Page 14 of One Night Only

“What are you doing?” Dr. Cross demands, batting my hands away. “You’ll hurt your back.”

“You’re too far,” I say, breathing fast. I fall back into the cozy armchair with a dramatic swoon. “Also, my core is a fluffy cloud made of mushrooms and rice.”

He grins and rakes his gaze over me. From my hair to my knobby knees to my feet.

“Now,” I say, patting my poor palpitating heart, “it’s filled with butterflies and champagne bubbles and rainbows that have orgasms at the end instead of pots of gold.”

Color streaks the angular slash of his cheeks. He looks so good that I realize he might be doing permanent damage to both my retinas and my ovaries.

“Dr. Cross, you’re blushing,” I say in a whisper.

“What can I say? When you flirt with me,” his tone is low and raspy, “it makes me want to do filthy things to you.”

I clutch my lip between my teeth, but the “Yes, please,” sneaks out anyway.

He smooths a jerky hand through his hair, making the waves stand in all directions. “How about I plop on the table here?”

He sits on the now-empty table and spreads his legs enough that they’re straddling my armchair. My eyes glue to the way his trousers stretch against his thighs, to the outline of his erection.

“Annika?”

“Right,” I say without meeting his eyes.

Did he catch me drooling over his cock? Why am I so turned on when we haven’t even kissed while Rahul couldn’t get me excited after two clunky attempts? Is it the forbidden element? Or because Dr. Cross will never find out what a disaster I am? “We both pick a card and answer the questions. Easy-peasy.”

“Is there a penalty if we don’t?”

I turn the box around and look up. The wicked glint in his eyes turns me into that drunken pirate again. “Like truth or dare?”

He pops slim, matte-black frames onto his nose and opens the instruction leaflet I hand him. When he pushes them up the bridge of his nose, I think my ovaries melt, and I make this little whining sound.

“What?”

“The glasses… you look like a very stern professor.”

When he goes to pull them off, I stop him.

He turns his hand and traps my fingers. “Not a bad thing?”

“Not at all. You look like a sexy, strict professor who would punish you for turning in an essay late. Who then secretly enjoys every second of the punishment.”

“What are they teaching at universities these days?”

“Like in a smutty romance,” I clarify, warmth cresting my neck and cheeks. “You know one where you have a forbidden relationship with that professor? Or your boss. Could be the silver fox doctor you should have nothing to do with.”

His pale grey eyes fill with wicked heat. “Right. No wonder Jonah’s addicted to those books. I’ve been missing out, huh?”

“Seriously,” I say.

“Apparently, I have a lot of catching up to do with… life.”

He looks so serious that I feel this tight ache in my chest. It’s on the tip of my tongue to say I’m happy to be his guide. Instead, I bite the words off.

Only one night, Ani, remember?

“How about this? For every question one of us doesn’t answer, the other person can demand something else.”

“I should warn you, Ms. Rao.” He undoes the cuffs of his shirt and rolls them back as if he’s readying himself for a full-on brawl. The sight of his watch face on his hair-roughened forearm sends my belly into a tizzy. “I’m a very competitive man.” His gaze flashes with challenge. “Once I decide to win something, I don’t give up. Ever.”

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