Free A SEAL's Pleasure by Tawny Weber Page B

built with Jared Welch right out of college as it was that Maeve was a woman with strong opinions and strict working-condition requirements.
    Which included calling her own hours, insisting on being able to lock her door and ignore everyone until she wanted to talk to them and working barefoot year-round.
    Tessa glanced at Maeve’s feet, crossed yoga-style on her lap, noting that today’s polish was virulent violet with hot pink polka dots.
    â€œ
Why?
What do you mean by
why
?” Tessa asked, hoping that somewhere in this conversation, some of Maeve’s brilliance would translate into usable advice. Or at least something comprehensible.
    â€œWhy is the guy an arrogant ass if he turns down sex? I mean, a woman turns down sex and she’s justified. So why is it different for a guy?”
    Because no guy had ever turned her down. Tessa kept that fact to herself, settling for sending a scowl at the back of Maeve’s head.
    â€œBy that logic, he’s a tease, then,” she said, stabbing her finger in the air as if poking an imaginary Romeo in his very hard, very sculpted chest. “And teases suck.”
    Maeve sighed. “You ever get going with a guy, thinking it’s going to end in hot sex, then for whatever random reason, change your mind?”
    Dammit. Tessa growled low in her throat, but couldn’t lie.
    â€œOf course I have.”
    Once, she’d walked out on one with his boxers around his ankles. Not because he had a pair of elephant ears tattooed to his upper thighs. But because his
trunk
had been the size of a peanut, he claimed because it was scared of her mouse. Talk about a turnoff.
    Wait...
    Had she turned off Romeo?
    â€œDo you think there’s something wrong with me?” Tessa asked in shock. Feet glued to the floor, she gaped at the back of Maeve’s head.
    Oh, God. Had Romeo found something wrong with her? The way she kissed? She’d thought he’d been totally into it. His mouth had been wild. Hot and, well, focused. He’d been totally into their kiss, dammit.
    So was it her body?
    Her knees turned to water at the thought. Her stomach pitched into the toes that were stuck to the floor, before bouncing up into her throat so fast Tessa felt as if she was going to throw up.
    It wasn’t as if she thought she was God’s gift to men, or that she was so conceited to believe herself irresistible. But she’d had enough success with the opposite sex over the years to know that she did hold a certain amount of appeal. Added to that, she made her living writing about the games between the sexes, and statistics supported her belief that men were, generally speaking and given the right circumstances, horndogs who’d do it with anyone who offered.
    And their circumstances had been right, dammit.
    He’d been into the kiss and hot for her body.
    Hadn’t he?
    Tessa bit her lip, thinking back to Saturday night. Heat swirled through her at the memory, assuring her that any and all of those kisses had been freaking awesome. She had enough experience to know if a guy was faking his reaction, and she knew damned well that her record of no man ever faking with her still stood strong.
    â€œHe’s playing games,” she insisted, as much because she believed it, but also because she really
needed
to believe it. “He has no idea who he’s messing with.”
    Maeve’s cackle echoed off her computer monitor. “He’s got you good and hooked, so I’d say he knows exactly what he’s doing and who he’s doing it with.”
    Her feet finally free again, Tessa resumed pacing.
    â€œThat’s ridiculous,” she railed with a wave of her hand. “I’m not hooked. I’m pissed. There’s a difference.”
    â€œYou walked away from sex,” Maeve pointed out, finally turning in her office chair, the cracked black leather creaking in protest as she arched her back and stretched her long arms