She vacillated between getting a beer for herself in hopes of relaxing her rapidly frazzling nerves or forgoing it to keep her wits about her as best she could. Finally deciding to go for caution over optimism, she poured a glass of sparkling water for herself instead. Nothing was going to soothe her nerves and she could not afford to lower her inhibitions even marginally.

She walked back into the living room, wishing she’d had an hour rather than a few minutes to regroup and worrying that even that might not have been enough.

Ethan wasn’t there. His coat was still draped across hers, but the living room was empty. From where she stood, she could see the door to the bathroom down the hall and it was open. The small room was dark. Besides her bedroom, the small condo had no other rooms. A small teak dining set served as her dining room at one end of the living room, and she’d just come from the small kitchen.

She turned in a full circle, somehow expecting him to magically appear, but he didn’t. Where could he have gone? He would have said something if he’d needed to go back to the car for something. Not to mention, he would have donned his jacket again. Wouldn’t he? Even Ethan wasn’t immune to the cold and it was chilly for autumn.

A muffled sound came from her bedroom. What in the world was he doing in there?

She rushed down the hall and into her bedroom, stopping in mortified shock at what she saw.

He stood beside her bed, flipping through an erotic romance novel by one of her favorite authors.

“What are you doing?” she demanded in what should have been a shriek but that came out an embarrassing squeak.

“You read some pretty interesting stuff before going to sleep,” was all he said before dropping the book back onto the table beside her bed, its blatantly sensual cover face up. He turned to face her. “If I read that kind of stuff before bedtime, I’d never sleep.”

“It’s a good thing you don’t, then.” Thankfully, her voice was stronger and she sounded almost like her normal self.

He didn’t respond, but the look he was giving her spoke volumes. All of it hot, if she could believe the interpretation of her own eyes.

“What are you doing in my bedroom?”

“Getting to know you. It’s this kind of thing that can make or break an assignment like ours.” He indicated the book with a flick of his long, tapered fingers.

“My taste in reading material?”

“My knowledge of it.”

“I can’t imagine this sort of thing coming up with a prospective employer.”

“You never know, Beth. And it’s not just a cliché…it is better to be safe than sorry.”

“Having you snooping around my apartment was one thing, but this is an invasion of my privacy.”

“I’m not snooping…you gave me permission.”

“To look around. I didn’t think you’d come into my bedroom.” Was that strangled voice hers? She sounded ready to kill somebody.

He didn’t look worried. “We’re supposed to be lovers, Beth. Of course I came into your bedroom and I’ve got to admit…I’m seeing a side of you I never expected to exist.”

Had he looked in her drawers? Had he seen the dildo? Lots of women had them, or vibrators. She shouldn’t be embarrassed. She was single, but that didn’t mean she was sexless. She was also celibate…or had been for almost three years. A toy for self-pleasuring was practically a necessity for a woman in her position.

“Loved the hot-pink handcuffs.”

Her cheeks burned. “I…”

“Who uses them? You, or him-or both of you?”

“Neither…no one. You had no business looking in my drawers.”

“We’ve been over this. I need to know. It’s easier to look than to ask and from the way you’re reacting, I don’t think you would have been honest if I had.”

“You would have asked about my sex life?”

“Yes. This is a dangerous assignment and I’m not going to risk you getting hurt because I don’t know the things I need to know to make our relationship look real.”

“I’m not comfortable with you knowing this kind of intimate stuff about me.”

“I’m sorry, but it’s the way it has to be.”

And she should have realized it. He didn’t say so, but she knew he was thinking it. She had taken the training and she knew enough about their assignments to know what to expect. Or should have.

“Did you look through my other drawers?”

“I hadn’t gotten to that yet.”

“Don’t.”

“I need to, but look at it this way…you can come to my apartment tomorrow and do the same thing.”

“It doesn’t help.”

He sighed. “Do you want me to wait to look at your clothes until we get back from dinner?”

“Yes.” She didn’t want to sit across the table from him right after he’d had a good peek at her lingerie drawer.

She liked sexy underthings and could only imagine how he would tease her after seeing them. He already thought the fact she liked to read erotic romance and use a dildo was shocking…what would he think of her black leather corselette or her selection of lacy demibras she only wore on the weekends when nip-ons were not an issue because no one else saw them?

He moved toward her, stopping a foot away. “The thing is, Beth, I can’t get the image of you tied to the bed out of my head. And it’s doing things I hadn’t planned on.”

Her gaze skimmed down his body, snagging on the rather large, rather long bulge in his jeans. Oh, my, yes…but the image of her tied to the bed? “Don’t you mean you picture the cuffs on someone else?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “No, ma’am, I do not.”

Oh, man…she was in trouble. She licked her lips.

He made a soft noise that was almost animalistic and stepped closer. “You’ve got kinky thoughts, baby. I like that.”

“I don’t picture myself tied to the bed,” she blurted, stepping hastily back from him.

Instead of taking it for the denial she’d meant it to be, he saw below the surface. She just knew he did from the slow, easy smile that took over his hard features. “You picture tying your lover to the bed?”

“I’m not some kind of closet dominatrix.”

“Not unless you’re into pain, you aren’t.” He rubbed his chin, his green gaze too darned knowing. “Are you into pain, Beth?”

“No!”

“Not yours.”

“Not anyone’s!”

“But you like the idea of tying a man to the bed?”

Oh, they could not be having this conversation. “That is none of your business.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Why do you want to tie your lover down, sweetheart?”

She shook her head, too choked to answer.

“Maybe we should talk about it over dinner.”

“We aren’t going to talk about it at all.” But especially not over dinner. What kind of man thought sex talk at dinner was appropriate?

Ethan. Dangerous. Untamed. And too sexy for her health.

She shook her head emphatically. “N-no. No sex talk over dinner.” She swung her hand up to emphasize her denial, only realizing she was still holding the glass of sparkling water when it sloshed over the sides.

Ethan grabbed his beer from her hand before it suffered a similar fate. He took a long swig. “Mmm. That’s good, but I know something I’d like better.”

“N-no…”

“I promise you, baby, I do…and you’ll like it, too. But it will keep. Drink whatever that is you poured yourself and then let’s go. If we don’t leave soon, we aren’t going to make it to the restaurant at all,” he said in a dark voice.

She wanted to pour the sparkling water over herself rather than drink it. To cool off. He could not mean what she thought he meant. Could he?

That dangerous expression in his green eyes certainly implied he meant it.

He was right. It was time to go.

Ethan helped Beth into the passenger side of his low black Solstice. As she dipped down to settle against the leather seat, her skirt hiked up, showing him the top of honest to Hannah stockings. Did she wear them all the time? Or just for dates? This wasn’t exactly a date, but a get-to-know-you-better-for-the-sake-of-the-assignment dinner. She saw it that way, surely? But she looked sexier than he’d ever seen her.