Bad Boys Online

Chapter One

"I've been hacked!" Halley Connors stared at her computer screen in shock. She prayed she was having some sort of hallucinogenic episode brought on by lack of sex, or from the dangerously high level of caffeine in her bloodstream.

Normally the picture on her website showed her wielding a tray of hors d'oeuvres for her catering business. Today the tray was gone. So was her dress.

"What?" Her assistant, Nora, came up behind her.

Halley couldn't answer. She was sick. No, this picture was sick. She hadn't been this grossed out since walking in on her parents horizontal on the kitchen table when she was sixteen.

"You're naked!" Nora exclaimed.

Very. And that body wasn't even hers. She'd never seen those breasts in her life.

And what was that blob between her legs? She peered closer. It was a cherub with wings, leaning forward and… "Eew! That's disgusting!"

"That's Cupid," Nora said in awe.

"Ohmigod, call Evan." Halley grimaced at the screen and hoped like hell Evan, her webmaster and best friend, would know how to fix this. "We've got to get this off."

Nora hustled off to her desk and started dialing while Halley's shock was replaced by fear. This could ruin her business, send it straight into the catering toilet where many a good company had landed due to the occasional cockroach or salmonella outbreak. Those were inherent risks in the business and well understood.

But this was unfathomable. She was naked with a perverted cherub between her legs. Even one day of an image like this on her website could have disastrous effects on her bottom line. It had to go, and pronto.

"Evan's not answering."

Halley groaned, a mental image running through her head of one of her conservative clients like Mrs. Brockmorten catching a glimpse of this debauchery. A sweat broke out.

"Who else can we call?"

"We have a couple of backup firms we could call, but do you have the passwords to allow access to your site?"

"Passwords?" Was that something she was supposed to know? "Uh… Evan takes care of all that stuff."

And she had been spending as little time as possible with Evan for months, having come to the shocking realization that she wanted his body. Best friends weren't supposed to lust after each other, and he would probably laugh hysterically or blanch in horror if she told him, so she had taken the easy way out.

Total avoidance.

Her naked image grinned at her. She looked really happy with that Cupid down there. She shuddered. Geez, she was going to have to find Evan. Without her knowing the passwords, he was the only one who could restore her catering dignity. Not to mention her clothes.

With that lowering thought, she flipped off her computer with a trembling hand and headed for the door. "If anyone calls about this, explain we've been the victim of a hacker."

"Okay." Nora looked at her wide-eyed, her red hair tumbling around her face. "Where are you going?"

"To Evan's. He's probably sleeping and not answering his phone." Since Evan had starting doing consulting and web de-sign work, he had taken to working in the evenings and sleeping until noon or so.

Which meant he would be sleepy, adorable, and pissed off at her for waking him up. Which was good. If she was fending off angry barbs, she wouldn't be thinking about how perverted she was to be wanting to see him naked.

The mere thought of him without clothes set her nipples standing on end in a double-gun salute. Crossing her arms over her chest, she frowned in annoyance. It should be illegal to react like that when thinking about someone you had known for years, who trusted you not to act like a girl and get delusions of relationship grandeur.

Forcing her mind off Evan and her nipples' reaction to him, she left the office wondering who could have done this to her. She was a really nice person, dammit. She treated her employees well, never succumbed to road rage, and gave mittens to the homeless shelter. It wouldn't qualify her for a halo, but she didn't think she was doing too badly.

Halley didn't see how someone could be so deliberately cruel, and by the time she found herself pounding on Evan's door ten minutes later, she was on the verge of noisy tears. All her years of hard work in the catering business could disappear faster than it took Cupid to shoot his arrow.

Not that she wanted to be reminded of the naughty Cupid between the legs that weren't even hers. But frankly, right now not much could make her forget him.

The door opened.

She forgot Cupid.

Evan Barrett blinked at her, his chocolate eyes heavy with sleep and his caramel hair tousled. He wasn't wearing a shirt, showing off his summer tan and broad shoulders. His hand lazily scratched his chest.

Halley's mouth went dry. Her eyes lowered to his hunter green boxer shorts, which weren't pulled up nearly as far as they could be, revealing that soft tuft of chestnut hair that went down to that fabulous…

Damn. He was gorgeous. And while technically not naked, he was close enough to set her, uh, skin on fire.

"Halley?" He squinted and leaned forward a little, as if the lighting was bad.

God, what was she wearing? She realized she hadn't seen Evan in a few weeks, and she had just stormed over here without even doing a makeup check. Glancing down, she gave a sigh of relief. All right. Khaki Capri pants and an aqua blue tank top. Not the stuff of fantasies, but not cellulite-displaying running shorts either.

Then she concluded her mental inventory by reminding herself that until six months ago when she had lost her mind and starting panting after him, she would have thought nothing of letting Evan see her wearing bulky flannel pajamas and a serious case of bed head.

Little reality check. She could be wearing a toga and it wouldn't be relevant to the situation at hand. Which was her catering-in-the-nude website.

Her anger returned, plus a little irritation just because Evan looked so good. If he wasn't so damn cute, none of these confusing feelings would ever have surfaced and their relationship could have stayed on solid, nonnaked footing.

Evan looked confused. "Am I dreaming?"

"What? No, you're not dreaming." And she knew she wasn't either, because if she were, he would be all over her like a cat on tuna right now.

His eyes raked over her, sharpening as the sleep receded. "Damn, that's weird. This is exactly like the sex dream I've been having lately. I open the door, and you're standing there… only you're usually wearing a bikini and high heels."

Her jaw dropped. Was he serious? A sex dream? About her? Of course he wasn't serious. He was joking, something he did a lot with her. Which was what friends should do. Not lust after each other in secret.

In fact, a lot of his teasing was sexual in nature, but until recently she had never even noticed. But now it had the effect of a furnace turned on full blast. Sweat popped up in unpleasant places.

She tried to smile and forced a rusty laugh past her lips. "Sounds like a nightmare to me."

He shook his head, a slow sexy smile crossing his face. "Not the way I had it playing out."

Her eyes rolled so far back in her head she practically fell over. It wasn't funny as far as she was concerned. Because she really wanted him to mean it. And he didn't.

"Dreams are often better than reality."

Evan laughed and ruffled the top of her hair like she was his favorite terrier. "I've missed you lately. Where have you been hiding?"

At work, far, far away from him and his lethal grin. Away from Evan, she could pretend her feelings were the result of not having had a date in two years. Standing in front of him, she knew better. She had inexplicably developed the hots for her best friend.

"Business is crazy. You know what this time of year is like." She breezed past him into his apartment.

Evan grinned, pushing his hair out of his eyes as he followed her. "So if you're not here to act out my recurring sex dream, what can I do for you? And just in case you were worried, I don't mind that you woke me up. It wasn't a late night last night, I stayed home alone."

Halley hid a grimace behind her hand, pretending to scratch her lip. Yuck. She hadn't even stopped to think about the fact that Evan might not be answering his phone because he was with someone. Having walked in on that twice in the past, she was glad she had been spared that kind of vomit-inducing scene today.

Not that she had seen Evan with a woman lately. In fact, it had been months since he had mentioned dating anyone. What a shame. It was wrong to be thrilled at that thought, but there it was.

"I wasn't worried about it," she shrugged. "Because I had to see you."

"Missed me, huh?" he teased.

If he only knew. She whirled around to face him, hands on hips.

"I've been hacked," she said in an outraged voice. "Can you believe it?"

The corner of Evan's mouth pulled up. "That sounds like a personal problem to me, sweet stuff."

The amusement in his voice didn't bother her nearly as much as the silly nickname he used, with no idea whatsoever what it did to her. He'd been calling her that for almost ten years, and now unexplainably, it had the effect of a blowtorch between her thighs.

Which was not what she needed to be thinking about.

"I'm serious." She forced herself to visualize Cupid between her legs, and felt appropriately horrified again. "My website has been hacked and you've got to fix it before clients start seeing it."

Evan flopped down onto the couch with his legs spread and said, "What did they do to it?"

Halley paced back and forth and cleared her throat. "Well, um, it's kind of hard to explain." Like dryer sheets. She'd never been able to figure out how those things worked.

Evan pushed his unkempt hair out of his eyes. "In my dream, this is the part where you walk in and stand in front of me, and I pull on the bikini strings…"

Evan's voice was low, charming, and luscious across her body as she walked over to him.

If only he knew how horny that made her, he wouldn't find it so funny anymore. More likely he'd leap out of his window to get away from her.

Halley cleared her throat for emphasis, ignoring the way his boxer shorts pulled up tautly and showed her a fabulous glimpse of his assets. One false move on his part, and she would be seeing a whole lot more.

Giving what she hoped was a casual grin, she said, "I told you to enjoy the dream then. What's behind those strings is a lot better in fiction than in reality." In real life, she wasn't exactly giving Pamela Anderson a run for her money.

Evan patted the seat on the couch next to him, which she totally ignored. Standing was much safer.

Evan said, "I hate it when you're down on your body." He raised his eyebrows up and down. "You've got great tits, sweet stuff."

That was so close to what she wanted to hear, yet so damn far.

"Well, I haven't made it into the Great Tits Hall of Fame yet," she joked, then could have kicked herself. She shouldn't be extending a conversation that dealt with body parts.

Evan threw his arms over the back of the couch and laughed. Then he shrugged on a grin, causing his chest to ripple in an attractive distraction that made Halley feel like a virgin at a Chippendales strip show.

Inspired. Eager. Amazed.

Then he ruined it by talking. "That's because the nominating committee hasn't seen you right now. Geez, are you cold or just happy to see me?"

Considering it was August and he had no air-conditioning, she would give him only one guess.

"Alright, very funny." Fighting the urge to cover her enthusiastic nipples with her hands, she strode off in the direction of his bedroom, where he kept his computer. "I'd say leave my chest out of the conversation but it's bound to pop up again once you see my website."

Not that she was jealous or anything of those huge melon-dwarfing breasts the hacker had stuck under her chin. Okay, so she was jealous, but only a little. At least she could do gymnastics or ballet if the urge ever struck her. Let's see a D-cup woman do that.

Halley shuddered as she walked into Evan's bedroom. The queen-size bed wasn't made. Gazing at those crumpled, still-warm sheets made her flustered. And aroused.

Evan let out a yawn next to her. Good to see he was as affected by her as she was by him.

She forced herself to turn away from the bed and walk to Evan's computer area. At least a third of his room was consumed by all kinds of computer equipment, wires, and other things she had no clue what to call.

"What did you say the problem was exactly?" Uhh. "Someone tampered with the website."

"Well, it can't be too bad. I designed the site myself, you know, and it's completely protected from hackers." He sat down at his computer desk and turned the machine on.

As it booted up, Halley came to stand behind him, careful not to get too close. She braced herself for the image that was going to pop up any second now. She wasn't sure having Evan fix it was worth the humiliation of having him see it. Then again, it was either Evan or potentially hundreds of customers. Closing her eyes, she gulped and waited for Evan's hysterical laughter to fill the room.

Chapter Two

Holy hell. Evan was speechless as he took in the sight of Halley smiling prettily on the home page of her website. Totally naked from head to toe.

Tampered was a hell of an understatement.

Halley was right. She had been hacked.

"Those bastards!"

"I know!" Halley's hands landed on his shoulders.

If he hadn't been so distracted, he might have enjoyed that little skin-to-skin contact, but he was too pissed off right now to appreciate it. "What a total kick in the balls. I cannot believe they got through my firewalls. This site was hack-proof!"

Halley's nails dug a little too deep. He winced and shifted away from her.

"That's not the point, Evan. The point is I'm naked!"

Was she ever. Jesus. Halley's ugly beige dress had disappeared and her smile seemed to have gone from professional to suggestive.

He liked it. Now if he could only get her to smile at him like that, instead of the perpetual "best buds" grin she always gave him.

"I don't think they got your best side, sweetheart," he said when he'd retrieved his voice from his throat, where it had been lodged like a beer nut.

She slapped his shoulder. "That's not even me!"

"I know." Did she think he was stupid? He knew every inch of her body, from her bouncy blond hair to her oddly chubby little toes. And everything in between.

He turned to look at Halley. She hadn't changed much in the ten years they'd been friends. Her hair was a little shorter these days, almost to her ears, and her clothes had toned down in style and color, but she was still the same Halley.

His best bud. That for quite a while now he had been wishing could be more. He had never seen Halley naked, but he had made a study out of her in clothes, and knew every curve of her delicious body.

There were plenty of occasions on which Halley really hadn't been wearing that many clothes in front of him, like trips to the beach and the pool, and those awe-inspiring times when she had opened the door to him in her PJs, no bra under those tight little stretchy tops.

With that kind of data stored in his memory banks, it was no wonder he was suddenly dreaming about her in triple-X.

Today Halley was a little pale, but that could be because she was looking at her head slapped on porn. He wondered how pale she would be if he told her he wanted to be more than friends. Way more than friends.

Not that he had any intention of telling her. That was a surefire way to screw up the best friendship he'd ever had. Sometimes he couldn't control himself and he blurted out comments that were way too revealing, like the recurring dream he'd been having. But Halley always assumed he was joking. Or she wanted to believe he was joking.

"Of course I know that's not you. Your body doesn't look anything like that." Halley's body was perfect. Breasts that would fit into his hands, a narrow waist, firm, sleek thighs, and an ass that could stop traffic.

Not that he'd noticed or anything.

And the hard-on he was now sporting in his boxer shorts was pure coincidence. A morning erection, twenty minutes late.

"You don't know what my body looks like," Halley said in shocked tones, as if he'd admitted to looking under the bathroom stall.

"Yes, I do. I've seen you in a bathing suit, and this body is not your body." This body, with the overgrown breasts and scrawny legs, did nothing for him. Halley's body made him want to drop to the ground and beg.

He turned and tried really hard not to look at her breasts. He failed miserably, and winced at her nipples jutting out in her tank top, her chest heaving up and down in indignation. If she had any idea the torture he endured in the name of friendship.

Innocently unaware of his lecherous thoughts, Halley said, "It doesn't matter whose body it is. Can you get rid of it?"

"Sure, I can fix it. No problem."

He dragged his gaze away from her firm breasts. With supreme effort, he turned back to the screen and eyeballed the image there again. It was then he noticed the little figure between her legs. Or whoever's legs they were.

"Jesus, Halley, this is the trademark of the Three Commandos, well-known hackers and online legends."

"How can you tell?"

"They always put a cartoon figure in their work. Cherubs, demons, devils, usually revolving around the themes of heaven and hell. And see? There's a C on each wing, and one on his bow. The Three Cs." Evan found himself excited in spite of the circumstances. He had a chance to dig into the Three Commandos' handiwork, and see if he was up to the job of restoring Halley's site to its prehacked state.

