wasn’t pinching.
Riley wanted nothing more than to suggest that this nice but thoroughly not-for-
her man might prefer to spend the rest of the evening at home saying a eulogy
for his shoes.
Alone.
But then she remembered the ramifications of that particular suggestion.
It would also mean Riley would be home alone. Again.
“You know that this is every man’s fantasy?” he said, his tongue finding her ear.
She closed her eyes and ordered herself to not pull away. It’s supposed to feel
good, Riley.
Her heart was starting to pound. And not in the impending-sexy-times kind of way.
Riley’s hand found his knee and squeezed. Hard. “Steven, it’s my turn to be
prissy. Do you mind if we get back to my place, before … um … I just feel kind of
gross from the rain, you know?”
He pulled back. “You don’t look gross. But sure, no problem. I know that mood’s
important.” Steven gave her an understanding look and gently tucked a strand of
hair behind her ear.
Riley gave him a smile—the first genuine one of the night. Well, whaddya know.
Her mother and friends had been right. Maybe she was too quick to write men
off. Maybe they just needed a little gentle nudging to keep them from being
complete tools.
She took a deep breath and tried to think sexy thoughts. She’d written an article
about this just a few months ago: “Sixteen Sexy Mental Tricks to Rev Your Lady
Libido.”
Now, if she could only remember them.
Just one of them …
Come on, now, any one would do …
“My friends are all taking bets on this, you know.”
“Hmm?” Riley asked, still trying to summon Lady Libido.
“They didn’t believe me when I told them that Riley McKenna had agreed to go
out with me, but here we are on date number five.”
“Uh-huh.” Honestly, how was she supposed to get to her sexy place when the
man wouldn’t shut up?
“Are you looking for research material for your next article? If you are, is there
anything special you want from me? I mean, I know you’re the expert, but I’ve
never gotten any complaints …”
Stop. Talking. “I never mix business and pleasure,” she said, giving him her old
standby line to go with her standby wink.
“Of course,” he said. “But I wouldn’t mind, if, you know …”
“No, I actually don’t know,” she said, saying a mental goodbye to Lady Libido.
Not that she’d been likely to show up. She never had before.
“I read last month’s article,” Steven whispered, with a quick glance at the driver.
Please. Like a cabdriver gave a crap whether his passenger had snuck a peek at
a women’s magazine.
“Last month’s article … the BDSM one?”
She wrote a BDSM article about once a year, which was about how often it came
up as “the next naughty thing everyone but you is trying.”
It wasn’t that she wasn’t intrigued, it was just that when you spent most of your
time trying to figure out whether the correct spelling was blindfold or blind-fold, it
sort of took some of the titillation out of the whole concept.
“I never thought it’d be my thing,” Steven was yammering, “but I’ll try anything
once. Especially if you show me the ropes. Pun intended.”
Good one.
Steven was shifting his weight, leaning into her so that he could pull something
out of his back pocket.
Riley stared in horror at the shiny object in his hand before looking up at his eh-
not-bad face. “Handcuffs?”
“Portable ones.”
Was there any other kind?
“I know you probably have your own, but—”
Riley held up a finger to stop him. “What part of me not mixing business with
pleasure went over your head? Just because I write about something for my job
doesn’t mean I want it in my personal life.”
Steven pulled back. “Is this part of the routine? Acting like you don’t want it?”
“No!”
He grinned. “Whew. For a second I thought the legendary Riley McKenna was a
bit frigid.”
There it was. Her breaking point.
She may not have known how this all worked, but she did know it wasn’t
supposed to be like this. Why did it always end this way? Just once she wanted
to be treated like a woman instead of some sort of novelty lay.
Riley’s Irish temper officially snapped.
“Get out.”
Steven frowned in confusion. “We’re there?”
“No, we’re stuck in traffic. But get out.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Is this why you asked me out? Because you wanted to see if I lived up to my