Jess was beside herself with emotions that were running through her. Griffin was too good at what he was doing to her. His kiss was electrifying, his hands left paths of lava on her skin, and he said the sweetest things.

And she couldn’t let herself believe one word he said. He was doing it all to win the damn bet. Not because he was really attracted to her!

In a vain attempt to see if Griffin could be made to feel even the slightest bit of guilt for trying to get her straight into bed only to win a stupid bet, Jess asked him, “How many brothers and sisters do you have, Griff?”

“I have two younger sisters and one brother,” he answered then kissed her cheek. “And you?”

“A couple of sisters and one younger brother. So, about your sisters, are they older than I am?” she asked him, hoping to get him to feel some guilt about what he wanted to do to her.

“They’re both older than you, and they’re both married with a couple of kids each.” Griff kissed his way to her lips. Not merely to shut her up but because he genuinely liked the way she kissed.

Griffin knew Jess was his type of woman. She was funny, beautiful, and smart as hell. When you added in her passion for animals, not necessarily a thing he had but it was a thing he respected, then she was nearly perfect for him.

Although he wanted to keep seeing Jess after that night, he wasn’t an idiot. He knew if he continued to see her past that night then she’d inevitably find out about the bet. Probably from him as he was notorious for eventually telling the truth about anything bad he’d ever done.

He’d kicked one of their dogs once when he was a kid. The dog was chasing him as he rode his bike down the long road that led to their ranch house. The dog kept nipping at his ankles, and he kicked it to get it away from him.

The poor dog yelped like he’d really hurt it and limped away, looking sadly back at him. It was then that Griffin realized the dog had thought they were playing together.

No one had seen what he’d done. He didn’t have to admit anything to anyone. But the guilt was piling up on him. Griffin went back to the house and found a steak in the freezer, nuked it in the microwave and went out to apologize to the dog and offer him a treat.

Like most dogs, he accepted the steak and seemed to forgive Griffin for his transgression. But that wasn’t enough for Griff. No, he went to his father and told him what he’d done. His father chastised him, and that should’ve been enough reprimanding.

Griffin still felt guilt, so he told his mother what he’d done to the dog, and she further guilted him by giving him a good talking to about hurting animals and people.

Griffin knew he’d eventually tell Jess about the bet if they kept on seeing each other. So, he knew he couldn’t see her past that night. But Griff wanted the night to be special for her anyway. At least she might look back and see that he did care about her.

“Were you that overprotective big brother?” Jess asked when he eased his kiss.

“Overprotective?” he asked not only her but himself as well. “Nah, I’m not that guy. You’d have to be a hard ass to be like that. A man who doesn’t mind fighting another man over things. I’ve never been in a fistfight. I don’t much care for getting into other people’s business.”

“So, if some dude hurt one of your sisters when they were younger, you didn’t give a flying fuck about that?” Jess asked, suddenly pissed off.

Griff could tell he’d sparked something in her he didn’t intend to and hurried to correct his errant tongue. “I mean, if someone had ever done something wrong to them, then I’d have gotten involved, sure. That never did happen, though. So, there was never a need to get all big brother on anyone in their defense.”

“Oh,” she said, looking a little ashamed of jumping to conclusions. “So, are you what you’d consider an honorable man, Griff?”

Not really, is what came to his mind but he said something different, “I do consider myself honorable. I do what I say I’ll do. I think that’s more than most men do. Don’t you agree?”

“My father does what he says he’ll do too. I admire that in a person. But what I really am asking you is do you think you do right by people most of the time?” She watched him for some sign he might have an issue with taking her to his bed, just to win a bet.

“Most of the time, yes,” he answered her with a genuine smile on his handsome face.

The dancing blonde curls that framed his chiseled features, the straight nearly Roman nose, the perfect teeth, the caramel lips with the lower one slightly more plump than the top one, all came together to give the man a charming look that no female would suspect could be anything but wholesome.

But Jess was lucky because she knew more than he thought she knew. She knew what he was really doing with her. It made her stomach hurt to know he’d keep on going. So, she pressed it a bit further as she asked him, “Do you think using another person for sex is a nice thing to do?”

“Um, uh, why’d you ask me that?” he stammered as her question had him wondering if she’d read his mind or something. Had he inadvertently let her in on the real reason he was wooing her?

“I just want to know what you think about such a thing,” she said with a little pout on her red, kiss swollen lips.

His light beard had rouged her cheeks, making them glow pink. She was young, so full of that youthful glow he so admired in women. What you get with younger women is a thing you don’t get with older ones who’ve been around the block a time or two. You get trust.

Griffin knew he didn’t deserve trust from Jess. She was right to be asking him the things she did. She was right to trust her intuition about him and what he was after. If he’d been a man, who was not in the middle of a bet that he couldn’t get out of then he’d have stopped it all, right then and there.

It was true, he hadn’t picked Jess out on his own. But she was perfect for him. Why in the world did she have to be so great and so intuitive? That would make things so much harder!

Her question had hung in the air longer than it should’ve as he thought about what he should say. It made Jessica worried she’d set him off and she’d lose the chance to get to him and make him sorry he’d ever thought about using her.

She changed her demeanor as she ran her arms around his neck and kissed him instead of waiting for his answer. It didn’t really matter anyway. She was sure he was still set on the course of getting her into bed before the others got her sisters into their beds. She didn’t need to try to get to him. If he’d had an ounce of respect for her, for real, he’d have told her about the dumb bet and told his friends he was out of it.

The fact he hadn’t done that spoke louder than any word that had come out of his mouth. No matter how nice he seemed, Griffin was set on winning the bet at the cost of her pride.

It was odd how her heart felt so heavy over a man she didn’t even know. Jess wondered why in the hell that was. She’d never been seriously in love with anyone before. She had no idea what a broken heart felt like.

So why was what she knew Griffin Houser was up to with her making her feel like her heart was breaking? Why would anything a stranger do make her feel so full of emotion?

Jess had no clue as to why she felt that way. All she knew for sure was that she hoped like hell his heart ached like hers was when he found she’d gone without a word to him.

And she hoped her face would stick in his head for a very long time. She knew she’d be seeing his face in her dreams. He was the best-looking man she’d ever had interested in her. Then she reminded herself that he wasn’t really interested in her at all.

Jess was just a piece of ass to the man, nothing more or less than that. She could’ve been any woman that night. It didn’t matter who, it just mattered how quickly he could get what he was after. Any female subject would do!