“What do you do here?”

She sighed. Time to take a cue from history. She looked up at him from under her thick black lashes and smiled. “Do you really want to know?”

“I’m interested in you,” he told her.

“Come on. Don’t you like the mystery of it all?” It was so easy to slide back into the routine. “Isn’t it more fun this way?”

Hugh eyed her curiously. “You’re going to be a lot of trouble, aren’t you?”

She gave him the most innocent look she could muster. “Me?” A smirk touched her lips, and she lost all pretense. “Not unless your idea of trouble is a lot of fun.”

Turned out his idea of trouble was a lot of fun.

Bryna’s body slammed back into the wall of the mirrored elevator. Hugh covered her, and his lips landed on hers without asking for permission. He claimed her like he had paid for this kiss with dinner. She didn’t mind. His kisses were hot as sin. And she felt a sin coming on.

Her body heated to his touch. After an evening of clever banter and sexual tension that could have been cut with a spoon, it felt good to finally have his mouth on hers, to taste him.

His tongue ran along her bottom lip before entering her mouth, and she sighed with pleasure. This was what it was supposed to feel like—pure blissful tension and sexual cravings crashing down between them. Nothing like the stupidity that came with necessity from being with Andrew and none of the feelings of being with anyone else. Just the knowledge that, here, she was in control.

She ground her body against him, and his hands reached out and firmly grasped her hips. His fingers dug into her flesh to the point where it almost hurt. She might be bruised there tomorrow, and it only made her smile. Here was a man who knew what he wanted and how to take it. The pure self-assurance was like a shot of adrenaline to her system. Nothing was sexier than a man cocky with his cock.

The elevator stopped at the bottom floor, and Hugh glided away from her as if they hadn’t been close to ripping each other’s clothes off. She saw herself in the mirror then. Her hair was coming out of the ponytail, her cheeks were flushed, and even her dress was a little rumpled.

Dear God, they had only been in there for a minute. I’ve fucking missed this!

Hugh took her hand again, and they walked silently back to his town car. The energy between them was sizzling like a lit firecracker. She could tell how desperately he wanted her, his prize at the end of the evening.

She slid in beside him, and he drew her in close. His mouth found the curve of her neck. He kissed along the soft sensitive skin.

“I had a good time,” he murmured.

She swallowed hard. “Me, too.”

“I don’t want the night to end.”

She wasn’t sure if that was a question, a statement, or a command. With him, it really could be any of the above.

“Me neither.”

“Come back with me.”

Now, that was definitely a command.

“I want to…” She let her words linger in the space between them.

“Then, do.”

“But…” She hesitated.

This was where her powers rested. She knew what she wanted out of all this. She could tell exactly what he wanted from her. The longer she held out, the more he would want it. If she gave in tonight, she would be like every other girl he had probably done this with. She wasn’t naive enough to think someone this smooth had never been with anyone else other than his wife…who she was also sure he had. She would never be naive like that again.

This wasn’t about love. This was about lust and diamonds. The longer he lusted, the more diamonds.

“No buts,” he insisted.

“I can’t,” she finally got out. “I want to, but I can’t.”

Bryna, the girl who had fucked Andrew for kicks and giggles countless times since their first foray as fuck buddies, was turning down someone she actually wanted to sleep with.

All for her games.

This had better be worth it.

“OH GOD,” Bryna moaned. “Oh God, yes. Right there.”

Her cries were elevating as Andrew finished, and she came right after him. She fell forward on top of his muscled chest. She was breathing hard and had probably just ruined the fifty-dollar blowout she had gotten earlier. The thought made her giggle. Blowout.

“What’s so funny?” Andrew asked. He squeezed her waist and nuzzled her neck.

Okay. Enough. Enough.

“Nothing.”

She hopped off of him and went into the restroom to clean up and check out her hair. Just a little mussed. Nothing too bad. Plus, her makeup was still intact. None of the flyaways and smudges that had come from a hot elevator make-out session with Hugh.

Bryna frowned at her reflection. In fact, she hadn’t heard from Hugh all week, not since he had left her at her doorstep last weekend, even though she had given him her number and he had seemed interested in another date. She knew in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that long to wait. But fear still gnawed at her. Did I do the wrong thing in turning him down? Sex was her biggest advantage in all of this. Holding out should have made him desperate for it. Maybe she had tried too hard to keep the cards in her hands.

No.

She wasn’t going to doubt herself. She couldn’t at this point. Hugh was interested. He was simply taking longer than she had expected. She wasn’t going to think about it anymore tonight.

Her plans for the evening would keep her occupied at least. With the football team home for a bye week, they had decided to throw a huge Halloween party. Beth, from the cheerleading team, had taken the reins this year and was putting on the annual Slutfest at her house. Everyone who was anyone was supposed to be there, dressed up and ready to get shwasted.

Andrew had claimed that, last year? most of the guys didn’t dress up in anything, except for their letterman jackets, but all the girls went all out. Bryna hadn’t needed the encouragement to put together her outfit. She had decided on a rather appropriate Queen of Hearts dress, complete with a crown, red-heart stockings, and red high heels. She wouldn’t be painting the roses red tonight.

She slid back into her outfit that Andrew had deftly removed earlier and added her crown. Queen.

“Hey, babe, maybe forget these?” he suggested, holding up her thong. “Then, I can have fun whenever I want to.”

Bryna gave him an amused look. “And who says I’m not going to have fun elsewhere?”

“Because you had my dick inside you ten minutes ago.”

“And?”

“Come on, Bri,” Andrew groaned.

“You and I both know what this is, Andrew.”

“Yeah, but it’s so much fucking fun.”

She shrugged. It was fun, but it wasn’t completely satisfying either. At least it got her off well enough.

“We’re fucking. Not dating. That means I can fuck anyone else at the party tonight, if I want to.”

“Like who?” Andrew asked. “E?”

“What?” Bryna asked, taken by surprise. “Eric?”

“Yeah, Eric. I was there that night you asked him out, you know.”

Bryna raised her eyebrows. “I’m not interested in Eric Wilkins, and he’s not interested in me. That was a joke. I don’t even like being around him. He’s an asshole.”

Andrew smiled at that as if she were making a joke. What the hell is wrong with everyone?

The doorbell downstairs tore her from her thoughts, and then she heard her friends’ voices rising up the stairs.