The Red Diary by Toni Blake

bathroom at Jimmy's dad's during a party last year, and Lauren finally caught on to what they were talking about. She kept her eyes on Mike for a minute, then dropped them to her glass, not wanting Nick Armstrong to think she was interested in this, since she wasn't. How had she ended up in this situation?
    "Lauren, how about you?" Carolyn raised her eyebrows and cast a smile. "Where's the most unusual place you've ever done it?"
    Heat blazed in Lauren's cheeks. She knew Carolyn meant well, was only trying to make her do what she thought was best for her, but that didn't help. "You know I don't kiss and tell," she replied, trying to sound pleasant.
    Carolyn tilted her head slightly. "Come on, Laur, we're all friends here. And I know some interesting places you've done it."
    Her friend tossed teasing glances around the table, as if tempted to tell what Lauren refused to.
    "Carolyn, don't." She didn't even know what Carolyn planned on saying, but she didn't want to find out.
    "Leave her alone if she doesn't want to say," Nick chimed in unexpectedly. "It's nobodies business if she doesn't want it to be."
    Carolyn shifted her smile to the man who'd just spoken. "Then what's your answer?"
    Lauren's stomach sank. Despite how he'd just defended her, she didn't want to be here. She didn't want to hear any more of this conversation.
    As Nick slowly looked up, she lifted her glass and took a long, cold drink.
    "The most unusual place I've ever had sex, huh?" He peered into Carolyn's eyes now, and Lauren reached for a tortilla chip-anything to occupy her hands.
    "That's the question, stud," Carolyn answered, and Lauren had that awful feeling from the party the other night, from watching Carolyn in the pool earlier, that feeling of being forced to endure something disturbingly intimate.
    "Hmm ... " Nick reached up to scratch his chin as he looked off in the distance. "It's tough to choose, since there've been so many."
    Lauren took another swallow of her wine cooler, suddenly wanting to be drunk, desperately.
    "You don't have to limit yourself to just one answer," Carolyn said, clearly enjoying the game.
    "No, no," Nick replied, speaking slowly, as usual. ''The question is what's the most unusual place you've done it?' Place. Just one. I want to follow the rules and give the best answer." He wore the same hint of a smile she'd witnessed on his face before.
    "Well, what's it gonna be?" Carolyn prodded.
    He took a sip of his beer, then finally began to nod. "I think I've got it."
    "Well?" Carolyn asked, impatient "I'm dying to know."
    "I once did it," he began, shifting his gaze to Lauren,
    "on horseback."

    Chapter Five
     
    Nick watched her mouth drop open as all the color drained from her pretty face.
    Despite his irritation a little while ago, he hadn't said it to horrify her. He'd said it to make her wonder if fantasy and reality could mesh. He'd said it to arouse her.
    No matter how he tried to stop, he kept thinking about her fantasy, imagining his hands skimming over her thighs, hips, ass, making her crazy for him. He imagined being the man behind her on that horse.
    "Well," Carolyn replied, her voice a little deeper now, "that sounds pretty wild. Details?"
    He kept his gaze rooted firmly on Lauren. "Sure," he said, then lifted his beer.
    Lauren squirmed uncomfortably in her chair, but never drew her eyes from his, either. God, he wanted this woman-too much. At the moment, he couldn't even make sense of it, couldn't separate his past from his present, his obsession with her life from his newer obsession-taking her to bed.
    "My uncle owns one of the horse farms up on Route 52," he lied, still peering into her warm blue eyes. "One spring, I met a girl there-her father was looking to buy a Thoroughbred. She hadn't ridden before, so I offered to teach her. I got on the horse behind her and showed her how to use the reins, and we ended up riding out into the woods."
    He paused for another drink, aware that every person at the table sat