The Seduction Game

“So Daniel Craig is the hottest Bond ever?” he whispered across to her, making sure he was close enough for his breath to tickle her neck.

She pushed her glasses up her nose and picked at an imaginary spot on her tee shirt. “It’s, erm, a very good film. I have it on Blu-ray.”

“The cinematography is very good. Very inspired.”

At that point the girl moved in Bond’s arms. Kate swallowed visibly before speaking, so quickly Will had to lean in even closer to catch everything she was saying. “You know Bond has killed more than three hundred people. I mean, that’s not many if you compare it to what might happen in Grand Theft, but it’s quite a few. And in Skyfall they used like two hundred thousand rounds of ammunition just practicing. And then in…”

Will halted her frantic words by placing a finger under her trembling chin and turning her head so that their gazes locked. “And how many women has he slept with? In all the films, I mean?”

Kate bit down on her lip. Christ, he wanted to be the one doing that.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “A lot, I guess.”

Carefully, he cupped her jaw, his hand covering almost her entire face and nudging the side of her glasses. She reached up to push them back in place but Will beat her to it. He ran his finger down her stubborn little nose and along her cheek. Her skin was hot beneath his, flushed. Will almost groaned envisioning what the rest of her would feel like. Her lithe legs, the slight curve of her hips, the breasts that teased him against the flimsy fabric of her tee shirt.

“Will…” The word was whispered and really it was more that he saw her lips move than anything else but his name falling from them, the look in her eyes…in that moment Will knew with a deep certainty that he was going to bed Kate, and he was going to do it not because it would get him what he wanted, or make up for all the shit she’d been put through, but because there was simply no way that he couldn’t.

She was sweet, and funny, and cute, but above all, she was downright sexy. Her pretty face, her body, her gestures, it all combined into something that teenage wet dreams were made of, and though Will was no longer a teenager, he’d felt like one from the moment he’d walked through the door of K.I.T.—that damn theme song sounding in his ears.

Decision made, he leaned forward, fully intending to kiss her, to move this game of theirs to the next level. Her lips were faintly parted, the familiar color spreading, and he could hear her breath hitching. Wanting to savor the moment, to experience every last second, Will tilted her head and moved in slowly, but before he had the chance to make their lips meet, Kate was moving back and hurrying across the room.

“We need to go.”

The abrupt shift in their positions made Will’s head spin. His hand felt cold and he paused, his dick stiff in his pants, desire thrumming in his belly, trying to work out exactly what she was doing, thinking. But she avoided eye contact, shifted on one foot, and then before he could say a single word she headed straight out the door, her ponytail dancing behind her.

…

“Kate, wait!”

Will’s voice rang in her ears as Kate practically sprinted to the front door. Her heart was racing, her skin tingling all over, and on top of that she had never felt like more of a dork. Will Thornton had been about to kiss her. Kate was absolutely positive of it, and more than that she had been about to let him. If not for Daniel Craig…

She cringed as she yanked the front door open. She was a grown-up, for frak’s sake! She should be able to watch two people getting down and dirty on the flat screen without feeling like a complete freak. But, if she’d been on her own, Kate would probably have given Daniel Craig a nod to his hotness and waited for the scene to finish. It wouldn’t have made her feel so painfully embarrassed.

It’s because of the Borg king! Because you wanted him to kiss you.

Kate almost groaned as the door swung open to its fullest arc. She needed to get home. To sit down with Meg in her little store and forget, for a few minutes at least, that Will Thornton was probably now thinking she was some sort of oddball. How many women ran away from him when he tried to kiss them? How many blushed like a teenager because of a sex scene on the goddamn television?

Not many, Katie, not many.

Head down, shame burning through her, Kate dashed over to the truck. Once there, she looked around, and only then did it occur to her that Will was going to have to drive her home. She had no idea where she was.

“Kate, hold up.”

He shot into view, stopping abruptly right in front of her. His face was scrunched in a frown, but he wasn’t angry; if anything, he just seemed confused. Kate took an unsteady breath and realized right then that she had two options. She could come up with some sort of excuse to get home by herself—and it probably wouldn’t be a very believable one—or she could brazen the whole thing out. Pretend the “Skyfall situation,” as she was now mentally calling it, had never happened.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You dashed out of there pretty quickly.”

Focus, focus, focus. “I’m fine,” Kate said, pasting the brightest smile on her face that she possibly could. “Thank you for today,” she added when he opened his mouth to speak. “It’s given me a lot to think about. I really do need to get going though, so yeah, erm, thanks.”

“It was my pleasure.”

Why did Will’s voice seem to deepen around the last word? Was she imagining it? Had she imagined the Skyfall situation? Had Will really been moving in for a kiss or was it a case of wishful thinking? Kate shifted on the spot, mind racing, and gestured to the truck. “Erm, well, I better get on and do some work. I’ve got loads to do.”

Will stepped forward, a smile playing around his lips. Kate could see it quite clearly because she was looking right at them, had thought perhaps it would be easier than making eye contact.

He was going to kiss me with those lips.

She stepped back automatically. Will’s smile widened. “It’s too hot to work,” he said softly. “Why don’t you let me take you to dinner instead? Neither of us ate lunch.”

Kate shook her head, still refusing to meet his eyes. “I’ve taken up enough of your time today. It’s fine, I’m going to take my laptop down to the park. Work outside for a bit. I do it all the time.”

“How far away is the park?”

“To walk? Twenty minutes or so,” she said, and then on a note of inspiration, “in fact, if you give me the general direction of where we are I can probably walk from here.”

“But you don’t have your laptop.”

Heat crawled up Kate’s neck and this time she couldn’t help herself. She reached up to rub it and was unsurprised to find beads of moisture there. She was feeling the heat, not just metaphorically, but physically, too.

“I can pick it up on my way.”

Will stepped forward. “Let me drive you.”

She took a step back. “I like to walk, Will. It’s refreshing.”

“But it’s getting late, and your area isn’t the safest to be walking around in.”

It was mid-afternoon. There were hours and hours of daylight yet. What was Will doing? Why was he pushing this? What was he thinking? Never before had Kate wished for mind-reading superpowers. She would give anything to know what was running through Will’s mind, anything. “I’ve managed to survive so far down there without any issues,” she finally said. “And this is weird.”