Seduction by the Book

Steve glanced down. “Uh-oh. When an ex-girlfriend calls, it can’t be good news. What if she’s pregnant?”

Mark shot Steve a glare. “Trust me—if she’s pregnant, the baby’s not mine.”

It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted in Cassie’s bed. She was a looker and smart as a whip, but she was just too…tame to get his blood going. After surviving a serious illness as a teen, Mark prided himself on having a passion for everything in life, and he wanted the same in his partner. At times he had detected chemistry between him and Cassie, but when he’d moved in for anything more than a kiss, he’d always gotten shut down. Still, he’d had his fantasies about her long legs and her full breasts—

“Wait a minute,” Steve said, cutting into Mark’s thoughts. “Doesn’t Cassie work for Rugers and Associates?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re bidding on the Belzer Tower project, too.” Steve gestured. “Answer it. Find out what you can about their bid.”

Mark frowned because Steve was the lead architect for their firm on the Belzer project. “I’m not going to spy for you.”

“Man, you owe me for letting you go to the conference in Denver so you could go rock climbing. Besides, this kind of thing goes on all the time.”

Mark wavered. He didn’t like the idea of trolling for information, but he couldn’t deny the sudden compulsion to talk to Cassie again. Knowing his phone was getting ready to roll over to voice mail, he connected the call. “Hello?”

“Mark? Hi, it’s Cassie…Goodwin.”

She’d always had a great voice, so warm and sexy. False advertising, he noted wryly. “Hi, Cassie. What’s up?”

“Busy, like always,” she said breezily. “I’m on vacation doing some spring cleaning around my house today and found a couple of things that belong to you. I could drop them off at your office some time if you like.”

Meaning, he didn’t have to actually see her if he didn’t want to. He glanced up to Steve, who rolled his hand in an encouraging gesture. Mark didn’t plan to milk Cassie for information, but it gave him a cover to see her again. “Cassie, I’m in the field today. I could stop by your place this afternoon if you’ll be around.”

Steve gave him a thumbs-up.

“Okay, sure,” she said. “It’ll be great to see you.”

He blinked. Had he imagined the note of flirtation in her voice? “You, too.”

When he ended the call, he looked up to find Steve studying him. “Well?”

“Well…nothing,” Mark said, setting aside the phone. “Cassie found some things at her place that belong to me. I’m going to pick them up.”

Steve nodded. “A perfectly innocent excuse for you to poke around.”

“Don’t get your hopes up about me getting info on Ruger’s bid. Cassie’s no dummy.”

“Hey, maybe she’s calling you to try to get information about our bid.”

Mark gave a little laugh. “You’re wrong. This woman doesn’t have a misbehaving bone in her body. Believe me, Cassie Goodwin has no ulterior motives for calling me.”

CASSIE SET DOWN her phone and expelled a long, shaky breath. The call with Mark had actually gone better than she’d expected. She’d given him an out in case he truly didn’t want to see her, but instead he’d offered to come by to pick up the mislaid items. Just hearing Mark’s voice sent a shiver over her shoulders. On one hand, she was glad the reunion would take place on her turf. On the other hand…she didn’t know what to do next.

Cassie picked up her phone and scrolled through her contact list until she came to Red Tote Book Club. She needed help. Cassie texted Meeting ex bf in few minutes; advice? and sent it to the group. Hopefully someone would get her message in time to respond.

A few seconds later, her phone chimed. Cassie picked it up and smiled to see a note from Page Sharpe—Page was the quietest woman in the group, and the last person Cassie expected to hear from.

C—what would Lady Chatterley do?

Cassie pursed her mouth and nodded. Good guidance. On the table next to the phone lay a copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence, the book that had inspired Cassie to take control of her sex life. She picked up the book and flipped through the pages, skimming some of her favorite scenes featuring Connie Chatterley and the gamekeeper Mellors. If Connie Chatterley lived in this modern day and age and Mellors was coming over, what would Connie do?

In one scene after spotting Mellors, Connie had stripped in front of a mirror and studied her body, analyzing which parts of it Mellors might find the most attractive if he were watching.

On impulse, Cassie turned to the full-length mirror in her bedroom and appraised her figure clad in faded low-rise jeans and a yellow T-shirt. She was of average height and weight, with a figure that had always been a bit too curvy to be fashionable. But Mark had commented more than once that he wasn’t attracted to women who were “a bag of bones.”

Slowly, Cassie began to disrobe.

She lifted her T-shirt over her head, then reached around to unhook her sensible bra. Her breasts fell forward, the tips budding in the coolness of the air. They felt heavy with need. Every thought of Mark fueled her desire to seduce him, to let him know what he’d missed out on.

She unzipped her jeans and shimmied them down her legs, along with her practical, full-coverage panties. Cassie stared at her nude body from all angles. Her hips were generous, but shapely and firm, and her waist was tapered. Her legs and arms were slender and toned with the demands of her job, which often required her to be on a job site, hefting tools and coordinating equipment.

For thirty, she didn’t look so bad naked, she decided with a lift of her chin. She had nothing to be ashamed of.

She started to redress, then paused and considered her beige underwear. It was rather…matronly. She walked to her bureau and rummaged to the back of a drawer until her fingers closed around the scrap of red lace she was looking for.

But the plain yellow T-shirt wasn’t that sexy…unless she went braless.

And the jeans…Cassie reached for a pair of scissors.

She couldn’t take a chance that Mark wouldn’t notice her when he arrived.

She’d have to make sure he had plenty to look at.

3

FROM THE CURB, CASSIE’S refurbished ranch house was exactly as Mark remembered it. The woman had good taste, having removed all the extraneous detail added by previous owners, stripping the house to its original lines and low-to-the-ground profile. Although his personal style was more contemporary, he admired the mid-century design. Another example of how compatible he and Cassie had been…on every level except the one that mattered most. He reminded himself that by breaking it off when he had, he’d simply saved them both from a tedious situation that was headed straight for the “average” side of the relationship scale.

He parked his SUV in her driveway and climbed out, experiencing a mingling of familiarity and surprise at the things that had changed, the things he’d missed. Cassie’s minimalist landscaping had gone through a growth spurt. And she’d painted her door a deep rust red that contrasted nicely with the gray wood siding.

He loosened his tie in the summer heat, rang the doorbell and waited, but there was no answer. Thinking Cassie might have moved to the outside in her cleaning, he decided to walk around to the backyard. Whistling lightly, he strolled around the side of the house. Sure enough, he heard the sound of a water hose. When he reached the gate leading to the backyard, he peeked around to get her attention…and froze.

Cassie was washing the exterior windows with a water hose, but had managed to soak herself in the process. Her dark ponytail sagged with moisture, and water dripped from her elbows. Her yellow T-shirt had molded to her breasts and it was clear she wasn’t wearing a bra. Cut-off jean shorts hugged her wet thighs, revealing a generous length of toned leg.

Damn.

Mark’s body reacted just as she looked up and noticed him. Her sunny smile hit him hard and he wondered briefly how he’d managed to get along without it all these months.

Cassie waved him inside the gate, then reached to turn off the water hose. Mark tried to maintain his composure as he walked closer, but he couldn’t stop staring at her breasts, perfectly outlined in the wet T-shirt. And the more he stared, the tighter his pants got.

“Hi,” Cassie called cheerfully, obviously unaware of the erotic picture she presented, standing there holding a hose, no less.

“Hi,” Mark offered past a constricted throat. “Is this a bad time?”

“No, this is fine,” she said. “I was just getting ready to take a break. Would you like a glass of lemonade?”

Since his mouth was dry and he was suddenly perspiring profusely, he said, “Sure.”