What A Girl Wants

He hadn’t planned to say that. And judging by the sober expression on Jane’s face, she hadn’t expected it. But he had to admit it—he wasn’t just falling for Jane. He was in love with her.

Somewhere between having the greatest sex of his life and deciding Jane was his most frustrating client ever, he’d let himself fall in love. It had been as natural as breathing, letting those emotions develop, but the problem was that Jane—he could almost guarantee—didn’t feel the same.

At least not yet.

Something kept her from letting herself get close enough to get hurt, probably all the losers she’d fielded questions from in her magazine column over the years. She had no idea how much those guys had skewed her outlook and kept her from having normal, healthy relationships, so much that she didn’t have a clue what she really wanted in a man.

Luke intended to show her that he knew what she wanted and what she needed even better than she did. Starting tonight.

“I’ll admit,” she said, “that the attraction between us is too powerful for me to resist at times. If that equals more than a sexual fling, then okay.”

He decided not to comment. Getting into an argument in the middle of foreplay wasn’t going to help him win the battle. Instead, he positioned himself between her legs and spread her thighs open wide. She didn’t bother to put up a pretend fight, and when he dipped his fingers inside her again, she expelled a sigh of pleasure.

“You want me?”

“Yes, right now.”

“You’re not in the position to be demanding. Maybe you should try begging a little more.”

“Please,” she nearly purred.

He pressed his cock against her and rubbed it back and forth on her clit. She was so ready, no way could he wait another minute. So much for a long, drawn-out punishment. He was feeling a little too punished himself. Grabbing a condom from his wallet, he slid it on and covered her with his body, easing into her slowly.

They began to rock together, and Luke cupped the back of her head in his palm, watching pleasure soften her features as they moved toward climax.

This woman… This woman he made love to, this woman he’d tried to protect, this woman who’d resisted his every attempt to win her heart… She’d captured his, and he knew he was in trouble.

Big, big trouble.

12

I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.

—Jane Langston, a deleted line from her work-in-progress, Sex and Sensibility

LUKE AWOKE while it was still dark and glanced at the clock. 3:46 a.m. He looked around the room, staring into the darkness, trying to determine what, exactly, had woken him. He was wide awake, and his senses were on alert. It was the feeling he got when danger was near. He sat up in bed and strained to listen for a sound—anything—but all he could hear was Jane’s slow, steady breathing as she slept.

He slipped silently out of bed and felt around on the back of a chair for his jeans, then pulled them on. That’s when he heard it—a slight rustling outside the window. Luke froze in place and held his breath, wondering if he’d just imagined the sound. And after half a minute had passed without any other noise, he admitted that maybe his mind was playing tricks on him.

He crept over to the window and peered out through a small gap between the curtains and the wall, expecting to see nothing, so his stomach dropped to his feet for a few seconds when he saw a man standing at the window, staring in.

Luke recognized him immediately—Jane’s lawn guy. He felt like kicking himself for not checking the guy out more closely, for just assuming that since his record was clean, he probably wasn’t a serious threat.

The creep must have just begun looking in and hadn’t seen Luke yet, wasn’t aware that he was being watched just as he watched Jane sleep. Luke followed the man’s line of vision and saw what he saw—Jane lying in bed with the covers at her waist, her arms up over her head, her lush breasts totally exposed.

He looked back to the guy outside the window and took in all the details he could in the span of a few seconds—memorized everything—and then the guy began fumbling with the front of his pants, and right there in the bushes, he started jacking off.

A wave of anger overtook Luke as he shoved his feet into his boots, grabbed a pair of handcuffs and a gun from his jacket, and crept along the wall to the door, then slipped down the hallway silently. He wasn’t sure what he’d do when he got outside, but he damn well wasn’t going to let the guy get off while staring at his woman.

His woman.

He had no idea when she’d become that in his mind, but he knew he’d allowed himself to feel a sense of possessiveness for her that was unwarranted.