He made it home just before midnight. Josie heard the car door slam, and her heart started beating quicker.

Not because she was excited to see him.

Because she was hoping he wouldn't throw her out on her well-padded hiney.

It took only nine seconds for him to step into the house and shout her name. "Josie? Are you still awake?"

As if she could sleep through that bellow. "No."

"Where are you?" She heard the heels of his dress shoes click on the gorgeous wood floor with its fancy inlays. Where was she? An excellent question. What did he call this room? "It's the room off the kitchen. Overlooking your backyard." And what a yard it was. The perfectly manicured lawn stretched for at least two acres, sliding into trees that hid any sign of neighbors or civilization. She'd sat and stared out the picture window until it had become too dark to see, and then she'd spent twenty minutes trying to find the lights for the backyard before she'd given up.

Which was better, because she'd had a bit of unpacking to do.

"Why are you in an empty room?" He appeared in the doorway, stopping immediately as he took in his new room, filled with the furniture from Josie's apartment, including her queen-sized bed, pushed into a corner and laden with pillows, creating a very comfy and very appealing snuggle-place. "And I was assuming that the empty garage meant the movers hadn't arrived."

"Why furnish the garage when you have such a sterile house in need of some character?" She burrowed deeper into her faded orange couch, scratching Zeus's head. "And don't look at me like that. You said not to touch your bedroom. You never mentioned this empty room."

The scar under his eye began to twitch. "And the cat?"

"Monica dropped her off." She hugged Zeus tighter, ignoring the low growl in the cat's chest. She had about twenty seconds before Zeus would break out the claws. "Her name's Zeus. Isn't she cute?" She held her up. "Look at that face. How could you turn her down?" The claw came out, narrowly missing Josie's nose.

"Nice cat."

"She's a sweetie."

"She? Zeus is a male god."

"He's the god of war. Why is it that only men are allowed to be warriors? Women can be tough too."

He narrowed his eyes and leaned against the door, the sleeves to his charcoal gray suit scrunching up slightly, revealing stark white cuffs with custom cufflinks. "You're really obsessed with this female warrior thing, aren't you?"

"No," she said quickly.

He ignored her denial. "What gives?"

"Nothing."

"My guess is that you feel like you were trounced at some point in your life, and you're trying to overcompensate for that."

She stared at him. How did he do that?

The corner of his mouth curved up. "Don't look so surprised. I'm not a total idiot."

"Maybe not, but you don't exactly come across as the most perceptive individual."

"Ah, but being perceptive is critical in my business. If I can't read my clients, I'm done."

"So, it's about business. That makes more sense."

Evan ignored the dig. "Who trounced you?"

"No one."

"A man? Your ex-husband? Is that why you're all weird about relationships?"

That was it. She was ending this conversation before he guessed every little secret she had. He was the enemy. Not the individual to confide in. "So, how was the date?"

The scar twitched again. "You mean, the business meeting?"

As if she would fall for that. "She's not right for you, you know."

He looked surprised. "Why not?"

"She's...cold. Aloof. Calculating. Plus, she's too skinny. And she can't move her eyebrows. How could you date someone like that? You'd never know what she was really thinking. It would be terribly disconcerting. And her hair? Total dye job. Don't you want someone who is more natural? And her clothes. Too perfect. She'd never go play in the leaves with you."

Evan was staring at her as if she'd lost her mind. "I don't play in leaves."

"Yeah, you probably don't. Way too undignified for you." Josie took a deep breath. Must be cool. Pretend she didn't care. "You're probably a perfect match. In fact, I'm sure you are. But you'll lose her if you don't shape up."

"Oh, really?"

"Yep. You made her drive to your house, instead of picking her up. You didn't compliment her on her outfit, which obviously cost bundles, you didn't admire the lack of wrinkles on her forehead, or even...um...give her flowers. Or wine. Or diet pills. Whatever she'd want. Women like to be appreciated and doted on. And you just took her for granted." She folded her arms. "Yep, you blew it, buster."

Evan chuckled. Mr. Serious actually chuckled. Too bad it was obviously at her expense. "Well, thanks for your insight. I'll be sure and take notes."

She scowled at him. "Fine. Be ungrateful. See if I care."

"You didn't ask me how the business part of the meeting went."

"Was there a business part?"

"Yep. I was trying to acquire a very important client by the name of Dr. Black. A man, by the way."

