Heated Rush Part 5

"I would."

"Then you can decide if you want to back out."

"I will not. not. I told you last night I'd accompany you." I told you last night I'd accompany you."

"But I thought we were meeting so I could convince you."

He reached across the table and stroked the back of her hand with his warm fingertips. "We're meeting because I couldn't stand to wait four more days to see you again."

Wow. Talk about words going straight from one person's mouth to another person's heart. Or stomach. Or anywhere else.... Annie's thighs clenched below the table, and she scooched her legs together, suddenly very very aware of the tight seam of her pants. aware of the tight seam of her pants.

Because the words-plus that touch, and the intimate look in his eye-had definitely landed there. there.

"Since we're here, however, you might as well fill me in." Smiling slightly, he averted his gaze and let go of her hand. "Though, I think I might be able to venture a guess."

"Oh, really? really?" Her tone held unspoken challenge.

He tilted his head, thinking about it. "It's your high-school reunion and you're the last unmarried prom princess?"

She rolled her eyes. "I wasn't the prom princess type."

More the dairy princess. But she didn't want to mention the cows again until it was absolutely necessary.

Sean tried again. "Your ex-boyfriend's getting married and you can't stand to show up alone?"

"Not even close," she said. "My only ex-boyfriend back in my old hometown can't get married legally, at least not in this state. Though he and his partner partner seem very happy anyway." seem very happy anyway."

Sean barked a quick laugh.

"I went through a sweet-and-soulful stage during high school," she admitted. "Primarily in reaction to my big, obnoxious, dumb-jock football-playing brothers."

"Brothers? Older, younger?"

"Two older, one younger. All hardheads. No sisters."

He nodded, then said, "Football, you said? That's like a tame version of rugby, right?"

She grinned, looking forward to introducing this man to her brothers more by the minute. "Right."

He snorted in visible disdain, then speculated, "I think I've got the picture."

"What picture?"

"The Annie Davis picture. The desperate-enough-to-buy-a-date-for-the-weekend picture."

She couldn't deny that t.i.tle.

He lifted his hands, ticking off the details on his fingers. "You're incredibly pretty but single at the moment. You've had few boyfriends in the past, come from a small town and have a number of bossy, bl.u.s.tery brothers."

The incredibly pretty part warmed her, though her first instinct was to deny it. She was was pretty...but not incredibly. Just in a girl-next-door way. pretty...but not incredibly. Just in a girl-next-door way.

Sean, however, wasn't waiting for her to agree. He simply kept going. "So you blew a lot of money you couldn't afford in order to have a man on your arm when you go home for a family reunion. That way your brothers won't tease you, your parents won't be disappointed in you, and the rest of the folks back home won't pity you, hara.s.s you for leaving, or boss you around the way they did before you moved away. Am I right?"

Annie's jaw dropped. It was a good thing she hadn't popped another nut into her mouth because it would have tumbled out onto the sticky wood tabletop. That had been quite quite a mouthful. Quite an a mouthful. Quite an intuitive intuitive mouthful. "How on earth..." mouthful. "How on earth..."

"It isn't that unique a story." His brow raised in rueful amus.e.m.e.nt, he added, "You might be surprised how often I've heard it."

He hadn't nailed it completely but was close enough to make her wonder if she was really so easy to read. Did he look at her and see only only the small-town girl with the spit-up stain on her s.h.i.+rt trying to please her family? Would he ever again see her as the stranger in the lovely yellow silk dress she'd bought specifically for the auction? the small-town girl with the spit-up stain on her s.h.i.+rt trying to please her family? Would he ever again see her as the stranger in the lovely yellow silk dress she'd bought specifically for the auction?

Again accurately reading her thoughts, Sean leaned across the table, his forearms resting on its surface. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't bring up that nonsense about us not being taken for two people who could be involved." He swallowed visibly, the cords of muscle in his neck flexing before he said, his voice low, "Because if physical attraction-want-is all it takes to prove we're a couple, n.o.body in your hometown is going to have one doubt as to why I'm there." His gaze zeroed in on her mouth and his jaw suddenly clenched. "They'll see the way I look at you and they'll know exactly how much I want you."

Annie's lips parted and she breathed over them, needing more oxygen than she'd previously been inhaling. Because her heart was sending the blood roaring through her veins at four times its normal pace.

"And they'll see how much you want me, too. They'll figure we're already lovers and the desperation rolling off both of us is because we're being forced to act properly around your family. While secretly, they'll know we'll be tearing each other's clothes off the minute we are out of sight."

She gasped out loud that time. Her clothes needed to come off now, now, considering how uncomfortably tight they were, how sensitive her puckered nipples were against her bra and s.h.i.+rt. considering how uncomfortably tight they were, how sensitive her puckered nipples were against her bra and s.h.i.+rt.

"No one will question a thing, Annie. I guarantee it."

