Tempting The Best Man

They were playing two-on-two, but given Daniel’s performance, Eli might have been better off taking on the other team alone.

Sounding more concerned than annoyed, Eli asked, “What’s with you this morning? Lack of caffeine?”

In order to have the campus gym to themselves, they met at five forty-five. Sean declared it an unholy hour, but the time didn’t bother Daniel. Since his insomnia problems had started, he was always out of bed by five anyway. Today, he’d jolted awake around four, pulled from scorching hot dreams of Mia and the kisses they’d shared last night.

In his dreams, there had been no security guard. And no stopping.

He’d awakened sexually frustrated, which was no less than he deserved, and still furious with himself. After a lifetime of prioritizing proper behavior, he’d let the lure of Mia’s mouth turn him into a ravening beast. He hadn’t spared a second’s concern for whether someone would see them or how that could affect her. They’d been right outside her place of business, for God’s sake. What were you thinking?

The beam of the guard’s flashlight had sliced through the night like an accusation. Daniel had recoiled immediately, running on autopilot as a hundred lectures from his parents rang in his ears. He’d been so chagrined over his undisciplined behavior that he could hardly recall what he’d said to Mia. He did remember her stricken expression, though—the one she’d tried to hide before climbing into her car. She must think he was a total ass, no better than the men she’d described who groped and pawed at women.

“Sorry,” Daniel said. “Been distracted lately.” Lately meaning since last night, and distracted meaning he was unable to concentrate on a damn thing besides Mia’s enthusiasm and the heat of her mouth.

Eli knelt to tighten his shoelaces. “Still obsessing about the committee recommendation? You know the provost’s in your corner. I get that waiting sucks, but the decision’s in the hands of the president and the board of regents now. Don’t make yourself crazy in the meantime.”

Tenure. Right. That goal he’d busted his ass to attain. “Actually, work was the furthest thing from my mind.”

Eli stood, his expression perplexed.

What did it say about Daniel’s life that his friends assumed his career was the only thing he had going for him? “I had a date last night. Dinner with Mia.”

“No kidding? That’s fantas—”

Daniel grimaced.

“Not fantastic?”

“Actually, it was. Until the very end. I...” ...fell on her like a sex-starved maniac? They’d been only a few feet from passing traffic, and he’d gone for second base like a horny teenager. Lord knew what he would have done without Myron’s fortuitous interruption. “I screwed up.”

“Hey!” Sean dribbled the ball, scowling at them. “Considering the embarrassing score, I get the need to talk strategy. But could we return to our game sometime before spring break?”

“Surprised you’re in such a hurry to give up your lead,” Eli called back. “Might as well savor it while you’ve still got it. Ready, Daniel?”

He nodded.

“FYI,” Eli added under his breath, “I’ve screwed up a time or two with Bex. In my experience, flowers help.”

“Thanks.” But Daniel doubted an assortment of plant life was going to make up for his boorish behavior.

“Now focus. Quit throwing away your shots.”

Unfortunately, Daniel couldn’t shake the feeling he already had—not on the basketball court, but with the sexy-as-hell event coordinator. She’d given him a look of near loathing before she’d driven away.

He wasn’t sure what he could say to convince her to ever go out with him again. Considering his wildly undisciplined reaction to her, maybe it was best if he stayed away from her. Kept his distance. It was sound logic, but on some primal level, he rejected the idea even as he had it. Never kiss Mia again? Never touch her?

With an inward snarl, he lunged for Sean to steal the ball, knocking his friend on his ass.

Sean grunted a surprised expletive before propping himself up on his elbow. “Foul.”

Eli fought a smile. “Dude, I said ‘focus,’ not ‘maim.’”

“Right. Sorry. I lost my head for a moment.” A moment? Ha. He hadn’t felt like himself since Mia turned around at that bachelor party, meeting his gaze. Avoiding her might be the only way to return to normal.

Screw normal. The restless part of him he habitually stifled refused to stay silent. Maybe it was time to admit he didn’t want “normal.” He wanted change. He wanted excitement. And he desperately wanted Mia Hayes.

* * *

“BRANT IS PERFECT,” Wren gushed as she unrolled her mat along the studio wall. “Well, perfect for me, anyway.”

