3
KYRA WONDERED if Jesse Chandler normally gawked at women who slid the names of erotic body parts into casual conversation.
He was definitely gawking right now as he stared at her with his perfect mouth hanging wide-open. Or at least he was until he edged out a strained “The hell you will.”
Plucking the tiny ornament out of her hand, Jesse slapped it back on the velvet-covered melon crate.
“Excuse me?” Kyra stared him down, more than ready for a serious face-off with this man.
It had required major effort to edge the word “nipple” from her mouth. Kyra could discuss the particulars of animal husbandry at the drop of a hat, but somehow a nipple reference in regard to her own body struck her as rather risqué. Nevertheless, the effort had been well worth it considering she had Jesse’s full attention now.
Or else the body part in question had his full attention. He stared at her blouse as if he could envision the tiny silver loop locked around the peak of her breast.
“This isn’t working,” he growled in one ear as he propelled her away from the jewelry vendor’s display and back into the swell of the crowd. “We’re getting out of here.”
“Fine by me,” Kyra shot back over her shoulder as they edged past a Gasparilla reveler wearing a skull mask and a cape decorated in shiny white bones. She backed up a step to avoid the man, effectively plastering herself against Jesse’s chest. The hard strength of his body taunted her with sensual visions of their limbs intertwined, taut muscle to smooth skin. “That’s all the sooner I can take you home and have my way with you, ye scurvy knave.”
She felt his body stir behind her a split second before he nudged her forward again. “We’ll see who’s having their way with whom.”
The strangled rasp of his voice weakened the power of his threat. Kyra smiled her satisfaction as they wound their way past a man on stilts selling eye patches and bandannas.
“Whatever would you want from me if you could have your way, Jesse Chandler?” She glanced over her shoulder to find herself eye-level with a rock-solid jaw and forbidding frown.
“Friendship of the platonic variety. And a promise never to wear leather again.”
“The corset is working, isn’t it?” She mentally applauded the Gasparilla costumer for hooking her up with the sex-goddess pirate outfit.
As they hit the next crossroad to Bayshore Boulevard, Jesse steered her away from the festival toward the city. In the background, Kyra could hear the marching bands in the distance as the pirate parade charged toward the convention center.
“Is it working to turn every bug-eyed male head within a five-mile radius? Yes. Is it working for the preposterous purpose of sacrificing our friendship for a few hours of great sex? Not a chance in hell.” He guided her through gridlocked downtown traffic toward his motorcycle parked sideways on the street between two pickup trucks.
She’d ridden into Tampa with a neighbor, so it wasn’t like she minded being given a ride home. Still, she didn’t appreciate being hauled around by a man who wasn’t willing to bend an inch.
Jerking to a stop by his Harley, she tried not to be discouraged as he handed her a helmet—the spare he always carried in case some brazen female talked her way into a ride. Or more.
Why couldn’t she be that woman today?
“You think I’d forfeit our solid working relationship for amazing sex? Come on, Jesse. You know me better than that.” She strapped the helmet under her chin. She didn’t mind leaving Gasparilla if it meant time alone with Jesse to persuade him of her cause.
Besides, the idea of straddling his bike—and him—while clad in fishnets and a miniskirt was making her seriously hot and bothered.
Swinging one leg over the bike, Kyra gave Jesse a clear view of inner thigh, stopping just short of flashing him. A girl needed to keep some sense of mystery intact. “And you seem to be forgetting that you’re not in charge here today. Leaving the festival grounds doesn’t mean you stop being my prisoner, and as long as I’m calling the shots, you’re going to have to please me.”
She patted the leather seat in front of her. “Now why don’t you give me that ride I’ve been wanting?”
* * *
THE SEXUAL IMPLICATION of Kyra’s words echoed through Jesse’s mind as he maneuvered the motorcycle around a tight turn just before the sign for Crooked Branch Farm. He was sweating bullets after the hour-long ride back to the ranch, which spread along the Crystal River in Citrus County.
Kyra’s thighs hugged his hips while her sweet, sunny scent teased his nose. Her arms wrapped around his waist, pressing her breasts into his back. And he couldn’t even think about that other part of her that grazed his jeans. Her short skirt provided intimate exposure for the pink lace panties he’d spied when she first straddled his bike.
Now all he could think about were those ultrafeminine undergarments and what it might be like to peel them from Kyra’s body.
Her invitation to take her for a ride had paralyzed him for a heart-pounding five seconds. Jesse had zero experience turning down those kinds of invitations. Having realized at an early age that he was too restless to settle down, too much like his old man to tie himself to any one woman, Jesse had carefully constructed a reputation for himself as a player. With that legend-in-his-own-time aura preceding him, no woman would ever be surprised by his lack of commitment.
