Page 122 of He's The Reason Why

“Inside, or outside the house?” His eyes challenged her.

She gasped like a true Southern girl. “I’m not a heathen. This is a private penalty. At home. Inside. No cameras, no audience, nobody knows but us. Deal?”

“Deal.” He stood up and carried the phone into another room.

“Where are you going?” She couldn’t quite see.

He flicked on a lamp, which illuminated the bed behind him. “You promised me something earlier. Time to deliver.”

He propped the phone up on something, then shut the door.

“What did I promise?” Their conversation had derailed every thought in her head. She had no idea what he was talking about. “We’ve covered a lot of ground tonight.”

He took off his shirt and tossed it aside. His muscles rippled as he flexed for her. Flickers of red and green lights from thewindow caressed and highlighted his skin, while the lamp gave him a soft glow from behind.

Heat and need flooded through her. “Wow. You look…damn, is there special lighting in there?”

His pecs twitched. “Come on. Tit for tat. Or tat for…”

He gestured for her to join him.

She picked up the phone. “Not down here, it’ll scandalize the neighbors. Hang on.”

Piper held the phone to her chest and tiptoed down the hall to the stairs. She was up two steps when a noise behind her made her turn.

Della stood in the doorway of the kitchen, wearing red satin pajamas and holding a plate of cookies in one hand and a glass of milk in the other.

“Thought I heard someone,” Della said. “Hello, night owl.”

“Hello, pot.” Piper stared pointedly at the cookies.

Della held out the plate to her. “Have you tried the snickerdoodles? These things are sugar crack.”

Piper clutched the phone tight to her body and plucked one off the plate to be polite.

“Who were you talking to?” Della asked as they climbed the stairs.

It was an innocent enough question, filled with innuendo and a hundred potential potholes that could swallow her whole if she didn’t avoid them.

She had big news. Big,bignews. But if she said something right now, it would wake the whole house and phone sex would be out of the question.

It could keep until the morning.

“Blake.”

Della glanced at her. “Oooh. Blake Ryan?”

“Yes.”

Della looked down at the phone Piper still had plastered toher body. “Are you still on the phone with him?”

“Yes.” He could hear every word they said. For some reason, that really turned her on.

A taunting grin started to spread across Della’s face. “Video chat?”

“Yep.” They reached the top of the stairs. Della was in the Rose Room, the first room on the right, a spacious, luxurious suite that overlooked the valley.

Piper was at the end of the hall in the smaller, cozier Daylily Room.

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