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“Don’t tease me, Tessa,” he warned with a wicked grin.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she said, chuckling, her lips curving softly.
Denver’s throat tightened and the heat in his loins grew. What was she doing here, flirting so outrageously with him? “It’s a good thing I’m a gentleman,” he said gruffly, and she had the audacity and lack of common sense to laugh, a merry tinkling sound in the old, creaky house.
“You? A gentleman? You couldn’t prove it by me,” she quipped before ducking back through the doorway.
Denver couldn’t stop himself. Feeling as if he were seven years younger, he was on his feet in an instant. He fairly flew across the room, yanking open the door so hard it crashed against the wall and hearing Tessa’s laughter ring through the house, he saw just the hem of her wrapper as she hurried up the stairs.
Knowing he was going to hate himself later, he took the steps two at a time and landed on the second floor just in time to hear a door close and a lock click soundly. So she thought she could tease him and get away with it, did she? he thought, smiling inwardly.
At the door to his parents’ room, he knocked softly.
“Go away,” Tessa said, but she couldn’t stop the giggles that erupted from her throat.
“Open up.”
“No way.” She backed across the room.
“Do I have to break it down?”
“Don’t be silly—”
His foot crashed into the door and she laughed. “Denver, don’t—this is crazy. Be reasonable—”
Bang! The door wobbled, and he gave it one last shot, the wood splintering away from the casing as his boot crashed against it. His eyes gleamed, and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “Reasonable?” he repeated. “The original, ‘insufferable, arrogant bastard’—wasn’t that what you called me?”
“You deserved it.”
“That and more, I suspect,” he admitted, still smiling. Surveying the damage to the door, he asked, “Did you really think you could lock me out?” His voice was low and seductive, but his eyes crinkled at the corners.
Tessa swallowed hard. The backs of her calves met the mattress. “I—I didn’t think I’d have to.” He was teasing, she could see the amusement in his gaze. But, despite the playful glimmer in his eyes, his jaw was rock hard, the cords in his neck visible.
He took a step into the room, his silhouette dark against the light in the hall. His gaze slid slowly from her face to her throat and the wet ringlets that coiled at her neck, then to the delicate circle of bones at the base of her throat, and lower still.
Tessa’s nipples hardened, thrusting against the thin wrapper, visible in the half-light. The lighthearted playfulness seeped out of the room, replaced by an electricity that seemed to crackle between them.
“What kind of game are you playing, Tessa?” he whispered hoarsely, moving slowly toward her.
Tessa’s heart thundered, and she licked her lips nervously. “I’m not—”
“Like hell.” He stopped mere inches in front of her. “Here we are alone, and you come down to tell me something stupid like we’re out of hot water—”
“We are!”
“For God’s sake, you could have worn something more than this!” He flipped two fingers under the lapel of her wrapper, his skin grazing hers. She sucked in her breath. The fun-loving light in his eyes had fled, but his hands didn’t move. The seductive warmth of his fingertips pressed lightly against her skin. “Don’t you have any idea what you’re doing to me?” he rasped.
“Probably about the same as you’re doing to me.”
His fingers wound around her lapel. “Don’t tease me, Tessa,” he repeated.
“I’m not,” she vowed.
His hand slid along the lapel, between her breasts to rest at the belt cinched around her waist. She melted inside. Liquid heat swirled deep at her center as his fingers rested feather light against her abdomen. “You want me?” he asked.
Closing her eyes, she leaned against him. “Yes.”
A muscle throbbed in his forehead, but his fingers worked against the knot.
