Free Hell's Geek by Eve Langlais

quiet. Was Valaska even here, or had she returned outside to play with the insect life?
    He dared a peek. Since he’d placed his glasses on the nightstand, his vision saw the world in bleary smudges. He spotted nothing to his left but the wall to the bathroom. Quietly, he shifted onto his back, but the view of the timbered ceiling did nothing for him. Especially since the fact that he was myopically challenged meant all he saw was a big brown blob.
    He rolled over to his right and…
    Screamed. “What the fuck!”
    A rapier gaze observed him without blinking. Crouched beside his bed, Valaska let a smile curve her lips. “Hello, Dex.”
    “Don’t you hello me, brat. You just scared at least a century off my life. What are you doing sneaking up on me?”
    “Not sneaking, merely changing locations because the couch is too short for me.”
    “And?” He played deliberately obtuse to hide the fact that his heart had started beating faster.
    “This bed is pretty big.”
    “And?” He knew she wanted an invitation to join him. But he couldn’t. Just couldn’t.
    “Move over.”
    “What happened to roughing it?”
    “You want me to get rough?” Even without his glasses, he caught the mischievous glint. Before he could roll away, she’d pounced on him.
    “Get off me,” he gasped.
    “Is this your way of telling me I am too heavy?” Her lips hovered only a hairsbreadth away.
    “No, this is my way of saying your knee is uncomfortably close to my manparts.”
    She grinned. “I know. It’s intentional because you called me a brat. Care to say it again?”
    Hmm. Say it once and she was straddling him. Say it twice and… Perhaps she’d start removing layers so they could touch skin-to-skin.
    Shudder. I should be so lucky.
    She mistook his shiver for something else. “Do I frighten you, Dex?”
    Honestly? “Yeah.”
    “And yet”—she squirmed atop him and he couldn’t help the moan that escaped—“you desire me.”
    No use denying it. “You are attractive.”
    Her smile widened. “I think you’re cute, too.”
    She did? That flustered him. “Cute, but so obviously not your type.”
    “Exactly what is my type?”
    Try anybody but him? “A guy who can hold his own in battle, who isn’t scared of a fight.” And who has the courage to seduce you.
    “I don’t know. That does seem to describe you. You didn’t leave me to battle the wasp alone. You came to my rescue.”
    “With killer cologne.”
    “Was the bug any less dead?” she asked with an arched brow.
    “You could probably kick my ass in a fight.”
    “Yes. I could. But don’t feel bad. I could kick most men’s asses in a fight.” She shrugged. “It’s part of being who I am. It doesn’t mean I can’t find you attractive.”
    “You think I’m attractive?” He really wished he possessed a deeper baritone and didn’t sound so surprised.
    “Very. I’ll bet you’re a beast in bed.”
    “I don’t shapeshift during sex.”
    She laughed. “I meant you are probably an intense lover. And a believer in foreplay obviously, given your slow seduction of me.”
    “What are you talking about? I haven’t tried to seduce you.” Did she mistake for someone else? Tell me who and I’ll take them for a ride down the river Styx, a journey they won’t return from.
    “Are you sure of that? I mean you did, after all, manage to entice me into bed. You have me wet with anticipation. And your cock is obviously ready for action.”
    He’d enticed her? “I think—”
    “The problem is you think too much,” she muttered before silencing his protests with her lips.
    Did she really think she could control him and force him to her way of thinking by using her feminine wiles on him?
    Damn her for knowing his weakness. He totally crumbled at the first touch. Why was he still fighting her? She wanted him. He wanted her. What else did he need to know?
    How does she feel? And he wasn’t exactly referring to her emotions. His fingertips longed to trace her