Free Courted by Karma (The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod) by Tracy Ellen

of my thighs. He grinned up at me with brilliant, dark green eyes that were outlined lushly in black lashes a girl would kill to have. Outlined against his T-shirt, his shoulders and arms were straining with muscles a girl would die to have holding her. At his wicked expression, I felt something sticky and buttery melting inside me.
    Luke broke our stare by slowly shaking his head back and forth. “Anabel, what am I going to do with you?” His voice growled low with warning when he asked, “Don’t you remember what I told you on our first date that happens to little girls like you wearing short, little dresses?”
    T his unfamiliar, meltingly soft sensation of wanting to sink inside a man and never surface was decidedly uncomfortable.
    I determinedly shrugged it off and tossed back my hair while blinking coquettishly at the man between my legs. “Why, Luke, are you comparing this moment to our first date?”
    He scoffed with a frown. “ You leave me no choice.”
    I tapped my lips with a forefinger in thought. “Mmm, our first date. Give me a second here while I try to remember a little something…” Watching his brows start to meet in the middle at my vague answer, I felt back in control of myself on the familiar ground of teasing a man. “Wasn’t it more of a show me rather than tell me moment?” I sighed heavily and traced a lazy path down his cheek with my finger. “You’re such a man. Do I need to remind you how it really happened?”
    He gave his permission with a curt jerk of that nose and I bit my cheek not to smile.
    “First, you started our first date by bringing me a little present.” I glanced searchingly around the office. When he shrugged at me with a rueful look, I sympathized, “I know, I know; this was a surprise visit tonight and not a planned date. I guess you’re excused from this part of what I remember you show-and-telling me. Luckily, I was planning. Hand me my backpack, please.”
    Luke ’s forehead creased, but he slid one hand out from under my clothing and reached for my bag on the floor. He passed it to me without comment, but his curiosity was piqued when I unzipped the pack and looked inside. I pulled out the silver gift bag tied with a red ribbon in a neat bow at the handles.
    I passed the little bag to my Dark Knight. I smiled to see the startled pleasure pass over his face as he accepted the gift.
    “What is this, Anabel?”
    “Are we still in question two?”
    He gave a clipped nod. “Oh, hell yes.”
    I managed to keep my face serious and only said, “Then you’ll have to wait to find out. It’s just a little something I brought for you tonight. You can’t open it,” I felt my cheeks heating, as he continued to regard me with a widening smile, “until we move onto Your Turn with a Cherry on the Top.”
    Luke held the bag another moment . I wasn’t too surprised to see him heft it up and down with a smiling frown of interest before placing it on the desk next to my hip. That move did a lot to enforce my belief Luke reacts different than your average man. The bra test would have to be done later—when I was wearing one.
    His big hand sliding back up my inner thigh had me paying attention again. “Go on, Anabel, and continue answering question two.”
    I closed my eyes , in part to allow myself to picture clearly what Luke had done on our first date. The other part was to hide like a little chicken. It wasn’t as easy as I thought to describe the act out loud to a man. I hoped my cheeks felt hot because of getting babushka bitch-slapped and not from blushing like a girl.
    “And you need to look at me ,” Torquemada added in command.
    My eyes flew open and I gasped at the unexpected brush of a finger giving wriggling me an incentive to obey. I usually don’t take to well at being trained to respond, but tonight I could go along with the program of a stroking finger here and there as a Pavlovian prompt.
    “ Well, I was only doing what you suggested to make our