Since he had gotten burnout and left software development three years earlier, he had been doing consulting work. It was low stress, paid great, and left him plenty of free time for relaxing and playing in a baseball league. But he missed stuff like this. The challenge of the computer, figuring out its inner workings and how man had manipulated those.

The Three Cs had thrown down a challenge to him. To figure out how they had managed to so obviously and effectively corrupt the site he had built for Halley. It just might require enough brain capacity to keep his mind off Halley for an hour or two.

"So why did they pick on me?" Halley wailed, obviously not concerned about the mysterious guts of a PC.

"Did you serve them bad fish, maybe?"

"I don't serve bad anything."

He didn't doubt it. Halley personally oversaw everything about her business. Despite her horror, he grinned at the screen in total appreciation for the art of the Three Commandos. They had style, you had to give them that.

"Sweet stuff, whatever you did, it earned a cherub going down on you."

Halley flushed. Her cheeks were vivid pink and her mouth dropped. "I didn't do anything, and that's not me," she stubbornly insisted.

"I know it's not you. We've been over this. I'll fix it, so don't get your panties in a bunch." There he was. Doing it again. Mentioning underwear when that was the last thing in the world he should be discussing with Halley.

Inevitably, the image of her in nothing but panties rose in his mind. His cock throbbed and he shifted in his chair, hoping Halley didn't happen to glance down into his lap. The Leaning Tower of Penis might be a little hard to explain.

Halley whacked him on the back. Not a light teasing pat. Or a seductive brush. But a whomp. Right between the shoulder blades. "Let's see how you would feel if you were naked on the Internet."

He tossed her a grin, almost grateful she'd lobbed him hard enough to knock a few teeth loose. Maybe if she whacked him on the head next, he'd recover his sanity. "But you just said that's not you."

"Technicality!" She dug her hands into her hair and twisted her fingers around until her hair was in a makeshift bun. Her shirt rose way up past her belly button, flashing him with smooth pale skin.

God, he loved her. He had loved her almost as long as he had known her. It was a love that had grown out of friendship, and was deep and solid and forever. In the last couple of years that love had extended to the physical, as in he'd love to get his hands on her body.

Sometime before he died or she married some putz.

Evan stared at her and contemplated reaching forward and licking her stomach, dipping his tongue into her belly button. He was abnormally horny today, which was probably the result of not dating for the last six months. For years, he had avoided his feelings for Halley by marathon dating, but lately, he just couldn't even fake his way through it anymore.

Halley waved her hand back and forth in front of his face. "Hello? Did you fall back asleep? Can you fix my site today, or do you know someone we can call who can do it if you can't?"

That distracted him from studying the smooth skin of her abdomen as his ego suffered the insult. How could she even doubt he could fix it? He could fix it with one hand tied behind his back. He could fix it submerged in water. He could fix it even if Halley was sucking his cock.

Well, maybe not that one. Painful hot throbbing filled his boxers. He wouldn't be doing anything else but enjoying, if Halley ever took it upon herself to suck him.

Not that she would ever even dream of doing that with him, the man she thought of like a brother. But that didn't stop him from fantasizing a little. Right now.

"Well?"

Huh? He had forgotten what she'd asked him.

"Oh, yeah, of course I can fix it. It might take me a couple of hours to bypass all the firewalls the hackers might have erected but that won't be a big deal."

"Can you put it back exactly the way it was?"

"Not a problem." The only problem was that she needed to move away from him or he would never be able to concentrate.

Halley needed to get away from Evan. The feel of him, the sound of his voice, the sleepy morning smell that surrounded him, was driving her crazy.

Not batty like her Aunt Ginny. But wild kind of crazy. Really achy kind of crazy.

She hadn't been with a guy since that fiasco she had called a relationship with Lewis, the human plunger.

Given the heat in her Capri pants, it seemed a safe bet that two years was too long to go without a little woohoo.

"Can I borrow your phone?" She backed up slowly, one, two. There, that was better. She couldn't smell him anymore. "I want to call my office and let them know what's going on."

"Sure." His voice was already distracted as he peered at the computer screen. He started moving the mouse, clicking on things in rapid succession.

Halley was relieved to leave her problem in capable hands and retreat to his kitchen, which still had last night's dinner dishes in it. Dinner looked to have been Cheetos and a frozen burrito.

She shuddered. His eating habits were abysmal, and in the last few years she had taken to cooking for him a couple of times a week. But since she had been avoiding him, he had obviously resorted to barrel scraping.

She could cook something for him in ten minutes that was a thousand times better than a frozen burrito. A nice fluffy omelet would be ideal, she thought as she picked up the phone and dialed her office.

Nora picked up.

"Hi, it's me. How are things going there?" She held her breath waiting for the answer.

"Well." Nora hesitated.

Halley's stomach did a hokey-pokey imitation, shaking and churning. "Tell me."

"Okay. We've had sixteen calls requesting nude catering jobs. Three callers wanted to know if you could serve penis-shaped hors d'oeuvres, one thought he could order a prostitute complete with her own Cupid sex toy, and you remember Mr. Benjamin, that sweet old man whose eightieth birthday we catered last month? He wants a refund since we didn't serve nude at his party." Nora took a deep breath. "And I caught three of our servers printing fifty copies of the home page with your picture on it."

"Oh, no!" Halley sagged against the counter. She was ruined. Completely and utterly ruined. She might as well pack up and go back to the trailer park she had grown up in.

As a total failure.

Nora said in bewilderment, "Who would have thought so many people in suburban Pittsburgh want naked catering?"

That was a question for philosophers and Jerry Springer.

"Evan says he can fix it, so just try and stay calm. You're doing great." Which was more than she could say for herself since she had the urge to collapse on the kitchen floor in a fit of the screaming meemies.

"I shredded the copies the servers printed, but there's nothing to stop them from making more. You might want to reprimand them, it was"

Halley quickly cut her off. "No, that's okay." She really had no interest in which of her male employees had found it necessary to put on paper fifty copies of her naked body.

Which was not her naked body at all. Geez, that was the worst part of the whole thing. They had given her one of those figures that looked as if it was three or four different bodies welded together. Huge breasts, hourglass waist, curvy behind, and chicken legs.

Naked Catering Barbie. Complete with tray.

Besides, she had a hard time visualizing calling three men into her office and telling them to stop printing out nudie shots of her on company time with expensive office supplies. It sort of shot her advantage as their intimidating boss.

"One last thing," Nora said, her tentative voice betraying the casual words.

"What?" Halley paced back and forth in Evan's kitchen, skirting his overflowing trash can. Whatever Nora had to say, it couldn't get any worse.

She was ready.

"The church charity group called."

Oh, no. This was going to be worse.

"And?"

"They're canceling us for their five-hundred-seat event."

What would Evan do if she suddenly starting screaming "bloody hell" at the top of her lungs?

That charity dinner was five hundred times nineteen ninety-five a plate, which meant she was out a hell of a lot of money.

"They didn't even want to talk to me?" Maybe if she threw in free wine…

Nora said, "I tried to talk them out of canceling, I told them it was a hack job, but they didn't care."

She squeezed her eyes closed. "That's okay."

Her life was over, but it wasn't Nora's fault. Nora was clearly upset and Halley didn't want her to feel she was to blame. The Three Commandos were the ones to blame, and they were smarmy illusive Internet surfers, hacking their way through decent hardworking people's lives.

"I'll call you later." She hung up and ran a mental list of all the events they had coming up during the busy August and September wedding season. If even a fourth of them canceled, she was going to suffer from excess inventory, an unnecessarily large staff, and decreased income.

On a shaky sigh, she let the tears break free and roll down her cheek.

"Holy crap, you're not going to believe this." Evan came strolling into the kitchen, a grin dancing across his face.

Halley turned to hide her tears, but the smile collapsing into concern showed her he had already seen them.

He stopped dead and said, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Stupid man. What did he think was wrong? That she'd missed the JCPenney white sale?

"I have perfume in my eye."

"Perfume? In your eye?" He was coming closer to her, frowning as if he was doing some serious thinking.

"Yes. Perfume. In my eye." She bent over the sink and pretended to be rubbing around in her eye, trying to swipe away any remaining signs of her wimpy breakdown. His hands landed on her upper arms as he came up behind her.

Touching was bad. It was very, very bad. Touching meant that he was close to her and that with one little shift back, she could be flush against him, her curves melding into his hardness, his breath rushing past her ear. She could press her backside along his pants and feel him swell with arousal.

Wait a minute. He wouldn't swell with arousal. He would be shocked and horrified at her unfriendly behavior, and she would lose the best friend she'd ever had.

"Let me see."

He was right there. On top of her, cutting off her air and sending her into full-fledged panic. If he would just call her sport or give her a noogie, she'd be fine, but this sweet soft concern was more than she could handle.

"I've got it." Her voice wobbled a little.

Those strong hands forced her to turn around. She blinked like a myopic deer caught in the headlights. Turning her head a little, she tried to lean back away from him, not wanting to smell him or feel him, so she wouldn't embarrass herself by begging for a kiss.

"You're crying," he murmured, his thumb reaching up and wiping the last wet streaks from her cheeks.

"No, it's watering because I have an eyelash in it."

"I thought you said it was perfume."

Was he writing this stuff down? Geez. She glared at him. "Evan, I'm fine."

Then he kissed her nose. A sweet gentle dusting.

A funny little sigh came out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry about your site, you don't deserve that."

His lips brushed across hers, a soft caress that made her feel warm and gooey.

"What are you doing?" she whispered as his arms came around her back and drew her up against his hard, very uncovered chest.

"Comforting you."

It was working. She was so comforted her bones seemed to have dissolved like Alka-Seltzer in water. His thumbs rubbed her waist, his hip pressed against hers, and his mouth came toward hers again.

Evan had kissed her before in the past, and she was sure this wasn't any different. Light brushes for hello and goodbye, a full-mouth kiss when she'd graduated from college. Hugs when her grandmother had died. It was no big deal at all… no different.

Except this time his tongue was in her mouth.

Yowsa, that felt good.

It had started out the same, but now it was sweeter, deeper. Wet. A kiss that required open mouths, gripping hands, and rapid breathing.

Slow and steady, he dipped and tasted her, and Halley clung to his chest, too stunned to do anything but lie across him like a limp noodle. This was the last thing in the universe she had expected Evan to do, and even though it felt so damn good, she hesitated.

Evan's hands were in her hair, and he tilted his head to gain better access to her. Halley wondered briefly if this was how he comforted all his friends. Then she reminded herself she was his only female friend, and she didn't really care why he was kissing her, just that he was.

Her mom always said don't look a gift horse in the mouth. She had never known what in the hell that really meant, but she thought in this case it gave her permission to make out with Evan.

So she threw her arms around him and kissed him back for all she was worth.

Their mouths slid and pressed together, tongues intertwining in wet passion as they moved from soft to deep to reckless. It was the fullest, most meaningful kiss she'd ever had in her twenty-eight years, and when Evan's hands cupped her behind, she moaned into his mouth. Oooh, that was nice.

And it made her press against his penis, which was hard and ready to go. No need to wait for the sixty-second inflate time. Evan must have already pulled the ripcord.

Light little kisses fell on her mouth, hard enough to feel him and taste him, light enough to make her want more, deeper and fuller. A whimper dragged out of her. He kissed her jaw, and licked a wet trail down her neck as she tossed her head back.

Worry over her catering business was long gone. Only to be replaced by a new tensiontight, burning sexual tension rising from the center of her body.

"I have an idea," he murmured.

She was getting one too. One that involved no clothes and she and Evan doing the dirty here on the kitchen floor.

She shivered as he breathed into her ear, anticipating a suggestive overture from Evan. A confession of deep desire and longing, a demand that she make love to him. A sensual coaxing that she was the best friend he'd ever had and could be so much more…

Evan said, "Let's do a little hacking of our own."

Chapter Three

Hacking? Evan wanted to hack her. Huh. Was that a computer geek's way of saying sex?

Halley didn't think it sounded all that great. Hacking away at her, I got hacked last night, you make me so hot and hacky… no, it was pretty much a bucket of cold water as far as she was concerned.

Maybe this was why they'd never gone beyond friendship.

"What do you mean?" She licked her lips and leaned back in his arms as he continued to rub the most delicious circles across her backside, his thighs moving to enclose hers while his tongue made swirlies on her neck.

Maybe she could put up with hacking, after all.

"Revenge. I'm talking about revenge on the Three Commandos."

What? Wrong. That's not what he was supposed to say. If she had time, she would write a handbook on things men should not say while getting a woman all hot and bothered.

After mentioning an ex-girlfriend or a change in sexual orientation, revenge would be at the top of the list.

"Revenge?" She tried to pull back. This was weird, with a capital W. God, what the hell had she been doing anyway?

His tongue dipped into her ear as he held her tight.

Getting horny, that's what she had been doing.

Was still doing, despite the potential disaster factor being huge. She quivered in his arms, breathing hard as he nuzzled into her neck, sucking lightly, pulling her skin forward with his hot mouth.

Evan didn't seem to be struggling with this baffling change in their relationship. In fact, he was acting as if he had his hands on her ass on a regular basis.

Halley wondered if it was possible to have fallen asleep standing up.

His thumbs drifted up from her waist and brushed across each of her nipples, a tentative quest for permission.

"Oh," she groaned, arching her head back, inviting him to pursue touching her.

"Is this comforting?" he murmured, his head bending in front of her as he slid down her chest with his moist mouth.

Evan dragged her tank top down to expose the tops of her breasts, and she could see his pink tongue heading for the nearest curve.

"I do feel better," she said truthfully. She was also feeling hot, damp, and achy with tight need that snaked around her insides.

Two years' worth of hormones flooded up and out as if the Hoover Dam had been attacked with a sledgehammer.

Evan seemed to be experiencing similar feelings. Halley could feel his hardness pressing into her as he rocked forward with the full length of his penis. With a desperate ferocity that startled her, Halley dropped her hands to his waist and helped him grind.

It may be wrong, but it sure felt good.

Evan groaned, a little throaty aching moan that gave her a burst of triumphant pleasure. He was stroking the length of his erection between her legs, pulling in and out, as Halley wrapped her thighs around him and clenched.

She could hear his breath grow shallow as he thrust with a quick rhythm, and his moans were stifled in her neck as he buried his head. There was no thought of anything but the throbbing strokes of intimacy between them, strokes that mocked the movements of him actually plunging inside her moist body.

Eyes half closed, she gripped his shoulders and wondered that even with his boxer shorts and her pants, she could feel the heat between them. Panting and beyond rational, she thrust her hips to meet him, causing another full moan to rip from Evan.

Then he misjudged and nudged her a little on her inner thigh.

Wait a minute. Her eyes flew open. Something didn't feel right. This felt too real.

She glanced down and saw smooth golden skin before Evan pushed forward and buried himself between her covered thighs. She wasn't supposed to be seeing skin.

