What the Librarian Did / LA Cinderella: What the Librarian Did / LA Cinderella. Karina Bliss

arrogance took her straight back to another charmer, and Rachel instantly stiffened. “You … sound like you planned this,” she said, watching him closely.

      She caught the telltale flicker of guilt before he smiled at her. “This I didn’t plan.” He disappeared into the bathroom.

      So good, she thought, stunned, at faking sincerity. And oh, my God, she’d nearly fallen for it. Humiliated, Rachel hauled up her bra and covered her breasts.

      Except she wasn’t sixteen anymore and no man got away with making a fool of her. Reaching for her dress, she paused. She had an idea. Did she dare?

      When Devin came back, she was lounging seductively against the pillows in her underwear. Rachel held up the stockings. “Let’s use these.”

      He blinked, then chuckled as he rejoined her in bed, jeans tightening over muscle. “You nearly had me.”

      “And I want to have you.” She dropped her tone to husky. “Tied up.”

      Half smiling, he scanned her face, and Rachel hid it against his chest, right over the place where his heart should be. His hand caressed her nape and she resisted the urge to turn her head and bite it. “I’ve always wanted to try it,” she murmured instead, “and you’re the perfect guy to do it with.” Under her cheek Devin’s ribs rose and fell in what felt like a sigh. But when she glanced up he gave a lazy shrug.

      “Sure, babe, whatever you want.”

      “Lie down.” All business, she looped one of the nylons around his wrist, then tied it to the bedpost.

      “You put your bra back on.”

      Rachel grabbed his other hand. “I’m shy.”

      “You know,” Devin said thoughtfully, “I never thought I’d say this, but I was kinda looking forward to old-fashioned sex for our first time … ouch. Maybe you could loosen the tension on that one.”

      She yanked his trapped wrist against the post and double knotted the second stocking. “So you’re suggesting they’ll be other times, then?”

      His eyes narrowed. “Okay, what’s really going on?”

      Rachel clambered off the bed and glared at him. “This wasn’t something that just happened. You had every intention of seducing me tonight, didn’t you?”

      “Yeah, but you changed my mind and then …”

      “And then?”

      “Hell, I don’t know … you changed it back.”

      With his arms tied to the bedposts above his head he looked like every Amazon’s idea of a human sacrifice, pagan, muscular and deliciously vulnerable. Furious at the direction of her thoughts, she bent and scrambled for her dress. “You’re pathetic.”

      “Rachel, you know we’re about more than sex.”

      Hand frozen on her dress, she barely registered his comment. There was a pair of red stilettos under the bed. Lying on their sides at right angles, as if they’d been kicked off in a hurry.

       I haven’t had sex at all for over a year.

      The son of a … Enraged, she picked them up and tossed them onto his washboard abs above the hip-hugging jeans, hoping the heels left a mark. “Next you’ll be telling me you’re a cross-dresser.”

      She waited for signs of guilt. For shame. Devin looked at the shoes and started to chuckle. The chuckle grew into a laugh that shook the bed. He laughed until his head was rolling helplessly on his shoulders.