"As if I care what gender your clients are." But she did feel a little better knowing there really was an actual business agenda. "Did you get him?"

"Nope. Didn't go so well." Evan sighed, and suddenly she realized that he looked a little tired. "I'm about out of chances with him."

Her heart twinged with sympathy. "Um...what happened?"

"I can't connect with him." He balled his fist and punched it lightly against the doorjamb. "It's just not happening. I thought Priscilla would help, but that didn't work either."

It suddenly occurred to Josie that maybe Evan didn't have anyone else to vent to. Except her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Evan blinked, then his lips tightened, and he withdrew, as if he hadn't realized he was sharing with her. "No."

So much for the moment of bonding. "You know, sometimes you really match this house," she said.

"Is that an insult?" He didn't even blink at the change in conversation. Did anything rattle him?

"An observation."

"Translate, please." He walked across the room, paused for a moment as he inspected his furniture options, then sank down on the same couch she was on. At the other end, but suddenly it felt very small. "I'm overwhelmed with curiosity to find out why I'm like a house."

She decided his sarcasm was intended to cover his unbearable curiosity, which he was too proud to acknowledge. "Well, the house is proper and elegant and beautiful to look at."

He lifted a brow. "But..."

"It's cold. Sterile. Empty."

"Trust me, I'm not sterile."

She couldn't stop herself from grinning. "I didn't mean it that way. I meant it like cold."

"I'm not cold either. Heat courses through my veins." He shrugged out of his jacket and laid it over the arm of her couch.

"I beg to differ."

"Beg all you want. I still won't make love to you."

She would have fallen flat on her face in shock, if she wasn't sunk so deep in the spring-less couch. To his credit, Evan looked a little startled too, as if he wasn't sure exactly how those words had made it out of his mouth.

Stay cool, Josie. He's just playing you. Stop fantasizing. He's a Dorsett. Therefore, she hated him. Plus, she still hadn't figured out his agenda. She took a deep breath, licked her lips, and decided that an Amazon warrior would never ever admit when she'd been thrown for a loop. So she turned toward him, stretched her arm across the back of the couch, slipped down so that her shirt rode up just enough to show her belly button and waggled her eyebrows. "You're quite mistaken."

His eyes slipped to her bared belly for a fraction of a second, and his eyes darkened before he dragged his gaze back to her face. "What am I mistaken about?"

"That you wouldn't make love to me if I begged you."

"What?"

Call his bluff, Josie. Set the parameters of their co-habitation from day one. He was not going to intimidate her, was not going to set the sexual tone in the house, and he was most definitely not the one in control. She moved her hips toward him, only six inches, but enough that his gaze snapped downward as he watched her approach.

"What are you doing?"

She smiled. "Proving my point."

"And what point is that?"

"That if I decided I wanted you to make love to me, you'd do it."

"Not a chance."

"Is that so?" She peeled Zeus off her lap and deposited the ornery feline on the floor, never taking her eyes off Evan's face. "You think you're so hardened?"

"I never said I was hard...-end," he added. "Hardened."

"Just because I never slept with Buddy doesn't mean I'm not a sexual dynamo." Actually, that wasn't true. She was about as far from a sexual dynamo as an old tree stump was, but hey, Evan didn't need to know that. From the look in his eyes, she doubted she'd even get a chance to touch him before he bolted off the couch and realized sexual verbal tango was not the right thing to play with her.

And then she'd be free to cohabitate with him without all that sexual tension hovering in the air.

"What do you sleep in?"

She stopped the sideways slide of her hips. "What?"

"I was wondering that earlier today. The question seems to fit the conversation." He lifted a hand and flicked the bottom edge of her tee shirt. "Are you a tee shirt and boxers girl, or sexy lace?"

Nerves suddenly fluttered in her chest. What was going on? After looking panicked for a moment, he was now looking amused and much too comfortable. As if he'd realized her game and had decided to beat her at it. Oh yeah? She'd lost to one Dorsett already. No way was she losing to another. She had to prove that she was strong enough to handle any man.

Of course, in real life, she'd never play this sort of game, but since she knew they both despised each other and nothing would actually happen, it was almost sort of liberating. It wasn't as if she had to worry about being rejected. She actually wanted to be rejected. Hmm... Interesting situation—permission to be as wanton and aggressive as she wanted, knowing she was striving for rejection and she didn't have to worry about being taken seriously. Rejection would be a victory, a sign of her strength.

