The Challenge by Megan Hart Page A

him in a coffee shop a few months ago.”
    “The Green Bean? Which guy?”
    “No. The Morningstar Mocha. And you wouldn’t know him, he’s straight.” At least she thought Jimmy was straight. She hoped he was.
    “A few months ago? You’ve been holding out on me?” Dean frowned. “Damn.”
    “Not holding out.” Katie rested her butt on the desk, an eye on the clock, and drank her coffee. “There isn’t anything to tell you. Unlike you, I don’t bang just any guy who comes along.”
    Dean put a hand over his heart. “That hurts. You act like I don’t have standards.”
    It was nice to have a friend good enough to understand that a single raised brow meant so much. “Uh-huh.”
    He leaned against the filing cabinet across from her. “He kept you up late. That’s something.”
    “We weren’t fucking, Dean.”
    He made a face. “Why the hell not?”
    “I don’t know,” Katie teased. “Maybe I’m wrong and he is gay.”
    Dean snorted into his coffee and tilted his head to study her. “You like him?”
    “You like the guy you were with this morning?” She deflected the question easily enough.
    “I like all the guys I’m with, at least at the time.”
    Katie ticked off the list on her fingers. “You let him sleep over and were late to work because of him. Granted, that doesn’t mean much, but add to that the fact you haven’t been describing every inch of his cock to me in precious, explicit detail, and I’m pretty sure that means you like him.”
    Dean’s gaze shifted. Ah, she was spot-on. Wow.
    “Dunno what you mean.”
    “You only keep quiet about the dudes you like, which are few and far between lately.” Actually, there hadn’t been any. Katie kept the tone light, not wanting to bring up old flames just for the sake of needling her friend–there was plenty to tease Dean about without bringing Ethan into it.
    “Sure, I like him. I like lots of stuff.”
    Katie laughed. “I know you do.”
    With this laid out between them, Dean seemed satisfied. “So long as he’s not that douche from Connex. That guy was bad news.”
    Katie laughed at the way Dean bristled on her behalf. “Umm…no. I wouldn’t even fuck him with your dick. C’mon, move that pretty ass. Time to shine.”
    “We have a few minutes.”
    Katie sighed again. An old argument. She liked to be prompt, even early. Dean preferred to make a grand entrance. She eyed his practiced pout. “I told you, that doesn’t work on me.”
    “It works on everyone.”
    This was very close to true. “Only because everyone else doesn’t know you like I do. All promise, no delivery.”
    Dean leered, once more leaning so close Katie could get a full whiff of his delicious cologne. “Shut your mouth! The fuck you mean, no delivery? I deliver.”
    Katie leaned, too, so her breath would tickle his earlobe. “No, babe. That ass and that smile promise a lot but Dean Manion only delivers to addresses on Penis Avenue. Vagina Street’s out of your delivery zone, remember?”
    He turned his face half an inch so his lips brushed her neck. “Just because I don’t doesn’t mean I couldn’t.”
    At this boast, so typical, Katie burst into laughter loud enough to make her happy she had her own office with a closed door. She pushed at his chest. “Please. You’ve never fucked a woman. Have you ever even kissed a woman?”
    “I’ve kissed you,” he reminded her, letting her push him away but not making it easy.
    “A New Year’s Eve kiss under mistletoe. Besides,” Katie said as she gave his tie a fond yank, “there was no tongue. Doesn’t count.”
    “Doesn’t mean I couldn’t,” Dean repeated stubbornly.
    Katie cast another glance at the clock. Fifteen minutes to make it from her office, down the hall, up three floors in the notoriously slow elevator, down another two corridors to get to the meeting room. “Look, your reputation as a sex bomb is safe with me. I swear I will never reveal to all the women crushing on you that you’d