The Tempting Mrs. Reilly by Maureen Child Page A

and I didn’t think you’d mind if I waited for you up here.”
    He watched her and wondered if she’d sat just there on purpose. Moonlight played over her, gilding her in a soft silver glow that made her even more beautiful than usual.
    â€œNo. Don’t mind,” he ground out and swallowed hard. His brain was clouding over. Not good. His body was pumped and eager. Also not a good thing.
    Tina scooted around until she was stretched out on the bed, long legs crossed at the ankle, her back against the headboard. The moonlight loved her. As he watched, she lifted both arms and stretched lazily,as if she didn’t have a care in the world. As if she wasn’t nearly buck naked in his bed.
    As if she wasn’t driving him crazy with a wild desire that had a stranglehold on him.
    â€œIt’s a nice apartment,” she said, letting her gaze slide around the small room.
    Now she’s making small talk? he thought furiously. He was a man on a knife’s edge and she wanted to talk about home furnishings? Bullshit. She was playing this out, deliberately torturing him. She knew what she was doing and knew what it was doing to him. No way was she actually admiring his place. He knew exactly what she was seeing. The studio apartment was small, efficient and anything but homey. But it had always suited him fine.
    Until now.
    Now, he didn’t think the place would be big enough if it were a castle.
    He’d still be able to smell her perfume.
    Okay, key to his survival here, was to get Tina the hell out of his place as fast as possible. Preferably, without touching her or smelling her hair or…hell. Anything.
    â€œC’mon,” he said, grabbing up his keys and shifting his gaze away from her. There’d be no help for him at all if he kept looking at her. “I’ll take you downstairs and let you in.”
    â€œWhat’s your hurry?”
    He looked.
    She turned slowly onto her side.
    Brian stifled a groan, but it almost killed him.
    Head propped up in one hand, Tina kept her gaze locked on him as with her free hand, she inched the hem of the towel up a little higher on her thigh.
    His heart pounded in his chest. He forgot how to breathe. His eyes glazed over.
    And then the towel parted. One half of the pale blue terry cloth fell away, displaying a tantalizing slice of Tina’s naked, curvy body to perfection.
    Brian groaned. “You’re killing me.”
    â€œ So not what I had in mind,” Tina said softly, making no move at all to cover herself.
    He scraped one hand across his face, frantically trying to get a grip. And losing. “Your towel fell.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œI know you know.” Damn it. Why was she doing this? Was this a game? Payback maybe, for him getting the divorce? But if that’s all it was, why wait five years to claim it?
    And if it was more, what did that mean?
    And if he asked himself any more questions, that didn’t have answers, he really would slip over the edge into insanity.
    â€œThis is nuts,” he blurted.
    â€œMaybe.”
    His gaze locked with hers, studiously avoiding noticing her bare, beautiful skin. “You’ll be sorry.”
    Tina smiled and shook her head. “Not if you’re as good as I remember.”
    Like a punch to his gut, her words hit him hard and left him shaky. He was only human, right? Mere mortal? And faced with Tina Coretti, Brian was willing to guess there wasn’t a man alive who could have walked out that door.
    Still, he had one last hope. “I, uh…don’t have any condoms here.” Actually, he’d gotten rid of his stash purposely, since he figured with the bet on, keeping a supply handy would only submarine his chances of winning.
    She smiled again. “Doesn’t matter.”
    â€œUh, yeah,” he said tightly. “It does.”
    â€œBrian,” she said, her voice dropping to a husky note that damn near killed him, “as