A Wicked Seduction by Janelle Denison Page A

currently secured to said bed and feeling at a distinct disadvantage, regardless of the sexual by-play they’d indulged in minutes ago.
    She rattled the metal shackles to bring his attention back to her current position and smiled sweetly for effect. “You can release me any time.”
    He stroked his dark, stubbled chin with his fingers, considering the situation. Considering her. “Not just yet,” he decided.
    She frowned, annoyance mingling with a restless feeling of arousal. “I think you made your point by cuffing me to the bedpost.”
    He cocked his head. “Did I?” he asked, the simple question holding a wealth of doubts.
    â€œDidn’t you?” she shot back just as quickly, ignoring the skip of her pulse, and the tingling sensation skittering down her spine.
    He thought for another long, drawn-out moment.“I’m not sure I made my point yet.” In one fluid motion he stood and grabbed her set of keys, then moved across her bed like a big, lithe panther stalking his prey—all powerful, potent magnetism and intoxicating masculinity.
    Shameless desire took up residence in her, and intensified when he leaned over her to work the lock on the cuffs. His sweatpants rode low on his hips, and his flat belly was inches away from her face. The musky, all-male scent of him teased her senses, awakening a reckless hunger to do things to him that shocked even herself…like flick her tongue across his warm, hair-roughened flesh to see what he tasted like, or sink her teeth into the soft skin just below his ribs to test how sensitive he might be, or press her lips to the kidney-shaped birthmark on the left side of his navel…
    Her breathing deepened, and she squeezed her eyes shut, which did little to block those erotic images she’d conjured, or lessen the temptation he presented when he surrounded her so completely.
    â€œMind giving me a little help with these cuffs?” he asked from above her.
    Grateful for the distraction, she reached up to assist him, but couldn’t glance up without risking the possibility of licking, biting or kissing his belly, so she kept her eyes closed. Blindly, she searched for the keys, only to have Dean gently grasp her wrist and snap the other cuff around her free hand, effectively and efficiently restraining her arms above her head.
    Her eyes opened wide in astonishment. She jerkedon her restraints, but the effort was futile. The sturdy bedpost wasn’t going to budge, break, or pull apart, as she already knew. Dean grinned down at her, but she wasn’t amused that he’d managed to dupe her once again. This time while she was wide awake.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” she demanded.
    He settled himself along her left side, singeing her with the scorching heat of his body crowding against her. He pressed his fingers against her lips to hush her, and his striking green eyes met and held hers. “I’m buying a little extra time to find out if I made my point or not,” he told her, and slowly let his fingers drift from her mouth, along her jaw, and down the column of her throat. “Do you believe the story I told you last night, about the possibility of someone assuming my identity?”
    â€œYou’re going to interrogate me?” she asked incredulously.
    â€œFor starters,” he drawled, and let her overactive imagination come to its own conclusions as to what would come after he had the information and answers sought. “Do you believe it’s possible that someone assumed my identity?”
    She couldn’t lie, not when she’d seen so much evidence to back up his claim. “Yes, I do.”
    Stark relief eased across his chiseled features. “Do you trust me?”
    She rolled her eyes and pulled on her bound arms, doing her best to ignore that her T-shirt had ridden up a few inches and exposed too much bare skin.“Gee, considering my current predicament, I guess I’m