Dirty Deal (A Perfectly Matched Novel) (Entangled Brazen) by Christine Bell Page A

pulling his body in closer and parting her lips to taste him. It wasn’t fast or furious like their first kiss. If anything, it was slower than any kiss she’d ever had. Intense but soothing. Demanding and pleading all at once.
    Most of all, though, it was entirely irresistible.
    She was supposed to be over her little crush. What had happened to one time only?
    He pressed into her and she sank backward, into the cushions. She didn’t know what she thought anymore. Why was she wasting her time thinking about any of that? What did it matter?
    With the way her heart was pounding, the way the ache built between her legs, there was only one thing she could know for sure. There was no going back now.
    He pulled back for a moment, and she forced a shaky smile. “Slick,” she murmured with approval. “Was that the move?”
    He cocked a brow. “This? Wow, you must really have low expectations of me.”
    His fingers closed around the hem of her shirt and she lifted her arms as he pulled. When she was finally free of it, she expected his lips to close over hers again. She even leaned in, hoping to continue where they’d left off.
    Instead, he rolled from over the top of her. “Get up.”
    “What do you mean—”
    “Just do it.”
    The words weren’t harsh, but there was a command there, and she bit back the urge to argue if only to keep her feet mired in something familiar.
    He sensed her hesitation and sent her a sizzling look that melted it away. “It was dark on that beach, and I want to see all of you this time.”
    “Then are you gonna do the move?” she asked.
    “No.” He shook his head with a pained laugh. “But for right now, I want you to forget about that. All I want you to think about is getting naked for me.”
    She furrowed her brow but stood, stepping back so that the hallway light slanted over her body. Of all the things she’d expected tonight, it had definitely not been this. Why couldn’t he just bend her over the sofa and pull her panties aside? Or better yet, they could have done it right there on the floor.
    This? It felt, well, intimate, and she paused over the hook of her bra and surveyed him, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach.
    This was like no other encounter she’d had before, and she wasn’t sure that it was a good thing. All she knew was that she couldn’t bring herself to end it yet.
    So she unfastened the hook and let the bra loosen, though it didn’t fall away that instant. If she wanted to, she could still change her mind. She could back out of this. All she had to do was say so…
    With a whoosh of air, the bra fell to the floor, and she was bare before him.
    There was a long, heavy silence until he spoke again. “Now the pants.” He nodded toward them. This time, his voice was gritty, like he’d been sucking on glass, and it sent her pulse skittering.
    He was breaking down her wall of resistance, brick by brick, and if she let herself stop spackling the holes for even a second, she was going to wind up defenseless and primed for a hurting.
    “Since when do I take orders from you?” she murmured halfheartedly, though a shiver went through her at the intensity of his gaze, and she hooked her thumb under the elastic of her pants all the same.
    “Since I told you to.”
    “You first.” She gestured toward him, all too aware of how her naked breasts bounced as she moved.
    “Will that put an end to your stalling?”
    “It’s the best chance you’ve got,” she shot back.
    He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. Jesus Christ, when would she learn to be careful what she wished for? Had she thought that his panty-dropping hotness had been a trick of the light last time? Or, really, every time she’d seen him since? If she had, she was woefully mistaken. His wall of muscles rippled, his biceps flexing as he worked open the fly of his jeans.
    “I’ll do you one better.” He pulled the jeans off and stepped from them one leg at a time