He might as well have raised his leg and peed all over her. She did not need his protection. She had overbearing brothers for that.

But for all his bossiness, for all his interfering know-it-allness, the connection between them was irrefutable. Like fire, it had no choice but to seek out oxygen. It needed it to exist. She wasn’t sure what point she was trying to make to her muddled mind, but she knew that his mouth on hers might help her catch her breath. His hands on her breasts and his fingers stroking between her thighs might help inflate her lungs. This man would be her personal self-contained breathing apparatus.

The things he had said to her on the dance floor, his laundry list of wicked wants: if that was the seduction, what the hell would the sex be like? On the other side was the stick: I won’t talk to you, text you, interact with you in any way. Could she stand to sever their connection and deny herself this pleasure? The very idea that her body—not her heart!—refused to let her walk away from this was troubling in itself. A woman in control should be able to toss off a ta-ta, loser and never look back, right?

She thought back to Kinsey’s words about separating out the orgasms and just enjoying the (cock) ride. Easier said than done. Could she make it as easily done as said? Time to see if she was as kick-ass as she claimed to be.

Finally, Eli’s SUV pulled up outside his house. (So she’d headed straight to Lincoln Park and beaten him by five minutes—he was not the boss of her.) Slipping her feet back into their high-heeled prisons, Alex opened the town car door and, less than gracefully, clambered out into the biting January chill. No going back now. The windows of Eli’s car were dark tinted, so she couldn’t see him, but it only enhanced the cloak-and-dagger nature of it all. Not that she needed extra thrills with Eli—on the anticipation scale of one to ten, everything was turned up to eleven with him. He excited her like no man she had ever met.

The passenger-side door opened, and a long, suited leg stepped out followed by the body of the hottest guy on the planet. He saw. He froze. His lips moved and then he moved, stalking toward her with terrifying purpose. She backed up one step but he was on her in a flash, his hands curving around her face, his mouth hot and needy.

“You’re here,” he whispered between all-consuming kisses.

“Of course I’m here,” she said. He tasted of fire and longing. It intoxicated, overwhelmed, and affirmed she had made the right call. “Did you really think you could scare me off with your daytime Emmy reel submission of ridiculous ultimatums?”

He quirked a relieved grin, and that he had actually entertained doubts that she might come touched her deeply. “I thought you’d do what you were told and take the time to think it through. Be sure.”

She splayed her hands on his broad chest. His tie was undone, as was the top button of his shirt. She had plans for the rest of those buttons.

“I want you, Eli.” She swallowed down the lump of vulnerability threatening to ruin her ’tude. “And thirty minutes or whatever buffer you thought was necessary was just another thirty minutes I couldn’t spend naked with you.”

He closed his eyes at that, like she had said the most perfect thing.

A cough sliced through the dark. “Mr. Mayor.”

Eli touched his forehead to hers, almost in apology. “There are some things that need to happen first, honey. Security things.”

“Oh.” Over his shoulder, Thing hovered, his face like a rusted-over lock. Eli pulled her aside to let the man pass.

“He needs to check the house first.” Enthusiastic my-master’s-home barks echoed from the house as Thing opened the door. “And then Shadow needs to be walked.” Eli looked annoyed, and while she wasn’t annoyed, it made her nervous. Any delay and she might pull a typical Alex Dempsey fuck-my-filter move and say something blatantly unsexy.

“Would it be better if we just got busy in the car?”

“Not a chance. We’re going to be classy and do it in a bed.”

Do it. She wanted to giggle like a schoolgirl. Eli steered her up the stoop and through the big oak door. Predictably, Shadow went nuts, but not on Eli. He jumped right on Alex like he was greeting an old friend.

“Whoa, boy!” She laughed, glad of the distraction and a chance to bury her trembling hands in something warm and soft—before she wrapped them around something hot and hard. Oh, God, she was as excited as this big old puppy.

“I’ve been replaced,” Eli said indulgently. “So fickle.”

“He’s just a fan of the new and shiny. Like all men.”

Thing descended the stairs. “All clear.”

Eli nodded and handed him Shadow’s leash.

This was not well received. “You know I can’t do that, Mr. Mayor. I can’t leave my post outside.” Embarrassment bracketed his mouth as his glance flicked over Alex with a look that said, “Not even so you can get laid.”

“Just up and down the block. Your partner is still outside and you’ll never have to take your eye off the house.”

“Mr. Mayor, this ain’t up for negotiation.”

“Tom,” Eli said in that authoritative tone Alex loved. “Have you met Miss Dempsey?”

Thing turned suspicious eyes on her. Grunted.

“Not only is this woman capable of hauling thirty pounds of equipment—”

“Forty.”

“Forty pounds of equipment up a gazillion flights of stairs. Not only can she save the lives of men twice her size before she’s had breakfast, but I would happily put my safety in her hands and trust that she could crush the nuts of anyone who tried to harm me.”

She pressed her lips together against a smile. That had to be the sexiest thing she had ever heard.

Eli laid a hand on the security guy’s arm. “Dog. Walk. Now. I’ll set the alarm and you can drop him off in ten minutes.”

Thing’s lips were set in a mulish line, but apparently there was a threshold to his insubordination, and he let Eli muscle him out the door.

“Eli,” Alex murmured, gesturing at what he’d forgotten.

He opened the door again, put the leash (now attached to dog) and a poop-bag in the hands of a stone-faced Thing, and sent Shadow out for his nightly walk. On shutting the door again, he breathed out a sigh of relief.

“It’s not easy being king.” Before she could respond, he had locked both of his hands in hers, dragged them up above her head, and covered her body with his hard, muscular one. “But I do so enjoy it very, very much.”

Then he ravaged her mouth royally. Holy mamacita, his kisses could cure world hunger. He could win gold at the Olympic Games of kissing. He—

A gentle rap on the door interrupted her crazy internal commentary. “I don’t hear the beep,” Thing muttered like a grumpy ghost from the other side.

Eli smiled against her mouth, released her, and entered some numbers on the panel to the left of her cheek. Beep.

He stood back and scrubbed a hand over his chin. “As tempting as it is to take you against this wall, I’ve been dreaming about this moment for some time and I want to do it right.” He held out a hand. “Come to bed with me, Alexandra.”

She took his hand, thinking hell yes, and something else far more terrifying.

If he kept asking nicely, she might just be willing to follow him anywhere.

The mayoral lair was cool grays and dark greens, very masculine, and oh so Eli. A full-length mirror stood sentry against the far wall. She giggled, unable to contain her nerves.

“What’s so funny?”

“Is that where you spend hours asking who’s the fairest of them all?”

“I like to do a daily check-in. Thirty minutes max,” he said good-humoredly. With a couple of clicks, the fire in the hearth sprang to life, the heat quickly spreading needed warmth over her goosefleshed skin.

He shaped his chest to her back and stood her in front of him facing the mirror. Eyes glued to hers, he slipped his tuxedo jacket off her shoulders and threw it over a nearby chair.