LITMIR.BIZ

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God not all occupied, beckoned. Her mind raced as she calculated which seat would be best. Not next to the creepy middle-aged guy. Not next to the ponytailed artsy-looking guy. Not next to the twenty-something sexpot girls. That comparison she could do without.

      There. Three people leaving. She could sit in the middle seat and avoid choosing someone to be next to.

      She ordered a draft ale and concentrated on gazing at the bottles behind the counter, keeping her expression neutral. Someone was watching her. She could feel it. A shiver of excitement went through her for no apparent reason. What was that? For some equally unapparent reason, a vision of tall, dark and hunky rose in her mind, when the eyes on her could just as easily belong to a transvestite admiring her outfit.

      Who? She turned her head slightly; no one on that side. She scanned with peripheral vision behind her. Nope. But the feeling was increasing, a shivery dangerous sexual sensation. Someone was coming up to her, about to speak. She’d never sensed anyone’s presence as powerfully as she did this person’s.

      Who?

      She turned the other way.

      Oh. My. God.

      He was sitting two seats from her on her left; she hadn’t noticed him arriving. She certainly would have noticed if he’d been there when she walked in. Talk dark and hunky, uh huh. And with this sort of bad-boy Jimmy Dean quality about him, as if he’d been orphaned as a young boy and fought his way through to adulthood on grit, determination and muscle.

      Okay, so maybe that was a bit much to deduce after one glance. But oh, my, he was someone she’d be happy to talk to. The only strange thing was that after meeting his eyes, that strong sense of being approached by something exciting and dangerous had faded. She felt safe again. Still excited and…very excited. But safe.

      “Hi.” One side of his mouth twisted up in a crooked smile, while the other side stayed emotionally neutral and seriously sexy.

      She studied him, her head tilted to look as if she was deciding whether he was worth responding to, while her heartbeat was telling her in rapid and certain terms that he was.

      “Hi.”

      He kept that sly smile on, leaned toward her and extended his hand. “I’m Jack.”

      She looked down at his hand, then up into his eyes before she took it. “Samantha.”

      His grin widened to include the other side of his mouth and he chuckled.

      She raised an eyebrow. “That’s funny?”

      He shook his head, still smiling.

      She tightened her lips, not really annoyed. The same old joke had gone beyond annoying. “I know, I know, Samantha on Bewitched, and am I a witch, and if I wiggle my nose can I make you disappear?”

      “Nope.”

      “No?” She smiled, curious, and frankly unable to keep from smiling back at him. Something about the way he looked at her made her feel strangely happy. Maybe it was just that he seemed interested, but plenty of men had been interested, and she didn’t recall it necessarily involved this kind of…uplift, for lack of a better term.

      His eyes were brown, lighter than dark deep endless brown, but full of life, full of male confidence and messages that he knew that she knew and that if they both wanted it to, something could happen.

      This could be a really, really outstanding evening.

      “I was thinking of another Samantha.”

      “Okay, let me guess. The character on Sex and the City who falls into bed with every man she meets.”

      He laughed and gestured forward to the seat next to her. “Is this taken?”

      Samantha swung her legs back under the bar and shrugged. “Nope.”

      He slid off the stool and moved closer. She hadn’t realized how tall he was—well over six feet—nor how imposing. And boy, did he smell good. Male and sophisticated—what was that scent? She hadn’t a clue but she wanted to roll in it like a dog and smell it on her own body later.

      He settled himself onto the stool next to her and smiled. “That’s better.”

      Close up he was even more magnificent. His hair was thick and slightly wavy, cut short so the muscles in his neck were visible when he bent his head forward. The back of men’s necks and their shoulders, that powerful broad expanse, was a turn-on to her.

      “Samantha.”

      He said her name as if he was contemplating the taste of it, sliding it around his tongue and mouth before he swallowed it and made it part of him. The sound did shivery schoolgirl things to her insides, so she kept her face rigid, since it was silly at her age to be feeling this light-headed over the sound of her name.

      “Samantha was the name of a very, very special…female.” He took a sip of his beer and turned to look full into her eyes, his softening as if the memory was taking him over.

      Samantha narrowed hers. Something lurked in the back of those eyes. Something extremely mischievous. A very, very special…female?

      She shook her head and turned back to her beer. “Your dog.”

      He burst out laughing and slapped his hand on the bar. “Damn, you’re good.”

      She bit off the obvious line. A bit too soon to be agreeing, even playfully. She knew where that would lead. And even if she ended up wanting it to lead there, now was too soon to start in with the serious flirting.

      He angled his body toward her and leaned one elbow on the bar. “So what do you do, Samantha?”

      “I’m a lawyer.”

      “Corporate.”

      “How did you know?”

      He tapped the side of his head. “I’m brilliant.”

      She snorted. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

      He took a sip of beer, straight out of the bottle— Leinenkugel’s Red, brewed up north in Wisconsin. Drinking out of the bottle was sexy on men. Samantha approved.

      “What kind of law?”

      “I’m corporate counsel for ManForce temporary agency. I handle discrimination cases mostly, racism, sexism and sexual harassment.”

      “Uh-oh.” He held up his hands. “I better watch what I say.”

      She lifted her brows acknowledging his statement, but not responding. Never hurt to get that information on the table. Men were usually pretty wary after they found out what she did. Nice little weapon, one she wasn’t afraid to use, not that she got herself in situations like this often. But by the way his eyes warmed at the sight of her, she was starting to be damn glad she’d gotten herself into this one.

      “And what do you do for fun, Samantha?”

      He spoke softly, suggestively. Samantha started to roll her eyes, but then it occurred to her that if he kept up this kind of macho pickup-line crap, he might qualify as the Swaggering Butthead and then she’d get to see him naked. “Define fun.”

      “Nonwork activities.” He winked. “You don’t strike me as the type that sits in bars for excitement.”

      “Oh?” For some reason that stung. As if she had Desperate Divorcée written all over her instead of Confident Woman On the Prowl. “What type do I strike you as?”

      “Beautiful, classy, elegant.” He looked her over as if he was thinking about having her for dessert. “More at home at the opera, or the symphony or in a five-bedroom split level with hubby and lovely children.”

      She narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to charm or insult me?”

      “I’m trying to be honest. How you take it is up to you.”

      Samantha gritted her teeth at the same time she

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