They glared at one another, the air crackling with the tension between them, the distrust, the anger, and the desire. Kara swallowed hard. They were going to end up naked. She knew it. He knew it. Her mind raced. She wasn’t going to play a victim. That wasn’t who she’d created with this identity, nor was it who she’d been with him before now. It wasn’t even who she was as a person. No matter who he was or what he was, she couldn’t escape this moment in time with him, nor did she truly want to. Living in the moment was part of what she’d been trained to do. She wasn’t going to get emotionally attached, and letting herself enjoy this man physically might even save her life. It might be bad logic she’d question as sane later, but it worked for her now.

Her chin lifted. “You want me to get undressed, then you get undressed.”

His eyes darkened, narrowed, and something unreadable, dangerously hot and edgy, flickered in their depths. He stepped forward, taking a long stride toward her. Then another. Kara stood her ground, expecting him to stop in front of her, to touch her. Please yes. Now that she’d decided to do this, she was all about him touching her. But he didn’t stop right in front of her and he didn’t touch her.

He stepped to her side, his shoulder parallel to hers. “You don’t make the rules this time, Kara. I do.” He moved behind her, framing her body with his, but still he didn’t touch her. Anticipation burned through her. She wanted him to touch her.

His breath rasped along her neck and ear, a warm tease that slid along every nerve ending she owned with electric results. “So when I say get undressed, I mean get undressed.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You will.”

Kara tried to turn. His hands went to her hips, fingers pressing deliciously, possessive into her body. “Stay facing forward,” he ordered. “This way there’s no chance you can pull any slick moves like you did in Denver. I can see…everything.”

Everything. He made her want that and more. “And here I thought you weren’t the kind of man who was afraid of a woman. I guess I was wrong.”

“Don’t taunt the lion while you’re in his den, Kara. You might not like how he responds.”

Her sex clenched at the warning and she silently replied, or maybe I would like how he responds. Yes. Yes she thought she might like it quite a lot.

“Undress,” he ordered again.

“Make me,” she challenged, ready to hear his proverbial roar.

Chapter Six

CHAPTER

SIX