That lion was out of his cage.

His boxers had sprung a leak.

"Evan." She tried to maneuver backward out of his way, but another thrust made her groan and freeze where she was. Oh, my.

She whispered on a ragged breath, "You've fallen out of your shorts."

And he was so glad he had. Evan gripped Halley by the waist and rocked against her. Even though every inch of her was still covered by clothing, he was on the verge of coming. On the edge, about to jump off.

Just to feel her, to smell her, to taste the saltiness of her skin, had him ditching common sense at the door. He was driving himself between her thighs, her soft flesh clenching around him, the rustle of her pants causing hot friction on his cock.

He was fighting for control, but it was slipping away from him. He had wanted Halley for so long now, and she had looked so vulnerable to him, fighting back tears. Needy. Evan knew how hard she worked on her business and she didn't deserve to lose it. Staring into those big shiny blue eyes, he had been overcome by the urge to kiss her and make it all better.

Granted, he'd done a little more than that, but Jesus, he was only human.

"My mistake," he said, staring into her bewildered and glazed eyes.

"Evan." She broke eye contact and shuddered. "You have to stop."

He had already slowed down to soft pulsing strokes, and he really didn't want to stop, but he was damn surprised she'd let him get away with as much as he had. Not that he'd planned on sliding between her legs, but when he had burst through the slit in his shorts, he'd gone with it.

But he stopped now, and pulled back with a smothered groan. Yeah, he could stop. Sure, no problem. He took a painful step backward and ran his fingers through his hair.

This wasn't exactly how he had planned to tell her that his feelings extended just a little beyond friendship. He stood there a minute and tried to think of something to say that didn't sound idiotic or perverted. He wasn't having much luck.

Halley gaped at him. "Well, don't just stand there. Put it away."

That horrified tone in her voice didn't help his speech-making capabilities. Neither did looking down and seeing his cock, sort of rising there between them.

This was embarrassing. But he really didn't think he could put it away. If he put his hand on himself, there was no telling what might happen, and he didn't think it would fit back in his boxers right now anyway. Like trying to stuff a bull into a cat carrier.

"Just give me a minute." Or twelve or thirteen.

"Evan!" She adjusted her tank top and flushed pink. "I can't just stand here when you're… hanging out."

Hanging was the wrong word. Rearing up was a better way to phrase it. He felt the start of annoyance. She was acting as if he had shown her a box full of worms and tried to make her touch them. "It's not like you haven't seen one before."

"Yeah, but I haven't seen yours."

Actually, she had once when she'd walked in on him changing, but Evan didn't think now was the time to point that out. Instead, he asked her seriously, "Why do you think that is?"

Halley had responded way more enthusiastically to his kiss than he ever would have imagined, which was exactly why they had ended up standing here like this. She had kissed him back so hard and hot that the next thing he'd known, they had been grinding into each other.

Her lips pursed together, and she fanned herself. "Because friends don't show each other body parts."

Evan grinned, feeling relieved despite the grimace on her face. For years he had been afraid that Halley thought of him like a big platonic buddy. That kiss told him differently, and that was all he needed to know. "Maybe we should change that."

To appease her, he moved his cock and gave it a painful shove back into his shorts, where it made a nice tent, stretching the fabric as far as it could go.

"Button the little button."

Now she was pushing it. "No, those things are a pain in the ass. If I button it, then I'm fumbling around trying to unbutton it. When you're in a public rest room, it looks like you're playing with yourself."

She rolled her eyes. "Just keep it where it belongs then."

He grinned, giving her a cocky tilt of his head and a hands-out gesture of acquiescence. "Sweet stuff, I can't think of any better place where it belongs than"

She cut him off, looking more flustered than angry. "That's not funny."

She moved back, away from his reaching arms, and tripped over his garbage can. "Eew. Your apartment's disgusting, by the way. Don't you ever clean?"

Nothing was alive, as far as he knew. That was good enough for him. "Sure, I clean. I cleaned everything top to bottom in May."

"It's August."

And her point was?

"Listen, can we get back to why I'm here?" She tucked her blond hair behind her ears.

"You're the one talking about my cleaning schedule."

"Why… why did you just do that?"

"Do what?"

"Kiss me and everything," she whispered, turning a pretty little pink color.

"I told you. I was comforting you." He smiled slowly at her, watching her eyes go wide and her mouth drop open. He suddenly felt really damn good about his options with Halley. "Did it help?"

She nodded, obviously too stunned by his prowess to speak.

This was it. He could move in for round two. Now that his cover as asexual pal was blown, he might as well take advantage of the situation. He took a step forward, eager to touch her again. "Should I comfort you some more?"

Her head flew back and forth in a vicious shake. Okay, that wasn't good. Maybe her speechlessness was terror that he might touch her again.

"No, I have to get back to work. Now." Halley twisted her earring in her ear and darted her eyes, avoiding his gaze.

Evan sighed. For five years he had been keeping a tight lid on his emotions, and in one morning, he had lost control and gone at her like a sex-starved lunatic. Which he was.

"Halley, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or anything. I was just trying to make you feel better." He mentally groaned. Crap, that sounded awful. Like he just whipped out his dick whenever anyone was upset.

She blinked. "Oh, well, I do. Feel better. Thanks."

Halley turned and left the kitchen, heading for his front door at a fast clip.

"Give me a couple of hours and I'll have your site fixed."

Her head bobbed up and down, but she didn't look back at him. "Thanks, I really appreciate it."

"No problem." He stood silent, in agony, trying to formulate a better apology. He wouldn't be able to stand it if he lost Halley as a friend. She meant everything to him.

Rubbing her palms on her brown pants, Halley stopped and turned in the front doorway. She opened her mouth, then closed it, probably just to torture him.

"What did you mean about revenge?" she asked.

Something that had seemed like a fun, friendly kind of thing to do together. Before he'd buried himself in her thighs and blown their friendship forever.

"A friend of mine knows who the Three Commandos are. He's going to e-mail me the URL for their website. I thought we could do a little hacking of our own. Fix his website up the way they did yours."

On any other day, one where he hadn't kissed her senseless, Hailey would have said yes. He just knew it. But that frown on her face showed him how much he had risked and lost by listening to his libido.

"I really have to get back to the office. Maybe… later."

No surprise there. She wanted to get away from him and he couldn't blame her. But it would have been fun to screw around with those guys with Halley next to him, giggling and coming up with evil reverse-hacking suggestions.

His heart ached painfully. He missed her already and she hadn't even left.

Hey, he would just have to do the hacking on his own then. He couldn't stand those cocky shits who ran around the Internet messing with people's heads and/or their websites. Halley didn't deserve to have her business screwed with just for some geeks' jollies, and it was the least Evan could do in the way of an apology.

"I'll call you when I get the site fixed," he said.

"Great," she said with a nervous smile. Then she edged out the door backward as if she were afraid he might make a grab for her and fondle her silly.

"Bye, Evan." With a wave, she took off running, the sound of her sandals slapping down the stairs echoing in his miserable heart.

"Yeah. Bye, Halley."

Kicking his nasty, festering, overflowing garbage can, he sent a half-filled fountain drink skittering across the floor. As it leaked three-day-old Coke on the vinyl, he stomped out of the kitchen and down the hall to his bedroom.

The only reason Halley had come to him, her old friend Evan, was to cover up her tits on her website, not to be tortured with his clumsy seduction attempts. He should just fix the site and be done with it.

Or he could stare at the screen all day and fantasize that Halley really was naked in front of him, and he was the cherub.

Evan blinked at the image still on his computer and swore out loud.

Damn, he was hungry.

Comforting her. Evan had been comforting her.

As she ate her lunch, Halley tried to force Evan's kiss out of her mind. She would have had more luck lifting a semitruck with her finger. It was all she could think about.

Evan had been comforting her, and she had leapt on to him like a nympho in a sex video. Admittedly, he had responded after all, she'd felt that thing between her legs and had seen it in all its glory. Impressive glory that it was.

But Evan was a man. And it was hardly surprising that he would get an erection when she was dirty dancing on him. She had long ago determined that men's penises acted independently of the rest of their body, including their brain and heart.

That was why she had gotten the hell out of there. If she had pushed it, pulled out the breasts and a few other tricks, she probably could have convinced Evan to sleep with her.

Which was comparable to throwing ten years of great friendship down the toilet.

Geez, maybe she needed to go home and rent When Harry Met Sally to remind herself that sex between friends was a major no-no.

Of course, Harry and Sally had gotten together in the end.

Halley threw down her sprouts and avocado sandwich on her desk and grimaced. Brushing crumbs off her fingertips, she glanced at the pile of messages Nora had left on her desk. She didn't want to look at them, knowing they were nothing but bad news. In the two hours since she'd been back, the phone had been ringing constantly.

Her sandwich churned in her stomach, and she was left with the horrible feeling that if the absolute worst happened, and she lost her business, she would be left with nothing. No business, no Evan.

That thought had her flinging down her paper napkin and standing up. She had worked damn hard to make this business successful. Maybe she had screwed things up with Evan, but she couldn't just sit still and let Bite of Heaven crumble down around her. This was a minor setback, that's all. With a little damage control, everything would be fine.

"Nora," she called as she stepped out of her office.

The hum of a half-dozen employees talking ground to a halt as she entered the reception area. Eyes avoided hers. Horace, one of her younger drivers, boldly ogled her, running his gaze up and down.

Anger raced through her. She was about to reprimand him when Horace shook his head in confusion.

"That doesn't make any sense."

Caught off guard, she asked, "What doesn't?"

"That's not even you in the picture. I can tell by looking at your"

So much for the thirty-dollar water bra she had bought. Halley cut him off. "Alright, I got it! And of course it's not me."

Like she would ever pose for nude photos in the first place.

The faces staring back at her were a mix of confusion and pity. It made her feel sick. Taking a slow, even breath, she said, "The problem is being dealt with. Let's all just go about our business, shall we?" And stop mulling over her breasts.

There were nods, half smiles, and a reluctant pulling of various bodies off desks where they had been leaning. Talking about her. Probably about how boring she was, and how unlikely it was that her naked picture would ever be splashed on the Internet.

Not that she cared. She didn't want her picture on the Internet. So what if she was boring and flat-chested and so starved for sexual attention that she had to throw herself at her best friend? Big deal. She was successful. She had scratched and clawed her way out of Hazen, West Virginia, and had made something out of herself. Something she could be proud of.

A workaholic who hadn't had sex in two years.

Argh. That wasn't helping.

Nora left the others and approached Halley where she stood clenching her fists and glaring, feeling like a bull just itching to charge. At what, she didn't know. The Three Commandos would be the logical choice.

Nora took her hand and pulled her aside. "Listen, Halley, did you read those messages I put on your desk?"

Since Nora looked ready to pop a pacifier in her mouth and cuddle her in a blankie, Halley guessed they weren't filled with uplifting news.

"No, I haven't gotten to them."

Nora squeezed her hand. "Well, it's just as well that I tell you myself then."

That was promising. "More cancellations?"

Nora tucked her red hair behind her ear and shook her head, giving Halley another maternal look even though she was nearly five years younger than her. "No, actually, things have been quiet on that front, thank goodness. Just more requests for nude catering jobs."

Great. Just great. "I hope you declined."

"Of course!" Nora bit her lip. "But the part you're really not going to like is that your dad called."

"My dad?" Ohmigod, her father never called her. Her dad worked twelve hours a day, but there was still barely enough money to put food on the table. Calling long distance to Halley was out of the question.

"Did someone die?" Her heart dropped to her shoes, and she wondered if something was wrong with her mom or with one of her three younger sisters.

Nora shook her head. "No! But he saw the picture on the web."

"What? How is that possible?" Her parents didn't have a computer. As far as she knew, her dad had never even seen one. There wasn't a real pressing need for a town of coal miners to surf the web.

Nora whispered, looking distinctly uncomfortable, "I guess your cousin Jake was bored, fooling around, and came across it. When he told your dad last night, your dad insisted Jake show him."

Halley shook her head to clear it. All she did was flip hair in her mouth. "You got all that from my dad?" Her dad wasn't known for long, drawn-out conversations.

"No, your mom got on and told me after your dad couldn't string anything together after 'Where the hell is Halley?' "

Halley clutched her head in pain. "Oh, crap, this is awful. My parents think I have a nude catering business."

They were sweet, hardworking, churchgoing folk. She was surprised her father hadn't already had a heart attack.

"Well, I told them it was a mistake."

But did they know that wasn't her body? Yuck, yuck, and triple yuck.

"Thanks." Halley forced her head up and patted Nora on the arm. Hopefully with a phone call, she could assure her parents she wasn't running a prostitution ring or stripping online.

Something Nora had said popped into her head. "Wait a minute? My dad saw this last night?"

"That's what he said."

"I wonder how long it's been up there like that, then?" She couldn't remember the last time she'd checked the site prior to that morning.

"A week."

Halley spun around. Horace was listening to them with no sign of embarrassment.

"A week?" She was back in bull mode, clenching fists and leaning forward. All she needed was the nose ring and the red cloth target. "But we just started getting calls today."

Horace shifted on the balls of his feet, and coughed into his hand. "It started a week ago with just the tray disappearing, then your top, then your skirt. Last night was when the angel showed up."

She stared at him in horror. "Why didn't you say anything?" You total jackass.

He shrugged. "I wanted to see what would happen next."

Unemployment was what was happening next. "Horace, you're fired!"

With the audacity to look startled, Horace said, "Hey! Whoa, don't overreact."

That was not overreacting. Overreacting would be grabbing his nuts with her hand and squeezing the hell out of them.

She had been doing a week-long striptease on her website and no one had bothered to mention it to her.

That was it.

Nobody turned her into an online stripper and got away with it. Time to take Evan up on his idea to get revenge on the Three Commandos.

It was petty and juvenile and wouldn't solve her problems, but the Three Cs were just begging to get knocked down a peg or two.

Besides, she needed to talk to Evan, and clear the air about her dog-in-heat imitation earlier. But first she was going to tell him to hack away, with her permission.

It would be her pleasure.

Chapter four

Evan stared at Halley on the screen, restored to her previous state of conservative dress and tray holding.

He should be feeling smug, pleased with himself. It had taken him only two hours and thirty-seven minutes to fix Halley's website.

Naked was better, he concluded. Not that weird impostor body, but Halley's real body, soft and curvy and peach colored. That would be way more interesting than the goofy brown dress she was wearing in the original, now-restored, shot.

It wasn't what he should be thinking about, but he couldn't stop the image from assaulting him. Nor could he stop doing a mental instant replay of the kiss he and Halley had exchanged.

A better apology was in order. But he didn't want to apologize. He wanted to lock her up in his bedroom and keep her so sexually satisfied she'd never think to leave him again.