And in turn, he’d never disappoint anyone.
But the strategy that had worked like a charm for ten years was unraveling in a big way. First, Greta staunchly ignored all the hype about him and—according to what she’d told him earlier this afternoon—she’d sold her Miami Beach condo for an apartment in Tampa.
Now Kyra was suggesting a fling he couldn’t afford to take any part in.
No matter how much his body screamed at him otherwise.
Bringing the bike to a stop a few feet from Kyra’s long, low-slung ranch house, Jesse willed away all provocative thoughts as he disengaged himself from her. He needed a cool head to talk her out of the big mistake she seemed determined to make.
She slid from the bike with the fluid movements of a woman who’d ridden horses all her life. Odd that he’d never noticed the quiet grace and strength about her before.
“Come on inside and I’ll get you a drink,” she offered, slipping her helmet from her head to place it gently on the seat.
Jesse stared in her wake as she sauntered up the flagstone path toward the front door, her lace-up boots clicking a follow-me tempo. He’d been too caught up in her new subtle politeness to ride off into the sunset on his bike while he had the chance.
Shit.
How could he just leave without even saying goodbye? He found his feet trailing after her before his mind consciously made the decision to go inside the house.
She’d left the door open wide into the cool, sprawling home he’d helped her build on a patch of the Crooked Branch property five years ago. The mishmash of Spanish influenced stucco archways, miniature Italian courtyards and contemporary architecture had been the first house he’d ever custom-designed from scratch and he continued to be proud of it in the years since his skills had improved tenfold. The house was so uniquely suited to Kyra he couldn’t picture anyone else ever living here.
He’d always felt at home here before. Today he had the impression of a fly venturing farther into a silken, sweetly scented web.
One quick goodbye and he was out of here.
“Kyra?” He didn’t see her right away as his eyes adjusted to the dimmer lighting indoors. The sound of the refrigerator door thudding shut called him toward the kitchen.
She stood at the triangular island in the center of the room, tipping a longneck bottle of Mexican beer to her lips. A few damp tendrils of blond hair clung to her neck from the warmth of the day.
He’d worked side-by-side with her for years and not once had the sight of perspiration on her forehead turned him on. Was he so freaking shallow that all she had to do was slide into fishnet hose to make him start salivating?
Before he could fully form and analyze a response to that question—let alone say goodbye—Kyra set her beer on the kitchen counter with a clang.
Foam rose up in the throat of the bottle to bubble over onto the granite surface around her sink, but Jesse was too mesmerized by the sight of her strutting into the hallway to do anything about it.
Something about the take-no-shit attitude of her walk told him she meant business. He’d seen that determined stride of hers before when she was dealing with shifty horse sellers or uncooperative studs.
And he had the feeling he wasn’t going to fare any better against the will of this woman than the men who’d been forced to give her a good price on her horses or the studs who procreated when and where she wanted them to.
As a matter of fact, he felt his own desire to play stud rising to the surface in a hurry.
“Kyra, I don’t think—” was as much as he managed before she came toe-to-toe with him in the hall lit with flickering electric sconces intended to look like candles along both walls.
Jesse didn’t realize he was backing up until his butt connected with the stucco wall behind him. Her hands materialized on his chest as if to hold him in place.
He could see the rapid rise and fall of her chest half-exposed by her low-cut white blouse. His gaze seemed stuck on that creamy white flesh no matter how desperately his brain sought to unglue his eyes.
But then his brain had a full-time job simply willing his hands to ignore the overwhelming temptation to touch Kyra.
When her lips touched his, he lost the battle.
Sensation exploded through him at the brush of her soft mouth. There was a sweet taste to her that even the beer couldn’t hide, and he drank her in like water, swirling his tongue with hers in an effort to savor every nuance.
His hand moved to her shoulder, powerless to remain immobile any longer. He molded the delicate skin of her collarbone, his thumb dipping down to the gentle swell of her breast above the neckline of her blouse.
And then it was as if someone had tossed gasoline on the fire of his want for her. Heat exploded inside him in time with that touch, burning through him with a fierce desire to scoop her up and walk her into the bedroom he knew was at the back of the house.
He could only think about laying her down and unfastening the laces that held the leather garment together. About seeing the perfect breasts she’d been hiding from him her whole life.
She moaned low in her throat as she edged her way closer to him, settling those delectable breasts against the insubstantial cotton of his tank shirt. The beaded peaks rasping over his chest tantalized him to touch.
To taste.
It’s just a kiss. He repeated the lie over and over again in his mind, needing to give himself permission to hold her, to indulge this fantasy come to life for just a few minutes.
Her sunny scent wrapped around him with renewed strength as their body temperatures soared. The stucco wall scraped into his back, a discomfort he barely acknowledged while in counterpoint to the lush softness of Kyra plastered to his front.
