Free Blame It on the Bikini by Natalie Anderson Page A

you.’
    Oh, it was way too late for that. ‘I mistakenly sent you a picture of myself in a half-see-through bikini. I don’t think I could be more embarrassed.’
    ‘That was just an image. I couldn’t touch you.’
    Her breathing faltered, her pulse skipped quicker atthe thought of where and how he was thinking of touching her. And when. Now? Mere words banished the chill she’d felt before as heat crept up her cheeks and across her entire body.
    A half-smile curved his lips. ‘You like a little talk, don’t you? For a woman who’s planning to spend the rest of her life counting beans, you have to get your thrills somewhere, huh?’
    ‘There’s nothing wrong with chasing financial security.’ She chose to ignore the suggestion she might like a little sauce talk.
    ‘Strikes me you chase all-over safety. Which isn’t something I can give you,’ he warned, leaning close. ‘You’re not entirely safe with me.’
    ‘Now you tell me, when you’ve got me alone in your house.’ Her insides were melting—that part of her had no desire to be safe right now. It was a dangerous game and one that was so irresistible.
    ‘In the middle of the night.’
    She turned and looked at the pretty design on the lower part of the wallpaper. Not just normal wallpaper, but almost a mural. Good diversion. ‘The room came like this?’
    ‘No, I chose it.’ He let her pull back from the brink.
    ‘You did?’ It made the room like a grotto—with that big bed in the middle and the soft-looking white pillows and duvet. ‘Okay, you chose it with women in mind.’
    ‘No, I liked my tree house when I was a kid. Remember that?’
    She did remember the old hut up high in one of the ancient trees at his parents’ house. She and Lauren had been banned from it. It had been padlocked and everything. His escape from the magazine-spread-perfecthouse. Lauren had got her escape by banning her mother from her room.
    ‘This gives me the same feeling of peace.’ He walked towards her. ‘And women don’t sleep in here.’
    Yeah, right. ‘Because you have a separate bedroom for your seduction routine? One with boxes of condoms and sex toys?’
    ‘I don’t need sex toys,’ he boasted with a self-mocking smile. ‘And you’ve already seen the spare rooms. One’s my office, one’s my library.’
    ‘So what, you’re celibate?’ She let her eyebrows seek the sky.
    ‘I prefer to sleep-over at their houses. It makes the morning-after escape easier.’
    She shook her head but couldn’t help the laugh. ‘You’re bad.’
    ‘No, I’m good. It’s easier for both of us. Women tend to be more relaxed in their own environment.’
    ‘Do you even make it to the morning, or do you sneak out while she’s still asleep?’
    ‘I never sneak out.’ He walked a step closer still. ‘There’s nothing like starting the day with sex. I leave her recovering in bed after that.’
    ‘And dreaming of another encounter that will never happen.’ Mya desperately clung to some kind of mockery but all she could think about was kissing him, about starting the day with sex—with him.
    ‘Why ruin a beautiful memory?’ He smiled. ‘One perfect night is all that’s required. More just gets messy.’
    She suspected just the one with him would get messy for her. Her one and only one night had been hideous the next day.
    ‘Now,’ he said softly, so close in her personal space now her pulse was frantic. ‘You can either work in myoffice or the library. You’ve got your laptop.’ He glanced at the dinosaur beast in her bag. It weighed a ton but still had a word-processing program that worked. That was all that mattered. ‘Let’s go with my office.’ He made the decision for her. ‘I’ll pull up the cases you need while you get reading. And my computer is faster in there than the one in the office. You can type up your assignment on that—be better for you ergonomically.’
    Mya dragged in a shaky breath, determinedly so not disappointed he hadn’t