Jovan watched the byplay and silently considered throttling his cousin. There were numerous times over the years, especially during their childhood, that he easily could have done so. Today might actually be the day.

He glanced at Whitney, who was slowly blinking her eyes open and closed and shook his head.

“Filip,” he scolded softly.

“You can thank me later,” he said.

“Don’t hold your breath, cousin,” Jovan replied, watching the privacy screen slowly rise. Filip’s amused chuckle was the last thing he heard as the glass sealed into place.

“He’s funny. In an annoyingly arrogant way,” Whitney said with a sigh. Her voice sounded perfectly normal, which should not have been the case.

Jovan looked at her and nearly lost his breath. Her head, cocked at a seductive angle, rested against the back of the seat and her eyes sparkled like emeralds as she studied him with what appeared to be more than a passing interest. The result of the wine—or Filip’s doing. One never knew just how receptive a person was to the man’s suggestions.

“He is that.” A strand of hair had fallen across her cheek and Jovan reached toward her, intent on tucking it behind her ear but she stopped him by wrapping her fingers around his wrist. She rotated his hand, looking at each side until she finally settled on studying his palm.

“You have very nice hands. Strong.” With a featherlight touch, she ran the tip of her index finger along the top of his palm, tracing a path over his calluses, back and forth until the teasing caress had his balls tightening.

“Sturdy,” she added, unexpectedly pulling his hand to her face and rubbing her cheek against his skin as she met his gaze. “And rough. I never imagined that. I thought you worked in an office.”

“I do. Usually the one in the eastern wing of our home. I take a great many breaks. There always seems to be some chore or another that needs attended to outside. It isn’t a hardship to help preserve the place one calls home.”

Jovan knew he should free himself. A simple twist of his wrist was all it would take to be away from her touch. A nice discussion on his role in the family business would lull her right to sleep. But strangely, he wanted her touch—craved it, actually. And at the moment, with his heart thumping and his cock growing more rigid by the second, he had no inclination to chat.

He acted as any man would. Focusing on that tiny glimmer of desire that clouded her eyes he applied a hint of pressure to her hand and leaned his head closer. He glanced at her mouth.

“Are you going to kiss me?” Her voice was filled with enough awe that Jovan took a second to consider the possibility that Filip’s attempt at mental mind weaving might have failed. Which would be totally out of the norm.

“I’m considering it.” He brought his mouth to within a hairsbreadth and stopped.

“Sweet,” she whispered against his lips.

“I think it will be,” he replied, smiling as he brushed his lips softly against hers. She jerked at the initial contact and he immediately lessened the pressure but didn’t pull away. He gave her time to process what was happening, intent on stretching out the gentle caresses as long as necessary. Until she let out a small moan that somehow acted like a spark and his body began to burn with an urgency to taste her.

With a slight prodding at the seam of her lips he begged entrance to the recesses of her mouth and she surprised him by opening enough that she could tease in return, the tip of her tongue dueling with his until he gave up and kissed her fully. No playful nips and licks, but a full-on siege that allowed him to taste just how sweet she was.

It wasn’t at all how he had expected the demure beauty to react. Definitely Filip’s doing.

Jovan turned his torso toward her, stunned when she leaned into him and matched his intensity. She shifted their hands until his palm was against her smooth skin and pulled at his wrist in an attempt to get him to move his hand lower. A part of him wanted to see exactly where she wanted his touch, but not yet and certainly not here.

He snaked his fingers through her hair and anchored his palm at the back of her neck, flexing his fingers to get her attention before taking a handful of hair and gently forcing her head backward. She groaned her disappointment and he briefly closed his eyes, praying for strength. It had been a long time since he had held a woman in his arms.

“We must behave, Whitney,” he whispered, staring at her once again.

“But I don’t want to behave,” she said in an utterly sexy voice as she inched forward on the seat and tried to turn her legs toward him. The minute he released her hair she maneuvered around and slid onto his lap.

Jovan looked at her crooked position and moved to his right, allowing her room to place her knees against his outer thighs. He shifted his legs, rising to an angle that had her giggling, and him mentally swearing, as she slid forward, her pussy bumping his erection.

“You’re hard,” she said in a surprised voice, gripping his shoulders to keep from tumbling into his face. Which he wouldn’t have minded. Even now, his mouth watered at the thought of sliding the edges of her scoop-necked shirt downward and baring her breasts to his hands and lips.

“How could I be anything but?” he questioned, taking a moment to try to still his accelerated heartbeat. “You know this is a direct result of the wine.”

“I don’t know anything other than the fact I…I want to feel you.”

She shifted her knees wider and pressed her crotch against his erection, pinning him with her gaze. She offered a small, mysterious smile then slowly began swiveling her hips. Jovan looked downward, watching the seam that ran along the center of her jeans tease him through the thin material of his slacks. It was torment. Sweet, sweet torment and he grabbed her hips to stop her movement.

“If your art doesn’t pan out, you have a future in lap dancing, závodnica.”

He slid his hands downward until they were at the fullest part of her hips, about to dip lower when her words stopped him.

“What does that mean? Závodnica?”

Jovan stared at her, not sure he should say. His tongue had spoken before his mind had a chance to catch it. There was every chance she wouldn’t remember anyhow.

“Seductress. Temptress.”

