Over the Edge

She felt foolishly fluttery beneath his gaze. And standing here naked before his fully clothed self, she felt very much like an errant child who’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Does that bother you, Jake?” she injected a level of calm she wasn’t feeling into her voice. “I want to see what you’re made of.”

“You want to see how far you can push me.”

“Are you hoping to call my bluff?”

He shook his head, sending thick tawny hair across his brow. “No.”

“No?”

“I don’t think you’re bluffing.”

Before she realized what he was about, his hand surrounded her breast, lightly abrading her skin with callused fingertips. Her nipple puckered and her breath hitched, an audible gasp that echoed above the running water and made him smile.

Pressing his advantage, he squeezed her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. A ribbon of heat shot straight to that sensitive place between her thighs. She sucked in another gulp of air that made his smile grow even wider.

“I’m not the only one here discovering my limits, am I?” he asked, his voice as sultry and sure as deep silk.

She didn’t answer, was too busy breathing through that grasping pulse between her thighs. But she found that she liked the way he wasn’t mowed down by her invitation. She might be standing here naked, and he might want her, but Jake Trinity was still thinking on his feet, questioning her motives, not willing to jump in until he satisfied his curiosity.

She found that rather…stimulating.

“Am I, Mallory?”

He pinched her nipple again, making her grow wet in a way that had nothing to do with the eight shower jets behind her.

“No.” She sounded just the tiniest bit resentful and that seemed to amuse him, too.

“Do you always mix business with pleasure?”

“No,” she replied honestly. “Only when it suits me.”

“And I suit you?”

She laughed, an attempt to regain her equilibrium. “I’m surprised you have to ask me that question. I kissed you ten years ago, remember?”

“I thought you were trying to stall me, or distract me.”

“I was.” She took another deep breath against the way he was thumbing her nipple, raising her body temperature with each idle stroke. “But I’d never have come up with the idea if I hadn’t found you attractive.”

“So which was it, stall or distract?”

Each lazy stroke made that need sizzle low in her belly and her knees grow a little weaker. “Both.”

“You succeeded.”

She also liked that he admitted it openly. No pretenses. No delicate male ego needing to be propped up with lies. “Am I distracting you now?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

“Am I stalling you?” he asked.

“Yes, but I don’t understand why. You want me.”

He inclined his head in a gesture she found almost regal in its certainty. “I do.”

“Then why resist?”

“I’m not. I just haven’t decided to take you up on your offer yet. I want to understand what you hope to accomplish.”

With her fingers wrapped around his tie, she forced him to lower his head until she could whisper in his ear. “Orgasm.”

The effect of that word was visible. His expensive suit didn’t conceal the way his chest rose and fell with a ragged breath, didn’t hide the shudder that rocked his body and brought to mind an image of a big cat purring.

She wanted to press against him, feel the contrast of fine silk and hard muscle against her naked skin. She wanted to feel the vibration when his breath rumbled deep in his chest. She wanted to become intimately acquainted with the erection that kept drawing her gaze, fascinating her with its sheer proportions.

She wanted this man a little too much.

Loosening her grip on his tie, she let him retreat, put some much-needed distance between them.

“How about following your impulse, Jake? Let’s finish what we started ten years ago.”

“Do you think you can combine business with pleasure and not sacrifice one for the other?”

“There’s no think about it.”

He arched a tawny brow and those warm eyes regarded her steadily. “You don’t expect me to be much of a challenge.”

“Why should you be? We’re attracted to each other. We have chemistry. Unlike the last time we met, we’re both of consenting ages and uninvolved. Do you have something against having fun? I think we’ll be good together.”

“You know for a fact I’m uninvolved?”

He was still trying to gauge her, and she saw no reason to withhold what he wanted. He’d been equally forthcoming. “It’s standard procedure for me to research potential clients.”

“Do you usually find out about their personal lives?”

“Not usually. I wanted to know about you. I was surprised when you contacted me. I wanted to figure out if you knew I was the woman inside the warehouse that night.”

“The thief inside the warehouse, you mean.”

She conceded with a nod. “The thief.”

Mallory recognized his pleasure in the way he schooled his expression to conceal it, in the way he steeled those wide shoulders as if defending himself from the effect she had on him. He liked that she didn’t shy from the truth, and that she’d made the effort to learn about him, whether he admitted it aloud or not.

“Do you know what I found out about you, Jake?” When he didn’t reply, she continued. “I found out that you’re on the fast track to a heart attack.”