More Blazing Bedtime Stories: Once Upon a Mattress Read Online Free PDF Page B

breaths and the faint flare of his nostrils made her wonder if he could actually catch the aroma of arousal that seemed to permeate her every pore.
    He shuddered slightly, licking his lips. As if he could taste her on the air. Which simply inflamed her all the more.
    Are you insane? They were standing outside the diner, in broad daylight. Even if the people inside couldn’t see her, anybody walking up the street certainly could.
    This crazy interlude—which was like having sex withouta single intimate touch—needed to stop. Now. And she knew how to stop it. Sheer bravado had gotten her out of many tough scrapes.
    “So, uh, do you have a thing for tying girls up, hotshot? Does that make you feel strong?” she finally asked, intentionally baiting him. Her tone wasn’t suggestive and there was no purr of invitation that said she wanted him to subdue her. Even though you do . She was all gruff, bitchy attitude, albeit her voice was a tiny bit weak and breathy.
    “Only those who need to be,” he growled. “And the thought of having you held in place, forced to lie back and be pleasured, doesn’t make me strong, it makes me weak in the knees.”
    Oh, shit. Talk about out of the frying pan. Her own knees knocked together and she wobbled, needing to stick a hand out to steady herself. That hand landed on a big, broad chest.
    “Stop it,” she whispered. “This is crazy.”
    “Trust me,” he urged.
    “Trust you? I don’t even know you.”
    “Yes. You do,” he insisted. “Deep down, you know you do. Give me a chance. Come with me.”
    She swallowed as he stepped closer. So close his boot slipped between her feet, his jean-covered leg sliding temptingly between her thighs. Hot and hard and so overwhelmingly male it was all she could do not to sink down and straddle him, ride him, use him to gain some much-needed release.
    Gazing at the hint of skin revealed by the white shirt beneath his jacket, Penny’s mouth went dry. It had been a long time since she’d run her lips along a ridge of hard muscle or tasted salt-tinged male flesh.
    That flesh was darkly tanned, the neck powerful with cords of muscle that met solid-granite shoulders. A hint of curly dark hair on his chest made her wonder how low it went, if it narrowed to a thin line down a flat, rippled stomach before disappearing into the waistband of his jeans.
    “Please.”
    For a second, she wasn’t sure if he’d whispered that word or she had.
    Shaking her head hard, she forced her thoughts back where they needed to go. On the safe and normal present. Not on any wild, crazy adventures with Mr. Shagalicious Hotness.
    “I can’t listen to this any longer. It’s crazy in there.”
    Crazier out here .
    He hesitated, glanced over his shoulder toward the restaurant full of angry, impatient customers. Sighing heavily, he narrowed his eyes and stepped away. “All right. We’ll talk after you’re finished work.”
    She let out an unamused laugh. “I’m not going to be out of here until 10:00 p.m., at the earliest.”
    His jaw, which looked even swarthier than it had twenty minutes ago inside, clenched. “Ten o’clock? At night?”
    “That’s generally what 10:00 p.m. means.” Realizing she might have sounded as though she was asking him to wait for her, she quickly clarified, “That wasn’t an invitation to come in and wait.”
    “I don’t intend to.”
    So much for convincing her. Penny couldn’t help wondering why the abrupt comment stung a little. “Whatever,” she said, stepping around him and tugging the door open.
    He cleared his throat before she could step inside. “Nights are…” He looked up into the sky and rubbed a hand against his jaw. A big, strong hand. That stubborn, hard jaw. “…not good.”
    Funny. She sensed a night with this man could be very good.
    No. No thinking that way . “I can’t do this. Not here. Not now. Please let me go,” she said.
    “We don’t have much time, Penny.”
    It was the first time he’d called