Free Dangerous Tease by Avery Flynn Page B

turned away from her, walked over to the window and stared out at the snow-covered quad. The afternoon sun caught the reddish highlights in his hair. “I spent a summer looking for it, walking every inch of McPherson's Bluff, combing over survey maps and aerial photographs.”
    “And you think you're infallible, is that it?”
    In an instant, a visible sign of pain was gone, replaced with a blankmask. “You don't need to know about me.”
    “I've read the diary. Rebecca didn't lie. It's out there and I'm going to find it. But I need you to do it.” She grabbed the notepad on his desk and one of his neatly arranged pens, then scrawled the artist colony's main number. The notepad landed with a thwack on his empty desk. “Call me when you change your mind.”
    Damn, he looked so forlorn framed bythe window and the snowy scene beyond it. She couldn't leave him like this. Just as she knew on a gut level that Rebecca's Bounty was out there, she knew Sam needed her. That made what she had to do even worse. But until they recovered the treasure, maybe she could be that woman he needed right now. She could pretend it was just the two of them with no ulterior motives.
    Responding to his unspokencall, she inserted herself between the cold glass and his warm body. The beginning of his five o'clock shadow scratched against her palms as she put her hands on his cheeks and turned his head to face her.
    “We're more alike than we're different. I saw the real you in Vegas. You might hide him here, but I know better. You were born for adventure.”
    Her lips brushed against his, soft and hesitantin spite of her bold declaration. She sucked on his bottom lip and pressed against his lean body, daring him not to respond. Her nipples hardened even with layers of sweaters and leather between them. Fire spread through her and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer.
    Sam groaned into her mouth in surrender, his hands sliding down her back to cup her ass and bring her into contactwith the hard bulge in his slacks. His lips traced a path along her jawline, ending at her ear, where he kissed the sensitive spot behind her earlobe.
    Josie couldn't stop the shiver of pleasure that danced up her spine and she arched her neck to give him better access to the sensitive spots above her collar. When he nipped at the skin, she nearly melted into a puddle of want. Her tits grew heavyand full, testing the strength of her bra's underwire. God, if she didn't pull back now she'd be on her hands and knees before she knew it, and she couldn't do that. One and done, that was her M.O. More than that entailed ties she couldn't have to Sam.
    So why had she kissed him in the first place?
    She ignored the question and instead pushed away from Sam and all the allure pulling them together.

    She rested her forehead against his cheek as his chest rose and fell at the same rapid pace as hers. “Just to be clear, that had nothing to do with anything else. It won't happen again.”
    She felt more than heard him laugh, the shake of his shoulders underneath her fingertips.
    Knowing she had to go now, she stepped back from him and walked away, pausing at the doorway. “Call me when you'reready to go find the treasure.”
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
    S am squeezed through the crowd on the edge of the Robidoux’s Roadhouse dance floor, aiming for the bar and the cold bottle of beer in front of the empty stool next to his younger brother, Chris.
    A middle-aged cowboy who hadn't seen his belt buckle in at least a decade thumped his boot on the stage as he sang an upbeat ditty about his ex-wife who had done him wrong. Couples two-steppedin a circle in front of the stage, their boots shuffling against the wooden dance floor, moving in time to the beat.
    He passed through a trio of men mesmerized by the action on the dance floor, turned left at the door marked Cowgirls Only and slid onto the barstool Chris had saved for him.
    The first swig of cold beer went down smooth