Raising her chin, she tilted her head to the side. “I’m not the one who wears five layers of clothing everywhere.”

“This is an image. That,” he told her, looking over her leather-clad body, “is a costume.”

Shaking her head, Rachel asked incredulously, “Are you really stupid enough to think that I would remove any of my clothes after this conversation?”

Calm and so annoyingly casual, he went about undoing his suit jacket without hesitation. His remaining ensemble—gray pinstripe pants, a perfect white shirt, and a matching pinstripe vest—was all neat and precise, positioned exactly where they should be.

The damn man even has cuff links.

So busy caught up in her inspection of him, Rachel hadn’t even noticed he had taken a step toward her until his voice cut through the air.

“As far as I was aware, you’re not supposed to remove your clothes. You’re supposed to be removing mine.”

For the first time this evening—and she was sure it certainly wouldn’t be the last—Rachel lost her footing. She couldn’t seem to formulate the words to tell him to get out even though that was exactly what she should say.

At every turn, the man had been rude and insulting. Begrudgingly, she had to admit that he had also been more honest than she had been.

Suck it up. Come on, show him he’s wrong.

“You’re right. I am,” she agreed.

“That’s what I said.”

“Do you always have to have the last word, Cole?”

* * *

Fuck, there it is—my name on her tongue. Finally.

“Say it again,” he demanded softly, taking the final step he needed to put them only inches apart.

“Say what?”

Angling his face down toward her, he repeated, “My name. Say it again.”

That was when she realized she possessed a new weapon in her arsenal, and Cole found it fascinating to see the wicked calculation flash in her eyes. He tracked her gaze when she deliberately dropped it to his mouth as she considered the request as if it were a life-or-death decision.

“Make me,” she challenged, raising her eyes back to his.

You have no idea what you just invited, Cole thought as he let a devious smile finally spread across his lips. Then again, when his teeth appeared, the look that crossed her face seemingly showed that perhaps she did realize what she had gotten herself into.

Yes, teeth. Get a good look at them. I am going to eat you up.

“Remember this moment, Rachel, because I don’t plan to forget it until you’re screaming my name so loudly that every single person within a ten-mile radius knows what it fucking is.”

Her painted lips parted as she bravely raised a hand, laying it on the left side of his chest.

“You know, for a man so immaculately dressed, your mouth is filthy, and your manners are terrible.”

Looking down at her hand, Cole watched as it moved to the buttons of his vest. “I don’t really think it’s my manners that you’re interested in.”

“Well, obviously not since you lack even the basic ones,” she fired right back, flicking the first button out of its hole. “You promised you wouldn’t touch me,” she stated, looking up at him. “Will you keep that promise?”

Cole acknowledged her question with a slight nod as he placed his arms behind his back. “I will. But are you ready for what is about to happen here?”

Her eyes narrowed as she freed the second button. “And what exactly is that? I get you out of your suit and do what I like. It’s not rocket science, is it?”

Opening the final button, she boldly placed both hands against his stomach and spread the vest apart.

That was when Cole cautioned her for the last time. “No, it’s not rocket science, but be careful, Rachel. Everything isn’t always as it appears.”

* * *

Solid—that’s what he is. Solid, tight muscle under this perfect white shirt. Huh, who knew?

“Stop talking in circles. What are you saying? You aren’t as you appear?” Rachel quipped as she moved around behind him. “You aren’t the man in a three-piece suit and shiny shoes?”

“I am,” he admitted, turning his head to follow her as she removed the vest down his left arm. When their eyes met, in a voice so seductive it set off alarm bells, he added, “But I’m also so much more.”

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Rachel thought when she finally removed the vest and placed it with his coat on the counter. Coming back to stand before him, Rachel cocked her head to the side with more attitude than was probably wise. “You want to back out?” she asked undaunted.

“Not even a little bit. I’m just trying to play fair,” he informed.

His expression made Rachel nervous. The man was so confusing. Maybe he was trying to tell her he didn’t believe he could keep his hands off her.

“Are you sure about this? Because if you touch me, I’m out of here.”

“I told you, Rachel. I will not touch you until you ask.”

Satisfied, she smoothed her hands across his tight abdomen again as she inched toward the buttons of his shirt. Looking at him from beneath her lashes, she tugged the material, freeing it from his pants, and she smiled when she heard him take in a breath.

“Nervous?” she asked.

“No, but would you like to remove my tie? It makes taking off my shirt that much easier.”

Rachel released the shirt and gripped the end of the tie. Wrapping it around her hand, she pulled on it until he was leaning down, just an inch away from her, and then she decided to tell him exactly what she was thinking. “I like the tie. I’ve never fucked a man in a tie.”

* * *

Cole observed her as she stood perilously close to him with his tie secured around her palm. It was amusing that she believed she held the control in this scenario.

“And you aren’t going to tonight either.”

“No?” she asked, licking her bottom lip that was now very close to his.

“No. I said you could take off my clothes, not fuck me. What kind of man do you think I am, Rachel?”

Her sultry eyes connected with his as she moved in even closer. Finally, she pressed her lips right beside his. “Bet I can change your mind,” she murmured.

