He shouldn’t look as intimidating out here.
But he was.
The dim alley lighting had hid his scariest feature.
Lara cringed, averting her eyes in hopes that the stained, dirty sidewalk would wipe the image away.
He had dimples.
Damn him.
Dimples on a guy—those were fatal.
“Coffee?” Dimpled and Gorgeous asked.
“What?” Lara looked up and almost sighed. She didn’t have time for a guy like him.
It’d take hours, maybe days, even, to explore that body. Weeks just to get through her own fantasies about sex with a gorgeous, dimpled guy. God knew how long it’d take if he had fantasies of his own.
Nope. She glanced at her watch. She was already late.
She risked another look at him, noting the stubborn set of his chin and the determined light in those dark blue eyes. Blue, she thought as her nipples tightened. Blue eyes and dimples. The man was toxic.
Her mental debate took all of two seconds. She wasn’t going to convince him to let her go and she couldn’t match his strength. There was only one option left.
Seduce him stupid.
Depending on the street crowd and traffic to keep her from going overboard, Lara shifted. Just an inch to one side, but the move pushed her breast against his arm, her foot brushing his so their thighs touched.
She softened her stance, offering a soft smile, then gauged his reaction through her lashes.
His eyes flared hot, his gaze narrowing. He didn’t take her silent offer, though. Since he clearly wasn’t stupid, she figured he was either a gentleman—ha—or he was waiting to see how far she’d push it.
Far enough, she decided.
“Are you sure you don’t want to meet somewhere more, um, private?” she murmured, wetting her lips and shifting so her hip bumped his at the same time. A zing of desire shot through her from hip to core—a hot, needy surprise. She let it show in her eyes, even more turned on at his instant reaction. His smile deepened and his body curved as if to welcome hers.
A guy who caught on that quick, reacted that well? What would he be like in bed? Could he read her needs as fast? Would he meet them? Lara loved the idea of fast, wild sex. So hot and intense that her brain couldn’t have time to engage.
For a second, she forgot the reason behind her flirting. In that one moment, she was totally ready to blow off classes, quit her job, move across the country. All he’d have to do was get naked and worship her body.
“Why wait?” he asked, his voice seductively low.
Why, indeed.
Someone bumped Lara, shoving her backpack into her waist, the edges of the books jabbing her like a knife. She blinked, then frowned. Why? Because she had a life, dammit, and wasn’t about to have it messed up because some guy was sexy enough to fog her brain.
Keeping that firmly in mind this time, she locked her eyes on his and leaned forward. He was so tall she had to shift onto her toes, touching the tips of her fingers to his chest for balance. And yes, because she really wanted to touch that chest. She had to work to not let herself be distracted by the hard muscles. Instead, she came within a hot breath of his lips, then gave him a sexy smile and a flutter of her lashes.
Someone jostled her again, and music pounded around them as the dancers from Circus Circus hit the sidewalk. Music and acrobatics followed as they gathered a crowd. Lara didn’t have to check the time to know it was 8:05 and that she was late for class.
“We don’t have to wait,” she assured him, tapping her finger against that deliciously hard chest. It was all she could do not to follow it up with a pet of her palm. Since she figured good girls who resisted incredible temptations deserved a little something, she let herself lean forward that last inch and brush her lips over his.
Uh-oh.
He was so yummy.
Soft, warm lips that tasted so good.
His mouth shifted as if he were about to take control. Lara figured she wouldn’t get a better shot.
Taking advantage of his distraction, she gave a swift tug and pulled her arm free. Whooping and hollering, the crowd of dancers reached them, providing Lara just enough cover to run. She sprinted into traffic, not looking over her shoulder until she hit the opposite side of the busy four-lane street.
Damn. He’d untangled himself from the feather boa and was already in the second lane. Biting her lip, Lara looked left, then right. Spotting a cab at the corner, she used her long legs to their best advantage. Ten seconds later, she threw herself in the backseat, panting to the driver to hurry.
Angling to her knees, Lara twisted to look out the rear window. The mountain was only two car lengths away.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” she chanted.
The taxi driver must’ve looked in his mirror, because suddenly he laid on his horn, then, muttering, hit the gas, drove up on the sidewalk and around the lookie-loos still stopped at the light.
As the car squealed around the corner, Lara relaxed enough to wave, a little finger wiggle, at the mountain.
The guy wasn’t even winded.
Nor, she noticed as she wrinkled her nose, did he look upset.
Instead, he only grinned and waved back.
“Lover’s quarrel?” the driver asked.
“Something like that,” Lara said, settling into the seat and giving him an address.
Nerves screaming with relief, she tried to shake off the adrenaline and settle her mind.
It wasn’t fear that was dogging her, though.
She laid her head back on the cracked seat, closed her eyes and took stock of her body.
Nope.
That wasn’t fear tightening her nipples or making her thighs tremble.
That was desire. Pure, lusty need.
Figured.
The first guy to turn her on in three years showed up now, when her entire focus was on—had to stay on—finishing her computer training and getting the plum internship the school offered. Which meant no distractions, no men, no sex. She’d made a vow—this time nothing was going to get in the way of her success.
It wasn’t that vow that put him firmly off-limits, though.
Nope. Sadly, she’d ditch her vow in a heartbeat for a sexy guy. That’s how she’d lost a plum role and effectively destroyed her career when she was dancing on Broadway. She’d called in sick one weekend to run off for a romantic trip. Snowy sleigh rides in the country, a quaint bed-and-breakfast with candlelight dinners and sex. Incredible, hot, wild sex. When she’d broken her leg, her boyfriend had left her in an E.R. two hundred miles from home and she’d been fired.
A year later, she’d given up a boring but lucrative teaching job at the dance institute to follow Mr. Perfect to Reno. A smart girl learned, after enough failures, to keep her vow and focus on the career.
Still, it wasn’t the vow that had her sagging in relief over the near miss.
What put the sexy hunk with the gorgeous dimples off-limits was one simple fact: he knew her brother.
And anyone who knew any member of her family wasn’t anyone she wanted to know. Even if he did have the good taste to admit that he’d deny a relationship with Phillip, too. That was guy talk, his way of trying to charm her.
“We’re here.”
Mulling and just a few breaths