Soft blond hair tickled his arm where it wrapped around her back, teased his nose when he bent to kiss her neck and taste her warm skin.
“Jesse,” she sighed as she tipped her head back, granting him free rein over her body.
He smoothed a hand down her arm and over her hip as he kissed her neck down to one shoulder. The feel of the leather corset in his hand called him back to the place where a neat bow held her outfit together.
If this was just a kiss, he wouldn’t go there.
If this was just a kiss, he’d sure as hell never untie those ribbon-thin leather straps and free the breasts he wanted so damn badly.
But with the encouragement of her hips wriggling against his own, Jesse tugged one end of the bow until the laces slid free. He told himself he would be content just to look. One glimpse of those breasts and he was out of here.
Then his gaze connected with Kyra’s in the moody, flickering hallway light. Perhaps his intentions were written in some small facet of his expression because she grabbed one of his hands and laid it to rest on her breast, catapulting him into major meltdown mode. The peaked nipple lined up perfectly between his thumb and forefinger as if to beg for his touch.
“Come with me,” she whispered, never releasing his hand as she backed up a step.
Oh, how he wanted to.
He wanted nothing better than to come with her about ten times before morning. To make her hot, wet and mindless for him.
But to take advantage of Kyra’s momentary lapse of judgment would be the equivalent of hurting her, sooner or later. Besides, he could somehow still believe himself redeemable if he didn’t seduce his own best friend.
Hissing a sigh between his teeth, he had to face up to that fact. “I can’t do this.”
Of all the rules he’d broken in his life, Kyra Stafford was one line he had promised himself he would never, ever cross.
* * *
THE FINISH LINE loomed ten feet away in the form of her bedroom, but Kyra sensed she wouldn’t be clearing that threshold soon enough.
Jesse obviously possessed powers of restraint foreign to her if he could stop himself in the midst of the conflagration that had been going on between them. Either that or those kisses hadn’t affected him nearly as much as they were affecting her.
The thought daunted her in spite of the molten heat churning through her veins and the tingly alertness of every square inch of her skin. But damn it, if she didn’t press her case now, she knew she’d never have another chance. Once Jesse quit helping her out around the Crooked Branch two weeks from now, she wouldn’t even see him as much let alone have an excuse to indulge in sexy captive scenarios with him.
If she was ever going to live out her fantasy with him—or have an opportunity to get over his sexy self for good—Kyra needed to act now.
“You can’t?” Kyra forced her breathing to some semblance of normal and scavenged for a teasing smile as she hoisted her corset back into place. “You say that as if you had some choice in the matter.”
Jesse scrubbed a hand through his too-long dark hair, his gaze straying encouragingly often to Kyra’s leather outfit. “It’s the right choice and you know it.”
“I know no such thing. I left the festival with you because I thought you understood what I expected.” Had she been so wrong to think maybe they’d end up together after he’d hauled her out of Gasparilla for mentioning nipple rings? She tugged the laces tighter on her pirate garb. “You can’t just quit the game now that we’re out of Tampa.”
“The hell I can’t.” He turned his back on her while she tied the leather straps into a bow. Squeezing his temples with the thumb and forefinger of one hand, he stepped out of the hallway and into the wide-open courtyard behind the living room.
“Spoilsport,” she called after him, removing her boots as she followed him out into the late-afternoon sunshine spilling across the terracotta tiles. He sat on top of a teakwood table facing a simple marble birdbath fountain in the center of the courtyard. “Maybe you ought to take me back to the festival so I can find someone more willing.”
She leaned against the table he sat on, giving her a rare opportunity to be nearly eye-to-eye with a man half a foot taller than her.
“You’re going nowhere today even if I have to lock you in the house to make sure of that.”
She smoothed one of the leather straps to her corset between two fingers. “Why not just tie me to my bedpost instead?”
He opened his mouth to speak and snapped it shut again. He swallowed. Flexed his jaw as if grinding his teeth. Then pointed a finger in her face. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“So show me.” He’d been with more women than she could count. Would it kill him to indulge her for a day? Maybe two? She edged her way closer to stand between his knees. “Especially since you robbed me of the chance to abduct a more fun captive.”
Trailing a hand over his thigh, Kyra absorbed the heat of him through her fingers. The bristly hair of his leg lightly scratched over her palm.
“You’ve temporarily lost your mind, woman.” Jesse imprisoned her wandering hand just as she reached his shorts. “What else would you have me do?”
As he held her there, immobile but far from powerless, Kyra could see the quick pulse in his neck, feel the tension in his body.
She insinuated herself farther into the vee of his thighs, their bodies a scant inch from touching. Leaning close, she whispered in his ear.
“I think I’d have you barter sexual favors for your freedom.”