She'd begun to lean across the table, too, drawn closer by his words as if they beckoned with genuine magnetism. She couldn't voice a protest-couldn't manage a thought-when Sean lifted his hand and slid it into her hair. He cupped her head, tugging her even closer, until their faces met, their lips brushed.

Her eyes drifted closed as their mouths touched and opened. The warmth of his tongue against hers made her s.h.i.+ver and the slow lazy thrusts made her shake. Once again, she was kissing Sean in public, not giving a d.a.m.n that he had his tongue in her mouth when they were surrounded by strangers.

What woman would give a d.a.m.n when this man was making oral love to her, filling her senses and driving all thought and inhibition away?

Finally, after a kiss stretching over several long breaths, he let her go. He pulled back, just a few inches, and, without hesitation, returned to their conversation, as if he hadn't just rocked her world.

"Now, forget about trying to talk yourself out of it," he said, averting his eyes and lifting his beer.

Seeing the way the dark liquid sloshed a bit on the top, Annie realized he was not entirely under control. He was just better at hiding his reactions.

"You haven't got the we-don't-fit excuse," he added after he'd sipped. "And there's no need to feel foolish or embarra.s.sed because you want to do something to make your life a little easier for a while by getting your family off your back...especially since they have no business being on it. So stop giving yourself a hard time."

"It would make it easier," she admitted, though her mind was still on their kiss and those sultry words.

She leaned toward him again, making up for some of the s.p.a.ce he'd taken by leaning back. With her forearms an inch from his, she was close enough to feel the warmth of his skin, yet not so close that she couldn't keep her head focused on what she had to do, rather than on how badly she wanted to stroke that skin.

Well, almost. almost.

But since he'd messed with her by saying those outrageously s.e.xy things, then kissing her-and stopping stopping-the man deserved at least a little payback. It wasn't much...but hopefully Sean felt her body's energy wafting toward his, mating and mingling over the table, though he didn't acknowledge it.

"So how close was I?"

She had no idea about him, but Annie had been pretty d.a.m.n close. To diving on him from across the table.

He chuckled softly, self-confident and self-satisfied. The man was c.o.c.ky. No doubt about it. "I meant, my description of the weekend?"

"You just about hit the nail on the head," she admitted. "But it's not a family reunion, it's a party for my parents' thirty-fifth wedding anniversary."

"Long time."

"They're very happy, and they're great parents. Just old-fas.h.i.+oned, and overprotective." Curious, she asked, "Yours?"

His humorless laugh told her she'd set foot out of bounds. But he did provide a vague answer, even though it only made her more curious about his background. "They didn't make it thirty-five months, much less years."

When he fell silent, indicating he was finished talking about his family, Annie filled him in a bit more on hers. "Well, when I said overprotective, that might not have captured it. My folks have been predicting my violation, destruction or murder from the minute I moved here."

"Big, bad city, hmm?"

"You got it. They'd like to think I'm miserable and lonely so they can throw every available man in my direction, hoping that one of them will stick and I'll come home for good."

"I'll stick," he promised with a wicked smile.

Yeah, I bet you would.

That body energy did a little tap dance on the inch of tabletop between their forearms. But Annie somehow managed to continue long enough to quickly fill him in on the rest of the details for their upcoming weekend.

Except the Blake details. She'd sooner toss away another five thousand dollars than let this man know what a stupid, romantic fool she'd been. Especially since Blake had not once, in the several weeks they'd dated, made her feel an ounce of what she was feeling right now, simply because of a kiss and the sound of this man's sultry, lilting voice whispering fantasy and desire.

"I think we can pull it off," he said when she'd finished. "We'll be able to convince your family to stop throwing men at you...just as long as we stick stick close together." close together."

Licking her lips, Annie gazed into his eyes, saw the heat there, and knew he'd phrased it that way intentionally.

d.a.m.n, the man knew what he was doing to her. Putting thoughts of sticky nights and sweaty bodies and wild, hot encounters under the stars into her head. Letting her wonder-maybe letting both both of them wonder-if their "act" might not be more convincing if they truly got to know one another...physically...before their trip. of them wonder-if their "act" might not be more convincing if they truly got to know one another...physically...before their trip.

"Well, then," he said, not pus.h.i.+ng the issue, proving, again, that he was a gentleman-or merely possessed of as much self-control as a d.a.m.ned saint, "it's all set. We'll drive up together Sat.u.r.day. We'll have lunch and spend the afternoon at your parents' farm, then that evening we'll go into town for the party at the...what did you call it?"

"The Elks Lodge."

"Ahh. Right. Then we'll spend the night together, and return to Chicago the next afternoon."

Spend the night together. Oh, Lord. There went the heart rate again. Not to mention the puckered nipples and the flood of moisture in her panties. Oh, Lord. There went the heart rate again. Not to mention the puckered nipples and the flood of moisture in her panties.

