Page 10 of Engaging Evelyn (Blissful Bets)

He looked over, his face nervous. “Yeah, tell me, I think.”

Evelyn pushed down the accelerator and jumped the speedometer to over a hundred miles an hour. “My ex-fiancé was a cop. He taught me a lot of cool things to do with a car.”

She weaved through the traffic so easily, checking all her mirrors. Soon they would be out of the city and it would be deserted again, just how she liked it. Deserted, just like her.

“So, how did the fiancé become an ex? Or is that too personal,” he asked, dropping his volume.

Evelyn let his words wash over her. She felt surprised that she suddenly wanted to spill her guts to someone, to anyone who didn’t know her on a personal level. Maybe it was his comment about giving away her passion. Whatever it was, she needed to get it off her chest.

“Stephen and I were together for a long time. I had visions of the white-picket fence, the whole nine yards. He came to me two weeks before our wedding, while my mother was doing a fitting on my dress, and told me that he couldn’t marry me”—Evelyn paused—“that he had found someone else and was in love with her. I was left to explain everything to everyone.”

Silence filled the small space, but Evelyn went on. “Her name was Sheila. They met once and the next thing I know he’s professing his undying love. I really hope, though, for his sake, he’s happy. He was a really great guy, before all that.”

Evelyn slowed down the engine to the seventy-mile-an-hour speed limit. Now that she had gotten that out in the open, out loud, she felt better. Well, that was cheaper than going to a shrink.

“I’m sorry for what’s happened. The guy was a jerk for putting you through that. Do you want me to beat the shit out of him?”

Evelyn laughed. “No, that’s okay. Assault on an officer would just put the icing on the cake. Plus, it was over two years ago. I don’t think that’s quite fair.”

“Are you still going to meet that other guy tonight?” Brandon asked.

Bill. Would she go to meet him? With a glance in Brandon’s direction, she felt her body react to his eyes. They seemed to stand out in the darkness of the car. No, no Bill tonight. Brandon was an option, though.

The idea definitely made her uneasy. But why should it? Where was her take-charge attitude? So, she wanted this guy. He didn’t affect her like his friend had. Her brain wasn’t screaming run, just caution. Would one night of fucking Brandon be as dangerous as she made herself believe? Maybe not if she thought of it as her own personal bet. He probably wasn’t going to be in town more than a few weeks, maybe even days. What could it hurt? Tomorrow, she could just go back to ignoring him, right?

“Are you offering to take his place?” There, that wasn’t so bad. The shocked look on his face was even better. It made up for the fear she had felt.

“What exactly are we talking here, whips and chains, any torturing?”

“Not tonight.” She laughed. “You just have to please me. Do you think you can do that or is that asking too much? It could be a hard job if you’re not sure exactly what you’re doing.”

Evelyn let her words challenge him, and he knew exactly what she was doing. He wasn’t the least bit fooled. Good. Let the games begin. As long as she thought of this as a game, then she couldn’t get hurt.

Chapter 6

Warm fingers settled on her thigh and inched toward the hem of her dress. The need to close her eyes was automatic. Instead, she focused on the headlights breaking through the blackness of the abandoned highway.

“You don’t intimidate me. As much as I like your straightforwardness, I think this time you might have bitten off more than you can chew. You won’t be disappointed.”

Evelyn looked over at him, smiling at him challengingly. He may have been full of confidence, but when it came to sex, so was she. Her record in Bets was unbeatable. There were tricks she knew that she’d never used on anyone before. It was time she pulled something out of her hat and knocked him down a peg or two.

“If you’re as good as you think you are, surprise me. Tell me something about myself that you couldn’t possibly know.”

“Like what?” He smiled. “Like how I know you’re not wearing any panties underneath that little black dress.” He moved his fingers up a fraction. “Or maybe you want me to tell you how I know that you bathe with a soap that is combined with both cherry blossoms and almonds. The heat from your body is perfuming the car with the smell. Or the thing that would shock you the most is how I know that right now, at this moment, you’re ovulating.”

Evelyn slammed on her brakes and came to a complete stop on the shoulder of the road. Her eyes cut into his golden ones. The air felt trapped inside her lungs as uncertainty took over. She knew something wasn’t right about the guy! Somehow her mind kept trying to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen. “How do you know all of that? It’s impossible.”

The beating of her heart increased, and her breathing, so deep that an ache was starting to fill her chest. Fear seized her mind. The no panties, all right, she might be able to buy that. The soap was questionable, but the ovulating, that was a little too much. He did say that, didn’t he?

“You did say ovulating, right? I mean, I didn’t just imagine that, did I? Ovulating…”

His fingers pulled her thighs apart a fraction of an inch. She watched him inhale deeply, closing his eyes. “No, you didn’t imagine it. What I said was right, you’re ovulating. Damn, you smell so good.”

Brandon opened his eyes, looking back into hers. “So, did I tell you something only you would know? You seem afraid. I can smell the fear pouring off you. I assure you I have no intention of harming you.”

“What are you?” Evelyn whispered.

The question didn’t seem the least bit silly. He couldn’t be human. There was no way, was there? The heat from his body, his eyes, his smell, it was too much and was starting to make her question life in general. She’d never been one to believe in anything. Evelyn considered herself a skeptic, through and through, but his serious expression shook her to the very core.

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