No. She didn’t want to be that girl anymore. This was her chance to be wild and spontaneous—to unleash the bad girl inside who was dying to get out—and she was taking it.

Kicking her newly stilettoed feet up onto Jason’s coffee table, she lay back against the cream pillows on his plush couch, trying to show off her new lingerie to its best advantage. She felt daring and sexy, but at the same time she was afraid of being too bony, too pale, too-dried up to ever attract anyone again.

Please,she prayed,all I want is for Jason to drool when he sees me. Not laugh.

Just then, he rounded the corner from the foyer and stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes roved the room, first taking in the lit candles on every surface, the two glasses of wine on the coffee table, and then, finally, Emma in dishabille.

“You’re still awake?” he said, sounding angry and tired. And the tiniest bit uncertain.

“I was waiting for you,” Emma purred in what she hoped was a sensual, inviting tone, even though she was freaking out. Oh no, she hadn’t expected him to regret inviting her to stay with him already. After the wild sex they’d had that afternoon in his restaurant, she’d thought…well, that he’d be happy to have her around a little while longer. At least in his bed, if nowhere else.

He took another step into the room, rubbing his hands over his eyes. “You went shopping.”

She smiled and nodded wishing he could have said something slightly more welcoming, likeI’m so glad you’re here, or,I’ve been waiting for you too.

“I wanted to surprise you,” she said, hoping that by gesturing to her nearly naked body as if she were a spokesmodel on a TV game show showcasing the evening’s prize, she could distract him from the wobble in her voice. “Surprise!”

Jason stared at her, his expression unreadable, and Emma nervously bit her lip. She’d had visions of his walking in the door and being so overwhelmed with passion that he jumped her without so much as a hello. Unfortunately, it looked like she was going to have to try a little harder to get to the bone jumping part of the evening.

If there was even going to be one.

Shifting on the soft cushions, she lowered her lashes. “I must have tried on nearly everything in the store.

Every time I slipped into a silky bra I thought about you looking at me. Taking it off of me.” She paused and raised her eyes to Jason’s hot, steady gaze, then stood up to reveal her lingerie in full detail, forcing herself to do a slow, seductive spin. Over her shoulder, she said, “I never knew thongs were so sexy. Did you?”

He didn’t say anything, but by the tightness around his jaw, the heat in his eyes, Emma knew she was on the right track. “All night, I’ve been waiting for you wearing this, thinking about what we did this afternoon, what we did last night.” She lowered her voice to nearly a whisper. “Thinking about what we were going to do tonight when you came home.”

She’d barely finished her sentence when Jason lunged for her as if he’d been straining against shackles that had just broken free.

“I don’t know what you did with the Emma I used to know,” he said. “And I don’t care. Just one thing I’d like to make clear first.”

Emma nodded, thrilled that he was about to kiss her again. Touch her again. “Anything.”

“I don’t want to talk tonight. You came here to f**k. You dressed to f**k. So that’s what we’re going to do, Emma. We’re going to f**k each other’s brains out.”

Jason’s mouth was hot and hard as he cupped her head with his hands to better capture her lips, his tongue branding her, filling her senses. She felt naughty, her nearly naked skin brushing against his clothes, his thigh grinding into her wetness.

Being with Jason like this was everything she’d ever dreamed of. And more.

Only, in her fantasies when he talked dirty to her, there was always an undertone of emotion, of caring to his words. Unlike tonight, when he made it perfectly clear that he wanted her body. But nothing else.

Emma told herself that she was okay with his 100 percent sexual focus. Wasn’t making love with Jason a step in the right direction? It had to be better than continuing their decade of utter silence and noncommunication. They could work on their personal relationship later, couldn’t they?

He dragged her down the hall and she stumbled in her unfamiliar spike heels through his bedroom into a truly luxurious bathroom. He pushed a few buttons on the wall by the door and not only did several dim lights turn on, but water began to pour from the bathtub faucet.

“You know what I always wanted to do with you?”

Emma shook her head. “Tell me.”

“Take a bath.”

She reached for the clasp at the back of her bra, but he cupped one strong hand over hers. “I want you all wet. Looking like this.”

Emma ni**les hardened as his words sank in. Tonight was turning out to be an even more sensual

experience than she could have ever imagined.

He knelt down and began to undo the ribbons of her new pink heels. “These are the sexiest shoes I’ve ever seen. I want you to wear them again for me later. When you’re completely naked.”

Emma shivered as his fingers brushed against her ankle through her fishnet stockings. Looking up at her as he slid one heel off and began working on the next, he mused, “I never thought I’d get to see you in a garter. Or fishnets. Or a thong.”

Her words came out more uncertain, more breathy than she intended. “What do you think?”

He smiled, but it was a look of desire, rather than happiness. “I think you were born to wear them.”

Something inside Emma bloomed at his words, some newly discovered femininity. She felt beautiful and desired in Jason’s eyes. Just as she always had.How could I have willingly given him up?

“The water’s ready,” he said, standing and leaning against the sink.

“Aren’t you going to join me?”

“Not yet. I want to watch you first. Getting wet. Everywhere.”

A flush stung Emma’s cheeks. Somewhere in the back of her head she’d thought that Jason might want a show, a striptease, but she’d pictured a backdrop of candles in a dimly lit room. Not in a bathtub, with water streaming over her.

But dressing like this for him tonight, surprising him with her boldness, had been her idea and she was going to see it through. The intense arousal coursing through her was going to help her push past her innate apprehension.

“I didn’t know you liked to watch,” she said, trying her best to play along, not wanting Jason to think she was a clueless, unadventurous lover. Even though she was. Quick in and outs with Steven in the dark had done nothing to prepare her for the kind of kinky sex that Jason obviously preferred.