His Best Friend's Wife (Bachelor Best Friends 2)

“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” Ann said, sticking her head through the doorway with a grin, “but sounds to me like you should go, Renae.”

“See? It’s unanimous,” Cathy laughed. “Even your boss is ordering you to go.”

Releasing a sigh, Renae plucked her purse from Cathy’s hands. “Fine. I’ll go. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Who was she to argue when everyone in her office thought she should go?

* * *

Evan was almost smiling when he opened his door to her a short time later. “It’s always a surprise when you show up,” he admitted in lieu of greeting.

She poked him with a finger, pushing him backward a couple steps. “It wasn’t my idea for me to come here tonight,” she informed him.

Something about her recklessly challenging tone seemed to startle him. “It wasn’t?”

She tossed her bag on a chair. “No.”

“Then, um, whose idea was it?”

“Apparently it was unanimous.” Advancing toward him, she placed her hands on his shoulders, her eyes narrowed on his face. “Everyone at work seems to think I need to, um, have fun, as they so delicately phrased it.”

His mouth twitched with a grin he must have known better than to release just then. “And are you having fun now?”

She started unfastening the buttons of his blue shirt. “I’m about to be.”

His hands settled on the curves of her hips. He cleared his throat, but his voice was still husky when he said, “I thought maybe we could talk some this evening.”

“Talking is not fun.” She spread his shirt and let her hands wander across his broad, sleek chest. His skin was so warm. She could already imagine it against her own, and the image took her breath away.

She rose on tiptoes and caught his lower lip between her teeth for a light nip. “Are you sure you want to talk?” she murmured against his mouth.

A distant part of her mind marveled at her behavior. This wasn’t like her—or hadn’t been like her for a very long time. Flirtatious,

seductive, a little mischievous. It was a part of herself she had put away years ago. Who’d have thought Evan Daugherty would bring it out again?

He hesitated only a moment, until she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself more snugly against him. A low groan escaped him then, a sound she found immensely satisfying. He reached down, swept an arm behind her knees and lifted her into his arms. She laughed and clutched at his shoulders in surprise and pleasure.

She hadn’t seen Evan’s playful side in the past few weeks, either. The man she was getting to know now was much more serious and pensive than the footloose young man she had known so briefly before.

Time and experience had changed them both—but still they were drawn together. The guy was still a walking heartache, she had no doubt of that. She wouldn’t let herself mistake lust and infatuation for anything more lasting or life-altering. But for tonight, at least, she would take advantage of this rare hour or so away from her responsibilities and...well, have fun. Just as her coworkers had advised her.

Evan dropped her on his bed, and she landed with a bounce and a breathless laugh. Reaching up, she caught his open shirt and pulled him down on top of her. Shoes landed on the floor beside the bed with muffled thumps. Their mouths fused in deep, hungry kisses. They fumbled with zippers and hems and pushed fabric away to reveal flushed, dampening skin. Legs tangled, hands roamed and grasped, mouths sought, explored, tasted. Renae arched off the bed with a gasp when Evan tugged an aching nipple lightly between his teeth, then soothed it with a leisurely stroke of his tongue.

Her hands tangled in his hair, fingers tightening when he nibbled his way down her body. His fingers dug lightly into her upper thighs, bending her knee and lifting her leg around him. She bowed off the mattress with a strangled cry when he took another little nip, and heard him laugh roughly in response.

Spurred into competition, she tugged at him, pushed at him until he lay on his back beside her and she could loom over him. She nipped at his jaw, stroked a fingertip slowly down his body from his sternum to circle his shallow navel, then traced a line even lower. Now it was Evan who squirmed and moaned, and she who laughed breathlessly...until he silenced that laughter with a coherence-shattering kiss.

By the time he donned protection and thrust into her, playfulness had changed to burning, almost-desperate need. They found that satisfaction together, their soft cries harmonizing perfectly in the darkening bedroom.

Chapter Six

“Well?”

Renae drew a long, deep breath, settling her pulse rate before she spoke. “Well, what?”

“Was it fun?”

She was surprised into a quick laugh. “Yes, I suppose it was.”