This one was a deep red—a sleeveless column of fabric with well-tailored ruches and a slit on one side that came all the way up her thigh.

Caleb wasn’t talking much anymore—just occasionally saying “yeah.” She didn’t dare to look over at him fully, because he would suspect what she was trying to do.

But the brief glances she sneaked proved that his body had grown tense and his skin was slightly flushed.

He was turned on. No doubt about it. It gave her a rush of pleasure and relief—and also a pride that left her a little uncomfortable.

She was so focused on looking sexy as she tried to zip up her dress that she was at a loss when the zipper snagged on the fabric.

She tugged on it gently and then frowned, wondering how she was supposed to get it unsnagged and still look sexy.

She gasped and gave a little jump when she felt a hand over hers on the zipper.

Caleb had gotten up and moved behind her while she was distracted.

“Stuck?” he asked, his voice thick and textured the way it always was when he was turned on.

He was standing behind her, and his eyes were moving with a hungry heat from her face down her body in the mirror over the dresser.

“Try not to tear it,” she said as he focused back down on her zipper. “This dress was expensive.”

“It was well worth the money.”

With a little work, he freed the zipper and pulled it all the way up.

“Did you finish with your call?” she asked, glancing back to where he’d left his phone on the table next to the chair.

“You made sure of that, didn’t you?”

She made her eyes wide and innocent. “What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean. You think I’m so easy that I’ll be manipulated by the sexy little show you just gave me.”

She glanced over her shoulder and down at his groin, where he was visibly aroused beneath the towel. She just cleared her throat, trying to hide a smile.

“That’s only a victory,” Caleb said, “if a man is led around by his dick.”

“And you’re not?”

“What do you think?”

She met his eyes in the mirror, and she felt the strangest twisting of fear, pleasure, and possession at what she saw in his expression.

“I think I told you on the first day we met that, by the time I was through with you, all your unrelenting alpha-maleness would be broken. I think I’m off to a good start.” She made sure her expression was teasing, almost taunting. They’d done this verbal dance from the beginning, and it was sometimes as exciting to her as his touch.

She had to be so careful, though, and not surrender completely to her feelings for him. She’d loved her father too much to sacrifice justice for him that way.

“Is that what you think?” As Caleb spoke, he pulled the zipper of her dress back down.

She glanced over at the clock. “We’re supposed to leave in five minutes.”

“Then I’ll have to prove my point quickly.”

Her breath was already quickening as he slowly slid her dress down to the floor, leaving her again wearing nothing but her heels and underwear. “What point?”

“That there’s nothing broken about me.”

She reached behind her to caress his hard cock through the towel, pleased when he gave a soft grunt. “It feels like you’re not going to hold out very long in this little show of strength you’re putting on.”

He took her wrist and pulled her hand away, planting it on the dresser. “Was that a challenge?”

“I know how you feel about those.” She gave him a teasing smile in the mirror.

She did know how he responded to a challenge—the same way she always had. She’d never met another man who could match her will, in bed or out of it. She could see the defiance smoldering in his eyes right now, and it triggered a matching reaction in her.

He might not know the real battle that would always be waged between them—the clash of mighty opposites, as Shakespeare had put it—but these smaller duels had always shaped their relationship.

So she was ready for him when he stepped forward, pressing his body into hers from behind and kissing the side of her neck.

Instinctively, she leaned back into him, and she sighed with pleasure as his hands stroked up and down her mostly naked body. Her eyelids lowered involuntarily, but she could see in the mirror through her mostly closed eyes as Caleb skillfully worked over her body with his hands.

She stifled a gasp as he fondled her nipples through the lace of her bra, and she arched her spine as the pleasure started to build.

She still felt in control, though. She wasn’t yet in danger of losing this challenge.

He caressed her skillfully in silence, both of them watching him in the mirror, and Kelly could see her cheeks redden and her nipples growing visibly tight with her arousal.

Then he tilted his head and said against her ear, the vibration of his husky voice making her shudder, “Your pussy is wet.”

It was true. Her pussy was wet. And hot. And aching. And her whole body was now flushed with heat.

But she wasn’t about to lose a challenge so easily. “And you’re still hard. That doesn’t mean anything. You’re going to have to work a lot harder than that if you want to win this little game.”

“I’ve only just started.” His voice had grown softer, although that same primal heat was evident in his eyes. His hand dropped down to the curve of her breast and, using his knuckles again, he flicked one of her nipples—which were jutting out prominently through the fabric of her bra. “I can see how much you want me now. You’re dying for me to fuck you.”

The light fondling of her nipple generated tugs of desire so sharp Kelly had to bite her lip to keep from whimpering in response. Unconsciously, she arched her back, causing her breasts to jut out even more. “I could say the same about you,” she managed to say. There wasn’t any sense in denying his words, though. Her body’s responses had already betrayed her.

Caleb had been watching her closely, registering every detail about her reactions and expression. “Do you want to watch yourself?”

He’d adjusted his hand so he was cupping one of her breasts, and she couldn’t help shifting to press her chest against his palm more fully. “I think you’re the one with that kind of ego.”

It didn’t come out quite as clever as she’d intended, but it was the best she could do, now that Caleb had started rubbing her nipple with the heel of his hand.

“You can complain about my ego all you want, but you like it.” His hand slid down until it was cupping one side of her ass. “Don’t you?”

He was right. Of course he was right. His absolute arrogance and entitlement might be obnoxious, but it also drew her in, thrilled her, posed the deepest sort of challenge.

Caleb could obviously see the confirmation on her face. He leaned forward, mouthing a spot just below her jaw. “Fuck, Kelly,” he murmured against her skin. “You’re so hot. And even hotter because you look so innocent.”

She had a rosy, heart-shaped face that gave the impression of youth and innocence. There was nothing she could do about it, but Caleb knew by now her appearance was a lie.

There wasn’t anything innocent about her.

If he had known why she was really with him, he would have understood this truth even more deeply.

He didn’t know, though. Not yet. He only knew the Kelly she’d revealed to him, and that was only part of who she was.

Two of his fingers slipped under her panties and stroked her intimately, parting the soft folds of flesh and feeling her hot, wet arousal.

“I knew your pussy was wet,” Caleb murmured, sliding a finger inside her and stroking her inner walls.

His words shouldn’t have been as hot as they were, but her muscles clenched around the penetration of his finger, and she let out a thick gasp of pleasure.

When he joined the first finger with a second, the fuller feeling made Kelly jerk her hips involuntarily, the pressure at her center pushing her forward into shameless urgency.