Mia and her friend Wren Kendrick had driven to the Tuesday night yoga class together. Wren managed an upscale lingerie store and occasionally gave Mia a generous friends-and-family discount, which was how Mia happened to own the perfect corset and fishnets to work a burlesque party. Both women had been working so hard lately that girl time had been scarce; Mia had yet to meet Wren’s new boyfriend. The bubbly blonde had been chatting about Brant nonstop for the past fifteen minutes. Hopefully, she’d wind down before class started. Otherwise, they were in for another evening of the instructor shooting Wren pointed glances. Talking was not encouraged during the ninety-minute session.

“I’ve never dated a man I have more in common with,” Wren said.

“That’s great,” Mia murmured absently. She was glad for Wren’s joy but running out of supportive things to interject in the conversation.

“Our personalities are just so in sync.”

What must that be like? Annoyingly, Mia’s mind drifted to Daniel. Again. He’d been in her thoughts way too much today—not that she believed for a moment that the preoccupation was mutual. He seemed to have wiped her from his mind before he even drove out of the parking lot. His expression had been so insultingly blank she’d wanted to shake his shoulders. Hi, remember me? Mia? You just had your tongue in my mouth?

Their sizzling kisses might support the generalization of opposites attracting, but she had too much self-respect to share a hot night with a man likely to sneer at her the next morning. Whatever had motivated his stated need for change, modifications to a person’s lifestyle or behavior were often fleeting.

Like temporary insanity. That’s what you experienced, a little hormone-driven insanity. Nothing to obsess over.

It was embarrassing how distracted she’d been today. Thank goodness she’d been able to avoid Shannon and any perceptive questions about Mia’s mood. A dental appointment had kept the woman out of the office that morning, and Mia had been on the go all afternoon. Yoga was the perfect opportunity to regain clarity and perspective. She straightened her legs in front of her, stretching over them as Wren continued her ecstatic Brant-themed babbling.

“You know the first time you have sex with someone and he doesn’t know what you like yet, so you’re trying to gently steer him toward what you want without seeming bossy?”

Mia made a noncommittal sound. She spoke her mind, in bed and out of it, and had never much worried about whether she sounded bossy. What would Daniel be like in the bedroom? Willing to follow his lover’s lead, or convinced his way was the right one, just as he had been in college? Stop it. At twenty, she may have fantasized once or twice about the opportunity to help loosen him up, but she was an adult now. She didn’t have time in her life for a man who wouldn’t appreciate her.

“My sisters are scandalized I slept with Brant after knowing him less than a week,” Wren said, unconcerned that the woman one mat over was shamelessly eavesdropping, “but it didn’t feel like our first time. It was like we’d known each other forever, like we were two halves of the same whole.”

Typical Wren. She lived—and loved—boldly. Where Shannon was shy and reserved in her personal life, Wren liked to jump in with both feet. Mia couldn’t imagine ever declaring a guy her other half after a handful of dates, but she respected her friend’s optimistic courage. “I hope he—”

“Good evening, ladies.” The instructor walked into the room.

Hallelujah. Time to begin. Mia wasn’t really in the right headspace to gush about Wren’s new love, even though that was bitchy of her. If things had gone differently last night, Wren would be the first to cheer for her. If things had gone differently... Her imagination started down that path, but she ruthlessly yanked it back as the class opened their session with a collective “Om.”

For about an hour, she was able to push Daniel Keegan from her mind. But toward the end of the session, they went into yin practice, which involved long-held poses and encouraged meditation. It gave her entirely too much time to think. Plus, after sixty minutes of focusing so intently on her body, on her breathing, on the pleasant soreness of muscles as she challenged herself... Well, it only made sense that her thoughts were lured back to the sensual experience of being pressed against Daniel’s body, who’d made her breathing uneven and her skin tingle.

She could tell herself all day long that he didn’t deserve her, but she couldn’t help wondering, if the chance to kiss him again arose, how would she resist? By remembering how aloof he was afterward. Almost as good as a cold shower. She wanted a lover who ran hot. Who looked at her with enough yearning to make her shiver. Who craved her unashamedly. Daniel Keegan was not that man—not based on the evidence of last night.

But heaven help her if he ever got comfortable with his passionate side. Because there’d be no resisting him then.

* * *

“MUST’VE BEEN SOME date Monday.” Shannon flashed a smile over the top of her coffee mug.

Mia froze in the act of removing her coat. “Why do you say that?” She hadn’t pegged Myron as the type who would blab about what he’d seen to other people in the building, but maybe she’d been wrong.