Erin McCarthy - Bad Boys Online

"What?"

"Let's give them breasts."

Halley felt her jaw drop open. Oh, Evan was much better at this than she was. "Can you do that?" The bizarre image of naked men with breasts popped into her head, and she quickly banished it again. Funny, yes, but definitely freaky.

"Sure." Now Evan was the one looking a touch arrogant as he shrugged. "We just need to find the breasts. I'll download Pamela Anderson or something."

Halley hesitated. "No, her breasts get too much airtime as it is." Not that she was jealous or anything. "Someone else."

"I know who." Evan leaned back in his chair.

Now she was jealous. She didn't want Evan to make suggestions on other women's breasts. She didn't want to know that some movie star or pinup could inspire that lusty gleam in his eye.

She opened her mouth to tell him to forget it, that she had changed her mind.

He spoke first. "How about you, Halley?"

"Me?" She took a step back in horror. Did he mean with her clothes on or off?

"Yes, you." He looked up and grinned. "You've got perfect breasts, sweet stuff, and think of the irony of putting your chest on those guys. It's hilarious."

Well, she wasn't laughing. More like choking on her own tongue.

"No way. I'm just not going to take my shirt off in front of you." There would be no possible way she could do that without flinging herself into his arms.

He scoffed as he stood up. He started toward her. "Oh, come on. I've seen plenty of breasts before, including yours once when you dropped your towel by accident after your shower. It's no big deal."

Not to him. But it was to her. She could not fake nonchalance wearing no shirt in front of him. Taking another step back, she said, "No, I'm not doing it."

Halley stopped moving, frozen to the spot an inch in front of Evan's bed. She was trapped and he was right in front of her. He took her hands, squeezed, slid up her arms, continuing on and on.

"Come on. I've slept in the same bed with you when you were wearing nothing but a T-shirt and panties. You've thrown up on me. I can take a picture of your breasts without it being a big deal."

She wished he hadn't brought up the whole throw-up thing. A few too many shots on her twenty-third birthday and she had lost her dinner of sweet and sour pork down the front of Evan's shirt. Not one of her sexier moments.

The whole thing was depressing. It just served to emphasize how little he thought of her as a woman if he could stand there while she stripped her shirt off and be totally unaffected.

Or would he? Neither of them could claim he had been immune to her earlier. No one could fake a hard-on like that.

Suddenly she wanted to do it. She wanted to strip off her shirt for Evan and see that he could take her picture without any further interest whatsoever.

It was playing with fire, she knew. But they had already crossed some strange line with that wax-melting kiss, and she needed to know. She needed to see that it was forgettable, that Evan had only reacted to her and had no real desire for her.

If he could stand there and watch her half naked and not want her, then hopefully it would be the bucket of cold water needed to douse this fire between her legs.

Breath hitching, she stepped to the side out of Evan's reach and yanked her tank top up over her head. "Fine. If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother me. Use mine."

Evan's head swam as every drop of blood in his body rushed south to create the largest, most agonizing hard-on ever known to man. Damn .

Halley's chest rose and fell as she defiantly dropped her arms to her sides. Creamy pale flesh taunted him everywhere he looked. Her breasts were straining to escape a pale blue sheer bra.

The hard pinkness of her nipples was clearly visible through the barely there fabric. Evan couldn't move, couldn't think.

While he sure as hell had wanted her to strip, he hadn't for one minute thought she actually would.

In fact, he had never meant to suggest it out loud in the first place. And he hadn't meant to persuade her as vehemently as he had.

But she had done it. And all he could do was drink her in and wonder how easily that sheer stuff on her bra might rip between his greedy fingers.

"Where's your digital camera so we can take a picture?" Halley wet her lips, her fingers hovering over the front clasp on the bra.

Not only was he going to get to see her breasts, he was going to have documentation of it. On film. Double damn .

Where the hell was his camera? Moving quickly, he plundered drawer after drawer of his desk, tossing a dictionary and his palm pilot on the floor, scattering pens left and right.

Trying to hide his urgency, he said softly, "Don't move, sweet stuff. I need to find the camera."

Desperate that any delay and Halley might change her mind, he whirled around. The closet. That's were it was. The door slammed against the wall as he threw it open, and as he fumbled around on the shelf, a barrage of sweaters tumbled down onto his head. Followed by a tennis racket, which he just managed to dodge.

Camera finally in hand, he turned around in triumph.

Halley's fingers played with the clasp on her bra. She stood very still, her chin tilted up a little and her eyes wide. Her hesitation was clear.

Evan went equally still, slowing down his jerky movements and giving her a tilted reassuring smile. "Great Tits Hall of Fame, remember?"

She gave a nervous laugh. "I feel stupid."

"No." He took a step forward. "Not stupid. Beautiful."

Hair tumbled in her eyes as she shook her head.

"Yes, you are."

Then he reached her. Tucking one hand tightly over the camera and letting it fall to his side, he reached out with the other hand and gave her nipple a light caress through the raspy sheer bra. She let out a startled yelp.

Shit, he couldn't believe he'd just done that. He pulled his hand back.

"Evan?" Her eyes were heavy, half closed, and her arms were trapped between his body and hers. "You didn't forget about what happened before, did you?"

"No." He leaned closer to her, inhaling her scent of citrus and something else he couldn't define, something earthy and subtle.

"I didn't either."

"Halley, I have to tell you that if you take your bra off, I'm going to touch you." He meant to put his hand deep into his pocket, but instead he dropped it to her waist.

Her breath sucked in hard. "You are? But I thought we were best friends, that's all."

They were. That should be all. But it wasn't enough. "I can't help it. I want you. Bad."

Prying her cold fingers off the bra clasp, he pressed her hand against his erection. Her eyes went wide.

"I can't fight it anymore, Halley. I don't want to fight it anymore."

Then he kissed her. It was different from the kiss earlier that morning. That had been urgent, carnal. This was languid and moist, her mouth fully open to receive him, their breath mingling together as he tasted her. It was slow and thorough, a hot discovery of each other.

She whispered against his mouth, "I want you too. For months now. I'm going nuts, Evan."

That was the best thing he'd heard in years . "Then let's go nuts together, sweet stuff."

Halley's tongue slipped into his mouth and he sucked on the tip lightly. She pulled back with a groan, her hands falling onto his waist. Those fingers touching, fluttering, gripping his belt loops had Evan's breath hitching.

With one hand on the back of her head, he took her mouth again and again, pressing rough and desperate, their teeth knocking together as he slipped across her slick lips.

Control. He needed to go slow. But that was so damn hard when Halley was pressed up against his bare chest wearing nothing but a doily that called itself a bra.

He broke off the kiss, and swallowed hard. They both panted, staring at each other, Halley's expression bewildered and aroused.