Free Double Dare by Karin Tabke

She grinned when he raised his brows in a “that’s-not-what-I-mean” look. “You like tits.”
    “No, I
love
your tits.”
    “Oaky, you love my tits. And at the moment, you love to fuck me.”
    “I’d love to make love to you, too,” he said seriously.
    Swallowing hard, Katy sipped her water. “Don’t say that.”
    “Why not?”
    “It’s too intimate for what we have.”
    He smiled tightly. “Baby steps.”
    Her heart thumped. He was far more patient with her than she was herself. Would it be rude, she wondered, if she crawled into his lap and wrapped his arms around her?
    “You like nice clothes and have good taste.”
    He nodded. “What else?”
    “You’re a good sexter.”
    He smiled and leaned toward her. “My goal is to make you cream every time you hear your text alert.”
    Mission accomplished.
    Breath rushed from her lungs as she squirmed, causing the balls to roll, which elicited a sharp intake of breath. Biting her lip, she squeezed her eyes shut as the hot wave of desire lessoned a few degrees. “I already do, Simon,” she admitted.
    “If I hadn’t promised to keep my hands off you, you’d be on your back with me buried balls deep inside you right now.”
    Opening her eyes, she started. He had moved closer, only a foot away now. His breath was warm, and quick, his gaze piercing with unleashed desire.
    She wanted sex with Simon more than anything at that moment, but she knew if she succumbed to him, she would somehow regret it. She needed more from him than he had given her.
    “What’s your last name?” she asked, trying to redirect the energy
    Moving back into the sofa, his face tightened. “I could lie to you or I could ask you to understand that that isn’t something I can divulge at the moment.”
    “Oh, so mysterious,” she said, making a woo-woo face.
    “Not trying to be.”
    “Why then? Because you don’t trust me?”
    His features softened slightly. “Because you’re safer not knowing.”
    A cloud of darkness passed over his face and she realized he wasn’t lying. She gulped. She got that he was a dangerous man with a dangerous job, but how could knowing his last name endanger her?
    Withdrawing, once again feeling like she was a second-class citizen because he had closed up when it came to getting into his head, she murmured, “Maybe one day you will trust me enough to tell me.”
    “Again, Cinderella, it isn’t about trust, it’s a safety issue.”
    “Okay,” she said, looking away from him.
    He reached over and slid her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, then nudged her chin up with two fingers as he turned her to face him. His touch was electrifying. The chemistry between them, palpable. Dry-mouthed and wide-eyed, she stared at him. His deep green eyes darkened to an unfathomable color. He felt it, too. It was kinetic. And crazy. “Why do you always act as if you’ve done something wrong?”
    “I don’t,” she denied, ducking her chin.
    He nudged it back up and moved closer. His warm breath caressed her cheek. “Yeah, sweetheart, you do.”
    She was in uncharted territory here, and it made her uncomfortable. “I—I have issues. They’re dumb and I don’t like to talk about them.”
    “They aren’t dumb, and
I
want to talk about them.”
    “Why?” she demanded, jerking her chin out of his grasp. “So you can use it against me later?” Like Evan, she thought. Evan, the man she’d known for five years, worked with side by side for three of those five and whom she had slept with for the last six months? The man she thought she might marry. A man she’d known far better than Simon, yet she hadn’t known him at all. Abruptly she stood and the minute she did the damn balls rolled inside of her.
    “Fucking Ben Wa balls!” She clasped her legs together at the knees and scurried to the powder room off the living room.
    She was slick, and had no problem inserting a finger inside. She fished around for the string and when she found it, hooked her