The idea had merit. But it was probably illegal.

But if Halley were willing…

Of course, that wasn't going to happen.

Evan stood up and stretched his arms up over his head. While he had dragged on khaki shorts over his boxers at some point, he had never bothered with a shirt. It was sticky in his apartment since the AC had crashed and his landlord had yet to fix it.

The heat was causing a thin sheen of sweat to roll across his chest and forehead, making him itch. He wandered toward the kitchen, realizing he had never eaten breakfast or lunch and he was now starving. But when Evan got into something like breaking through the hackers' trail, he lost sight of mundane tasks like eating.

Now that he was done, his appetite returned with a vengeance. Despite the funny odor kicking up out of his garbage receptacle in the kitchen. Wrinkling his nose, he bagged it up and hustled it out to the dumpster, squinting as the bright sun hit him in the eyes.

Back inside, he sprayed a little disinfectant and felt better about the whole thing. The kitchen was almost clean now. Halley would be proud of him.

He was eating a bowl of corn flakes with a spotty banana when someone pounded on his door. Furiously.

Could it be? No, she wouldn't come back. Would she? Evan ditched the corn flakes after one last big bite and nearly tripped over his bare feet to get to the door. If this was Halley, if this was his second chance, he was going to pull out all the stops and charm her right out of her tank top.

No, no, he was going to apologize and keep his damn hands to himself. Scout's honor.

He pulled the door open.

Only Evan had never been a Boy Scout.

Halley looked like a hot fudge sundae on a spoon. And he wanted to lick every inch of her.

"Back so soon?"

Halley's hands were on her hips, causing her tank top to shift and bunch in various delicious places. Her lipstick had been bitten off, and her foot tapped up and down restlessly. A desperate passionate sort of gleam radiated from her green eyes, and Evan wasn't idiot enough to think that passion was for him.

Halley looked pissed off and ready to take names.

"Okay, here's the deal." Halley placed her hand on his chest and gave him a healthy shove to push him out of her way as she charged into the apartment like Xena, Warrior Caterer.

He had no idea what she was going to say, but he knew, just knew, it wasn't going to be what he wanted her to say. Which was, Rip my clothes off me, sport.

Halley's lip quivered. "That picture of me has been there a week, Evan. A week! A client canceled on me, my employees are printing pictures of me, and my dad saw it. My dad!"

Her glassy eyes were huge.

No, not what he wanted to hear. And shit, she was having a breakdown in front of him. For Halley to lose control was more than a little alarming, it was damn scary.

Evan put his hands on her arms and rubbed in a gentle and hopefully soothing manner. "Shh, sweet stuff, it's alright. I fixed the site. Everything is normal again."

"Thank you." She sniffled, then gave him a ferocious stare, clamping down on her lips to stop the trembling. "But now I want revenge. Just like you said. I want the Three Commandos to hang."

Evan was stunned into momentary silence. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? Maybe releasing all that anxiety would be a great relief for Halley. Or it might send her over the edge into a place that required antidepressants.

A little unsure, he said, "I thought you said that you were busy."

She shrugged, and he released her arms. The tears and trembling had stopped, and she looked in control of herself again. "My inventory spreadsheets can wait."

Evan studied her carefully, wishing she wouldn't use words like spread. She seemed to have forgotten that a few hours earlier he had tried to do just that to her.

Aside from the hysterical reaction to her website, she was acting normally toward him. Did that mean he was forgiven for trying to jump her bones?

"Listen, are we okay? You and me."

Halley's cheeks went pink and she blew her hair out of her eyes. "Why wouldn't we be? Oh, you mean because of earlier. That."

Yes, that. Her embarrassment was obvious, and he couldn't stand that. The thing he loved about his friendship with Halley was how comfortable they were with each other. That was exactly what he didn't want to lose, and why he had never confessed his feelings for her.

He said, "Look, maybe we should just forget it, forget that anything ever happened."

He brushed the uncooperative hair out of her eye in a very platonic fashion and gave her a slow smile, meant to reassure her that he would stick to business. "We'll just get straight to the hacking."

Halley swore to God, if he only knew what he was doing to her. Now that she'd put a twisted perverted spin on the word hack, every time he said it, she shivered right down to her toes in orgasmic anticipation.

But at least he was letting her off the hook. They were going to forget her overenthusiastic response to his kiss and go on like normal. "Okay, good, great, yeah, definitely. We'll forget all about it."

Since when had his eyes turned that exact shade of hot chocolate before you added the marshmallows? Forcing herself to focus on the more important thing hereher career she said, "So let's get hacking. I want to do something really bad."

It wouldn't bring back the clients or restore her dignity, but it might make her feel less like she'd swallowed a peach pit.

Evan's jaw clenched. Halley became aware that he was only a foot in front of her and that he still wasn't wearing a shirt. Her fingers jerked in eagerness to touch.

"Really bad?" His voice sounded funny, as if she had stepped on his foot in heels.

Somehow that sounded faintly suggestive. Of course, she suspected he could be talking about sewage and somehow she would find a way to be turned on. It was pathetic.

"Yes. Bad. Really bad." Halley wanted to kick herself. She sounded like the Dustin Hoffman character in Rainman.

"Okay." He shrugged, giving her a wicked grin. "So, like what? Doctor their website so they're wearing dresses?"

That was appropriately horrible. She liked it. "Do you know who they are?"

"Yeah. My friend Kirk knows one of them. They're three twenty-something computer geeks who do web design. One of them was fired from Microsoft, and they're all college drop-outs." Evan shrugged. "You know the kind. Almost too smart to be normal. A couple of people told me the same thing, that they're hackers on the side, mostly for fun, for the challenge of besting security."

Evan frowned as he spoke, and started down the hall.

"You're mad because they hacked your site, aren't you?" she asked, wiping her sweaty palms on her pants and following Evan into his bedroom.

"Hell, yeah, I'm mad. Besides, they got you naked. If anyone's going to get you naked, it should be me."

Halley froze. What the heck was that supposed to mean? Evan wasn't facing her, but his voice sounded light, as if he was joking, but still. She thought about his behavior that morning, and his… tongue sliding into her. Maybe she wasn't the only one with a sudden case of lust.

He had been a long time without a date, longer than anytime since she'd known him. Maybe she had been a convenient sexual release.

She didn't bother to answer him, since she had no clue what to say.

His bed still wasn't made. She was tempted to do it herself, just to get the view of those wrinkled sheets out of her sight, but that would mean leaning over the bed. Smelling his masculine scent on the sheets and being far too close to a vertical position were dangerous.

Evan had the website up in a minute. Halley studied the three men over Evan's shoulder. They looked a little on the geeky side, one wearing glasses and all three in need of a wardrobe consultant, given the overabundance of plaid. But they also looked a little brazen, as if they knew the world would dismiss them on appearances, but they had gotten the last laugh.

"I've never seen any of them in my life, so I don't why they did this to me. And why do three men have a personal web page together? That freaks me out."

"Who knows?" Evan shrugged, his hand moving the mouse around. "So what do you think? Floral dresses for them?"

"Just for the one with glasses." Halley narrowed her eyes as she took in the cocky stance of the taller one on the left with dark hair, as they posed in front of a brick building. "For him, I think you should make him naked. Skinny, hairy, and naked."

Evan laughed in surprise. "Are you serious?"

"Very." Let them see how it felt.

He turned and gave her a searching look, before breaking out into a grin that made her forget all about revenge. "Then I have a better idea."

"What?"

"Let's give them breasts."

Halley felt her jaw drop open. Oh, Evan was much better at this than she was. "Can you do that?" The bizarre image of naked men with breasts popped into her head, and she quickly banished it again. Funny, yes, but definitely freaky.

"Sure." Now Evan was the one looking a touch arrogant as he shrugged. "We just need to find the breasts. I'll download Pamela Anderson or something."

Halley hesitated. "No, her breasts get too much airtime as it is." Not that she was jealous or anything. "Someone else."

"I know who." Evan leaned back in his chair.

Now she was jealous. She didn't want Evan to make suggestions on other women's breasts. She didn't want to know that some movie star or pinup could inspire that lusty gleam in his eye.

She opened her mouth to tell him to forget it, that she had changed her mind.

He spoke first. "How about you, Halley?"

"Me?" She took a step back in horror. Did he mean with her clothes on or off?

"Yes, you." He looked up and grinned. "You've got perfect breasts, sweet stuff, and think of the irony of putting your chest on those guys. It's hilarious."

Well, she wasn't laughing. More like choking on her own tongue.

"No way. I'm just not going to take my shirt off in front of you." There would be no possible way she could do that without flinging herself into his arms.

He scoffed as he stood up. He started toward her. "Oh, come on. I've seen plenty of breasts before, including yours once when you dropped your towel by accident after your shower. It's no big deal."

Not to him. But it was to her. She could not fake nonchalance wearing no shirt in front of him. Taking another step back, she said, "No, I'm not doing it."

Halley stopped moving, frozen to the spot an inch in front of Evan's bed. She was trapped and he was right in front of her. He took her hands, squeezed, slid up her arms, continuing on and on.

"Come on. I've slept in the same bed with you when you were wearing nothing but a T-shirt and panties. You've thrown up on me. I can take a picture of your breasts without it being a big deal."

She wished he hadn't brought up the whole throw-up thing. A few too many shots on her twenty-third birthday and she had lost her dinner of sweet and sour pork down the front of Evan's shirt. Not one of her sexier moments.

The whole thing was depressing. It just served to emphasize how little he thought of her as a woman if he could stand there while she stripped her shirt off and be totally unaffected.

Or would he? Neither of them could claim he had been immune to her earlier. No one could fake a hard-on like that.

Suddenly she wanted to do it. She wanted to strip off her shirt for Evan and see that he could take her picture without any further interest whatsoever.

It was playing with fire, she knew. But they had already crossed some strange line with that wax-melting kiss, and she needed to know. She needed to see that it was forgettable, that Evan had only reacted to her and had no real desire for her.

If he could stand there and watch her half naked and not want her, then hopefully it would be the bucket of cold water needed to douse this fire between her legs.

Breath hitching, she stepped to the side out of Evan's reach and yanked her tank top up over her head. "Fine. If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother me. Use mine."

Evan's head swam as every drop of blood in his body rushed south to create the largest, most agonizing hard-on ever known to man. Damn.

Halley's chest rose and fell as she defiantly dropped her arms to her sides. Creamy pale flesh taunted him everywhere he looked. Her breasts were straining to escape a pale blue sheer bra.

The hard pinkness of her nipples was clearly visible through the barely there fabric. Evan couldn't move, couldn't think.

While he sure as hell had wanted her to strip, he hadn't for one minute thought she actually would.

In fact, he had never meant to suggest it out loud in the first place. And he hadn't meant to persuade her as vehemently as he had.

But she had done it. And all he could do was drink her in and wonder how easily that sheer stuff on her bra might rip between his greedy fingers.

"Where's your digital camera so we can take a picture?" Halley wet her lips, her fingers hovering over the front clasp on the bra.

Not only was he going to get to see her breasts, he was going to have documentation of it. On film. Double damn.

Where the hell was his camera? Moving quickly, he plundered drawer after drawer of his desk, tossing a dictionary and his palm pilot on the floor, scattering pens left and right.

Trying to hide his urgency, he said softly, "Don't move, sweet stuff. I need to find the camera."

Desperate that any delay and Halley might change her mind, he whirled around. The closet. That's were it was. The door slammed against the wall as he threw it open, and as he fumbled around on the shelf, a barrage of sweaters tumbled down onto his head. Followed by a tennis racket, which he just managed to dodge.

Camera finally in hand, he turned around in triumph.

Halley's fingers played with the clasp on her bra. She stood very still, her chin tilted up a little and her eyes wide. Her hesitation was clear.

Evan went equally still, slowing down his jerky movements and giving her a tilted reassuring smile. "Great Tits Hall of Fame, remember?"

She gave a nervous laugh. "I feel stupid."

"No." He took a step forward. "Not stupid. Beautiful."

Hair tumbled in her eyes as she shook her head.

"Yes, you are."

Then he reached her. Tucking one hand tightly over the camera and letting it fall to his side, he reached out with the other hand and gave her nipple a light caress through the raspy sheer bra. She let out a startled yelp.

Shit, he couldn't believe he'd just done that. He pulled his hand back.

"Evan?" Her eyes were heavy, half closed, and her arms were trapped between his body and hers. "You didn't forget about what happened before, did you?"

"No." He leaned closer to her, inhaling her scent of citrus and something else he couldn't define, something earthy and subtle.

"I didn't either."

"Halley, I have to tell you that if you take your bra off, I'm going to touch you." He meant to put his hand deep into his pocket, but instead he dropped it to her waist.

Her breath sucked in hard. "You are? But I thought we were best friends, that's all."

They were. That should be all. But it wasn't enough. "I can't help it. I want you. Bad."

Prying her cold fingers off the bra clasp, he pressed her hand against his erection. Her eyes went wide.

"I can't fight it anymore, Halley. I don't want to fight it anymore."

Then he kissed her. It was different from the kiss earlier that morning. That had been urgent, carnal. This was languid and moist, her mouth fully open to receive him, their breath mingling together as he tasted her. It was slow and thorough, a hot discovery of each other.

She whispered against his mouth, "I want you too. For months now. I'm going nuts, Evan."

That was the best thing he'd heard in years. "Then let's go nuts together, sweet stuff."

Halley's tongue slipped into his mouth and he sucked on the tip lightly. She pulled back with a groan, her hands falling onto his waist. Those fingers touching, fluttering, gripping his belt loops had Evan's breath hitching.

With one hand on the back of her head, he took her mouth again and again, pressing rough and desperate, their teeth knocking together as he slipped across her slick lips.

Control. He needed to go slow. But that was so damn hard when Halley was pressed up against his bare chest wearing nothing but a doily that called itself a bra.

He broke off the kiss, and swallowed hard. They both panted, staring at each other, Halley's expression bewildered and aroused.

"Evan, if we do this, things are going to change between us."

Her nipple brushed against his bare chest as she spoke. "Things have already changed between us. And if we ignore this, the tension will always be between us. I think we should do this, have this one day together, then we can go back to the way we were before."

Not that he could envision ever going back to being pals and watching Halley date other men, but one step at a time.

"So, you mean, we'll just get this strange lust out of our systems?" She was clearly hesitating.

"Exactly."

"And nothing will ever keep us from being friends?"

"Nothing ever. I swear it." That was the whole truth as he knew it. He didn't plan on losing Halley's friendship. But he was going to if he didn't act on these feelings for her. He couldn't bottle this desire up another day.

Taking one step back, he lifted the camera in front of him, adjusting so that Halley was on the screen viewer.

"Take it off, sweet stuff."

