Free A Little Harmless Lie 4 by Melissa Schroeder

that?”
    “One, you know how to manage well, and you know just when someone has had too much to drink.”
    “That’s not smarts. That’s just years of working in bars, most of them not near as nice as Rough ’n Ready.”
    “Two, you add things in your head.”
    Again, he’d surprised her. “How do you know that?”
    “I watch my employees. I noticed right away that you could add up a large and complicated order without using the register.”
    She smiled. “Anything else?”
    “Well, you have somehow convinced me to walk in public along the beach so that I can’t touch you.”
    She shivered at the dark intent in his tone. It slid over her skin, sank into her blood.
    “You’re holding my hand.” She lifted their joined hands. “Besides, I thought you wanted to do this.”
    He stopped and pulled her closer. There was no mistaking the erection pressed against her stomach. The simmering lust she had been fighting all night exploded, sending a rush of heat dancing through her blood.
    “I think I established pretty early on what I wanted. But I can be patient.”
    She shook her head even as her body yearned for him. “Micah, I am not going to do this with you.”
    “Not tonight, but maybe we can have a little fun.”
    The way his voice moved over the word fun had her body humming with need. “Why don’t we head back to your place? If you don’t want me touching you, you can kick me out.”
    She sighed. She wanted to tell him to go to hell and take his cocky attitude with him. But instead, she nodded and hoped to God she had the control to kick him out of her house when things went too far.

    Micah smiled as he followed Dee into her house. The night had been part heaven and part hell for him. Being near her had his entire body yearning to strip her naked, take her, claim her. He could just imagine how it would feel to slip into that tight snug passage, feel her pussy pull on his cock.
    He counted backwards from ten. He had been doing that a lot tonight. He wasn’t sure he would even get to touch her, let alone be allowed the privilege of sinking between her thighs. From what he knew of her, could gauge from her reactions, he would not be in her bed tonight. He pushed aside the disappointment. It would happen soon.
    It was a small house. She’d been living in Waikiki in an apartment, but he remembered she’d moved here a couple months ago. It wasn’t huge, more like a cottage. He noted there were no family pictures, but there were lots of pictures of the ocean, taken by herself and professional. A picture of a Wyland whale filled the wall behind her couch. There were precious few things that would tell him much about her.
    “I like your place.”
    She looked at him as she dropped her keys on the small dining table. “Yeah?”
    He didn’t miss the skepticism in her voice and he smiled.
    “Yeah. It suits you. Clean lines, uncluttered, straight- up sexy without being tacky.”
    She arched an eyebrow at him. “Really. That’s a mouthful of words for such a little space.”
    God, he loved that sassy mouth of hers. He couldn’t wait until she used it on him. “As I said, it fits you.”
    She looked away then, but not before he saw the flash of hunger in her eyes. To keep from touching her, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. He got the idea that while she had been dated, there hadn’t been a man who tried to romance her. At least no one recently. Keisha had made it very clear that Dee rarely dated, and she had yet to get serious. Of course, he knew that, especially after what she’d blurted out the other night.
    “Would you like something to drink? I don’t keep alcohol, but I do have some sodas and homemade lemonade.”
    He chuckled and watched as she shivered at the sound. God, keeping his hands off, or at least keeping his needs at bay, would be hard. He wanted her so damn much, and if there was a woman in need of a good, long hard fucking it was Dee Sumner. But he knew she was