She appeared to mull this over and nodded. "That's probably true. Guys are like that."

Her feet pushed on the floor, inching her chair back farther away from him. "But so you know, to prove what you want to prove, well… you're really going to have your work cut out for you."

Damn. His groin tightened painfully. Somehow he didn't think he'd mind the extra effort. Besides, he had twelve months' worth of spontaneous hard-ons caused by Kindra to ease. He stuck his foot behind the wheel of her chair so it stopped moving.

Gripping each arm of the chair, he bent over and murmured alongside her cheek, "I think I'm up for the challenge."

She shivered and leaned back in her chair as if she needed distance. Her eyes were half closed and Mack reminded himself to ease up. Take it slow.

Kindra wanted this. But he wanted to make sure nothing changed her mind.

Just because he had a year's worth of frustration wasn't a good excuse to throw charm and finesse out the window and just attack her in a fit of adolescent lust.

If he wasn't careful, he would screw up this perfect opportunity. And he didn't want that. What he wanted was to see what Kindra kept hidden under those boxy suits she always wore. He wanted to pull down that hair she kept tightly bound in a clip and see if it really had auburn highlights like he suspected.

He wanted her.

With deliberate steps, he moved a few feet over to her desk and leaned against it. "So, what do you think? Can I prove you wrong? Or are you perfectly satisfied with what you're getting right now?"

He held his breath.

"Well…" She fiddled with the clip on her head, forcing her jacket to rise up a little and give him a hint of her curves.

"So, what did you have in mind?"

Yes. Mack mentally spiked a football in the end zone. "Tonight. Dinner. Then your place."

She would feel safer in her own apartment, he rationalized. More comfortable. And he didn't care where he was as long as he was naked with Kindra.

But her head was shaking no. "I have plans tonight. It's Friday. I bowl in a league on Fridays."

Kindra bowling? That struck him as odd. Maybe because he'd never seen her wearing anything but black or navy suits and high heels.

Bowling was hard for him to understand. You stood there and threw a ball at plastic pins. Now golf was a different story. That was a game.

"Can't you skip tonight?" Damn, he sounded eager. Maybe he should rein that in a little.

"No. My team will lose my score if I don't show. I can't do that."

Fine. It's not like he was in a huge hurry or anything. He wasn't desperate. He'd had plenty lately. Sort of. Well, not really.

And not with Kindra.

He said, "Tomorrow night then?"

She licked her lips again.

Soft, plump lips that were made for kissing and sucking and biting. Lips that would feel fantastic sliding across his cock.

He gritted his teeth in agony.

"Okay," she said, looking as if she'd just been given ten to fifteen years in federal prison. "Tomorrow night."

She wasn't exactly brimming with enthusiasm.

Maybe this wasn't going to be as easy as he'd thought. After all, she was choosing to abstain from sex. There had to be a reason. A reason he had to get around. Even if it took all night.

Speaking of which, that needed to be stated clearly. "You have to guarantee me at least twelve hours to make my case, Kindra."

Kindra blinked. Twelve hours? He was planning on proving it to her for twelve hours? She would have been happy with ten minutes and a wave on his way out.

"Isn't that a little long?"

He was leaning casually against her desk, and when he shifted, his leg brushed against hers. Kindra shivered and re-crossed her legs in the opposite direction to move them away from him.

A slow knowing smile moved across his face. "To get it right, sometimes you need to take it slow. And sometimes it's so good, you want time to do it again."

That hadn't happened yet to Kindra. In her experience, the first time had never been worthy of an encore performance.

A sudden vision of Mack coming at her over and over again for twelve hours, determined to squeak an orgasm out of her, flashed through her head. Maybe this was a really bad idea.

If she slept with Mack and it was just awful, well, then what fantasies would she have left? She didn't even want to count how many times it had been Mack's face she'd pictured when chatting intimately with Russ online.

Plus, if this was a disaster, she would have to see Mack every day in awkward hallway encounters where he would avert his eyes and she would blush. They were designing on the coffeehouse website project together, which put them in each other's company constantly.

It would be horrid, awful, migraine inspiring…

"Kindra."

"Yes?" She shot Mack a panicked look.

"Don't panic. It doesn't have to be twelve hours. It can be as little or as much as you want." He leaned forward and took her hand.

But it wasn't a gentle caress. Or an understanding squeeze. It was a forceful pull. With little effort, he tugged her to her feet. Kindra swallowed hard as he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her up against him.

This couldn't be happening.

She was in her office in the middle of the day wrapped in Mack Stone's arms from neck to calf. His body was as hard as it looked, and she put her hands on his chest to create a barrier between them.

Instead of pushing him away, her traitorous little fingers gripped his crisp dress shirt and rubbed against the solid muscle underneath. His thigh moved across hers restlessly.

"I have this feeling," he whispered, his lips brushing against the lobe of her ear, "that we're not going to need anywhere near twelve hours to prove my point."

His tongue dipped into her ear and Kindra gasped.

"But I think we're going to want twelve hours."

Kindra suddenly wanted a lot of things, most of all Mack to throw her down on her office floor and put his theory to the test right now.

With a whimper, she pushed her waist forward, bumping his erection.

Mack groaned.

Heat surged through her body. She had made Mack Stone groan out loud. Could there be a bigger turn-on?

"Shit," he said fiercely, his hands gripping her shoulders. "I'm going too fast."

Said who?

If she were gutsy, she would grab him and force him to go fast again, but Kindra had never claimed to be gutsy. Not in her career, or her social life, and certainly not when it came to sex.

"I want this to be right," he said, setting her away from him. "After all, I've just promised you the best sex of your life."

Kindra struggled not to collapse on the floor in an anticipatory seizure at Mack's words. She couldn't speak.

She gulped.

Mack rammed his hands in his pocket. Then pulled them back out. "Ah, hell. Are you sure you're busy tonight?"

He looked desperate. He sounded desperate. Mack Stone. Desperate. For her.

The words were on her lips. She was about to say, Screw the bowling and take me, when Kindra's office door flung open. She watched in horror as her friend Ashley walked in.

Ashley took three perky steps before she realized Kindra wasn't alone.

"Oh! Sorry. I didn't know you were in here with Kindra, Mack."

Kindra stood there, inches from Mack, sure her face was a picture of guilt. She might as well have a sign on her forehead saying desperately seeking sex.

Mack gave Ashley a light charming smile. "No problem. Can you just give us a minute alone? Then I'll be out of your way."

Kindra crossed her arms and took a step back. Did Mack have to be so obvious? Long after he had his twelve hours, she had to work with these people. She didn't relish the idea of being office gossip, even if Ashley was a good friend. If he was this obvious in front of Ashley, who else would he embarrass her in front of?