look so much better on the floor. The fabric was in the way of where he wanted to touch her. Without thinking twice, he slipped his hands beneath the neckline.
God, she felt so good, and his mind went fuzzy as all the blood in it drained away for a locale much further south.
She sucked in a small breath as he pressed his thumbs against the soft flesh on either side of her spine, then worked outward along her shoulders. The motions were supposed to be relaxing, but her body vibrated with more tension the longer he rubbed, and every ounce of the heavy awareness coalesced in his groin.
“Are you trying to bribe me into helping you, Charlie?” she murmured. “Because you’re going to have to do something a lot better than this to convince me.”
Well, that sounded like a challenge he could rise to, as the tenting in his pants would indicate. Good thing he was behind the chair, or his raging hard-on might become the subject of the conversation. But then again, she’d plainly declared her preference for her plastic toys and rejected him at the same time. Seemed like she’d been throwing down the challenges right and left.
“I was thinking,” he said with as much calm as he could muster, considering every fiber of his body was on fire. “If the injunction is against commercial ventures, maybe we could add something to our excursion to get around it. Maybe educate people on the dolphins’ habitat and the things that make it a wildlife preserve.”
“And you need an expert to provide the materials. Sorry, I have a job.”
“You owe me,” he countered. “The reason this is happening is because of your report. Which never would have been filed if Anderson hadn’t gotten a burr up his butt.”
“How is that my fault?”
Excellent question, one he would love an answer to. “I’m wondering the same thing. Everything was fine between Anderson and Aqueous Adventures when we first opened shop, and then somewhere along the way, something changed. What was it?”
She froze under his palms. “What makes you think I have any insight into Jared’s mind? My relationship with him has nothing to do with you and vice versa. I… don’t know what happened to make him suddenly flip out like he did.”
She was lying. He could feel the tautness mounting under his fingertips as it twanged through her body. It sparked his temper, but this time, he let it ride, because if that’s how she was going to be, all rationality flew out the window.
“Relax,” he murmured and toyed with the zipper at the neckline of her dress, then slid it partway down her back. “I’m not finished here.”
“Yes, you are. Zip up my dress.”
“I will. In a minute.”
His need had taken on a dark edge—to possess, to reclaim. To erase the memory of any other man from her skin.
Audra pulled away from Charlie’s hands and shot to her feet. He let her go and crossed his arms, carefully keeping the chair between them so he didn’t reach for her. She still had the right to say no, regardless of whether she’d be denying herself something that it was obvious she wanted.
Fine. He could play it her way. When he put his hands on her next, it would be because she’d begged him to. He was tired of dancing around this explosive heat that still simmered between them and tired of the specter of Jared Anderson that put a pall over everything.
It was far past time to dispense with all of it.
“You’re still tense,” Charlie said quietly in case she had a mind to bolt. “Sit back down and let me take care of you.”
She shook her head as she grappled with her dress, which kept falling off one shoulder and then the other, but she couldn’t seem to calm down long enough to reach the zipper since he’d conveniently left it at the halfway mark at the dead center of her back. Shame.
“Not that way,” she shot back, her voice a little shaky. “There’s nothing I need you to take care of that requires my dress to be unzipped.”
That put a smile on his face.
“I completely disagree.” There was a spot on her shoulder where her flesh was the sweetest, and he’d very much like to put his mouth on it. “But I can make that work if you want to stay dressed.”
Before she could protest, he crossed the room and shut the door with a soft click and then