There was hesitation, a split second of thought, before Halley tossed back her head, arching her breasts in an unconscious gesture of defiance. The clasp separated between her fingers, and Evan's heart pounded painfully as there was another split second of indecision.

He watched the screen as she made up her mind. The bra slid across each full breast and down her pale arms to land out of view on the floor.

There was nothing but her in front of him. He pushed the button with his thumb to take a picture, no intention of ever putting this on any website. Not even as a joke to teach the hackers a lesson. Not even when no one would ever know they were Halley's breasts.

This view was for him, and him alone, one he'd been waiting five years to see.

It was a damn good view, rivaling the Grand Canyon in natural beauty. Her shoulders were back, her chest rose and fell on anxious breaths, and her nipples were smooth and round, pressing forward with pride.

Halley's breasts were pale and incandescent, rounded and curving in perfect symmetry, not too large and not too small. Just right for him.

He took another picture. And another. He didn't want to risk missing this shot.

Her hands came up to flick a piece of hair out of her mouth, causing her breasts to rise in a fluid motion. Evan groaned, staring at her now, not the screen, and itched with the agonizing need to touch her.

"Did you take the picture?" she whispered, the sound of her ragged edgy voice making him throb.

"Yes." He moved a little to the left, wanting the side view of her, the upsweep of her breast, the graceful arch of shoulder to side.

"Then what are you doing?" She stood still, but turned her head to follow his progress.

"Taking pictures for me."

"Evan!" Her mouth dropped.

He loved the way her waist fell into her pants, with enough room between the fabric and her skin for him to easily slip in a finger or two. Moving slowly, he walked behind her, capturing her long and smooth back, and her ass sitting snugly in her pants.

With a shrug, he said, "I think I may be looking at my next screen saver."

It made her blush. He didn't care.

"You can't do that," she whispered.

"Why not?" It was the best idea he'd had in months.

He stepped on her bra as he moved around her other side. Leaning over, he scooped it up. It was warm, the way Halley's skin would be. He brought it to his nose. It smelled like her, soft and citrus and erotic.

"I had no idea you wore such sexy bras. I almost passed out when I saw this little see-through number."

"It's a private indulgence," she said. "A reward for my success."

Lifting the hair on her shoulder, Evan kissed her flushed skin. "That's what these pictures are. A reward for my success."

"Success for what?" Halley stood very still, her shoulders taut and her chest rising a little faster than normal.

"For fixing your website."

She gave a little scoff. "Sure, you fixed it after they made me naked."

He laughed, though it did annoy the hell out of him that his site had been hacked. But the first thing on his mind right now was her soft warm flesh, uncovered and so close to him.

Her head tilted back. She added, "The pictures aren't for you. They're supposed to be for the website, for the hackers."

Revenge would have to wait. "We'll talk about that later. Right now, I've got to touch you." He set the camera down on his desk and reached for her, putting his hands on her warm waist above her pants.

"Are you sure we should?" Her voice was a little whimper that didn't fool him for one second. She was trembling now, leaning toward him, her nipples hard and rosy. Halley looked as if a breeze blowing between her thighs might make her come.

Evan wanted to make her come. He wanted her to let go. To completely give it all up, to break and shatter beneath his touch, no thoughts of anything but their bodies and the pleasure he was giving her.

"I want you," he whispered in her ear. "Can I have you?"

He pulsed with desire, ached with the need to bury himself in Halley. There had been quite a few women in his life over the years, but it had always been casual, a little company and enough to take the edge off. He had wanted women, but had never needed.

He needed Halley.

He loved her. She knew him backward and forward and there were no games between them ever. There wouldn't be now. He could never be anything but honest with her, which was why he could no longer hide his desire for her.

Halley, eyes glazed with passion, turned to stare at him. She swallowed.

Then said, "Take me, Evan."

Evan just about came on the spot.

Chapter five

Halley watched Evan's eyes go wide with shock and desire. A little laugh bubbled up and out of her. It felt so good to see that look on his face, to know that he wanted her just the way she wanted him.

Finally, after all these months she was going to have him.

Only he wasn't doing anything, he was just standing there, eyes rolling up and down over her as he looked his fill.

What the heck was he waiting for, an embossed invitation?

"Do something," she said, feeling a tinge self-conscious standing there like a topless waitress.

Evan gave her a lusty smile. "You're always so damn impatient."

There was no point in arguing. He knew her well. Halley put her hands on her hips and frowned at him, wondering if she was going to be forced to grab his crotch to goad him into action.

It felt suspiciously as if he was teasing her, which he should know she wouldn't like.

"I've been waiting a long time to see you. I want to look awhile first."

She applauded the sentiment, but couldn't he touch her first, then look later?

The camera came back up. She narrowed her eyes at him, not the least amused. "Evan, put that down."

He pressed the button, taking another picture. Halley felt her face burn, part embarrassment, part mortification that she liked what he was doing. He looked so pleased, so eager, that she changed her mind about rushing. They hadn't talked about tomorrow, and he had basically said today was it. One day to be with Evan, to let him explore her and to feel this fevered arousal.

It emboldened her. With a little smile, she ran her fingers through her hair and wet her lips.

Evan's breath caught. "Very sultry, sweet stuff. I like it."

He continued to look at her through the camera screen. "Now let's take your pants off."

"Why?" If he could tease, she could return the favor. She tossed him an innocent smile, arching her shoulders back and resting her hands on the back of her waist.

A little rough laugh ripped from him. "Why? Because I want to see your beautiful body, that's why."

He took a step toward her. "I want pictures of you naked, wanting me. Then I need your pants off so I can drive into you so long and hard you can't see straight."

Oh. That about summed it up then. Halley closed her eyes, need crashing over her, fiery desire making her body ache. Her breasts were heavy and tender, her nipples painful under his steady gaze.

She wanted to do this. She wanted to feel nothing but this passion for Evan, to sink into the past and the future blended together in this perfect moment of right now. No worries, no reality, nothing but the way Evan could strum and pluck her body until she was singing with satisfaction.

Eyes still screwed shut, she licked her already moist lips again. Hot breath spilled across her belly and his hands fell on her waist, brushing her hands aside. Startled, her eyes flew open and she watched Evan go down on his knees in front of her, setting the camera on the floor.

"Let me take them off for you," he said, before his tongue slid across her skin above her waistband. She shivered at the warm wet tickling sensation and reached for his shoulders.

His breath came faster. So did hers. When his tongue dipped into her belly button, hot desire shot through her, yanking a groan from her lips. His fingers fumbled at the clasp of her pants while he nipped at her skin, tasting around the edges of her navel, sliding up to nibble her side.

The top of his head brushed her breast, teasing her with light feathery strokes of his hair, first on the underside, then across her nipple. He continued to fumble with her pants, his jerky movements tugging her a little left and right.

"Damn it," he said, his teeth clenched.

Halley tried to pull back away so she could hear him better, but he held her by the bunched front fabric of her pants. "What's the matter?"

"I can't get these freaking pants undone."

"There's a little hook and eye clasp, a metal thingie. See it?" Leave it to her to wear pants that were the modern-day version of the chastity belt.

A lesser man would have given up. Evan brushed away her fingers when she tried to help.

"No, I'll get it." The metal gave way with a pull that pretty much assured her he had torn the thread and the eye was now dangling from the hook, useless.

"Oops, sorry."

The pants didn't matter. What mattered was that she was burning with need and he wasn't doing anything about it.

He pressed a kiss onto her hipbone, his finger playing with the zipper of her pants, drawing it down then back up again. "Stupid thing was too small for a man's fingers. Not very user friendly."

It made her laugh, soft and low, as she ran her fingers across the top of his head, smoothing his unruly hair back into place. "They're women's pants, so men's fingers don't factor in. And user friendly is such a computer geek thing to say."

The zipper went all the way down, and stayed down. "Are you calling me a computer geek?"

His hot breath against her made her squeeze his shoulders. "If the software fits…"

A damp kiss fell onto her, the heat pouring through her sheer panties and right to the center of her desire.

"Evan," she moaned, rocking forward.

"Nice A drive," he murmured.

She would have laughed, but there was no chance. His mouth still on her panties, kissing and nibbling, Evan yanked her pants at the bottom and dragged them down to her thighs.

Halley couldn't bother to push them farther down, or move to step out of them. She was caught beneath Evan's mouth, lost in a desperate wave of longing, as she gasped under his assault and pushed his head hard against her.

Teeth grazed the gossamer fabric of her panties. He gripped the satin side straps with his hands, twisting them around his index fingers, pulling the fabric still caught in his mouth taut. Then before she could even react, he had ripped right through the front with a sharp jerk of his head.

"Ohmigod." She threw back her head and swallowed hard, want pulsing between her thighs where she was swollen and moist with need.

This was Evan. Her best friend.

Tearing her underwear off her.

"Sorry, I ripped these too," he murmured into her thigh.

"S'okay," she managed to pant.

A cool breeze rushed across her as he leaned back, away from her. She stepped out of her pants and shoved them aside. He returned with the camera and a wicked grin.

"Oh, no. Don't you dare." Alarmed at the thought of herself naked on camera, Halley started to edge to the side.

Evan's thumb slipped through her sacrificial panties and circled her clitoris. She ground to a halt.

"Don't take any pictures of this." Her words were unnecessary, since Evan's hand had gone slack again as he concentrated on stroking her, and the only view through the camera was his country beige carpet.

"But it's so nice looking." His lips tickled her inner thighs as his thumb moved around and around until she was dizzy and weak with desire.

Then his thumb slid inside her, and back out, wetting her clitoris with the dampness of her arousal. Halley felt her legs wobble as she groaned.

"I think I'm going to fall down."

"Back up." His thumb went back to its seductive circles, while his tongue started trailing across her inner thigh.

He was insane if he thought she could move. "I can't. My legs don't work."

He glanced up. She didn't trust that gleam in his eye.

A large rough hand landed flat on her belly. Then he pushed her.

Halley stumbled backward and landed flat on her back on his bed. As she thrust her tangled and eagle-spread legs together, she rationalized this was another time she should be grateful for her midsized breasts. A larger woman would have a black eye right now.

"I can't believe you pushed me." Actually, she could. Evan had tossed her in pools, pushed her in mud, and had tied her shoelaces together once. But that had been when they were just friends. Now that they were naked, it seemed like the rules should change.

Obviously not. And she was the only one naked. He was still wearing his shorts.

"You said you couldn't move. I was helping you out." He leaned over her.

Two could play this game. Halley lifted her foot and pressed her toes against his erection to stop him. "What are you doing?"

He shot her a look of disbelief. "I'm going to lie on you and kiss you like crazy."

He tried to shove her foot away, but Halley squeezed her toes, gathering some of his shorts and a little bit of what was underneath.

"Halley, you're squeezing me." He froze, clearly afraid to move and possibly cause damage.

Halley knew she wasn't hurting him. Yet. But it felt good to have him at her mercy for a change. She threw her hand over her mouth in mock innocence. "Oops. Sorry."

Evan placed his hand on her foot and shook his head. "Hey, you'd only be hurting yourself, you know. You put me out of action and you're going to have a long, lonely day ahead of you."

Geez, he was right. She dropped her foot like a hot potato, not wanting any accidents. She wasn't leaving this apartment without getting an orgasm. And not some little after-the-fact, token-gesture orgasm. She wanted one with him inside her, long and slow with her nails dug in his back.

He smiled knowingly and put his hands on either side of her shoulders. Halley pushed on his chest to prevent him from lying on her.

"Hold on. Let me get my panties off."

Evan sat back to give her room. Lifting her ass in the air, she played with the waist of the shredded panties, sliding them down several inches, then back up.

"Maybe I shouldn't take them off. I might get cold," she teased.

He was staring at her with a mix of fascination and pain. "Very funny. It's eighty-five degrees in here."

It was true. The blinds were closed, but the midday summer sun was heating the room up. There was a thin layer of sweat on his chest and shoulders, and she could smell a faint sweaty heat rising off him. It was masculine and sexy and made her damp between the thighs.

Her skin felt flushed too. Hot and tingling, her hair heavy and moist on her neck.

Evan's hands gripped the sides of her panties, pushing her aside. "Besides, these things wouldn't keep an ant warm. There's nothing to them."

It was nice that he had noticed.

His head bent over her breast. His fingers caressed over and beneath the straps of her panties. His lips came close to her nipple, so close that she felt his breath hitch, but he didn't touch her. All teasing was forgotten as her body responded, aching and throbbing for him. Halley arched her breast up to meet his mouth.

Evan edged away. His fingers slid back and forth as he dragged her panties down halfway, then stopped. She could see him staring down at her, his thumb rubbing across her curls, skirting her clitoris, while his mouth still hovered tantalizingly close to her nipple.

She wanted him to touch her, anywhere. She could hear her own ragged breathing, loud and fast, and she snaked her fingers down to claw at her panties, desperate to shove them off.

Evan took her questing fingers in his own before she could push the panties down, and he held them tightly against her hips, pressing her fingers into her flesh. She squirmed and tried to tug her hands loose.

He pressed against her mound with his erection, with so little pressure and so briefly that she groaned in frustration. She wrapped her legs around his and tried to pull him back down, but Evan shook her off.

"Not yet."

When? When the next ice age came through? Halley was about to complain when he bent his head down and plucked at her nipple. She cried out.

He pulled back.

"More," she panted.

This time Evan bent down and licked all around her nipple with his tongue, wetting her and circling her until she wiggled back and forth, trying to force his tongue onto her. His hands held hers harder, holding her arms down tightly by her sides, so that she couldn't move.

He felt big and hard leaning over her, and she forced her eyes open long enough to see him sweep his gaze across her chest and down her belly. He drew in a deep breath before dropping his mouth to her breast again.

This time he pulled her nipple in hard, and pain mixed with pleasure.

"You taste so good," he said as he licked her. He lavished his tongue all over her nipple, around and around until she thought she might explode just from his wet movements.

Her panties were barely covering her, twisted and rolled and caught between her and him, and it added to the excitement, to the decadence of what they were doing.

As he pulled her nipple deep into his moist mouth, thoroughly wetting it, she moaned.

"Evan." She tried to rip her hands out from under his, but he still held her, more from his weight bearing down on her than from any effort on his part.

He pulled back from her chest, tugging her nipple out with his mouth before releasing it. "You like that?"

No, she always moaned and panted whenever she detested something. "I like it better when you don't stop."

Evan liked that better too, though he had to admit it was a turn-on to tease Halley a little. Of course, in teasing her, he teased himself, and her breast tasted so salty and eager, he just wanted to keep going.

"Then I won't stop, sweetheart. I'll just suck and suck until you can't stand it anymore." Evan trailed his tongue along the underside of her breast. "How's that sound?"

That strangled whimper from Halley could count as a yes.