Wait a sec. Was she actually healed enough to be able to consider rejection a positive thing? Maybe there was hope for her yet.

"So, Josie? Are you a cotton or lace girl between the sheets?"

She smiled. "Depends." Perhaps it was time to play out the fantasies she'd never have the courage to explore in real life.

"On?"

"My mood." She scooted closer, until her hip was less than an inch from his, wrapping his tie around her wrist. "Sometimes I want to feel the cool silk sliding over my skin as it slides on...and off..." Goosebumps popped up on her arms and she felt a flutter in her belly. Evan better reject her soon or she was going to get herself worked up.

He tugged her ponytail free, releasing her hair to cascade over her shoulders. "Ever sleep naked?"

"When I'm hoping for a nighttime visitor, I might." She shivered, scooted closer, tucking her foot under her fanny to lift herself closer to his lips...lips that looked really, really yummy.

His hand slipped off the back of the couch and wrapped around her waist, sending trills of excitement whirling down her legs. Steady, Josie. You can handle this. "And tonight? What will you wear tonight?"

"With you across the hall?" She reached up and trailed her finger over his jaw, the roughness of his stubble tough on her skin.

"Uh huh." He moved his head and caught her finger between his teeth, holding gently, nibbling, teasing.

"Tonight I'll wear a suit of armor. I'll lock it and throw the key out the window." But her voice was so husky she wasn't sure he could even understand her words. She certainly had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. All she could do was watch her finger between his teeth, caught, trapped, yet in no danger. "You seem to do that to me a lot."

"Do what?"

"Trap me."

"So you've said."

"Is it your way of trying to seduce me?" Oops, she sounded a little too serious there. As if all this teasing intimacy was starting to get to her. Well, she was female after all. What woman could remain immune with Evan's arm around her and his mouth working wonders on certain parts of her body. And...she leaned forward slightly and sniffed. He still smelled like woods and spice and sophistication.

"Smell good?"

She opened her eyes, not having noticed she'd closed them. Evan's lips were curved in amusement. "I'd have to be dead not to think you smelled good." She grimaced. The tides were definitely turning against her. Time to turn them back. Fast. She couldn't let him win. Couldn't let him think she couldn't resist him, that by inviting her into his house, he'd acquired a bed-mate, or at least a woman he could torture.

No way. If there was to be any torturing in this house, she was going to be the one doing it.

And there was only one way to regain control right now, given that her spine felt like mush and her body was screaming out for his touch. Call his bluff.

Phew. She could do this.

Josie took a deep breath, sat up, and faced the sexiest man she'd ever met. Could she really kiss him and leave him?

Yeah, right.

No, she could do this. She'd simply pretend she was kissing Buddy. That'd be enough cold water to put out a raging inferno.

She'd make him surrender to her sexual dynamism, and then she'd get off the couch and walk away, leaving him terrified, awed, and humbled.

Self-delusions were a powerful thing.

Time to turn her delusions into reality.

She grabbed his tie, wrapped it around her fist, and tugged him toward her...while she stretched upward...until his lips were only a whisper away from hers...and still he didn't stop her...so she grabbed onto her courage and kissed him with all the passion and sexual tension that had been multiplying in her body since she'd met him.

His lips were so soft, so gentle, nothing like the fierce hardness she'd expected. Wonderful. He tasted wonderful. His lips moved under hers, tender, coaxing, sweet caresses that made her whole body tremble.

Wasn't he supposed to be running away now? Stunned by her power?

His hands moved over her back, tracing her spine while he took over the kiss. Deeper now, more demanding, more like the Evan she'd met. Tough, yet gentle. In control of her, of the situation, yet fiery hot.

No, this was wrong. She was supposed to be the one in control. She was supposed to be remaining detached and clinical.

His fingers dug into the back of her neck, massaging and coaxing. A little groan escaped her lips and she felt herself lean into him, her breasts flat against his chest. Just for a second. She'd indulge herself for a second, and then she'd pull away and humble him.

What would it be like to kiss Evan for real? The way she'd kiss someone she really liked? She had to know...this would be her only opportunity...she'd wonder forever if she didn't try...just for a minute or two...that's all...to satisfy her curiosity...in the name of scientific research...so she could better manipulate him in the future...

Satisfied with her reasons, she gave herself permission to lose herself in Evan's kiss. She slipped her hands around his neck, rolled onto his lap, and let all her inhibitions go.