Cliff told me I was your bribe to get his sister here, I was flattered beyond words.”
Bribe? Sabrina clenched her fists. Fury blurred her vision. Cliff used this blonde to bribe Noah to take her out? Now, here he was, like some hormonal teen, hanging out with the bimbo, while still on their date? Who did he think he was?
She straightened. Why was she upset? The bimbo could have him. They were probably made for each other. Noah Banks was the last man Sabrina needed.
She turned and stormed down the hall. To think she’d imagined herself falling for him. How childish she’d been. Well, today she was twenty-five, old enough to put away her foolish fantasies. Maybe she’d never find Mr. Right, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t start living.
NOAH STOOD beside open French doors, and tossed back a long swallow of beer. Darcy leaned into him, continuing her one-sided conversation. He’d suggested they join the party at the first opportunity. His breath had come easier once they reached the bright lights, calypso music and festive atmosphere of the open great room.
He’d gone to Cliff’s study to let him know he wasn’t interested in meeting Darcy. It didn’t seem right now that he’d met Sabrina. Unfortunately, Darcy had followed him and made the introduction herself.
Sabrina’s lyrical laughter rose above the friendly ruckus. Straining, he glimpsed her through a crowd of men gathered around her. His gut tightened. The woman was an accomplished flirt. She had no right being a virgin.
Darcy rubbed against him. “Maybe we should slip away.” She nodded toward Sabrina. “Your ‘date’ would hardly notice.”
Gritting his teeth, he straightened away from her. “I should see that she has a ride home.”
“Darling, really, I don’t think you need to worry about her. Let’s go to my place. It isn’t far.”
He faced the woman Cliff had dangled before him like a carrot. Somehow, her appeal had lessened. Her curves remained in all the right places and proportions, but his enthusiasm had evaporated.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to check on Sabrina.” As Darcy stared at him with wide eyes, he turned, then headed across the room. He had brought Sabrina. In spite of their less than perfect start, she was his date. Common courtesy demanded he attempt to socialize with her. He squared his shoulders and moved through the crowd.
SABRINA LOWERED HER GAZE and smiled. She wasn’t a bad flirt, after all. Pete and the half-dozen other single men around her all stared in rapt attention. Unlike Noah, they responded well to her candid glances and suggestive body language. With a gentle touch here, a smile there, she’d included each one in the conversation.
“Okay, who can answer this?” She leaned forward and they moved as one, shifting in, tightening the circle.
With deliberate motions, she lifted her wine cooler to her lips and emptied the bottle, then she eyed them one by one and smiled. A thrill shot through her. For once in her life she felt desirable. “What is your favorite means of seduction?”
“Seduction?” Pete blinked his hazel eyes.
“Mmm-hmm.” She focused on him. “If a woman were to seduce you, how would you want her to go about it?”
“Well…” His gaze swept over her. “She’d wear something soft and sexy—”
“Something that showed off her breasts,” said the redhead beside him.
“One of those teddy things,” another added.
“No.” Pete touched her hand. “It isn’t what she wears.”
“Right.” Brendan, her brother’s accountant, leaned forward. “It’s the way a woman kisses that really turns me on.”
“Yeah.”
“Right.”
“Oh?” Sabrina turned to Brendan. “How so?”
He grinned. “You know, she starts slow, with her lips—”
“No,” one of Cliff’s friends to her left interrupted. “I want her whole mouth—”
“With a full body meld,” the redhead added. A movement behind him caught her eye. Her heart skipped a beat. Noah pushed through the crowd toward them.
The irrational need to prove her desirability to him rose in her. She cast a look around the group. “Maybe one of you should show me.”
“Right.”
“Yeah.”
“Cliff won’t like it.”
“True.”
“What about that big guy you came with?”
As one, the circle fell back.
Sabrina spread her hands in appeal. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“Your brother’s got a temper.”
“Your date didn’t look too congenial, either.”
“Yeah, why can’t he show you?”
Noah loomed closer. Sabrina bit her lip. She laid her empty bottle on the coffee table. “Let’s see which one of you shows me.” With a flick of her wrist, she spun the bottle.
Pete dove to the left. Brendan dodged to the right. The redhead flung himself over the back of the couch, out of the bottle’s range. Sabrina pursed her lips. So much for feeling desirable.
The bottle rotated to a stop. She swallowed as her gaze traveled up the corded thighs and broad chest of the glowering figure standing before her. Dismay filled her. “Well, Noah,” she said, “looks like you win.”
4
NOAH’S ATTENTION SWEPT over Sabrina’s scattered admirers. What had gotten into them? The lot looked as though they’d escaped a stint on death row. “Win what?”
“There.” A guy with red hair peeked over the back of the couch. “I told you he should be the one to show you.”
“Show you what?” Noah demanded.
A devilish spark lit Sabrina’s eye. She stood, then moved around the coffee table, stopping inches from him. “We were discussing the most effective means of seduction.”
Noah narrowed his eyes. An irrational anger swelled in him. “The hell you were.”
“Oh yes.” She leaned toward him. Her palm grazed his chest. His pulse kicked into gear. “The consensus seems to be that it’s all in the kiss.”
“Kiss?”
“That’s right, but not everyone agreed on what constituted the sexiest kiss, so I thought someone should show me.” Her glance fell to the table. “And I let the bottle decide who that someone would be.”
He
