Tempt Me Tonight by Toni Blake

he’d entered her body—she
was
in love with him. Still, or always. And she never should have done this, never should have been so stupid to believe she could have sex with him and have it mean nothing. Because even if she was the seductress and he the conquest, it was still going to hurt now. It was going to hurt much worse than she could have imagined.
    This was the part where she was supposed to get up and leave.
    A shame she hadn’t really thought that out better.
    She kind of hadn’t expected him to be lying on top of her, still inside her. She kind of hadn’t calculated how a girl was supposed to make a quick escape with her underwear askew and her dress discarded on the far side of the room. And she was fairly sure she’d had keys when she walked in here, but she harbored no recollection of what she might have done with them.
    She also—stupidly—hadn’t expected lying with him afterward to feel so darn wonderful. Warm. Cuddly.
Yeesh.
    That boy’s trouble. Pure trouble.
    But her job from this point forward was not to let him see all the emotion pummeling her, not to let him suspect she felt anything at all. Because nothing had changed, really. He was still the town stud—and she knew why now; even just responding to her lead, he was the best lover she’d ever had—and he was still the guy who’d found it more convenient to have sex with Beverly Rainey than wait for her. And
she
was still the girl who’d been made tough that way—and who would
continue
to be tough that way. She was still the girl who couldn’t wait to get the hell out of this town as soon as she closed the sale on the damn diner next week.
    Joe kissed the ridge of her exposed breast and slowly rose on one elbow to peer down at her. The kiss shuddered through her, almost enough to get her hot all over again. “So,” he said, “you gonna explain this to me now?” He fingered the lace of her bra where it rested below her breasts.
    She bit her lip. Weighed her options. Answered quietly. “No.”
    Above her, he sighed, but didn’t look upset. “All right, cupcake—have it your way.”
    She sucked in her breath a bit. He’d first called her by the pet name in the fifth grade, teasing her because her mother sent cupcakes to school for every conceivable occasion and holiday. She still remembered the very first time.
I’m gonna start callin’ you cupcake—’cause every time I see you, you’re carryin’ a big tray o’ cupcakes down the hall.
    She’d been embarrassed, affronted, not sure how to take it.
You don’t have to eat ’em if you don’t like ’em.
    I like your cupcakes just fine—cupcake.
    “Is it my imagination,” he said, sliding his palm to cup one of her breasts, “or…have these grown?” She tensed inside from the pleasure, still not used to being touched by him so intimately again.
    “Bodies change,” she said, realizing his observation was true. “I suppose they grew when I started taking birth control pills, too.”
    He gave a slow, thoughtful nod. “Taking them now?”
    She nodded in return.
    “Good. Since I…didn’t exactly have time for a condom.”
    Oh no! What a terrible seductress she was!
She hadn’t even
thought
about protection! “Are you…I mean…” She drew in her breath, not quite knowing how to phrase it.
    “No worries, cupcake. I’m usually good about that sort of thing. Just wasn’t expecting what I got when I opened the door.”
    “Understandable,” she said, feeling sheepish now and not quite able to meet his eyes.
This is why you should have had a better leaving plan.
Postcoital small talk hadn’t been part of the equation here.
    “Damn, Trish, I never dreamed you could be this…this…”
    Dear God, what was he getting at? “This what?”
    “Hot.
But…way more than hot.” He glanced down at her disheveled underwear. “The lace, the shoes, the dress. That dress blew me away, honey.”
    She hardly knew what to say.
This isn’t actually me. I’ve never seduced a