She put her hands behind her back and started lowering the zipper of her sundress without waiting for him to leave. Stephen swallowed as he watched the fabric loosen around her breasts. He took an instinctive step forward and Tasha tilted her head in question, her heart starting to pound in anticipation. “Or is that enough record breaking for one day?”
He stilled, then turned and disappeared down the stairs without a word. Tasha held in her disappointment, letting her dress pool around her ankles. She understood his hesitation. The situation was new and neither one of them knew how to behave. She was feeling it too. Along with all the old vulnerability she’d suffered after their initial short-lived relationship.
God, she’d been crazy for him then. Crazy and terrified that he’d realize what she’d known after their first night together—that she didn’t fit into the future he was mapping out for himself. He wanted to change the world. Wanted to redeem himself and make a difference. First law, then politics. His professors had already introduced him to influential people who could see the potential in the charismatic college student with the made-for-television biography. Local delinquent with deep roots in the community makes good. Solid family background, handsome face, sharp mind…Stephen Finn was a star on the rise.
Tasha knew how it would end before it had even begun. A reformed bad boy politician was sexy. The addition of an unrepentant bad girl on his arm wasn’t as marketable. Especially when that girl’s family tree had more than a few questionable apples.
They never would have lasted. She was too impulsive, too much of a lightning rod to be the kind of woman he needed at his side. If she’d stayed long enough for him to see that, maybe even resent her for it, she would have been asking for heartbreak. So she’d hidden her feelings away and taken the out he’d offered. Friends with benefits. Or more accurately, acquaintances with occasional, secret perks.
Secret was the word of the day.
It was the elephant in the room they were going to have to deal with before the party. Hiding their attraction in public had become a deeply ingrained habit for both of them. For this pretense to work they’d have to set aside years of restraint and be natural with each other. Be lovers.
Lovers knew each other’s body language and moods, a million little things that a man like Burke would notice if he was looking. The kind of lovers Stephen was expecting them to be required a level of intimacy and trust they didn’t have with each other. Tasha knew exactly how to swivel her hips to take him to the edge in seconds and Stephen knew that all he had to do was touch her to set her off—but that wasn’t enough. Not for this.
They weren’t going into this as strangers, which was a plus. They had more chemistry than they knew what to do with and a lifetime of Finn family gatherings to draw from. But they only had tonight to get their stories straight and get physically comfortable enough that they didn’t tense up every time their hands touched.
It was a tough job, but somebody had to do him.
It. Somebody had to do it.
Chapter Four
Tasha slipped on her shorts and the soft jersey she’d had since high school, glancing at herself in the mirror above the dresser. Her unconfined breasts strained against the worn fabric but she made no effort to slouch or conceal them. She was proud of her curves and the effect they had on men. She took in her wild curls and the heritage visible in her features. As her grandmother was fond of saying, she’d gotten all the best parts of the mix. A Puerto Rican-Irish goddess of color with green eyes and golden brown skin.
She was used to her body turning heads. On the street and at the club, men saw her and thought about sex. Jeremy called it the “Jessica Rabbit Effect”. He said it was her proportions. Large breasts and a round backside combined with a narrow waist was—artistically speaking—the golden ratio of brick-house-hotness.
Tasha smiled. Of course, Jeremy wasn’t particularly objective and, according to all the latest fashion magazines, he was also completely wrong. Bigger behinds were back in style this season, but that wouldn’t last and she couldn’t care less. Whatever the trend, she was who she was, without diet or artifice. What you couldn’t change, you had to embrace. Getting people to pay attention to her other qualities—especially after they learned about her extra-curricular activities at the club—was always the real challenge.
Those normal preconceptions would help with her upcoming role. Burke would see exactly what he needed to—that she was nothing like the women Senator Finn took to grand openings or museum fundraisers. The pale, slender waifs who ran mega-charities or opened hospitals in impoverished villages in Africa. The actresses with porcelain skin who had three degrees and a shelf full of awards and still managed to donate half their salaries to helping the homeless relocate to energy efficient, vegan-approved housing that was completely recyclable.