excitement shoved into overdrive. Not even in her wildest sex fantasies had she imagined anything could be like this.
Don’t blush, don’t blush, don’t blush.
How could she convince Bennett she was a freewheeling party girl if her cheeks turned crimson at the slightest provocation? She had to prove that she was brash, brave, and bewitching. She could not risk retreating into her protective shell of shyness. Not unless she wanted to risk losing him forever.
Bennett had made it clear enough he wasn’t interested in long-term commitment. Of course, he didn’t know about the thunderbolt yet, but he would soon enough. Until the feeling caught him the way it had snared her, she had to convince him that she was anything but the marrying kind.
All Lacy needed was a toehold. Once Bennett opened up and gave her the opportunity, he couldn’t help falling in love with her. Right?
It was fated. She was his destiny.
But what to do? How would an outrageous, adventuresome, no-strings-attached woman act? How could Lacy convince him that she was spontaneous, freewheeling, and took life as it came?
Kiss him, some impish voice in the back of her mind ordered. Kiss him. Kiss him hard. Kiss him long. Leave no doubts about your intentions.
It would be so easy. They were already pretty darned intimate with her body snuggled tightly against his and her right arm wrapped around his neck.
All she had to do was lean forward and gently run her tongue along his lips. Not that difficult, really, especially when she wanted to kiss him more than she wanted to breathe.
Lacy hesitated.
Bennett’s respirations, she noted, were as erratic as her own, and he was still staring at her as if shocked that she’d tumbled headlong into his lap.
Kiss him. On the mouth. In front of everyone. That’s what a sexually confident woman would do.
Lacy the sexually confident woman? The label felt unnatural and yet kissing him felt so right.
She was scared. If she were standing, her knees would be knocking in a deafening cacophony. Lacy could count the number of times she’d been kissed on one hand, and not once had she been the instigator.
Most of the kisses had been perfunctory good-night-after-a-date kisses. None of them had been mind-blowing. Truthfully, Lacy had never really wanted to kiss a man the way she wanted to kiss Bennett, but her natural reticence held her back.
Her shyness had always been a safety net, something she could count on when she got in over her head. Well, not anymore. The time had come to take control of her future. This was the man she’d waited her lifetime for.
No more stalling. No more fanciful daydreams. No more lonely nights. Not if she acted now. She had zero to lose and everything to gain. Might as well plunge right into deep water and see if she could float.
Tentatively, Lacy dampened her upper lip with the tip of her tongue.
Ready or not…
Bennett gave her a knowing smile.
Lacy knew there could be no halfway measures. If she kissed him, it had to be all or nothing. No halfhearted joining of their mouths would do. If she wanted to convince Bennett that she was indeed a woman seeking a casual liaison, then she had to act that way.
Lacy lowered her eyelashes and gave Bennett a come-to-me-big-boy glance from the corner of her eye.
His body tensed beneath hers, and his arms tightened around her waist. His gaze took on a hazy, hungry quality like a starving man offered a full plate at the king’s banquet.
People were watching.
She felt the heat of their collective stares, and her skin prickled with awareness. Normally, Lacy would have been consumed by social anxiety at being the center of attention, but resting here in Bennett’s lap, staring up into eyes as dark as midnight, she felt so wonderful that all self-recrimination vanished.
If the crowd was wishing for a show, then by golly she’d give them one.
Drawing in a deep breath for courage, she pursed her lips.
Bennett swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
Anticipation. So sweet.
Later, thinking back on the moment, Lacy couldn’t really say who kissed whom. She raised her chin. Bennett lowered his face, and their lips became one, melding into a blur of soft flesh—sizzling, powerful, electric.
Act the part. You’re a femme fatale. A heartbreaker. A collector of men’s affections. Give him all that you’ve got.
It was as if the entire universe was shoving her forward. An aching, urgent need she could not explain gripped her with primal lust. Amazed at her own boldness, Lacy