Evan didn't wait for further verbal confirmation. He took Halley into his mouth, rolling his tongue around the sweet hardness of her nipple. He had been wondering how she would feel beneath him, he had been dreaming about tasting her, and now that he was, he was fighting hard for every ounce of control.

Her hand ripped free of his hold, and reached up to grip his shoulder, squeezing and scratching along his flesh as she made little encouraging gasps. Evan didn't need encouragement. He was reveling in every stroke of his tongue, every inch of her soft warm flesh in his mouth, and everything rational was skittering away from him, lost in agonizing need.

He switched breasts. Halley groaned.

Her tight smooth thighs had clamped around him again, grinding her rounded mound against his all-too-eager cock, and he struggled to force himself to move away. But every time he leaned back an inch, she rose upward, meeting him again.

Giving up the battle, he let her bump against him, and he concentrated on breathing. It was a hell of a challenge.

Halley's grip was getting tighter, her back arching farther, her cries louder and more ragged. Evan lapped his tongue back and forth over her, brushing his thumbs along the underswell of her breast. He could feel her orgasm closing in on her.

"Touch me," she begged.

"Where?" Evan pressed his thumb into her belly button. "Here?"

"No."

"Here?" He brushed her wet nipple.

She groaned. "Yes."

Halley was in delicious agony. Every part of her body ached and throbbed, begging for Evan to stroke, taste, slide in wherever he could, and pleasure her.

"Touch me more," she said shamelessly, finally pulling her other hand free of his heavy hold.

With both hands, she went straight for his hair, tugging and urging him downward, trying to force him to suck harder, touch her between her thighs, anything to release the ache inside her. She was strung too tight, tense and violently needy, vibrating everywhere.

Evan pulled his mouth off her again, obviously not the least bit intimidated by her desperate aggressiveness. A slow grin crossed his face.

"Should I touch you here again?" he said, and put his lips on her nipple, lightly closing his mouth over it, hot breath dancing across her.

She squeezed her eyes shut and gasped. When he laughed, she could feel it. His mouth wrapped around and sucked, but the muffled sound of his pleased laughter wafted up to her.

His lips, tongue, and moist inner mouth vibrated around her, onto her tight sensitive nipple. As Halley glanced down in agony at Evan's caramel-colored hair falling into his eyes, she came hard.

With nothing touching her but his thigh resting against her, the orgasm was painful and throbbing, her clitoris swollen and in need of release. Shuddering, Halley let out a cry and went still, riding out the waves of tight pleasure.

Evan pulled back and gaped at her, his lips shiny and wet. "Holy shit. You just came, didn't you?"

Unable to speak, she nodded.

"Damn, that's sexy." He buried his face in her navel and dipped his tongue into her belly button.

Her shoulders relaxed a little and she stroked his hair as her body settled.

"Thanks," she murmured. New desire was already building as his tongue delved into her, but it was less urgent, more sensual this time.

Halley suspected she had needed to take the edge off, and could now look forward to enjoying Evan even more thoroughly. "I think I needed that."

He dropped a warm kiss on her abdomen. "What are friends for?"

Not for sexual gratification, she was pretty sure, but if he didn't mind, she wasn't going to stop him. She laughed. "Usually not for this."

Now he was stroking her inner thigh. "I think we're on to something here."

As he tugged her panties down past her thighs, she murmured, "Or we could be making a huge mistake."

Her panties were around her knees when he stopped pulling and looked up at her. "Hey. I love you, you know that. I'd never hurt you, Halley."

"I know." He wouldn't hurt her on purpose anyway. And as long as she told herself this was all about sex, with a man she could trust above all others, she would be okay. If she went and started imagining this was more than enjoying each other in a spontaneous day in bed, then she would be in trouble.

"Should I keep going?" he asked, his thumb caressing her knee.

His breath landed on her inner thigh.

Did a bee like honey? If she'd already gone this far, she might as well get the full treatment.

"Yes, keep going."

"Thank God." He took her panties in both his hands, and yanked them down hard to her ankles.

He tossed them over his shoulder as she lay there stunned in a pool of wet paralyzing lust.

"You're not going to need those anymore."

"Ever?" she said dumbly.

"Not for a long time," he confirmed, his brown eyes so dark with desire they were nearly black.

"You're not going to need these shorts either."

Sliding next to him onto her side, Halley trailed her fingers along his waistband, pausing at the button of his khaki shorts. She glanced up at Evan. He raised his eyebrows up and down.

With two hands, she popped the button. The grin fell off Evan's face. She bit down on her own grin, then unzipped his shorts.

Evan gave a sharp intake of air.

Halley slipped her hand inside his shorts, under his boxers, stroking his hard flesh and tugging lightly on the springy hair there. Evan was breathing hard, a sound that emboldened her, raising her own desire another aching notch.

Her fingers enclosed around him, holding the warm satin length of his erection in her hand, feeling the pulse beneath the skin.

"Halley."

She saw his eyes were half closed, his chest inflating and collapsing like an accordion. He looked like a page from the calendar she had hung in her locker at school when she was sixteen. A gorgeous bare-chested man with his pants unsnapped.

Only he was real. He was hers right now.

An arousing thought came to her. Her eyes landed on the camera Evan has discarded at the foot of the bed.

Giving a little squeeze to his penis, she let go and pulled her hand back. Evan gave a groan of disappointment.

Bending over, she retrieved the camera and stood up, pointing it at Evan's chest.

He sat up fast, alarm all over his face. "Whoa. What are you doing?"

"I'm going to take a picture of you. Use it as my next screen saver." Halley clicked the button and gave him a cocky grin.

Though he looked amused, Evan's hands twitched as if he was fighting the urge to cover himself with a blanket.

"Put the camera down."

She laughed. "No. Tit for tat, Evan." She took another shot of him frowning.

Then he relaxed back a little. "Tit for tat, huh? But tell me you don't want to slap these pictures of me up on the web."

"Oh, are you shy?" Halley tilted her head, fully aroused and enjoying herself. It felt good to be free like this, the only tension in her body sexual. Being with Evan was different from being with any other man. With him, she was still herself. They could tease and play like this, just like they always had, and it was because of their friendship.

With the added bonus of red-hot desire.

"But come on, Evan, why would we use your body? That would be like a dream come true for those guys to have your biceps attached to their heads."

Evan smiled and popped his arm up, flexing his bicep with mock arrogance. "You like my muscles, sweet stuff? I've got a muscle you'll really like."

Boy, did he ever. His penis had come through the hole in his boxers again, and this time Halley wasn't so startled as she was eager. It was time to put that crazy-looking thing to good use.

Her mouth went dry as she studied him on the camera screen, about to suggest they do just that. Then Evan made the muscle in question flex, winking up and down at her. Halley went wide-eyed and nearly dropped the camera.

"Ohmigod!" After a startled second of silence, she started laughing so hard a snort threatened to emerge from her mouth.

"You think that's funny?"

He clearly did too, since he was grinning like the village idiot.

She nodded, unable to speak.

Then Evan's eyes dropped to her chest, and his grin turned lascivious. "Keep laughing all you want," he said.

Heat rushed through her cheeks. She had forgotten she was totally naked. Everywhere naked. Not-a-stitch-on naked.

Laughter probably did all kinds of weird things to her stomach and her chest from his point of view. She pictured buoys bobbing up and down in the surf. Or in her case, something significantly smaller, like a couple of toothpaste tubes.

To emphasize his point, Evan made himself flex again, resting back on his locked arms. She refused to laugh again, even though it was hilarious. Only she was trying so hard not to laugh, that a snuffling sound emerged from her nose and mouth.

She should have forced him to button the little button on his boxers earlier. "You're very talented."

Evan said, "I have all kinds of hidden talents."

Despite the absurdity of his words and his Adam Sandier expression, Halley was intrigued. Aroused. Yearning for him.

If he could make her come just by sucking on her breasts, what else could he do?

Her thighs slid against each other restlessly, the hot dampness between them about to become embarrassing without panties on. "Why don't you show me your many talents?"

The camera found a place on his desk. Halley walked toward Evan, climbing up onto the bed, debating whether she wanted to be on top of him or beneath him.

First.

Chapter Six

Halley naked should be illegal. Damn, Evan could barely breathe, let alone think or move. He'd thought his bikini-stripping dream was pretty hot, but that was nothing compared to the real Halley standing in front of him with nothing on.

She looked so good, it was a wonder his shorts didn't burst into flames.

Evan quickly stood up as Halley sat down, falling back against the sheet. She looked at him puzzled, her pale fingers already reaching up for him. Mouth dry, he put a hand on each of her smooth thighs and yanked hard, pulling her to the edge of the bed.

Her knees fell open as she let out a small cry and tried to sit up. Evan pulled her again, causing her to fall back down, arms over her head. The crook of each knee lined up with the edge of the mattress and Evan dropped to his knees in front of her.

"This isn't funny," she said, trying to pull herself up again, but unable to because he held each leg against the bed.

"I'm not trying to be funny. I'm very serious." He studied her inner thighs, stroking above her knees with his thumbs to relax her.

He could feel the heat from her, smell the musky dampness of her arousal, and his gut cramped into painful desire. He blew onto her lightly from just a few inches away. She twitched.

"I'm as serious as that Cupid was," he murmured.

She made a sound that could have been a gasp, a smothered laugh, or a moan. It almost sounded to his eager ears as if she were having an orgasm. She wasn't, of course, but the sound made his blood go south.

Evan swallowed hard, leaning in and running the pad of his thumb across her plump clitoris then down into the dewy heat below. His thumb sank inside her, and she pulled him in, clenching on with tight muscles.

Holy hell, she felt good. He closed his eyes for a second, feeling her skin pulse around him, and listening to her breathy little moans of pleasure.

He couldn't get enough of those moans.

"What is that?" she asked, spreading her knees farther, the movement urging him to sink deeper.

"The bottom of my thumb." Evan buried his face in her thigh, breathing in her scent deeply. Then he flicked his tongue over her clitoris, his thumb still deep inside.

Halley let out a wild cry and suddenly her fingers yanked his hair hard, jerking him back. So hard, water popped up into his eyes. It was a good sign. Evan laughed at her response and pulled his thumb out.

"Don't stop!"

"I'm just getting started."

Evan loved to look at her, to see her swollen pink folds in front of him, aching and throbbing for his touch. She moved with quick jerky movements, wiggling down farther, trying to entice him to touch her.

He was happy to oblige.

With his tongue, he tasted her, running up and down each side, swirling over her clitoris before finally sliding down the middle. He gave a long teasing probe deep inside, then pulled back.

"Put it back," Halley panted.

Evan was drowning, his control shredding under her desperate and vocal need. Halley was aggressive, intent on getting what she wanted. It was that part of her that made her sue-cessful in her business, and mixed with her loyalty and her kindness, it made her all the more fantastic to him.

She was everything he liked in a woman.

He liked giving her pleasure. And if he could keep himself from exploding in his boxer shorts, he could enjoy it a little longer.

So he continued to tease her with his tongue. Gliding lightly up and down, skirting her clitoris, never going deep enough to satisfy her, but brushing with a feathery touch of his mouth.

Halley's legs thrashed, her hand clawed at his shoulders, and she made alternating sounds of ecstasy and agony.

"I want you inside me. Now." The words came out harsh and nonnegotiable.

Evan paused. Then he looked up at her, met her glazed eyes over the length of her flushed body, and said, "Really? I couldn't tell."

In spite of his holding her legs over the edge of the bed, she managed to sit up. She scooted forward, toward him, a dangerous gleam in her eye.

He was in for it now.

He couldn't wait.

It wasn't long in coming. She shoved on his chest, her fingers gripping the dusting of hair there, tugging on him until he felt the sharp jerks of stinging pain.

Then she was in his lap. All of her. Every warm, wet, pink, flushed, salty inch of her. A nipple was tantalizingly in front of his mouth. He reached for it.

She jerked back, head arched, voice insistent. "No. No more playing. I want you inside me."

"Yes, ma'am." He wasn't about to argue with the Naked Caterer. Not when it would be so much fun to give her what she wanted.

Her arms locked around his neck, and her breasts brushed across his chest. Evan shifted and settled her down in his lap more comfortably. Her hot little mound was pressing against the base of his cock, making him sweat with need.

He was still wearing his shorts, but was loath to let her go even long enough to shuck his clothes. Yet there was a more urgent concern about what he wasn't wearing.

The tangy taste of her still hovered in his mouth and he wiped at his moist lips. "Someone needs to stand up and get a condom."

For a second, he thought she was going to tell him to hell with the condom. Panicked alarm skittered through him.

He should have known better. Halley wasn't stupid.

She sighed. "Damn. Where are they?"

"Nightstand." His voice was a relieved croak. He was mature, he had control, but hell, how was he supposed to stay strong against the temptation of sliding into Halley skin on skin?

It was like waving steak and dried kibbles in front of a dog and telling him to choose.

No, that wasn't right. Making love to Halley wouldn't be anything like dried kibbles, condom or not.

She disentangled herself and went over to the nightstand while he ditched the rest of his clothes. In a minute she was back, with not one condom, not even two. But four condoms.

His body hummed in anticipation while his brain froze. Who was this woman? His best friend, naked, with a handful of condoms.

Damn, he liked it.

Reaching for her, he felt a strange thickness inside his gut area.

He loved Halley. Of course he'd always known that. But it felt different now, more intimate and satisfying.

She slid into his lap as if she belonged there, as if they had done this dozens of times before. Evan dropped a kiss onto her shoulder, trailing his tongue across her salty skin as she rolled the condom onto him.

He nuzzled into her neck and stared up at her, tenderness mixing with passion.

"What?" she said as her fingers finished their task and she looked up.

"Nothing." He shook his head and smiled.

Did she even know what was happening here? That this had become way more than just sex and had nothing to do with hackers or websites or work?

This was about them, moving from friends to lovers and eventually to more.

She didn't see it now. But by the end of this, when she was sore and satisfied, boneless and carefree, he would explain it to her.

It might take some convincing, but he had every intention of having more than one day with Halley.

Evan was looking at her strangely, like she'd gone and grown a third nipple. As if he was simultaneously horrified and yet intrigued by the possibilities.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She didn't expect an answer, and she didn't get one.

Not an honest one, anyway.

He smiled and said, "You're beautiful."

Evan's arms were around her, pulling her forward against him. Her chest molded to his, and she had her legs wrapped around his waist.

It put her right flush against his erection, and the press of him right on her soft spot was deliciously distracting. She didn't pursue the conversation. Evan could look at her any way he damn well pleased as long as he did it while inside her.

"Come here." Evan urged her forward, with a hand on the back of her head. "Taste yourself on me."

He gave her a drawn-out, languid kiss, teasing his tongue past hers. The musky taste in his mouth was from her, she knew. From her desire for him.

Yanking her head back, she moaned, "Evan, please."

