Free The King Next Door by Maureen Child

Griffin’s experience, when a woman had a plan, every man in the vicinity should be on guard. “You’ve never joined me out here before. Why now? Why the wine?”
    “Look,” she said simply, “it’s a nice night. I’ve had a long day, and the hot tub sounded like a great idea.” Shrugging, she pointed out, “You must like it. You’re in it every day.”
    Lately to avoid being with her, Griffin thought, though now he could see the flaw in that strategy. At least if they were in the living room watching TV she’d be dressed.
    The image of her in that bikini flashed across his already fevered brain. Then his gaze dropped to the surface of the churning water that bubbled and frothed at the tops of her breasts. Oh, man.
    “Something wrong?”
    “Nope. Nothing.” He shifted on the bench seat and ordered his body to throttle back. Unfortunately, that particular portion of him had its own ideas. And they had nothing to do with cooling off.
    Didn’t matter. He was still in control.
    “Good,” Nicole said, then paused for another long sip of wine. When she’d swallowed, she turned her head to look at him. “Because there’s something I want to talk to you about.”
    And here it comes. Finally . “Yeah? What’s that?”
    “I want to have a night with you.”
    The long drink of wine he’d taken logjammed in the middle of his throat and Griffin choked in response. Whatever he’d been expecting, it hadn’t been this. Nicole Baxter propositioning him? What kind of crazy-ass world had he been dropped into?
    When he could breathe again, he stared at her. “Are you serious?”
    She scooted closer. “Absolutely.”
    Griffin held his ground. Even though he knew he should back away while he still could, he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it.
    “I know you’re interested,” Nicole was saying and he silently warned himself to listen up. “I’ve seen the way you look at me, Griffin.”
    He cleared his throat. So much for his poker face. “No offense, but that just means I’m alive and breathing, Nicole.”
    She smiled again, as if she knew that was a weak argument.
    “You’ve been avoiding me,” she said.
    Damn straight he had, not that he was going to admit it.
    “Giving you space,” he argued.
    “Hiding,” she countered.
    Okay, that wasn’t acceptable. “I don’t hide.”
    “Then why do you look nervous?”
    Griffin laughed shortly. “Babe, I haven’t been nervous around a woman since I was fifteen.”
    “Until now,” she said, taking another sip of wine.
    Griffin gritted his teeth. He wasn’t nervous. He was… cautious. There was a difference. Any man would be cautious walking through a minefield.
    “What’re you getting at here, Nicole?”
    “I already told you,” she said with another shrug that briefly lifted the tops of her breasts. “I think we should have a fling.”
    His mouth went dry. He hadn’t seen this coming at all. Which explained, he told himself, why he couldn’t seem to string a coherent sentence together. Finally he managed one word.
    “Because?”
    “Because you want me. I want you. There’s no reason not to.”
    He really was in the twilight zone, because he was pretty sure he’d used that same argument with other women at other times. Odd having his own words thrown back at him.
    But as tempted as he was, by her presence, her idea, there was one thing he couldn’t forget. “You have a son.”
    “Connor’s not a part of this.”
    He nodded toward the baby monitor. “Yeah. He is. And I have rules about that.”
    “ Rules? What kind of rules?”
    “The kind that means I don’t get involved with women who have kids.” Memories rose up, but Griffin ruthlessly shut them down. This wasn’t about his past. This was about now.
    “We wouldn’t be involved,” she corrected. “We’d be having sex.”
    Griffin laughed shortly again. “That’s involved. Trust me.”
    “Doesn’t have to be.” Nicole scooted even closer and now her thigh brushed against