Page 6 of Tempt Me-

“Good!I learned first position.”She kicks the back of the front car seat, trying to get her little feet into the pose.

“You can show me when we get home.I bet your dad will want to see, too.”I glance in the rearview mirror before refocusing on the road.

I pull onto the street and catch sight of a black sedan parked at the end of the road.I saw the car earlier in the week and again this morning and thought it was odd.This street is far off the highway and doesn’t get a lot of stray cars.

“What’s for dinner?”Bailey asks.“’Cause I’m hungry.Can I have a snack when we get home?”She rattles off questions and statements like they are demands.

“What happened to please?”I ask.“You can have a healthy snack before dinner, like baby carrots.And your dad mentioned wanting to bring in pizza, so that’s what we’re having.”

“Can I have hummus with the carrots?Please?”

As I pull into the driveway, I turn to see Bailey with her hands clasped together in supplication.For hummus.“A little bit.”

I unhook the booster seat, and Bailey scrambles out of the car, then I grab some grocery bags for my first trip into the house.No sooner have I entered than I realize the air conditioning seems to have stopped working what must have been hours earlier, because the inside of the house is too hot.

I put the bags on the counter and finish emptying the SUV of groceries before calling Austin on his cell phone.He is on his way home and says he’ll get the repairman on the phone as soon as he hangs up with me.

I glance at Bailey, who is dancing around the kitchen in long sleeves and tights.“Let’s change into cooler clothes, okay?”

“Can I wear my bathing suit?”Bailey asks, her brown eyes sparkling with delight.

I laugh.“Why not?Just don’t expect to go swimming.”

“We can pretend to swim.Can I change my Barbies into bathing suits, too?”

“I don’t know.Do you have homework to do first?”I ask.

Bailey scrunches her nose in reply.“A little.”

“Okay, homework first, then you can play with your dolls.”

“But it’s ho-o-t,” she whines, finally bringing up the obvious as a complaint, probably because I just asked her to do something she doesn’t want to do.

“And you’ll be in your bathing suit so you won’t be as uncomfortable.”I ruffle the top of the child’s head.“Let’s go change.”

“Will you put on a bathing suit, too?”Bailey asks.

“No,” I say.“That wouldn’t be appropriate.”

“What’s ’propriate mean?”Bailey asks as we head for the stairs leading to Austin’s and Bailey’s rooms on the second level.

I have a bedroom off the kitchen on the first floor, a relief since I don’t have to worry about running into Austin when I am coming in or out of the bathroom in the upstairs hall after a shower.I have my own private one right outside my room downstairs.Being in a room near his would only make the building desire I feel for the man so much worse.

I bite the inside of my cheek to distract myself from my thoughts.“Appropriate means it’s not the right thing to do,” I explain to Bailey.

Not when Austin will be arriving home any minute.I save my bikinis for my private time.I can’t possibly play dress-up—or dress down as the case might be, with Bailey.I can’t handle Austin’s eyes on me when I am half dressed.No doubt my body would betray me and his knowing gaze would zero in on my hard nipples caused by a hot glance.

I pull my hair off the back of my sweaty neck.No matter how uncomfortably hot I am, my thoughts making things worse, I won’t be flaunting my body in front of my sexy boss.

Chapter Two

Austin

Going home tono air conditioning wasn’t the way I planned to celebrate my good news.The AC people will be over later to fix the unit, so I’ll have to deal in the meantime.I pull into the garage, turn off the engine, and walk into the house, the sound of the alarm beep drowned out by music playing.

I step inside, feeling the heat immediately.Damn, it is a hot September.I glance down the hall into the kitchen, where my daughter is wearing a bathing suit and standing in a ballet pose, arms above her head.

“Like this.See?Copy me,” she says to Mia, who complies, her legs contorting into whatever position Bailey demands.