“Oh.” She paused and thought for a moment. “No one has ever called me that. Not even in my dreams. I’d like to be a temptress. I’d like to do something bold for a change.”

“And tell me, what would you do?” he asked, waiting for her response. She didn’t speak, but merely bit her lower lip and worried the flesh in a way that had him imagining her hot mouth working its way up and down his shaft before she finally relented and tongued his tight balls. His cock twitched at the thought and her eyes widened.

“I-I felt that,” she whispered.

“Did you?”

She didn’t respond, but sat statue-still, looking more awestruck then seductive.

“What would a temptress do, once she realized she had a serious effect on the man beneath her?”

He could all but see her mind working until indecision gave way to resolve, yet she remind silent. Jovan was considering what to say when she leaned away from him, closed her eyes and trailed her hands slowly down the center of his chest, over his pecs and straight down the middle of his abs until her fingers rested on the waistband of his slacks. Her fingers left a trail of heat and he gave up trying to keep his hands still. He moved to her buttocks, giving her denim-clad ass a slow, hard squeeze.

Her only answer was to drop her hands lower, barely brushing his hard-on before she moved her palms to her thighs. Jovan gritted his teeth at the rush of lust that curled his sac against the base of his cock. He rocked her hips and thrust upward, the motion forcing her center against his erection.

“Oh my god.” She gasped and moved her hands toward her pussy and his breath hitched as he waited for her to touch herself. But she stopped, fingers hovering over her crotch for heartbeat after heartbeat.

“I’m so hot for you,” she whispered, as is it were the biggest secret in the world. He felt her glutes contract, a whimper escaping her lips before the muscles relaxed once more. “I don’t understand.”

Suddenly he didn’t care that they were in a car with one dead-to-the-world man sitting across the seat and two others up front. He had an all-consuming need to see Whitney’s face taut with desire, eyes pleading for release. He mentally chastised himself, knowing how wrong it would be to touch her when her mind was clearly in an altered state. But he still wanted to watch her shatter.

He let go of her ass and ran his palms up the sides of her body, committing to memory the two spots where she was ticklish. Gritting his teeth, he bypassed the outer curves of her full breasts and grasped her under the arms. Gently, he eased her body backward, dropping his legs just a little until he had her positioned at a comfortable angle.

“Your words entice me as well,” he said, reaching for the button of her jeans. He pushed it through the buttonhole and slowly lowered her zipper. “But it wouldn’t be right for me to touch you.” Or taste you. Stroke every inch of your warmth with my cock.

“Why not?”

Her fingers clamped over his wrists and she pulled his hands toward her breasts but he resisted. He reversed their grip and trapped one of her hands on the top of her left thigh.

She waited for his answer but he refused to speak, until she raised her chin and narrowed her eyes. “I’ll bet Filip wouldn’t leave me hot and horny. I’ll bet he’d—”

That was all it took.

Jovan pushed her other hand into the opening of her jeans, guiding her digits back and forth over her silky panties until Whitney gasped. She tried to pull free and he tightened his grip on both her wrists until she quit struggling. Their mingled breathing, loud and clear, broke the quiet.

“You’ll do well to never mention his name when you’re in my arms,” he warned.

She stared him down. “I’m not in your arms. I’m on your lap.”

Jovan almost smiled at her sarcastic tone. He hadn’t expected that. But the dull throb of his cock overrode even a passing bit of humor. “And do you like where you’re at, Whitney?”

Another visual standoff followed.

“I like where I’m at, Jovan,” she finally admitted.

“Then let me see how much.” He didn’t need the additional torment. His balls were aching as it was but he couldn’t help himself. He forced her hand into a small, circular movement until she shuttered her gaze and picked up the rhythm.

“Tempt me, Whitney. Tempt us both.”

*****

She shouldn’t have drunk the wine. It had put her into a dream state. It was the only explanation for the fact that she was straddling Jovan. The only plausible cause of her nearly sucking his finger into her mouth and all but begging for his kiss, which had been too brief but better than any she’d had before.

Only her active imagination would have her commenting on the fact that he was hard and she, for once, didn’t want to behave. But he had refused to touch her and she wondered what sick, demented portion of her mind had her imagining that sort of gallantry. Her goading him into action had thrilled her. Until he had called her a temptress and challenged her to tempt them both.

He moved her fingers against her aching bud just enough that she nearly considered throwing off her inhibitions. She closed her eyes and focused. If she were alone in this dream, as horny as she was, she wouldn’t hesitate to plunge a finger or two into her pussy. But she wasn’t alone. She was with Jovan.

He changed the motion of their hands. Each pass of her middle finger bumped her clit and she suddenly wished he had snaked their hands under her panties. The sensation of not touching her bare skin was torturous. Next time she dreamed about him, she’d make sure there wasn’t a barrier involved.

“Don’t stop,” he ordered, taking his hand from hers.

She hesitated—it was supposed to be her dream of seduction—but his authoritative tone sent another shiver through her and she kept her fingers slowly moving. He grabbed her jeans and yanked them a little farther down her hips until the waistband was tight around her outer thighs.

“So hot,” he whispered.

With two simple words he made her feel incredibly sexy and Whitney opened her eyes. He stared at her fingers, his gaze alone causing a little wave of wetness to seep from her folds. He shifted his body just a bit and she glanced downward. His slacks were tented a little higher and a tiny voice echoed, Tempt him more.