"Please, what?" Evan's thumb ran across her bottom lip and she could smell the rich scent of her body there as well. "Take out my garbage? Hack the Three Commandos? Fuck you senseless?"

"The last one." Without thought, she pulled his finger into her mouth and sucked. Her eyes drifted closed and she started to bump against his penis. She was losing her patience here. How could he just sit there naked with her and maintain his control?

Halley felt close to howling.

"Fuck you senseless, okay, I can do that."

Nipping his finger, she let go of it. "Today, not next year."

Then Halley lifted herself and joined them, with a quick downward thrust.

Now the moan came from him.

Followed by a matching cry from her. He was big, filling every inch of her, reaching nearly to her throat, so deep she wasn't sure she could take him. But she would find a way to take him. She leaned against his chest and sucked in air, adjusting to the fit, thrilling over the feel of him inside her.

She had wanted this for so long. Too damn long.

His hands caressed her back with a tenderness that brought unexplained longing to her. Ignoring it, she closed her mouth around his taut small nipple and sucked, luxuriating in the throbbing of his penis inside her, vibrating her with pleasure.

"I love doing this with you," he said, his hand dipping down below her back to her behind, sliding into the crevice between her cheeks.

A shudder went through her.

She held on to his shoulders and sat back a little, spreading her legs wider to encourage him to move. Evan did. Dropping his hands to her waist, he thrust up, pitching her forward with the power of his motion.

Then he pulled back and she sank back down a little. Another thrust, and she was up again, gripping his shoulders and biting her lip.

Then down, and she was crying out from the loss. Back and forth, over and over, he filled her, then took away, his movements a taunting fulfillment, yet not enough to satisfy.

She wanted more, something, what she didn't know.

His short fingernails were digging in to her side, his hands squeezing her flesh. "Sweet stuff."

The silly nickname sounded strange, out of place, but oddly in tune with what they were doing and the way she was feeling. He said it like an endearment, and she took pleasure in that. In everything.

He slowed his own thrust, and urged her with his hands on her waist to take over, to slide up and down on him. Bending her knees for leverage, Halley lifted herself, sank back. Sweat started trickling between her breasts from exertion and pleasure, and she tossed her hair out of her eyes.

"Why did you stop, Evan? Is something wrong?" She felt very erotic and free, as if she had nothing better to do than sit on Evan's cock and fuck the day away.

It felt so damn good she could see the temptation to do just that every day. But they could talk about that later.

Right now, there was only she and Evan, and this wonderful feeling that pulsed and jerked through every inch of her sensitized body. There was only now.

And now she was going to enjoy every second of being with him.

"Nothing's wrong. Not at all. Just wanted to see you do a little work," he said, breathing hard.

His grip on her was so tight, Halley knew she would have bruises tomorrow. But she didn't care. She wanted his mark on her, proof of his desperate desire.

Halley bent her head over again, this time sneaking a peek, watching herself. Watching her go down on the length of Evan's shaft, taking him into her, covering his skin with hers.

"Oh," she moaned.

"Like that view?"

"Yes."

"It looks good from my way too." He shuddered, his eyes fixed down below her waist. "So good, I'm going to come."

Triumph surged through her, surprising her. She had never taken a man's orgasm personally before. But then she'd never been moving on Evan, and this time everything was personal.

There was one shot at this. One time, now, today, to get this right.

She wanted this, she was entitled to this moment of safe, pure freedom with a man she both trusted and cared about more than anyone else.

A man who pleasured her like no other guy before.

"Good," she told him as she felt the first shudders of his orgasm ripping through him. "I think I'll come with you."

Then Halley couldn't speak as she broke over him, her head arched back and her hands on his shoulders. He was deep inside her, and their shudders and pulsing bodies blended and fed off one another.

Halley made a sound she'd never heard from her mouth before, a bizarre wail that reminded her of tornado warning sirens. Then as the pulsing throbs receded, she dropped against his chest and laughed softly, amused with herself, her thoughts, her body, and Evan.

She felt fabulous. No wonder she had been craving Evan for months. Her body must have known instinctively that he would be incredible.

He dropped a kiss on her sweaty head. "Are you laughing at me?" he teased her with a low growl. "I don't think my performance deserved to be laughed at."

Evan was still firmly inside her, her breasts still flush against his chest. His lips were inches from hers, his hard sweaty forehead locking her head in place.

"Not at all. It's a 'Damn, that felt good' laugh."

The kiss he gave her was deep and possessive. "Good. You want some more?"

There was more? She shivered in anticipation. But she felt compelled to say, "Are you sure? Maybe we should quit while we're ahead."

"Where would the fun be in that?" He scoffed at her, running his hands through her damp hair.

Stricken with a conscience a bit after the fact, Halley still felt the need to say something. "Well, you know, this isn't what friends normally do, and I don't want to push. And what if… we don't like it?"

It was time to close her mouth, before something even more absurd rolled out. Halley bit her lip.

Evan pulled his head back, frowning, and slid out of her. She gave a sigh at the loss, both physical and emotional. She wasn't sure which was worse and she was annoyed at herself. The man gave her a couple of orgasms and she had morphed into a sappy love-struck idiot. Who wanted to talk, of all things. And was having disturbing visions of a relationship.

She commanded herself to knock off the needy babbling and focus on the here and now.

Evan had removed the condom and rolled on a new one while she had conducted her mental self-help seminar.

Without preamble, he thrust back into her. "Do you like this? Do you like it when I fuck you?"

"Oh. Yes." She was still wet and aching, and his thrust ripped her thoughts out of the uncertain future and into the present. Where having him inside her just felt fabulous.

Evan bent his knees and wrapped his arms around her. In one impressive lurch, he stood up, their bodies still joined. "Not on the floor this time, though."

They could do it on broken glass for all she cared. "Standing?" she asked, dropping her legs down to the carpet, forcing him deeper inside her.

"Good idea." Evan gave a slow thrust.

Halley had the sudden idea that this would make a great shot with the camera. "Do we… have all the pictures we need? You know, for the hacking we're going to be doing? Not that I want pictures of this on the website, but you know… the other things. We took." Shut up, she commanded herself.

"Any pictures we take will be just for our pleasure, sweet stuff."

His hands on her ass, holding her in place as he softly moved inside her, he gave her a sly smile. "Besides, taking pictures of you for the website was just a plot to get you naked."

She had suspected as much. Halley found she didn't give a damn. "Oh, shoot, and here I really wanted to see my breasts online."

Evan groaned. "Well, we still can if you want."

Straining on her tiptoes, Halley gripped his shoulders and shook her head. My, oh my, this felt good.

"That's okay. I don't care about the stupid hackers anymore."

The strange thing was, she meant it. The website wasn't important. Revenge wasn't important. Just being with Evan. Just this feeling that nothing was more right than being with him, naked, pleasuring each other.

He still moved inside her with slow, steady thrusts, only now his eyes held hers. She blinked once, licked her lips, and still he stared at her, his dark eyes unreadable.

Finally he said, "Damn, am I dreaming?"

Any reservations still buried deep in Halley fled at the wonder in his voice. It was the same words he'd spoken to her just hours earlier, then in a teasing flirtatious voice. Now he looked as stunned and bewildered as she felt.

"Why would you say that?"

"Because I can't believe that I could be lucky enough to have you as a friend and as a lover."

Halley didn't know what to say, and the myriad of emotions crashing through her were confused and jumbled. But she could show him how she felt. She moaned and gripped his back to show approval.

Then without warning he stopped moving.

She dropped to the balls of her feet, her calf muscles straining from standing on her toes for so long. She was no ballerina and ten seconds away from intense muscle cramping.

"Why are you stopping?" She pushed herself against him, giving a little whimper as he sank deeper into her.

He laughed softly. "To tease you."

It was working.

Then he started thrusting again, harder and faster this time, lifting her back up onto her toes and driving the air from her lungs.

"I love you, Halley."

A cry flew out of her mouth as an orgasm built inside her, her passion blending with confusion as their sweat-slick bodies touched each other.

"Evan." She wanted to believe him. There was nothing she had ever wanted quite as much.

But it wasn't that simple. Or maybe it could be.

"Do you love me?" he whispered into her ear, his hot breath tickling her.

There was no way to lie, nowhere to hide, not with him holding her in his arms and his body making her feel as if she could rip apart.

"Yes."

He swallowed the word as she spoke it, covering her mouth in a crushing kiss of possession.

There, she'd done it. Told him the truth, exposed herself to pain and loss if this didn't work out. But those thoughts were shoved resolutely to the back of her mind as she tasted Evan, slipped her tongue into his mouth and wrapped her arms around his smooth warm neck.

If this was a mistake, she was going to enjoy it while she could.

Evan urged, "Let me feel you come."

And so she did.

Chapter Seven

Halley left Evan in bed, making an adorable little snuffling snoring sound, and went over to his dresser. She pulled out a pair of his boxer shorts and stepped into them. After dragging one of his T-shirts on over her unruly hair, she went down the hall to the kitchen, walking softly so she wouldn't wake him.

There had been plenty of times in the past when she had worn his clothes for various reasons, but this was different. For one thing, she wasn't wearing any panties, since hers were beyond repair. But she'd also never made love to Evan before, and his scent was still on her skin, mixing with the clean softness of the clothes, making her feel practically delirious with happiness.

In a matter of minutes, she had found enough ingredients in Evan's refrigerator to have an omelet cooking on the stove as she hummed to herself. She caught herself and laughed. Geez, she was humming. Something she never did. While cooking for him.

How pathetic was that?

But it didn't feel pathetic. It felt… right.

Like this was where she was supposed to be. But she was terrified to tell Evan. Sure, he had said he loved her, but she had always known that, had heard him say it before. What she didn't know was what Evan wanted from her. Just a roll in the hay here and there, or a relationship.

If she asked, he might give her an answer that she didn't want to hear.

Working so hard to build her business, she had never had time to make a lot of friends. She had met Evan her first day at college, and had been friends with him ever since. She couldn't imagine him not being in her life.

Loading the dishwasher with what looked like a week's worth of dirty dishes, Halley knew she and Evan were going to have to talk sooner or later.

Just not today. Today she just wanted to enjoy him.

Glad to see he'd taken out his trash, she flipped the omelet, then squirted soap into the dishwasher and shut the door. She turned the machine on, then spun around to find Evan standing in the door yawning.

Naked.

He sniffed the air. "Mmm. Something smells good."

Halley backed up a foot as he strode into the kitchen, filling the room with his masculine presence. Her butt hit the counter, and the dishwasher buttons pressed into her.

"It's an omelet, no big deal." It felt ridiculous, all of a sudden, that she had cooked for him.

Which made no sense, since she had done that dozens of times before. She had known sleeping together would change their relationship for the worse, make it uncomfortable, and here it was, happening already.

"It is a big deal." He kissed her forehead. "Thanks."

Brushing him aside, she reached over and turned off the heat. "Shit, it's burning."

His finger snaked out and ripped off a piece. He tossed it in his mouth and said, "It tastes perfect."

Damn, why did that please her so much?

And why did she like that he was nuzzling into her neck?

"You look cute in my clothes."

"Well, I had to wear something." Halley tried not to be turned on, but she was failing miserably.

Evan was nibbling on her ear, his hands reaching up under the T-shirt to cup her breasts.

"You're naked under those boxer shorts, aren't you?"

Halley heard a roaring in her ear, then realized it was the dishwasher as the water started shooting through the clean cycle. "Yes."

"Good." Strong hands gripped her waist, tossing her onto the counter.

Halley sat down with a hard thump and stared at Evan in disbelief. "Geez, what are you doing?"

Actually, she had a pretty good idea what he was doing. "I just turned the dishwasher on, you know."

She was sitting right on top of it, and could feel the vibration through the countertop, jiggling her thighs where she was already starting to feel uncomfortably aroused.

"Even better." He moved between her legs, forcing them apart.

He gave her a long, slow kiss that left her breathless.

The slit in the boxer shorts she was wearing was yanked apart. "Are you okay to do this?" he asked. "Or are you getting sore?"

Okay was an understatement. She was dripping in pleasure. "I'm okay."

The T-shirt was tugged up and over her head. Evan bent over her breast and sucked lightly on her nipple, making her squirm in need.

"This tastes even better than the omelet."

The counter was still vibrating, and steam was floating out from around the dishwasher door, rushing between her legs and causing her nipples to tighten. Halley gripped the back-splash and arched her head, crying out as Evan drove a finger into her.

He stretched her with two, then before she could blink, had moved himself into place and thrust into her through the opening in the boxers. It was unexpected and rough, the urgency on Evan's face exciting her.

There was no slow buildup of rhythm, but just fast strokes and his hands on her hips urging her to meet him thrust for thrust. Still gripping the counter, she could do nothing but take and feel. His hard abdominal muscles bumped against her clitoris with each push into her, and she felt it all the way down to her toes.

Halley was burning hot from the steam and her own passion, and when Evan leaned forward and kissed her, his tongue pushing past hers, she broke on a long, slow, shivering orgasm.

As she grabbed the strength to push forward and meet him, stealing the last shudders of pleasure, Evan followed suit, calling her name out into her shoulder.

It was a sound she wanted to hear again and again.

"Damn, how do you do that?" he said a second later, rubbing his lips across her clavicle bone.

"Do what?" Halley dragged in a breath.

"Make me so hot so fast?" He shook his head. "It must be the years of repressed lust."

Halley jerked up. "Years?" What exactly did that mean?

He pulled back, out of her. "Listen, Halley, I think we need to talk."

Oh, geez, here it was. The weird, awkward conversation where they both fumbled for the right words. The talk where it was possible her heart just might break.

"Here, you eat first before the food gets cold." Brushing past him, she hopped off the counter and pulled the boxers out of her rear, where they were wedged. "I'm going to grab a quick shower, then we can talk. Okay?"

Halley got the hell out of there before he had time to respond.

Evan watched Halley run out of the room and sighed. He didn't want to upset Halley, but they did need to talk. She had to know that he couldn't go back to being just friends. He wanted more.

Marriage. That's what he wanted. And just why the hell not? He loved Halley. She loved him. They knew each other with all their faults, and still got along fantastically.

Today had proved they were more than sexually compati-ble. They were so good together, they could make a freaking instructional video.

Reaching into the silverware drawer, Evan pulled out a fork and started munching on the eggs. He heard the shower turn on.

It didn't take long to finish the eggs and drop the fork into the sink. Evan turned toward the door, then stopped himself. He shouldn't go into the bathroom. He should give her some privacy.

But somehow he found himself standing in the bathroom a minute later, holding his breath so she wouldn't hear him. He just wanted to watch her undetected for a minute.

She was in his shower, the clear glass door displaying every inch of her as she tilted her head back and let the spray hit her face and roll down her chest.

The heat from the shower had turned her skin pink on her back and her little curvy behind. With her arms in the air digging into her hair, her breasts rose and beckoned him.

