left, that was what he’d be walking out on. If he stayed, that was where they were sure to go. After that, maybe he could do some fast talking, work out a way to see her again for real.
“You’re spending a lot of time thinking, Mr. Douglas,” Ryan purred. “Are we going to do this, or will I have to call the agency and ask for someone else?”
In a flash he rolled and had her beneath him. “Over my dead body.” His mouth was possessive on hers. Marking territory, Ryan thought through a haze of desire.
Cade rolled on his back and stretched one arm out lazily toward a bedpost. In the flickering candlelight his skin looked bronzed, as if from ancient Rome. “You want to tie me up, sugar, you go right ahead.”
5
RYAN PULLED THE LAST silk rope tight around Cade’s wrists and eased herself down to lie on the bed beside him. “What’s it like being tied up? I’ve never done this before. Is it sexy?”
Strange, Cade thought uneasily. Definitely strange, and not something he’d be doing again any time soon. “You seem to have done an efficient job,” he said, testing his bonds. “Were you a Girl Scout?”
“Yes.” She traced patterns over his chest, brushing lightly over his nipples, then leaned over to nibble. “Were you a Boy Scout?”
Cade’s body jolted at the contact. He nodded. “Resourcefulness is my middle name.”
“What was the Boy Scout list of virtues, again?” Ryan began kissing her way down his body, pausing now and again to sample the flavors of his skin. “Cleanliness? Politeness?”
“A Boy Scout is loyal, helpful…” he broke off as she licked him, then let her hair brush over his chest until every nerve ending shivered at attention.
“Go on,” she prompted, stroking her hands along his sides.
“Mmm, friendly…courteous…” She was driving him crazy, he thought, just as she’d wanted to. The soft, cool stroke of her hands, the warmth of her mouth, it was all pushing his control to the limit. “Kind…obedient…”
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, tracing his hip with the tip of her tongue.
“Cheerful…thrifty…” Cade took a shuddering breath as she drew closer to where the hard length of him trembled. “Uh, brave…clean…” he managed in a strangled voice as she put her mouth on him. “Reverent…trustworthy,” he groaned. He started to reach for her and found his hands stopped by the rope. Then the heat of her mouth went away.
“Trustworthy. Honest. Yeah, that’s the one I want.” Ryan rose up suddenly and stepped off the bed. “You didn’t learn that one so well, did you Mr. Douglas? Assuming that’s your real name, of course. I already know this isn’t your real career.”
Busted. It flashed through him. Reflexively he tried to sit up, and was faced with the inescapable fact that he was trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. This was not good, he thought. Not good at all.
“I can explain.” God, what a lame response, he thought disgustedly.
“Oh, I certainly hope so.” Ryan pulled a chair up to the side of the bed. “I’m dying to hear this one. Wait,” she stopped him when he started to talk. “Let me get my wine.”
She took her time coming back to the chair. Cade knew it was to annoy him, and she succeeded. It infuriated him to be so helpless. It was even more irritating to know that he probably deserved whatever she could dish out to him. She draped herself over the chair, and it annoyed him even more that he still wanted her.
“You planned this, of course,” he said calmly. “I wondered why the sudden change in location. The Copley Hotel doesn’t have any four-posters. And you played the fantasy thing brilliantly. You tricked me and I walked right into it.”
“Well, you tricked me into bed,” she shot back at him. “I don’t see the difference.”
“You had a choice.”
“So did you.”
Cade shook his head. “I didn’t know what was going on at first. It isn’t every day that a gorgeous woman comes by to pick you up, even if it is an accident. It wasn’t until we got upstairs that I realized what was really going on.”
“You thought I was a pickup?” She’d thought she was angry before, but now she was livid.
“What did you expect? You walk up to me unexpectedly, you ask me upstairs. What am I supposed to think? You caught me in a mood to take a chance. I know it was stupid but I wanted to be with you.” He blew a breath out in frustration. “I tried to get out of it when I realized what was going on. You wouldn’t let me.”
“You didn’t try very hard.”
“I wanted you. Is that a crime?” His eyes blazed at her. “You were ready to happily jump into bed with a guy who sleeps with people for money, but you’re pissed off that I slept with you because I wanted you.”
“No, I’m pissed off because you lied to me.” She sprang up from the chair and paced across the carpet. “I liked you. I thought we clicked. It could have stayed that way if you’d been honest with me.”
Cade snorted. “If I’d been honest with you, you’d have said goodbye and gone looking for your hustler and we would never have said another word to each other.”
He was right, she thought. But he’d still been out of line. “It never occurred to you to try to set the record straight?”
“Of course it did,” he said impatiently, then closed his eyes and shook his head. “From the minute I figured out what was going on I was trying to find a way out that would let me set things straight and still keep this going.”
“‘This’ meaning the sex, of course,” she said frostily.
“This meaning being with you. And yes, the sex—it’s not like we’ve spent a lot of time talking politics or philosophy. But what we had together felt pretty damned good, and at the time I wanted it to keep going more than I wanted to come clean. I came over here tonight thinking I’d tell you everything. Until you answered the door looking like that.” He stopped for a moment. “I’m not proud of it, but there it is.”
She stared into his eyes, softening. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to be with him, to feel the way she had that morning. If only… Her breath huffed out in frustration. In all honesty she was as bad as he was, searching for a justification for keeping it going instead of recognizing it for what it was and letting it go.
Cade raised his head and looked at her. “You’ve obviously been planning this ever since you found out today. So what happens now? Please, fill me in. I’m all tied up in knots over it,” he finished sarcastically.
Ryan looked at him stretched out on the bed, his skin gleaming copper-colored in the candlelight. Heat flared in her blood, driven this time not by anger but by passion. “Well, it looks to me like I have you at my mercy.” She rose to lean over the bed and brush a palm over the smooth, hard lines of his belly. “Your punishment is that I get to amuse myself with your body until I’m ready to let you go.”
Standing,
