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 only taken him one hour 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 bland 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 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.

Unless he convinced her.

Evan stood up and stretched his arms up over his head. While he had dragged on shorts 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 towards the kitchen, realizing he had never eaten breakfast or lunch and was now starving. But when he got into something like breaking through the hacker’s trail, he lost sight of the mundane tasks like eating.

Now that he was done, his appetite had 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.

She liked to tease him that he was the world’s lamest millionaire. He didn’t act the part. But while it might be the truth when it came to his surroundings, it wasn’t the truth when he was working. He was ruthless. Tenacious. Exhilarated by the challenges. But she didn’t see that side of him for the most part.

Maybe it was time he showed her how determined he could be to get what he wanted.

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

Halley? Evan ditched the corn flakes after one last big bite and strode to the door. If it was her, 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.

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, it wasn’t going to be what he wanted her to say. Which was rip my clothes off me now.

Halley’s lip quivered. “That fake picture of me has been there a week, Evan. A week! A client canceled on me, my employees are sharing it on social media, and my dad saw it. My dad! I mean, it’s out there now. There’s no getting rid of it. Ever.”

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 at least.” He couldn’t do anything to contain the damage though. But how long would people find it entertaining? A day or two at most?

“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 considered it. 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 anti-depressants.

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, 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 normal towards him.

“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 attraction for her.

“Yes, that. But we can forget it for now if you want.” He brushed the uncooperative hair out of her eye and gave her a slow smile. “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 work 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 over-enthusiastic response to his unexpectedly dirty 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 here—her 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, like 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. “Because I feel bad that I owe you money.”

Evan shrugged. “I told you not to worry about that.”

“I can’t not worry about that. I’m not wired that way. I don’t like feeling obligated.”

He gave her a slow, wicked grin that made her insides start to churn. This look was new. It was sexy and terrifying all at once.

“How about I forget about your debt to me in exchange for something you have that I want.”

She eyed him, uncertain. “What could I possibly give you that would be worth that much money?”

“You.”

What the what? Halley stared at Evan, her heart racing and her hopes rising. “Me, how exactly?”

“You showing me your tits for real. Like Mardi Gras.”

Halley froze. “You can’t be serious.”

“As a heart attack.”

“Why?”

“Because you have perfect breasts, sweet stuff, I know you do.”

“I owe you more than the price of beads.” She owed him twenty grand. She liked to think she was reasonably attractive naked. She could rock some lingerie if the mood struck. But her chest was not worth twenty grand. “And how do you know what my breasts look like?”

He scoffed as he started towards her. “Oh, come on. I’ve seen you in a bathing suit. And when you dropped your towel by accident after your shower. It’s no big deal. Just show me your tits.”

But it was a big deal to her. She could not fake nonchalance wearing no shirt in front of him.

“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 know you and your body. I just want to see a little more.”

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 bizarre and unnerving. His request, not her failed birthday. 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.

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 what the hell was going on.

“How much else are we talking about here?” Had he taken up sketching and needed a nude model? Like what the actual hell was going on?

“You, completely naked. In my bed.”

Halley felt her jaw drop. “Are you blackmailing me to have sex with you?” It boggled the mind. It was outrageous. Insane. Tempting as hell.

He scoffed. “It’s not blackmail. It’s an offer. A proposition. A bargain. You don’t have to accept it.”

“Okay. Yes. I accept.” Because what, she was stupid? She wanted to have sex with Evan. Had wanted to since he had fallen asleep at her apartment and she had stared at him stretched out on your couch and wanted him to stay with her, forever. Naked.

For a second he looked surprised. But then he grinned. “No negotiations?”

What the hell would she ask for? A guaranteed orgasm? She knew she was going to come. It was inevitable. He could put the tip of one finger on her clit and she would orgasm for him. There was nothing to demand.

But she really wasn’t going to let him absolve her debt because of some D in the V.

“Okay, here’s my offer. You let me go six months without payments, interest free. Then I start paying you back again.”

Evan took a step towards her. “That’s not how negotiations work. You aren’t supposed to ask for less, you’re supposed to ask for more.”

He had a part. “You drive a hard bargain. But all I care about is this does not screw up our friendship. That’s huge to me.”

His hand reached out and cupped her cheek. “Halley. Nothing will ruin our friendship. Nothing.”

She should ask for clarification. Ask him why he wanted to have sex with her. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer. Instead, she wanted him to kiss her again.

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 worry you, it doesn’t worry me.”

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 in the hell had wanted her to strip, he was shocked she had gone through with it.

Fucking glad. But shocked.

Now all he could do was drink her in and wonder how easily that sheer stuff on her bra might rip between his greedy fingers.

“If this was really Mardi Gras I’d ask you if I could take a picture.”

“You can ask. Maybe I’ll say yes.”

His nostrils flared. Maybe there was another side to Halley he didn’t know. Much like she didn’t know his determined side.

“Can I take a picture of your tits? For my eyes only?” The thought of that was so damn sexy to him. He would have it now, and later.

“Yes, you can. Where’s your phone?” 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. Double damn.

Where the hell was his phone? He turned and spotted it on his nightstand. He grabbed it and turned back to her.

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 phone 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.

He pulled his hand back, waited for her permission to continue.

“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. I wasn’t fucking around earlier. I want to have sex with you.” He meant to put his hand deep into his pocket, but instead he dropped it to her waist.

Her breath sucked in hard. “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.

“You can tell me no and I’ll stop.”

He waited but she said nothing. She just dragged the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip. It felt like an invitation. It certainly wasn’t a refusal.

So he kissed her. It was different than the kiss earlier that morning. That had been urgent, carnal. This was languid and sensual, 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. 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,” he answered. “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.”

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

“Exactly.”

Taking one step back, he lifted the phone in front of him, focusing on Halley in front of him.

“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 as she made up her mind. The bra slid across each full breast and down her pale arms to land on the floor.

There was nothing but her in front of him. He pushed the button with his thumb to take a picture.

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 as her on his phone, 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.

He loved the way the curve of her waist, the way her jeans rested so tantalizing on her hips, 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 outlined in those jeans.

He stepped on her bra as he moved around her other side. Leaning over, he scooped it up. It was warm, like 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 was shocked when I saw this little see-through number.”

“It’s a private indulgence,” she said, shrugging. “A reward for my success. Or my former 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 site.”

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

He laughed. The only thing really on his mind right now was her soft warm flesh, uncovered and so close to him.

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

“Where are you going to touch me?” Her voice was a little whimper. She was trembling now, leaning towards him, her nipples hard and rosy. Halley looked like 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 can touch you here,” he whispered in her ear, his palms running down her arms. “Or here.” He shifted to her breasts, teasing his thumbs over her tight nipples, now so deliciously bare to him. “Or is there somewhere else you would like me to touch?”

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.

She knew him backwards and forwards 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, “Fuck me, Evan.”

His cock hardened. His nostrils flared. She always managed to surprise him.

“There is nothing I would like more.”