A Tricky Proposition(11)

Jason shook his head. “No fertility clinic. No doctor.” He hooked his fingers around the sash that held her robe closed and tugged her a half step closer. Heat pooled below his belt at the way her lips parted in surprise. “Just you and me.”

Something like excitement flickered in her eyes, only to be dampened by her frown. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

“Let’s make a baby the old-fashioned way.”





Three


“Old-fashioned way?” Ming’s brain sputtered like a poorly maintained engine. What the hell was he…? “Sex?”

“I prefer to think of it as making love.”

“Same difference.”

Jason’s grin grew wolfish. “Not the way I do it.”

Her mind raced. She couldn’t have sex—make love—with Jason. He was her best friend. Their relationship worked because they didn’t complicate it by pretending a friends-with-benefits scenario was realistic. “Absolutely not.”

“Why not?”

“Because…” What was she supposed to give him for an excuse? “I don’t feel that way about you.”

“Give me an hour and I’m sure you’ll feel exactly that way about me.”

The sensual light in his eyes was so intense she could almost feel his hands sliding over her. Her nipples tightened. She crossed her arms over her chest to conceal her body’s involuntary reaction.

“Arrogant jackass.”

His cocky grin was her only reply. Ming scowled at him to conceal her rising alarm. He was enjoying this. Damn him. Worse, her toes were curling at the prospect of making love with him.

“Be reasonable.” Please be reasonable. “It’ll be much easier if you just go to the clinic. All you have to do is show up, grab a magazine and make a donation.”

“Not happening.”

The air around them crackled with electricity, raising the hair at the back of her neck.

“Why not?” She gathered the hair hanging over her shoulder and tugged. Her scalp burned at the harsh punishment. “It’s not as if you have any use for them.” She pointed downward.

“If you want them, you’re going to have to get them the old-fashioned way.”

“Stop saying that.” Her voice had taken on a disturbing squeak.

Jason naked. Her hands roaming over all his hard muscles. The slide of him between her thighs. She pressed her knees together as an ache built.

“Come on,” he coaxed. “Aren’t you the least bit curious?”

Of course she was curious. During the months following senior prom, it’s all she’d thought about. “Absolutely not.”

“All the women I’ve dated. Haven’t you wondered why they kept coming back for more?”

Instead of being turned off by his arrogance, she found his confidence arousing. “It never crossed my mind.”

“I don’t believe that. Not after the way you came on to me after prom.”

“I came on to you? You kissed me.”

“Because you batted those long black eyelashes of yours and went on and on about how no one would ever love you and how what’s-his-name wasn’t a real man and that you needed a real man.”

Ming’s mouth fell open. “I did no such thing. You were the one who put your arm around me and said the best way to get over Kevin was to get busy with someone else.”

“No.” He shook his head. “That’s not how it happened at all.”

Damn him. He’d given his word they’d never speak of it again. What other promises would he break?

“Neither one of us is going to admit we started it, so let’s just agree that a kiss happened and we were prevented from making a huge mistake by my sister’s phone call.”

“In the interests of keeping you happy,” he said, his tone sly and patronizing, “I’ll agree a kiss happened and we were interrupted by your sister.”

“And that afterward we both agreed it was a huge mistake.”

“It was a mistake because you’d been dumped and I was fighting with my girlfriend. Neither one of us was thinking clearly.”

Had she said that, or had he? The events of the night were blurry. In fact, the only thing she remembered with crystal clarity was the feel of his lips on hers. The way her head spun as he plunged his tongue into her mouth and set her afire.

“It was a mistake because we were best friends and hooking up would have messed up our relationship.”

“But we’re not hormone-driven teenagers anymore,” he reminded her. “We can approach the sex as a naked hug between friends.”

“A naked hug?” She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or hit him.