LITMIR.BIZ

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she got the feeling that she didn’t look like an idiot at all—that he was enjoying the show.

      She put down her bread, casually wiping off the stray honey from her chin, then sucking it from her finger. He’d stayed silent this entire time.

      “You were talking about how innocent my basket was?” she asked.

      His voice sounded gritty now. “It appeared that way at first.”

      “And now?”

      “Now,” he said, “I’m not sure what you’re about.”

      She was actually good at seduction. Who knew?

      She took it up another notch. “Turnabout is fair play, because I have no idea what you’re about, either.”

      After rubbing her finger over her bottom lip, she used her tongue to coyly lick off more honey from that finger. He muttered something on the other end of the phone, and it sounded like an amused curse.

      Good. Let him be just as thwarted as she’d been this whole time.

      “You know,” she said, forgoing the rest of her meal and dipping her finger into the honey bowl this time, swirling the thick mass around, “I have to wonder why you won’t just come out here and sit with me. Is it because I do know who you are and you’re afraid I’m going to get turned off?”

      “Why would you say that?”

      “If you were someone I didn’t like in the fraternity, then it would make sense that you’d rather keep your distance and just play around with me from afar. It would be a sort of revenge for you.”

      A pause, then, “You didn’t know me. No one really did.” His words sounded ominous until he followed them up with, “Besides, I don’t think you disliked anyone.”

      She scooped out more honey, bringing it over to her plate, where she laved the bread with it just as if it were...well, not bread at all but a part of him.

      As she smoothed the honey back and forth with sensual strokes, she smiled. “Is there something about you that’s unlikable?”

      “I’m only a man who’s very happy with the way this date is going so far. That’s all.”

      “And how is this date going?”

      He didn’t say anything for a moment, as if he was content with merely watching her play with the honey. As if he was imagining her finger on him, sliding back and forth, making him heat up.

      Just the thought of getting a rise out of Callum sent prickles of desire through her, a wash of passion, coating her with thick dampness.

      “This date is going perfectly,” he finally said.

      “You like that I’m up for entertaining you?” Bold, she thought. And it feels awesome.

      “I wouldn’t exactly reduce you to just being the entertainment.”

      She took a different tack. “Why did you wonder when I’m going to be heading home, Callum?”

      As she waited for a response, she pictured him as a lonely man. Or was he the opposite—someone who merely had a rich fantasy life that he didn’t want anyone to know about?

      He spoke. “Beth might have mentioned to you that I’m vacationing here for the time being.”

      “She did.” A tingle got her right in the belly. Did he have more plans for her? She laughed softly, helping him along. “Do you need a cook or something?”

      “Not exactly, although you’re killing me with the smell of this meal.”

      Good God—he was somewhere close. “Then come down here and eat it.”

      “Later.”

      Was he stringing her along, promising he was going to reveal himself if she came back another night? Lord help her, but she was so damned curious about him that she would return here again and again until she saw his face.

      His voice was as smooth as the honey she’d been playing with when he came back on the phone. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

      Nothing. But she wasn’t about to let him know that so easily. “I’ll have to look at my social calendar.”

      “Then we’ll see if you’re free, and I’ll be in touch.”

      And with that, he was gone, leaving her with a meal that she was too excited—and too calorie conscious—to eat.

      Leaving her with the sense that, finally, after all these years, she could be as free as she wanted to be if she returned for some more playtime with her Mystery Man.

      3

      DANI COULDN’T WAIT a minute more to find out what was happening with Leigh, even if her friend might still be in the middle of her date.

      Fifteen minutes ago she’d gotten off a catering job in Tulare, where she and Riley rented a house. The gig was for the same outfit she’d been with for years now—although she longed for the day when she could open her own small company. She’d headed directly for the lingerie shop nearby, browsing the massage oil and accessory section, but the whole time, she’d been obsessing about checking on Leigh. After all, what if the date was going badly? What if her friend needed an emergency call to end the night?

      She decided to compromise with a text.

      You good?

      Dani didn’t get an answer right away, so she drove the short distance from the boutique to her little stucco home with its trimmed lawn, perennial flowers and bird fountain. Riley’s truck was in the drive, and she grasped her pink shopping bag and rushed into the house to see him.

      Since he’d had the day off from his small-estate management job, he had prepped steaks for dinner, plus a salad, sautéed mushrooms and French bread. It all waited on the kitchen table for her. But when she saw her fiancé, his dark hair tousled, his blue eyes bright as he smiled at her, she dropped her bag and ran into his arms.

      “Dinner smells great,” she said, nestling her face in his neck as she stood on her tiptoes. He always smelled so good, too, like laundry detergent. Clean and fresh.

      He kissed the top of her head and murmured, “I was just about to put the steaks on.”

      “You sure they can’t wait?” She drew back from him and dangled the pink shopping bag.

      At first Riley got a look on his face that she’d grown all too used to since she’d been doing a lot of lingerie shopping after their fraternity/sorority reunion. She wouldn’t say it was sadness, exactly. Maybe just a second of resignation, of thinking that he missed the sweet, docile girl she used to be before she’d had her epiphany about being stronger and more adventurous.

      Just as Margot had been with her basket, and now Leigh.

      And maybe Dani had gone a bit off the deep end. She had taken a good look at herself after her friends had arranged that basket auction to raise money for the big wedding she’d wanted ever since she was a child. The one she and Riley couldn’t afford these days.

      It was just that her friends’ gesture had rubbed her the wrong way. Had everyone always looked at Dani as if she was helpless? And how much longer was she going to be able to live with that?

      So she’d decided that it was high time to grow up—to become a success like Margot and Leigh, not the contented former home-ec major who worked for a catering company she didn’t even own. Although she still had to work for someone else for a while, she planned to open her own catering outfit soon.

      Best of all, she had started jazzing up her sex life with Riley, inspired by Margot’s steamy basket and how much it had turned on Clint Barrows, who was now the love of her life.

      Dani and Riley never looked at each other the way Margot and Clint did. Why not?

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