Downhome Darlin' & The Best Man Switch by Victoria Pade

opposite end—that she would have had to high-step over his head to get out.
    So she had to content herself with hugging her knees to her chest to keep some distance between them.
    â€œYou don’t look too comfortable,” he said with more amusement in his voice. “I don’t think this tub was meant for huddling in the corner. Could you ease up just a little?”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    â€œPlease?” he asked charmingly, pulling her arms from where they wrapped her shins.
    Then he grabbed on to her ankles and eased them under his tunneled legs to stretch out the way they’d been before.
    â€œNow lie back,” he instructed.
    â€œI think this is a test you ought to do yourself.”
    â€œThat would depend on what I was testin’ for.”
    â€œWhich would be...”
    â€œI just want the whole picture before I make up my mind. This is no cheap deal, you know. Now, lie back.”
    The man was incorrigible. And good-looking. And utterly appealing. And he seemed to be oblivious to so many things that had always been important to her—like the way things looked and what people might think. It all added up to an intriguing package and coaxed Abby out of herself the way a timid child might be tempted to join the fun of a mischievous child when the opportunity presented itself.
    She settled her back against the tub’s slanted end again.
    It made him grin with pleasure. And seeing it gave her a warm rush.
    â€œRest your head the way you were doin’ before,” he ordered.
    She did that, too.
    He must have realized he’d won this round because he leaned back himself, spread his arms along the tub’s rim and stretched long legs to cross at the ankles on the opposite ledge.
    He looked so comfortable, he really could have been without the restraints of the tight blue jeans and bright yellow shirt he wore, lounging in the bathtub in the privacy of his own home.
    â€œClose your eyes,” he added then.
    She did, more to escape the all too arousing sight of him than to be accommodating.
    â€œNow tell me what you were thinkin’ about when I found you here with that sexy little smile on your face.”
    So he was teasing her again.
    But by then she was willing to play along.
    She described the scene she’d been imagining, omitting his nude entrance into the mental picture.
    â€œAre you tellin’ me you were all alone?” he asked when she’d finished, his tone suspicious.
    â€œAll alone.”
    â€œThen you weren’t doin’ it right.”
    â€œOh, no?” she said with a laugh, forcing the muscles in her face to relax in what she hoped looked like perfect serenity in her solitary imaginings.
    â€œYou can’t have candlelight and a tub full of bubbles and be by yourself. There has to be a man, too.”
    â€œI don’t think there has to be.”
    â€œBut it makes for a lot better fantasy.”
    â€œIs that so?”
    â€œYou bet. A man who happens by and sees you all warm and wet and inviting.”
    If he could refer to the man in the third person and make this less personal, she could refer to the woman that way, too, and let herself off the hook. “Oh, now she’s inviting.”
    â€œWell, sure. He wouldn’t come in if she didn’t want him to.”
    â€œI don’t know about that. He seems to have a mind of his own.”
    â€œTrue enough. But she’s still glad to see him,” Cal insisted.
    Abby just smiled.
    â€œHe’d have to strip down, of course,” Cal continued as if they were collaborating on the scenario of a novel. “So he could get into the water with her.”
    â€œAnd where would he sit when he did? At her end or at the other one?”
    â€œI think he’d be on his knees to her,” Cal said in a voice that was more quiet, more intimate than before. “Straddling her hips so he could bend over and kiss her while he ran his hands