He turned his head, so their lips were now aligned, and he could smell her sweet breath and cherries. “I bet you can’t.”

Annoyed with him and possibly herself, she pushed him away, releasing his tie.

“So, why are you here then?”

Cole reached up and loosened his now mangled tie. “I told you that I would come back here, so you could get me out of my suit.”

She let out a frustrated sound as Cole added the tie to the pile.

“Would you like me to leave? I didn’t misunderstand the whole point of this meeting, did I?”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she accused.

Shrugging his shoulders, he started to undo his shirt buttons one at a time.

“You came all the way down here at one in the morning to strip for me and not put out? Oh, now that’s a laugh. Do you get off on this?” She spun around and marched to the other side of the shop in her click-clacking heels.

“On what?” he asked calmly as she continued to fume. He was now halfway through with undoing his shirt buttons.

“Playing with women? Teasing them? ‘Oh, I’ll be there at one, and then you can take off my suit,’” she mocked, throwing her hands up in the air. “What else was I supposed to think? I mean, forgive a woman for jumping to conclusions.” She finally turned around to face him.

That was when her mouth snapped shut, and her eyes widened.

“I haven’t even begun to play with you, Rachel. Want me to start?” Cole asked as he lifted his arm and threw his shirt on the pile of clothes behind him.

He was now naked from the waist up.

* * *

Oh my fucking god.

Yes, Rachel admitted, that kind of language was not usually her style. But as she stood across from Cole, who was now minus every last scrap of material covering his upper half, Rachel felt justified in her choice of words.

The man is a fucking god.

If she thought he had been dangerous with clothes, removing them had just made him lethal. Underneath that carefully put together suit was a whole new beast, a beast covered in tattoos and—Are his nipples pierced? Fuck!

Suddenly, her mouth was dry, and her palms were sweaty as she was confronted with something she had definitely not seen coming.

Okay, okay. I can do this. He is still the same man he was five minutes ago.

The problem was she had been having enough issues dealing with this man. Throw in all of this, and she was…yep, fucked.

“I asked you something,” he said.

His voice penetrated her insane thoughts, and finally, it brought her out of her stupor as she stood in what she could only guess was shock. Running her eyes all over him, Rachel couldn’t find any words. She was too busy looking at everything he had just uncovered.

“Rachel?” he queried again, taking a step toward her.

Brain, kick in, run. Brain?

“Are they both pierced?” she blurted out before she could help herself.

“Would you like to take a closer look at them?”

Shaking her head back and forth, she knew that answer. For her sanity, the only logical response came out of her mouth. “No.”

He chuckled deeply as he continued forward.

Nowhere to go. I have nowhere to go. Damn wall.

“I think you do,” he told her. “You even want to touch them, maybe even lick them.”

Rachel could feel her clit throbbing incessantly between her thighs as her brain continued thoughts all on its own. A wolf! That’s a goddamn wolf on his right pec.

Closing her eyes, she tried to block out everything, but all she could see were tight, hard rippling muscles, tattoos, and silver.

The tattoo of a wolf on his chest smacked her between the eyes, but there was so much more. He also had some writing on his forearms and down his left ribs. Not to mention, he had what looked like a sterling silver bar through each nipple.

Had not seen those coming.

“Rachel?”

Looking up at him, she finally found her tongue. “I’m fine. You’re, uh…”

As she trailed off, she watched a very—yes, she was always going to think it now—wolfish grin appear across his mouth.

“Not as I appear to be?”

Suddenly, everything fell into place, all his clues and frustrating riddles. Before she could say anything, the wall was flush against her back, and he was close to being against her front.

“You promised no touching,” she reminded him, feeling more panicked than ever before.

This man, this stranger, who was now directly in front of her, was definitely a man she had no chance or hope of ever controlling.

“I’m not going to touch you,” he promised, leaning forward. “But I am going to kiss you.”

And before she could protest, his mouth was pushing hotly against hers.

* * *

Yes, Cole thought as he pressed his lips to hers. Gotcha.

Swiping his tongue against her bottom lip, he felt a scorching jolt of arousal as she immediately parted for him. Instead of pushing his tongue straight in to tangle with hers, he took a moment to trace her ripe, succulent mouth. He could feel her shaking as she stood with her back pressed against the wall, but she wasn’t backing down either. She wanted him, but she was stubbornly clinging to her resolve.

Nipping her bottom lip, he soothed it once more with his tongue, teasing her, playing with her. When a small moan escaped her, Cole couldn’t help his own groan. Keeping his arms firmly behind his back, he lifted his mouth from hers and moved it to her ear.

“I can’t touch you, Rachel, and god, I want to. I want to undo these sexy leather pants and slide my hand inside. Or maybe, I could lick the skin that’s peeking out between the laces, but I can’t. You said no.”

Flicking her right lobe with his tongue, he bit it gently, causing a second shudder to rack through her body.

“You like how I look, don’t you? Unexpected at first, but now that it’s sunk in, now that you know, I bet you’re wet from just thinking about playing with my piercings.”

Nibbling his way along her jaw back to her mouth, Cole looked directly into her eyes. “They aren’t the only piercings I have either.”