Rule's Seduction (The House of Rule 4)

“Of course not—it’s business between men. Your mother doesn’t have anything to do with it, nor would I want to burden her with the knowledge of it. But love, I see no good in postponing this. Surely you could communicate to her that you were swept off your feet and are, even now, unbelievably happy?”

Unbelievably happy? As he voiced the overly optimistic opinion in that ultra-smooth voice of his, Erin answered, “She’d never fall for that and I’m not sure I could sound convincing.”

He raised a single eyebrow. “No?”

She shook her head.

To her alarm, he once again moved into her personal space. He lifted her wrist and gently but firmly pulled her to the paneled door, where he reached out and locked it. Swinging her around until her spine was flush against the wood, he tipped up her chin. “You want me to help you sound convincing?”

Her breath tripped in her throat. Okay, Erin, you have a plan and you have to stick to it. From this moment on—she’d make him fall in love with her if it was the last thing she did. “H-how would you do that?” She asked, letting the tumultuous emotions she was feeling reflect in her tone.

As her voice cracked, his gaze dropped to her lips and the last remnant of a smile on his face dissolved. His fingers left her chin and trailed down to press against the pulse she knew was probably showing in her throat. As he made the move, she sucked in a breath and when she did, a sudden tension overtook his features.

Wow—that look on his face. Maybe . . . maybe tricking him into falling for her could be easier than she suspected. Her sexual experience was limited, damn it, but she did have a strong female intuition. And it was telling her now that he was the kind of guy who’d get off on taking total care of his woman—his rant earlier about rules and relationships told her as much. Guys like him naturally thought of women as being the weaker sex. Look at him now—reacting to her tiny, feminine response with a display of corded muscles and a sharpened focus that produced a primal look of intent on his face.

Hmmm—he had a lot to learn. Thinking she was weak would be his downfall.

And the beauty of her plan was that she wouldn’t have to contrive anything, because it was a fact that she was nervous and worried. She was apprehensive and still distressed by the unfamiliarity of the situation. And on top of all of that, she couldn’t control the butterflies in her midsection and the heat between her thighs when he touched her—heat that was telling her she wanted to sleep with him again. Yeah, she was experiencing all the womanly things that would make her seem weak to him—and she would use that to manipulate him. Certainly she could go the opposite way. She could straighten her spine and force her chin up and cuss him like a sailor, but that wouldn’t be the smart way. He’d already warned her that animosity wouldn’t work with him. No, she had only one weapon in her arsenal—the fact that he wanted to sleep with her. Thus, he left her little choice. So when he sank his free hand into her hair as his eyes blazed into hers, she fell into helpless, feminine mode with little to no effort on her part.

As he looked down at her, their faces were only inches apart. Abruptly and forcefully, his hips pushed into hers and she felt his erection pressing against her stomach, his belt buckle biting into her skin. A transformation came over his features and his mouth set, his eyes flaring with heat. His gaze dropped to her lips as his nostrils flared, and the memory of what it felt like to have him inside of her grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go.

As he pushed his hips against her, she felt a trickle of awareness multiply into streams of desire. Her breathing grew heavy as his followed suit, matching hers—showing her without a doubt that she affected him sexually, too. As he continued to lean into her, his fingers tightened in her hair as another tremor of heat slid down her spine. The look he gave her turned molten as he said, “I’m human enough to know I should be feeling some extent of guilt for stealing you, but I’m not. You’ve made it extremely easy to forge ahead with my plans from the second I saw you. I’m having no problem imagining taking you to bed—over and over again.”

Heat blossomed between her thighs and she knew that no matter what lay between him and her brothers, it didn’t have anything to do with the raw feelings of lust that volleyed like a powerful aphrodisiac between them. “So you admit it? That you stole me?”