He wanted to step into the shower.

He wanted to take his hands and rub them all over her damp body.

But for now he was content to watch.

Leaning against the door frame, Evan crossed his arms and settled in for a good long show.

Halley had said she loved him. He had believed her. Halley wasn't the kind of woman to ever say anything but the truth, whether he wanted to hear it or not. This he had wanted to hear.

But he still felt the strange urge to watch over Halley, to hold on to her, as if this might very well be a dream after all.

Halley turned, bending over to grab the shampoo bottle. Evan appreciated the picture she made, leaning over without bending her knees, her round ass slippery and wet, his hand itching to reach between her legs from behind.

Halley saw him and yelped. "Geez, you scared me!"

She clutched the shampoo bottle to her bare chest.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"How long have been standing there?" She looked embarrassed, though the flush could be from the steam of the shower.

"Long enough to have a fantasy or two."

"I'll be done in a minute." She popped the top on the bottle and squirted a huge amount of shampoo into her hand.

"No hurry." He watched her reach up and work the shampoo into her hair, a lather quickly building as she roughly scrubbed.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch?"

"Yes."

She gave a gasp and flicked suds off her fingers. "Well, don't."

"Why not?"

"It makes me uncomfortable."

"We can't have that." Evan started toward her, unable to resist another second.

"Oh, no." She backed up until her behind hit the tiles on the wall.

The demure act was cute, but he had no patience for it. He opened the door. "Come on, I'll just help you wash your hard-to-reach spots."

Though she held her arms out to ward him off, Evan also noticed the little gleam of interest shining behind her embarrassment. As well as her firm nipples, and open mouth.

"I just bet you will."

Steam rose around them, and water was pelting him in the face in a fine mist. Evan stepped into the shower and clicked the door shut behind him. "Have you ever done it in the shower?"

It was a stupid question to ask. Jealously stabbed through him painfully.

"No."

All right then. He smiled. "And here I thought you were such a bad girl."

Halley tilted her head and flattened herself farther against the wall. "I've never been a bad girl. I'm more like an occasionally-veers-into-the-unorthodox kind of girl. Like washing colors with whites. Not bad, just not what you should do either. And I thought you wanted to talk."

Evan wiped some shampoo suds off her temple and stroked a moist finger down her cheek. He moved in until he was hard against her, the water falling between them onto his chest and pooling over her breasts.

He blinked to shake the water off his eyelashes and said, "We'll talk in a minute. First, I'm going to make love to you. Here. In the shower. While you're all warm and wet."

Halley looked ready to give in. She was sighing and gripping his arms as he licked water off her chin.

Then she said, "Wait."

The most hated word in the English language. Evan forced himself to say, "Why?"

"I want to do this first."

Halley put her slippery, sudsy warm hand on his cock and stroked.

Fuck. Evan went from semihard to granite in one brush of her eager fingers. Fingers that slid and stuck as the pelting water washed the soap off her.

He groaned.

She said in a thoughtful voice, "Hmm. My hand's getting stuck. I think I need more shampoo or something."

Evan couldn't answer, but braced his legs farther apart as she filled her hand up again. Then she touched him with a squeeze, before moving up and down, going all along the length of him before climbing back up and rounding over the head of his cock.

He panted like a Saint Bernard in the desert.

"This feels good," she murmured.

If it felt any better, he was going to rip the shower door off its hinges.

In fact, he was ashamed to admit it, but he was just about done for. Another minute and he would be spilling all over her like a garden hose.

"That's enough, Halley."

Her hand paused. "You don't like it?"

Damn, she sounded heartbroken. Her lower lip even trembled a little and her big blue eyes shone brightly. Then he realized she was faking it. She knew damn well he liked it.

He brushed a wet strand of her hair back and shook his head. "You know that's not what I meant. I just can't wait anymore. I'm going to… if you don't stop."

Her expression changed, a smile splaying across her face. "Oh. In that case…" Her hand started moving again.

Evan closed his eyes. "Halley," he warned.

"Bad girls keep going."

And she did, her smooth hot fingers working over him until he gave up the fight and let himself come into her hand, feeling out of control, very turned on, and seriously in love with Halley.

Halley unwound herself from Evan, who was once again snoring, and grabbed the sheet to pull over herself.

Evan had been dead to the world for the last hour, but she couldn't sleep. Her mind was racing, her body exhausted, satisfied, and sore, and reality was slowly starting to encroach on her bliss.

She had no idea what time it was. There were probably a thousand things waiting for her to attend to at the office, and Nora probably thought she'd been run over by a garbage truck by now, she'd been gone so long.

Evan didn't have a clock in his bedroom, a fact that didn't surprise her. He wasn't exactly chained to the normal conventions of appointments like most people.

Like her. If she leaned far enough over, she could catch a glimpse of the clock on his computer. Holding on to the edge of the mattress, Halley strained forward, nearly toppling off the bed when she saw it was three fifty-seven.

Her first reaction was to have a cow. Her second reaction was the same.

Holy shit.

How could she have spent the day in bed with Evan when she had a business tottering on the brink of financial disaster?

Biting her lip, she shifted carefully out of the bed and started searching for her pants. She didn't want to wake Evan up, nor did she really want to leave him just yet, but she couldn't slough off her responsibilities. She had a catering job at a ladies social club at five o'clock and there was no way she couldn't be there.

The club was a solid twenty-minute drive and she needed to go home and change still. Crawling around on the floor naked, Halley started to wonder if Evan's smoldering glances had disintegrated her clothes, since they appeared to have vanished. All she had stumbled across was a sandal and her tank top.

Pulling on the tank top without a bra, she wrapped the sheet around her waist and checked to make sure she hadn't woken up Evan. He was still breathing slowly, mouth open, muscular arm up over his head.

Damn, he was cute. Maybe it was a good thing she had to leave, or she might be tempted to throw herself at him and beg him to let her stay forever.

Which, if the sex didn't ruin their friendship, that surely would.

This way she could avoid the embarrassing talk that Evan wanted to have, in which she had to presume he was going to remind her this was a one-time deal. Since that sounded about as much fun as eating maggots, she was glad to be spared that. If she ducked out now, then maybe tomorrow they could act as if nothing had happened.

She was very good at avoiding. Hadn't she successfully avoided her attraction to Evan for nearly a year?

Halley caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over his dresser and jumped back, slapping her hand over her mouth. She didn't look as if nothing had happened. Taking a cautious step forward, she took in the mussed frizzy hair without an ounce of hair product in it, the clean shiny face sans makeup, the pouty plump lips, and the wrinkled tank top clinging to her breasts.

This woman looked exactly like someone who'd spent the day in bed having the best sex of her life. This woman staring back at her looking pleased and territorial. This woman looked relaxed and in love.

Halley liked her. She didn't want that expression to go away.

Except that she was really damn late and still couldn't find her bra or her pants.

Tripping over the sheet wrapped around her lower half, she grabbed Evan's desktop phone to check her voicemail messages. Scanning the floor for her pants, she listened to Nora rambling on in her ear asking her where she was and when she thought she'd be back in the office. Then Nora suggested she check her e-mail before carrying out any plans for revenge on the hackers.

Halley stopped looking under the bed for her pants and swore under her breath, disconnecting her phone. Dragging her sheet behind her, she logged on to her e-mail through Evan's computer and checked the time again. Yep. Still late and totally screwed. After deleting several unimportant e-mail messages, she ran across one with no title.

The message was from her hackers.

Sorry. Wrong caterer. But you look great wearing nothing but a smile. The Three Cs.

After a moment of shock, it struck her as wildly funny. That's it? That's all she got for being subjected to humiliation and financial devastation? A lukewarm apology?

A choking snortlike laugh escaped her mouth before she could stop it and she clicked on the sender to see if there was a return address. Of course there wasn't. Somehow they had sent the message without a sender address, and she was certain if she tried to hit Reply to sender, it would just bounce back into her own e-mail.

Not that she knew what she would say to them. Next time, try better breasts probably wasn't a good idea.

"What are you doing?"

Halley whirled around. Evan was sitting up in bed, yawning but looking ready to devour her all over again.

"Go back to sleep," she told him. "I've got to go."

He grinned. "So soon? But we haven't even done it in the living room yet."

That gave her momentary pause before she mentally shook herself. No, she had to leave. A half an hour ago.

"I can't. I have a catering job in less than an hour and I have to change and drive there."

Evan scratched his chest. She was tempted to throw a shirt at him so she wouldn't weaken and stay. And just where in the hell were her pants?

"Okay, I understand. But you're coming back tonight, right? Pack yourself an overnight bag and come over after the job's done. I'll wait up for you."

Halley wanted to say yes. But she had the sneaking suspicion that if she came back, she was going to wind up sorry. Friendless, heartbroken, and sorry. Better to leave now and when she returned, pretend they had never been naked together.

Taking little geisha steps, she held on to her tightly wrapped sheet and swallowed hard. "I think I'll just go home afterward. I'm going to be tired."

Tired of pretending she didn't love him.

"So? I'll let you get some sleep. In the morning."

Evan's voice was coaxing, seductive. Halley fought the urge to look at him. Frantic, she darted her eyes around the room, then gave a cry of triumph when she spotted her Capri pants bunched up by the closet.

"No, not tonight." Or any other night, if she wanted to keep her sanity.

The teasing tone left his voice. "But we need to talk, Halley."

"There's nothing to talk about." She headed toward the closet. "We had a fun day and now it's over. End of story."

That was not the end of the story as far as Evan was concerned. He watched Halley wiggle her way around the room like a giant fruit roll-up, her hair frizzy and lopsided and her breasts doing an enticing little jump with each jerk forward.

Did she really consider what they had shared nothing more than a fun day? Damn, that hurt. But Halley was a busy woman and he knew she didn't date much. Maybe he had been nothing more than a sexual diversion. An oversized stress ball.

She bent over carefully, trying to grab her pants off the floor while still holding on to the sheet. A painful lump formed in his chest.

"Halley."

"What?" Halley was hopping on one foot as she tried to step into her pants, all while keeping the sheet wrapped around her.

Exasperation rose in him. "Jesus, drop the sheet. You're going to fall and knock your teeth out." It wasn't as if he hadn't seen every inch of her body. And tasted it.

"I'm fine." She continued her one-footed dance.

He stood up and stalked over to her. He held her arms so she wouldn't wind up in a heap on the floor. "No, you're not. Why are you running out on me and acting like you don't want me to see a flash of your ass?"

She blew her hair out of her eyes and stopped struggling with her pants. "Because now we have to go back to being friends and that's not what friends do."

"Friends don't show friends body parts, huh?"

Wiggling her pants up her calves, she said, "Yes."

"What if I want to be more than friends?" He started to caress her arms with his thumbs, and leaned forward to place a kiss on her warm shoulder.

She stiffened. "Knock it off. You can't change the rules now. If we do this again, then what happens eventually when the lust burns out? I don't want to lose you, Evan."

If that's what was bothering her, then maybe there was hope for him after all.

He nibbled on her ear, noticing the way she drew in her breath. "Do you love me?"

She sighed. "We've been over this. Yes. But there's love. And then there's love."

"Well, do you love me?"

Hot fingers shoved on his chest. He stayed firmly next to her.

"I've got to go."

"Answer the question, then I'll let you go."

Halley looked over his shoulder and rolled her eyes. "I plead the fifth."

That was promising. He teased his tongue into her ear. She gasped.

Evan wanted it all, and he wanted it now. Halley was the woman for him and he wanted to spend a lifetime loving her. "I love you, you know. Always have, always will. I want you to marry me."

"What?" Halley squawked, wondering if she was hallucinating. "What are you talking about? This was supposed to be about sex, remember?"

Her heart was beating like a hummingbird's wings and she was so hopeful she was sick. He couldn't mean it… but if he did, she was going to be really excited. She couldn't kid herself anymore that she just wanted Evan's body. She wanted everything.

His heart.

He whispered in her ear, "This whole day was about love, not sex."

Oh, damn, that was romantic. Her knees gave out, she loosened her grip on the sheet, and her Capri pants puddled to her ankles.

He kissed her jaw, his hands cupping the sides of her face. "Marry me."

Who was she to say no? "Yes. Yes, yes, and yes."

Leaping into his arms, she almost fell down as the sheet trapped her legs. Evan caught her and smiled down at her.

"I'm so glad you said yes. Because I was going to have to hurt you if you said no."

She laughed, feeling a little punch drunk on happiness. She tried to force herself to back up, but her body wasn't having it. Neither was Evan. He still held her tight.

"Now let me go, I've got to leave!"

He kissed her full on the mouth, a deep, possessive kiss that had her sighing with pleasure. Oh, yeah. Waking up to this every day would be a dream come true.

"So let's just clarify. That's a yes, you'll marry me?"

"Yes." Every day with her favorite person. She couldn't ask for anything better.

Evan squeezed her hard enough to collapse a lung. "Now tell me that you love me and I'll let you go."

"I do." Halley sniffed a happy sniff and let go of her sheet altogether.

"Keep saying those words, sweet stuff, because you'll be needing them soon." He grinned at her.

A shiver went through her. When she had spotted that angel between her legs, she could never have imagined this would be the result.

"Hey, I forgot to tell you, the Three Commandos sent me an e-mail apologizing."

"You're kidding." Evan moved to the computer.

Wearing nothing but a smile suited him. She said, "No, I'm definitely not kidding."

Evan started clicking on the computer. "Well, we'll have to e-mail them back."

"I don't want to hack their site anymore, Evan. And I don't want to send them a nasty e-mail. Let's just forget about it." Her conscience wouldn't let her torment them in return and she had no desire to start an online feud with the Three Cs. Besides, she didn't want anyone but Evan to see those pictures they had taken with his camera.

He glanced back at her, tossing his light hair out of his eyes. "I wasn't going to send them a nasty e-mail. I was going to thank them. After all, they're semiresponsible for us getting together."

She stepped out of the clinging bits of the sheet and went to stand behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Her thighs rubbed against his and she dropped a kiss onto his back. "I have to leave now."

"Promise you'll be back tonight?" Evan abandoned the computer and stood up.

"Yes." As soon as the last slice of raspberry cheesecake was served, she was out of there.

Evan turned around and Halley found herself pulled into his arms. Before she could blink, her tank top was gone, tossed over his shoulder and lying crumpled on the keyboard.

"How long until you have to leave?"

"I needed to leave a half an hour ago."

Halley moaned as his hand moved between her thighs.

"I'll be quick."

Halley tried to dredge up the strength to say no. "How quick?" she asked, breathless.

"Just long enough to do a quick Cupid imitation."

All kinds of perverted analogies involving Cupid and arrows ran through Halley's mind.

"As long as it doesn't involve any hacking."

What Evan whispered to her made her laugh, before the sound was swallowed by a very friendly kiss.