Playing Her Cards Right: Choose Me. Jo Leigh

his reach. He only had to move a single muscle for her to react exactly as she needed to. It was a dance, not crazy, just theirs.

      “Five years,” she said, in a rush of air and half a moan.

      “What’s five years?” The hallway was coming, so they shifted slightly to the left.

      “My plan.” Her hand moved down right over his ass as they maneuvered the turn, and he pushed her back into the wall. Her “umph” made him swing her around as he stood straighter, the graceful equilibrium between them going down the drain.

      “You okay?”

      “Where’s the damn bedroom?”

      “Close,” he said. Speeding them there would have been the smart move. He kissed her instead. The pull was too much, knowing he shouldn’t, they shouldn’t.

      The hand that had been in his hair was now on his chest, rubbing in vague circles.

      “What plan?” he said, his voice as husky as a pack-a-day smoker’s. “To take over the world? To bring me to my knees? You don’t need five years for either.”

      She laughed, stepped on his toe with her bare foot. It didn’t hurt. “I’m going to be a cross between Tim Gunn and Tina Brown,” she said, stumbling on the kimono.

      If they didn’t kill each other before they made it to the bedroom, it would be a miracle. “Good for you. You’ll be great.”

      “Not if I can’t say no to you.”

      He looked at her then, at her darkened eyes filled with a heat that could burn a house down. “You can.”

      She breathed in, then there was silence. Only his heartbeat loud in his ears.

      “Please don’t make me,” she whispered.

      A dark sound came out of his throat as he bent over and lifted her into his arms. It was ridiculous, something he never did, would never do, but he’d had enough walking, enough of everything but stripping her bare, burying himself inside her for as long as he could, as deeply as he could.

      “Charlie,” she said, working her arm around his neck. “We’re insane.”

      “I know.” The door was there, right there, and it was open. He had her inside in a flash, over the bed in two, but he had to kiss her one more time before he let her go.

      She pulled back from the kiss first, but she barely moved. Her breath brushed his face, soft panting, a faint-as-a-whisper tremor.

      He lowered her slowly, head on the pillow, the shoulder of the kimono slipping down enough for him to see the crease where her arm pressed next to her side. It made his cock jerk and he wanted her so badly he didn’t know what to do.

      “It’s my turn,” she said.

      “What?” He pulled his gaze from that patch of heretofore ordinary skin. “Your turn?”

      Her normally very sweet smile and her big innocent eyes turned wicked as she looked him over. “Strip for me. Slowly.”

      He had to grin. She’d said the words like a crime boss, like a vixen. And then she shrugged that partially bared shoulder until the kimono … He could see the edge of her hardened nipple. Only the edge.

      BREE BIT HER LOWER LIP hard as Charlie took off his jacket. He’d taken her at her word, so his movements were unhurried, but his technique? Bless his heart, he had no clue how to do a sexy striptease. He kept checking to make sure he wasn’t going to trip and he tried to take both arms out of his sleeves at once and that made him cuss, and start again. She didn’t want to laugh because, oh, God, he was trying so hard. Her whole body ached with how adorable he was, how the normally smooth, completely controlled internet mogul looked exactly like a seventeen-year-old virgin trying to impress the prom queen. They both relaxed when the jacket hit the floor. She wasn’t about to put him through it again with his shirt and trousers.