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She releases a soft laugh, head bobbing. “Funny, me not being able to find the words.”
“We don’t have to go to bed just yet.”
Her blue eyes flash with something I’ve never seen in them before when they meet mine. “I was hoping you would say that.”
“Oh?” It’s incredible what this woman does to me. When we met, she was an inexperienced virgin, and now?
Now there is absolutely no doubt in my mind what she’s thinking.
“What did you have in mind?” I ask, stirring behind my zipper.
“What do you think?” She laughs.
“Well, are there any scenes you want to bring to life tonight?”
Her eyes widen. Then narrow. Her face scrunches in concentration. “Something just came to mind, but I don’t know how we could make it happen.”
“Tell me about it. Two heads are better than one.” The only reason I drop into one of the armchairs is to avoid lunging across the room to grab her. I don’t know what it is, but there is something about this woman that makes me forget I ever presumed to have self-control. How can someone be so damn alluring and irritating at the same time?
She’s still wearing a fairly constipated expression when she wrings her hands, nervous. “It was kind of a game of hide-and-seek, only it was more like the guy was hunting the girl down.”
Now I’ve gone from stirring to thickening, lengthening. “I like the sound of that.”
“Sure, but how could we make that real?”
At first, I’m sure she must be joking. “Do you know how many acres are on this ranch? You know how many places there are to hide?”
Her hands find her hips, her head tipping to the side. “Sure. Very sexy. Let me run around in the dark in a totally unknown space. Why not just put a cast on my leg now and get it over with?”
“Where is your sense of adventure? Besides,” I add as I stand, now a little uncomfortable below the waist. Her gaze drifts downward to where I’m starting to tent my slacks, and her teeth sink into her lip. “I’ll find you. I’ll find you before you have the chance to hurt yourself.”
“I don’t know,” she frets. “We’ve met, right? You know me.”
“And you know me, which means you should know this isn’t my first rodeo. Or have you forgotten what I do for a living?”
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking about killing me,” she jokes with a half-hearted laugh.
“There have been times I’ve considered it.” Her mouth falls open and I laugh. She has the power to make me do that. “Not seriously. I’m talking about tracking, obviously. It’s part of the job.”
She still looks skeptical. I think by now she would know better. “So you’d chase me around and try to find me? And I can hide anywhere I want on the ranch?”
The thing is, there aren’t that many places to hide—at least, not places she would want to hide in with barely a sliver of a moon to light the way. “That’s right. I’ll track you down, and if I find you, I get to do whatever I want.” Yes, I am liking this idea more and more all the time.
“And what do I get if you don’t find me?”
“I will find you,” I vow, snickering at the way she scoffs so confidently. “So we don’t need to worry about that.”
We face each other for a heartbeat or two, tension simmering, filling the room before she breaks it with a single word. “Fine.”
“Don’t sound too excited.”
“It’s just that you sound like you already know how this is going to go.”
I do, and she’s going to enjoy it. “We’re wasting time,” I remind her. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll give you a head start. We can make the odds a little more even. Would that make you feel better?”
“I think so.”
Then, without another word, she dashes to the front door and flings it open like the house is on fire. “I already told you you were getting a head start,” I mutter to myself, though her enthusiasm is refreshing.
