Five minutes ago, technically.

“I know you have rules.” He brushed his nose over hers, echoing her thoughts. “Care to bend them? Take me for a test drive, McIntire.”

“Here?” she asked, stalling. Here was not the issue. The whole haunted mansion thing had faded into the background. She was a slave to her body’s reactions, to the heat of his hands, to the sound of his confident, deep voice. To him. All of him.

She couldn’t see his dark eyes, but she imagined their taunting glint, the wicked twist in the smile she felt grazing her cheek.

“What if… what if I say no?” She wouldn’t. She was halfway to yes now, her body humming from his fingers teasing over the thin layer of her panties.

“You won’t,” he said, his firm lips peppering her jaw with kisses.

She hated that cocksure side of him. Only she didn’t. Maybe she’d been mistaken, thinking his confidence was something to be shunned. It seemed all her girlie parts were cheering on this alpha male. He kissed her deeper, his tongue swirling her senses, and she fisted his shirt and began hauling it over his head.

“What if you say no?” She pulled his shirt up and gave him an open-mouthed kiss on his chest. He shifted beneath her, a groan low in his throat, so she tasted him again, loving the feel of his hardness, the tickle of his chest hair on her tongue.

“I won’t.” He pulled his hands from her pants, but before she had a chance to miss his touch, he was dragging her hoodie and shirt over her head in a tangled ball. Her bra went next. He had it unhooked and off her arms and, before she knew it, she was nude from the waist up.

There was a snide voice in her head pointing out how much practice he must’ve had at removing a woman’s clothes, but it was quickly shut out by another thought.

Practice makes perfect. No doubt he had many tricks up his sleeve when it came to the female form.

Not that she had any time to dwell on her misplaced jealousy. A second later, he braced her body against his and rolled with her. He shoved a pillow under her head, taking care to lift the bulk of her long hair out of the way.

“Comfortable?” he asked against her mouth, then quickly followed the line of her neck with mind-numbing kisses.

“Very,” she breathed.

He licked a trail down her throat, and she fed her fingers into his hair, her hips tipping off the bed when he placed a soft kiss between her breasts. His tongue circled her nipple, and she let out a startled gasp, followed by a thoroughly embarrassing moan. That…was the best sensation in the world. He pulled his mouth away with a soft pop and moved to her other breast, taking his time to trace her other nipple with care.

She massaged his scalp, her body overheating as he worked his magic. Her entire body tingled. Her head swam. Had anyone ever turned her on this much with his mouth? Had anyone ever tried? “Marcus, God.”

He smiled against her breast. She felt his teeth and lips, the cool air abrading her skin as he inhaled. Then he was climbing her body, the air mattress shifting as he moved. When he reached her mouth, he kissed her and pressed his hips into hers. She squirmed against his erection, feeling wet and warm, and so close to begging for it, she should be ashamed of herself. But she wasn’t ashamed. She wanted him… Oh, how she wanted him.

“What do you say, McIntire?” His voice was an intoxicating rasp in the dark room, an anchor in a sea of black.

What would she say? She’d say anything. She’d say everything. She’d been taken hostage by the man’s inescapable charm.

“What’s the question?” she teased, knowing full well his intentions. He ground into her again, and she clawed at his arms, wanting him closer. Needing him closer. He wanted her to say she wanted him. Wanted her to admit that she’d been felled by his epic seduction.

He nipped her bottom lip and soothed it with one slow, hot lick. “Make love to me, Lily.”

…

Dude.

Marcus wanted to hoover up the words that had just left his lips without permission. He’d meant to say something much more crass. Something teasing and kind of dirty. Not four vulnerable words showing her just how much he respected her. The last thing he needed was for her to see him as some feeble-minded man with a knee-weakening crush on her.

And he was both of those things.

He didn’t think he was about to be turned down—hell, he was halfway to getting into her pants—but maybe he’d misread her. Plus, he liked her way more than was healthy. Way more than four out of five doctors would recommend.

No. Fuck that. He was getting a yes. There was no way he’d miss the chance to take her to heaven and back right here on this air mattress. Not after a fitful night of erotic dreams starring her. Not after he woke with raging morning wood he’d had to beat into submission—literally. And still he wanted her. There was no quelling his attraction for her. No stopping what they’d started. So, yeah, he’d get that yes. No matter what.

You got this, Black.

He lowered his head and began teasing her breasts again, pulling one tightened bud onto his tongue and suckling her. She liked this. He could tell by the way she played her fingers along his head. An answering buzz shot down his spine and made his cock pulse. He drove his hips against her, desperate to feel the wet warmth between her legs without her pants in the way. But she hadn’t said yes yet, and he wanted to hear her say yes.

Actually, he wanted to hear her say, yes, Marcus, repeatedly in between heated breaths, he thought with a wicked grin.

He licked her with the flat of his tongue and pulled her deep into his mouth. God, he wished he could see what color her nipples were. He’d bet they were burnished peach, maybe a couple of freckles around them like the cute ones dotting her nose. A high, keening sound came from her throat, and he drove his erection into her thigh.

“Will you respect me in the morning?” she breathed, her hands pulling his hair in every direction. He liked it.

“You’re going to make me work for it, aren’t you?”

She laughed, a throaty, sexy sound. He liked that even more.

“I’m a determined man, McIntire.” He pulled his mouth from her nipple and rubbed his chin against it, testing to see if the roughness against her tender flesh turned her on or off. She clutched his head, a high, tight sound choking out her ebbing laughter.

On.Definitelyon.

“The bet still stands,” she told him, her vocal chords strained as he continued exploring her body. “No matter what we do for the next hour. And this…this exists outside of everything else.”

His lips came to a halt on her stomach. She meant outside of work. Outside of the world they inhabited when they weren’t pawing at each other in a pitch black, purportedly haunted mansion. Because he was a man, and capable of separating his dick’s pastimes from his workplace pastimes, it surprised him to feel a faint pinch in the area of his heart.

She wanted him here and now. Just not later. He didn’t like it, but it wasn’t about to stop him from fulfilling a two-year-plus wet dream.

“Of course,” he said against her skin. “Back to normal Monday morning.” Unless he convinced her otherwise.

Another rake of her hand through his hair sent him lower down her body, then she blurted, “Joanie and Clive can’t know.”

What kind of idiot did she take him for? He knew better than to ask. He stuck his tongue in her belly button and she sucked in a breath. “Say the word, Lily. We’re not going further until you do.”

Her palms on his cheeks, she pulled at his head and he climbed her body, meeting her nose to nose. “Promise,” she said.

He wasn’t a kiss-and-tell kind of guy as it was, but with Lily…he’d never brag about her to their friends. He respected her too much. “Promise, sweetheart. Now say it so I can get to the part where you scream my name.”