while he was in the darkness next to the ivy. All she could hear was his labored breathing.

      “I know,” she breathed. She arched her spine, so that the bodice slid down a few precarious millimeters and her cleavage became even more pronounced in the golden light. “You make me want things I shouldn’t.”

      You’re teasing him, a voice in the back of her mind warned. Don’t do it if you don’t mean to go through with it. Stop while you still can.

      “Likewise,” he said hoarsely. “More than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life. But not here, where anyone can walk out and see us. My car’s here. Come back to my hotel with me.”

      Balancing on the scalding edge of desire, Eve teetered and fell.

      4

      HE COULDN’T GET her into the Lexus fast enough. What were they, a pair of horny teenagers desperate for privacy? Mitch fumbled with the rented car’s keys and managed to get them into the ignition on the second try. Then he made the mistake of glancing to the right—and he was done for.

      Eve leaned toward him, her eyes hot with desire and her lips parted. One arm wound around his neck as he crushed her mouth under his in a kiss that told both of them how much he wanted to be somewhere horizontal right now. She made a noise deep in her throat, like a purr, as her tongue met his and slid along it in sensual invitation, stroking its length and making his imagination go wild.

      What couldn’t a woman with a tongue like that do to a man’s body? He felt himself stiffen even more at the thought.

      She broke the kiss to nuzzle the soft skin below his ear. “My nipples are so hard,” she breathed. “I want you to touch them.”

      He didn’t ask why the about-face. He didn’t want to know. All he knew was that they were both under some kind of spell—both crazy to have one another despite the fact that it was unethical and probably fatal to his mission.

      “I will,” he promised fervently. “As soon as we get out of here.” The Ritz-Carlton, where he was staying, wasn’t far.

      “I can’t wait that long. Now.”

      “No, we—”

      She moved her shoulders in a slow-motion shimmy, and the green bodice slipped down about an inch as she leaned toward him. His protest died on his lips as her breasts swelled out of their confinement. He couldn’t have shifted his gaze if he’d tried. With another breath, the silk slipped some more and twin shadows appeared above the rims of the cups.

      “Touch me,” she whispered.

      He pulled her toward him and captured her mouth in a kiss as he slipped his hand into her bodice and palmed her breast. She moaned under his lips as he filled his hand with her flesh, so hot and round and firm, and his thumb teased a nipple that was as hard as a blackberry.

      Both of them were panting when he finally broke the kiss, and he barely restrained himself from rolling her into the backseat and tearing the gown off her altogether. Instead, he pulled away and watched the delicious process of Eve tucking herself back into her bodice, hiding her secrets from his avid gaze once more.

      “You have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen,” he breathed, turning the key in the ignition. “I’m that kind of guy. Easily visually stimulated.”