Jo Leigh - One-Click Buy - September Harlequin Blaze

“Come prepared-” she said the word soft and slow “-to do the forbidden.”

COME PREPARED to do the forbidden.

Katie’s scintillating parting comment echoed in his head. Did she have any idea how totally provocative those words were? Liam had lain awake all night, his brain conjuring a myriad of tantalizing possibilities. His curiosity was aroused, his blood stirred, his dormant sense of adventured stoked. His body prickled with heightened anticipation.

The woman had one hell of a creative imagination.

Just before noon on Monday afternoon, Liam paced the sidewalk outside the Town Crier Theatre wondering what delicious treats she had in store for him.

The theatre was running a weeklong retrospective of Clark Gable films. The movie du jour, according to the marquee, was It Happened One Night.

Fitting.

The title made him think of the one night he’d spent in the cloak closet with Katie. His mouth was dry from the memory. His hip pocket was stuffed with condoms and his anxiety was off the charts. She had him crazed with lust for her.

Five minutes passed. Then ten.

He checked his watch repeatedly. Eleven minutes. Twelve. His spirits plummeted. Had she stood him up? Or was making him wait part of her wicked game?

If that was the case, she’d won. His self-control-the thing he prided himself on most-was totally shot.

Just when Liam was about to give up and go to the office to try to get some work done, he saw her, strutting up the sidewalk toward him with the confidence of a runway model.

She was dressed all in black, which created an erotic contrast to her wheat-blond hair. She wore a tight black sweater cut so low it was barely legal and, clearly, she was not wearing a bra. The square of black leather posing as a skirt was barely bigger than a cup towel. She had on black patterned stockings and black stilettos so high it was a miracle she could walk in them.

Every guy on that Boston sidewalk was turning to stare at her.

Enthralled, Liam’s jaw dropped and his pupils widened. He was desperate to see more of her. Adrenaline mixed with testosterone. The combo blasted through his veins like a fiery virus, infecting him with a level of lust the likes of which he’d never experienced.

She passed right by him. At first he thought she hadn’t seen him, but then he got that it was all part of her erotic role-playing game.

Be prepared to do the forbidden.

She sashayed up to the ticket counter, bought her ticket and strolled inside without a backward look.

His cock turned to stone.

He followed suit. Buying a ticket and then following her inside the darkened theatre. At twelve o’clock on a weekday afternoon, they were the only two people in the lobby.

The theatre had been fully restored in the cinema heyday of when it had been built. The carpeting was colorful and lavishly patterned. The gold-plated lighting fixtures gleamed, polished to a high sheen. A black-and-white art-deco cat clock on the wall behind the concession stand ticked off the moments until show time. Three, two, one.

The smell of freshly popped popcorn filled the air. Katie stopped and bought a box of three-dollar jelly beans from the elderly woman behind the counter. She opened the box of candy and stood in silhouette so he could watch her pop one into her mouth and suck leisurely on it.

Liam quelled a groan.

“Would you like a sweet treat, sir?” the woman asked as Katie walked away.

“No, thanks.” He shook his head. There was only one sweet treat he wanted and she was escaping.

The woman nodded, went back to perch on her stool in the corner and picked up the romance novel she’d been reading. Liam went after Katie.

She did not go in through the main entrance. Rather, she made a beeline for the marble stairs leading up into the balcony.

Thick red velvet ropes stationed on either side of the steps barred access to the lofty seating. But Katie wasn’t allowing a measly stretch of cable to deter her. She winnowed around the rope, keeping to the strip of carpet running down the middle of the gray marble to blunt the sound of her high heels. She swept elegantly up the staircase.

Mesmerized, Liam flaunted the rules and tracked after her.

She pushed back the red velvet curtain leading into the balcony. He did the same, slipping past the rope. His heart suddenly was pounding so loudly he feared the noise of it would echo throughout the empty theatre and alert the staff to their clandestine rendezvous.

Once behind the curtain, he had to stop and let his eyes adjust to the darkness. The black-and-white movie was just starting, transporting them into a different era.

After a couple of seconds, he spotted her, on the back row of the empty balcony, up high, right underneath the projector, so they couldn’t be spotted from the projection booth.

Excitement twisting his gut, Liam sidled up the remaining steps and eased into the seat beside her.

“Katie,” he gasped.

“My name is Veronique,” she whispered in a seductive French accent. “And I do not need to know yours.”

He felt the blood leave his head and rush pell-mell to deliver massive doses of testosterone to his groin.

“What do you need, Veronique?” he found himself asking her huskily.

“I need adventure.”

“What kind of adventure?’

“Forbidden adventure,” she murmured.

Excitement trembled his hand. The scent of her invaded his nostrils. Her daring spirit clipped him hard. His muscles clenched. The tension was almost more than he could tolerate.

His eyes met hers.

In the darkness, in the heat of the moment, the black of her pupils grew so large they almost encompassed the azure blue of her irises. Was it his imagination, or were her lips trembling as much as his hands?

Foolish as it might be, he had to have her.

Liam realized how very little he knew about her, beyond the fact that she was one of those Winfields. The thought served to send his desire soaring.

He’d never experienced excitement like this. Not in the boardroom, not when making a fabulous deal on a piece of renovated property, not being named Young Bostonian’s bachelor of the year. The closest he had ever come to this sensation was when he drove his Lamborghini over the speed limit.

What a helluva ride.

A sense of rash abandon shoved him headfirst into decadence. It was not an emotion he was familiar with. Liam was normally an expert at delayed gratification. But not today. Not with this amazing woman. If he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget her.

With one slender, well-manicured finger, she raked her nail along his jawline.

Liam stifled a groan. Who knew a gentle scratch would feel so erotic? Katie’s stroking brought a whole new element of awareness into play as he imagined those sweet fingers investigating other, more vulnerable areas of his body.

Her bold self-confidence inflamed him. She was a complex and complicated woman and he wanted to know everything about her. His hungry curiosity almost sent him over the brink of reason.

What did she have up her sleeve?

She’d started this seduction, this exotic tease, but damn if he wasn’t committed to finishing it.

On the screen in front of them, Clark Gable flirted with Claudette Colbert, but Liam didn’t notice. He had eyes for only one woman.

In the muted glow from the light of the projector, he studied Katie. She sent him a look that jammed his libido into hyperdrive, slowly licked her lips, and then leaned over the arm of her chair to lightly run that naughty tongue over his lips.

Blood, fiery and indolent, pooled in his groin. Every nerved ending leaped as electrical impulses shot through the circuitry of his brain.

The lovely Veronique tasted of licorice jelly beans and lusty woman. Their tongues tangoed. First she was the leader, muddling his senses, but then he took over, giving as good as he’d gotten. Making her mewl with escalating pleasure.