I finished going over the contract my lawyer, Rhonda Sutter, had sent. Rhonda was always all business. She was great about not asking questions or, in this case, passing judgment. The contract was simple and to the point. The final piece of the contract included the statement that I would pay Shay Starling a million dollars if I broke the deal by touching her intimately. Smug, overly confident asshole that I was, I'd offered the amount without giving it much thought. Then Shay pulled up to the house and climbed out of her car in a skin-tight pair of jeans and clingy sweater, and my confidence blew away like dust in the wind.

I watched her for a second through the glass on the front door. She stood next to her car, hugging herself and looking way less sure about everything than she had the night before. I stopped myself from walking out to the porch to coax her inside. She needed to be sure of herself, and she didn't need my salesman pitch to cloud her judgment. The decision had to be hers.

I was shocked at the level of disappointment I felt when she turned back to her car. It seemed she had changed her mind. Then she leaned into her car and yanked out a heavy duffle bag. She stumbled back with it a few steps.

I walked outside and down the steps. A warm Santa Ana wind had ushered in a mid fall heat wave, and the temperature was close to eighty. "I can get that," I said.

Shay gladly handed the heavy bag over to me. "I managed to get most of my important possessions in this one bag. Which either makes me very efficient or pathetically poor."

I found myself smiling at almost everything she said. Her personality was something I'd never factored in when I chose her as my temptation. She was extraordinarily sexy, and my ignorance had caused my mind to go straight to the stereotypical assumption that she would be dull or conceited or shallow.

I carried her duffle bag up the steps, and she followed with a lumpy pillow tucked under her arm. "The bed already has pillows and blankets."

"I'm sure it does, but I can't sleep without my favorite pillow."

I led her into the entryway. She stared up at the iron lamp I'd had handcrafted by a local artist. "I love that. It looks sort of medieval, yet it has a beachy vibe."

"Great. Coastal medieval was exactly the look I was going for."

She followed me into the front room, where the picture window provided an amazing view of the pool and the beach below.

She clutched her pillow against her and headed straight to the window. My gaze went straight to her ass. It was sealed seductively in tight denim, and heat surged down to my cock. This plan was either going to be brilliant, or it was going to kill me.

Shay spun around. "You wake up to this view every day?"

"Sometimes it's cloudy."

She pulled the blue beanie off her silky white hair. Strands floated up from the static charge, and she smoothed them down as she surveyed the room. "You have good taste for a man. But then, I suppose an oversized, fake leather easy chair and cinderblock and plywood coffee table wouldn't really work in a Malibu beach house."

"I can't take too much credit. I had a decorator." I heaved the duffle bag onto my shoulder. "I'll show you your room and then we can go over the contract."

A hint of citrus scent sifted through the hallway as I led Shay to the guest bedroom. "I like that perfume," I said over my shoulder. "What is it?"

"Perfume? Bargain basement shampoo. The label boasted an orange blossom scent. I question the validity of that."

I pushed open the door and carried the bag to the upholstered bench at the end of the bed. Shay's gaze traveled around the room.

"Will this do?"

"Meh, it's free, so I guess I can't complain." She walked over and drew back the curtains. The midday sun streamed into the room, highlighting the teal blue and white paint the interior designer had chosen for the color scheme. The window in the guest room gave an unobstructed view of the water. "The view's not bad." She broke from her serious face. "Oh my gosh, I died. Someone forgot to tell me that I died, and for some strange reason, I landed in heaven. Probably a mix up at the pearly gates. The only thing I can't figure out is how you got past those pearly gates."

"Yeah, if this is heaven there was definitely a mix up." I walked over to the closet and pulled open the doors. "I had some things delivered this morning. I guessed on the sizes, but I think most of it should fit."

Shay walked past me and into the closet. Most of the items were silky, sexy lingerie from an exclusive boutique in town. She ran her fingers over the shiny fabric of a baby blue teddy that had sheer lace peek-a-boo cut outs in strategic places.

"You weren't kidding when you said it would be the good stuff," she said in a much more subdued tone than seconds before. She stared at the skimpy, provocative clothes I'd purchased, and her eyes lost some of the glitter.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

She nodded. "As long as I can hold onto my self-esteem through all of this, I'll be fine."

"And far better off financially. You won't ever have to strip for creepy, grabby men again," I reminded her.

A sad laugh rolled from her lips. "You're right. Self-esteem, who am I kidding? I was hugging a stripper's pole just last night. I lost any shred of it long ago."

"You need to think of this as a lucrative business deal, Shay. You haven't lost your self-esteem. You just have to find it again."

She sucked in a deep breath. "Right. What about that contract?" she blurted before I could say anything more.

We returned to the front room. I had the contract out on the table in the breakfast nook. "Would you like something to drink?" I asked. "I filled the fridge with a few things, not sure what you preferred."

Shay pushed her hair behind her ears, revealing three tiny hoops in each ear lobe. "Iced tea if you have it."

"Yes. I thought you might be an iced tea kind of woman." I filled a glass with ice and poured the tea.

Her fingers were moving quickly over the text on the paper.

"You're a fast reader." I set the tea down next to her.

"I am. Turned out to be kind of a natural talent of mine, along with the whole striptease thing." She pointed to the last section of the contract, the section guaranteeing her a million dollars if I broke the contract and touched her intimately. Her brown eyes rounded as she looked up at me. "You weren't joking. You actually added the million dollar offer into the contract."

"If there's one thing you'll learn quickly about me, when it comes to business, I never joke around."

"I will make a mental note of that."

I walked back to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. I was planning to give up both booze and women, but I decided to tackle my habits one at a time. But I was going to have to take it easy on the alcohol because it tended to make me forget any sense of reason, particularly when I was near an enticing woman. And Shay was definitely that.

Shay's face moved closer to the contract as she read the last few lines. "If I touch you in an intimate way or a way that causes arousal, then the million dollar pay off is retracted?" Her mouth pursed in question at the last statement. "So, if I suddenly grab your penis and push it into my mouth, all bets are off?"

I popped the top off the beer. "I had to put some protections in there for me. I figured that million dollars was going to sound pretty sweet."

"Oh, it sounds more than sweet. My entire life would change, and frankly, I could use a change. I've been on the wrong end of luck for most of my life. But this stipulation is kind of silly. Women don't go around groping genitals without permission. That's a man thing."

"Oh really? Seems to me I've been groped without invitation more than once by one of your ex-coworkers at Fantasm."

"That's because those women are struggling to pay their bills, and if you step into Fantasm that is technically an invitation to have your balls grabbed."

I lifted my beer can in salute. "Touché." My ignorance was really coming back to slap me in the face. I'd anticipated having a seductive, sweet and vacuous woman milling around the house in enticing silk underwear, but Shay was anything but dull and empty-headed. I was going to have work hard just to stay in control of the situation, or she might very well walk off with a million bucks.

Shay finished reading the document. "Looks good to me." She signed her name on the bottom, below my signature. I scooted over the non-disclosure form for her to sign next.

"This just states that you won't ever tell anyone about this agreement."

"That shouldn't be a problem. I don't know that many people, and I wouldn't have the slightest clue how to put this agreement into words." She scrawled her name on the line, set down the pen and sipped some more tea. "When do I start acting like a tempting piece of chocolate cake?"

"You're already well past that. Hell, tempting should be your middle name. But we can move to the next level. There are a few different bikinis in the dresser in your room. Put one on and join me at the pool. It's heating up fast outside, and the pool is warm."

"This is embarrassing since we live in California, but I can't swim."

"Who said anything about swimming?"