When Staci Takes Charge (Leave Your Shoes On 2)

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Her cheeks were rosy—from the weather, he figured. Though he preferred to think the splash of color against her smooth, porcelain skin was more the result of being in his tight embrace, her hand still on his chest while her other arm was wrapped around him, her palm flat against his back.

She wore crimson-colored gloss on her tempting lips and her shallow breath was laced with spearmint. A crisp scent to complement the lilac fragrance clinging to her skin.

He had the insane urge to kiss her. Christ, all he had to do was back her up a couple of feet and he’d hold her captive between the wall and his body. An all-too-tempting prospect.

Still somewhat winded, her firm breasts rose and fell just below his pecs. As though excitement hummed through her veins.

Did it?

For that matter, did she have any idea how aroused he was? How thoroughly hypnotized? Because of her.

Alex had no idea. Lola didn’t offer any nonverbal clues.

She did, however, continue gazing provocatively at him.

“I know you don’t like crashers,” she said in her sultry voice. “But I really want to stay, Alex. My new apartment is ready tomorrow, but the property manager called me yesterday to say my first choice had suddenly opened up. A corner unit with an amazing view of the city from Camelback Mountain. They need a week to get it ready for me. And I just thought…a hotel is way too impersonal. Lonely. Not to mention expensive.”

He grunted. “Then stay at your brother’s house.”

Finally, Lola unraveled from him. As though she was just as reluctant to lose the physical contact.

Giving him an imploring look, she said, “Jace and Meg—the newlyweds—are on the cruise, too, so it wouldn’t be any fun there.”

Panic edged his blazing desire. “I’m not really prepared for an overnight guest, Lola.”

She laughed, so soft and feminine. “You have a second bedroom that is fully furnished and no one has ever slept in it.” Wickedness tinged her voice as she said, “Let me christen the bed.”

She winked. His groin tightened.

Really, the last thing he needed was Lola sleeping in such close proximity to him. Parading around the condo in something sexy and slinky. Slipping into a bubble bath, all naked and wet and—

Oh, hell.

Excitement shot through him. He raked a hand through his hair.

Get a grip, man.

She’d be onto him in a heartbeat if he didn’t get those sizzling thoughts out of his head.

Alex wasn’t her type. She wasn’t his.

Yet he wanted her.

Welcome to my twisted little world.

“What do you say?” She pleaded once more with her baby blues, batting her long lashes the way she did when she tried to talk him into something. Like when they were sixteen and had snuck onto a golf course to go ice blocking.

What sort of fools sat on a block of ice while someone pushed them down a grassy hill?

Then again…it had been an interesting physics experiment on friction—’til the cops came. Alex had freaked over an arrest for trespassing marring his record, keeping him out of the honors program at college, for which he’d already been evaluated. But the officer had been cool about the whole thing, since they weren’t drinking or out past curfew. Just having harmless fun instead of being rowdy teenagers.

Lola had dared him to do it again the next week. A dare from Lola Vonn was somehow too appealing to pass up. Making him a bit of a masochist.

But not this time.

With a shake of his head, he said, “You’ll leave water rings on my end tables and put CDs in the wrong cases. That’ll drive me nuts, you know it. I found Beethoven in with the Battlestar Galactica DVD set once. That’s basically sacrilege—it’s the original 1970s series.”