Page 49 of Recipe for Temptation

Reese gasped and whirled around, heart lodged in her throat.

At the sight of Michael sitting alone in a shadowy corner of the veranda, her knees went weak and she sagged against the railing. “You scared the crap out of me! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Not quite.” His voice was a deep, smoky rumble in the dark night. Heat curled through her veins, fueling the restless ache between her thighs.

She swallowed tightly, straightening from the railing. “W-what’re you doing sitting out here in the dark? Howling at the moon?” she joked lamely.

She thought she detected the ghost of a smile on his face. As she stared at him, he tipped back his head and howled ever so softly. She shivered with arousal, her nipples hardening and her clit swelling.

Silently cursing her body’s chemical reaction to him, she cleared her throat and shifted from one foot to another. “I, uh, hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“You are,” came his lazy drawl, “but what else is new?”

Unnerved, Reese made a move toward the house. “In that case, I’ll just?—”

“Stay,” Michael said, a low, husky command.

She obeyed without question.

“Why couldn’t you sleep?” he asked her.

“Who says I couldn’t sleep?” she retorted defiantly.

“You’re out here, aren’t you?”

She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Maybe I just wanted some fresh air.”

“So you pulled yourself out of a deep sleep just to come outside—where it’s ninety-five degrees—and get some fresh air.” His voice was heavy with amused skepticism.

Reese said nothing. She was glad he couldn’t see the deep flush suffusing her cheeks.

“Wanna know what I think?” he asked softly.

She swallowed hard. “Not particularly.”

“I think you’re out here for the same reason I am.”

Her pulse hammered at the base of her throat as he stood and came toward her, a slow, deliberate advance. She felt a frisson of fear mingled with unmistakable excitement.

Resisting the urge to bolt, she held her ground as he stopped scant inches from her. She could feel the heat radiating from his big body, could smell a lingering trace of his woodsy cologne beneath warm male skin. Her mouth watered, and it was all she could do not to pounce on him and tear his clothes off.

His gaze roamed over her, taking in her silk nightshirt and bare feet in one hot, encompassing sweep. His eyes glittered like a wolf’s in the moonlight.

“I think you couldn’t sleep because you were thinking about me,” he said in that sinfully intoxicating voice. “I know, because I was thinking about you, imagining you warm and naked between the sheets, your body calling out for mine. I got so damn hard I couldn’t take it anymore. If I hadn’t gotten out of the house when I did, you would’ve found me in your bed.”

Oh God, Reese thought as a rush of liquid heat bloomed between her thighs. She started to sway toward him before she caught herself and stepped backward, holding up a hand as if to ward him off. “Michael?—”

“Tell me you weren’t thinking about me,” he taunted, daring her.

“I wasn’t thinking about you.”

“Liar.”

They faced each other in the moonlit darkness, the air between them vibrating with a potent combination of tension, frustration, anger and lust.

Needing to put some distance between them, Reese sidestepped Michael and strode on wobbly legs to the other end of the veranda, relieved when he let her go. Impulsively she grabbed the beer bottle he’d been nursing, shook it, then raised it to her mouth and downed the rest of the contents.

When she’d finished, she slammed the bottle down on the table with a metallic thud.

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