If the man was going to seduce her, she wished to heaven he'd just get on with it so she could decide whether she was easy enough to say yes after knowing him for only one day.

The little go-getter in her brain, who'd pushed her out the door despite her family's protests, gave a big mental thumbs-up.

She sat up straighter, striving to keep her tone cool and noncommittal. "We'll be spending the night together only inasmuch as we'll be sleeping under the same roof. I'll be much closer to that roof than you, because I'll be in my old bedroom on the third floor under the rafters and you'll undoubtedly be stuck in the spare room on the main floor, as far away from me as my father can possibly put you to make sure no hanky-panky goes on."

He laughed, that s.e.xy, genuinely amused chuckle that sounded so natural when accompanied by the broad, good-humored smile. "Hanky-panky. You mean s.e.x?"

So much for euphemisms. "Right."

"Does that mean you don't don't want to have s.e.x with me?" want to have s.e.x with me?"

Geez, what was the guy, a s.a.d.i.s.t? Bringing it right out in the open like that and throwing responsibility for what would happen next entirely in her lap?

Most guys would do one of two things-tell her he wanted her right now, so they could make this whole lovers facade look a whole lot more realistic, or else avoid that question like the plague, hoping to work her around to the idea over their weekend then suggest a quick game of hide-in-the-haystack.

She didn't give serious consideration to a third option-that, despite what he said, Sean wasn't really really interested in her that way. She knew he was. If physical attraction was a tangible thing, then the two of them would be buried in it up to their elbows. interested in her that way. She knew he was. If physical attraction was a tangible thing, then the two of them would be buried in it up to their elbows.

"Annie? Cat got your tongue?"

Sean was watching her, speculation rolling off him. Expectation, too. Serious expectation.

He was not playing games, merely telling it like it was-wanting her to do the same. Despite feeling put on the spot, she had to admit she liked that about him. A lot. Considering what a liar Blake had been, getting hit with the truth and nothing but the truth from this man was refres.h.i.+ng.

"I won't deny the attraction," she finally murmured, staring into his violet-blue eyes, amazed at how they shone almost purple in the low light of the bar.

He continued to watch her, saying nothing, merely running the tip of his finger around the rim of his gla.s.s. The man had elegant hands-strong but not the rugged, brown outdoorsman hands of the men she knew from home. The idea of him using them on her made her quiver in her seat.

It would be easy-so easy-to tell him she wanted to have s.e.x with him. They could be out of here and back at her place within forty minutes and in her bed three minutes later. Annie had no doubt that the night would be an incredible one. Just watching the slow, deliberate strokes of his fingertip on the gla.s.s reiterated that.

Part of her said she should go for it, that she deserved it after the Blake nightmare. Why on earth shouldn't she grab a s.e.xy fling while she could get it? But another part of her, the bigger part that couldn't get over the guilt and humiliation, would never allow her to do something so reckless. Again Again.

At least he's not married. The whole promise of the bachelor bachelor auction proved that. But otherwise, she knew almost nothing about him, not even where he really lived. And getting involved with someone she didn't know, going even further this time by having wild s.e.x with a near-stranger, was simply out of the question. auction proved that. But otherwise, she knew almost nothing about him, not even where he really lived. And getting involved with someone she didn't know, going even further this time by having wild s.e.x with a near-stranger, was simply out of the question.

Knowing he was still waiting for a real answer to his question, she decided to be as honest as she could. So, meeting his stare, she admitted, "Yes. I'd like to have s.e.x with you." His hand stilled on the gla.s.s, but he said nothing, as if knowing she had more to say.

"But I'm not going to do it. I barely know you and I just don't do the s.e.x-with-strangers thing."

Undeterred, he offered her a c.o.c.ky grin. "So how long does it take until we're not strangers anymore? Second date? Third?"

Men. Typical. But part of her couldn't help but be flattered by his determination. Hiding her amus.e.m.e.nt, she pretended to think about it. "Hmm...third at least."

He nodded, then tapped his index finger in the air, as if doing mental calculations.

"Three's right after two," she said, her tone dry.

He didn't stop. "I know that, ceadsearc ceadsearc. I'm just tryin' to figure out whether we can fit three dates in between now and this Sat.u.r.day."

"It is is only Tuesday," she said, not sure whether to laugh at his playfulness or give in to s.h.i.+vers of delight at his utter determination to only Tuesday," she said, not sure whether to laugh at his playfulness or give in to s.h.i.+vers of delight at his utter determination to have have her. her.

"What about last night? Having a drink together counts."

She shook her head and smiled sweetly. "I didn't have a drink, remember? Miss Double-D didn't offer me one."

He frowned deeply. "Oh, yeah."

"Besides, I don't think a drink would have made the cut as a real date." She was enjoying this-setting him up-though he hadn't realized what she was getting at.

Then he got it. Looking concerned, he asked, "This one counts, right?" one counts, right?"

"Well, I don't know...It's not exactly dinner."