Free Driven to Temptation by Melia Alexander

course not. What else what was I supposed to do?”
    “No need to get testy.” He grinned in spite of himself. “Just giving you examples like you’d asked.”
    “Oh.” She lowered her arms and pulled a box off the seat. “It’s a huge family joke now. And it’s partly how I learned to go with what life threw my way.” She shrugged. “Well, I mostly do that.”
    She chewed her bottom lip as she turned to place the box off to one side.
    “Anyway, since they’d refused to teach me, I learned how to do it courtesy of the internet.” She grinned at him, the thousand-watt variety that seemed to span the backseat and strike him in the center of his chest. “That showed them how determined I was to learn to take care of myself.”
    The gap between them seemed to shrink, which was a whole other sensation for him. Like being grounded and free at the same time. Her smile faded a fraction, and her gaze locked with his. An unnameable something danced in her eyes. Curiosity? Desire? Aidan wasn’t sure, but for the briefest moment they were connected on a level he’d never experienced before. His brain seemed to focus on Delaney, on the way her eyes flashed brightly.
    Then she turned, effectively breaking their connection.
    “The internet. Right.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. Admittedly, he was really lousy at small talk, but even more so after that eye lock.
    What was it about this woman that made his insides want to twist into a knot and his libido take off like a sex-starved male?
    Maybe he could engage his brain again. He had a problem, and he needed to develop a strategy to deal with it. In this case strategy involved hooking up with a woman who wasn’t an employee.
    He’d deal with sex after the conference, when he was able to concentrate on that part of his life. Right now, he needed to get through the trade show and nail the Pierce Engineering account. Which meant keeping his guard up around Delaney.
    Aidan yanked a box out of the way while she climbed onto the backseat, skirt hiked up again as she knelt and searched between the seat and seat back.
    “Now what are you doing?” He didn’t mean for the words to sound rough. But one look at her position, at how she straddled an imaginary line, took his dick-brain where it didn’t belong.
    “Pulling the seat up.” She yanked at the tab with an oomph . “It’s easier for me to get leverage if I do it up here instead of from the ground.”
    Do it up here.
    The fantasies rolled forward like a projector. Their sweaty bodies, arms and legs entwined. Mouths tasting, exploring, driving each other toward—
    “Stop.” God help him, he’d have her flat on her back if she didn’t quit. Right. Now.
    He was in the truck and beside her in the space of a heartbeat, his hand resting on hers.
    Turned out touching her wasn’t such a great idea. Her skin was smooth, soft, and a weird charge zapped through him. He pulled his hand away like it’d been seared. “I can do that.”
    Her eyes widened so he could see tiny flecks of gold in them. Emerald eyes with flecks of gold. Stunning. And clearly reflecting she felt something, too.
    She swallowed, looked down at where he’d touched her hand as if she were seeing it for the first time. “You said I could help.” Her normally confident voice was softer, and somehow ignited a protective instinct in him.
    “And you will.” He removed his sunglasses and tossed them onto the front seat. “But I need you to let me do this.” He squelched the fantasies, tamped them firmly in place and threw on a mental padlock for good measure. “Please.”
    “Sure. Whatever you want.”
    He nodded. It might not necessarily be what he wanted to happen, but it was what needed to happen.
    She hesitated. “Maybe you can hand the lug wrench and jack stand over.”
    If it meant she wasn’t straddling anything, perfect. “Great.”
    She slowly, carefully, eased herself to the opposite side, out the truck door, and safely back to