She held on to his fingers and rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb. He wondered if she’d be anxious now, because of what she’d gone through before with the press and everything else, but she seemed as relaxed and confident as he’d ever seen her.

“When I do what?” She raised one eyebrow at him, and he raised one right back at her.

“When you do that Helen of Troy smiling thing.”

She laughed out loud. She tossed her hair out of her face and smiled at him like she had in the hotel room, that morning in Palm Springs. Did she know how sexy she was?

“This is so much more fun with you in on it,” she said.

Yeah. She knew. He played with her fingers and shook his head.

“You’re a nightmare, you know that?” he said to her. “You and your movie star-smiles and sexy little hair tosses and that sway you put in your hips when you know I’m watching you.”

She laughed at him again, their fingers still intertwined.

“Oh, I’m the nightmare? Excuse me—who, exactly, was the person who sweet-talked us into a room at a sold-out hotel just last week by flirting his head off with the clerk, and making sure she knew immediately the woman he was there with was his sister? Because that was one of us at this table, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me.”

Ben grinned at the memory. It had gotten them what they needed, hadn’t it?

He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it as he looked her in the eye.

“We seem to be well matched, then.”

He could tell by her wide eyes and closed lips she was doing everything possible not to laugh.

“Well played for the camera. You’re such an asshole. Do you practice these things?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“I think I’ve just always known.” He lowered his voice. It was time to get her back a little. “Just like I’ve always known that you like it when I pull your hair when I kiss you. Just a little. Just enough to make you tingle.”

She swallowed. He let his grin widen.

“I do like that,” she said. “In the same way you like it when I climb on top of you, and you’re at my mercy.”

Oh, she was going to try this, too, huh?

“Mmm, that’s because it gives me better access to those incredible breasts of yours,” he said. “I know you love it when I bite your nipples, especially afterward, when I lick them to make them better.” God, he loved the look on her face right now. “And thank God you love it, because I really fucking love doing it.” She was breathing heavily now, and he could see her chest rising and falling. “Did you wear that dress tonight because you knew I wouldn’t be able to help myself from staring at your cleavage?”

She nodded.

“I did. Did you wear those jeans tonight because you knew I would spend the whole time we were in here thinking about your ass?”

He had, as a matter of fact.

“Hey, I saw the way you looked at me the other day when we were in my apartment. A man’s got to do what he can to get ahead. All’s fair in love and war, isn’t that the saying?”

He couldn’t believe his luck. He’d just signed on for a month of sex with Anna, for the cost of, what, a few magazine pictures? And it got him out of town right when he wanted to be unavailable. Perfect.

“I like it when you look at me like that,” Anna said.

He let his eyebrows go up again.

“Like what?” he asked, even though he knew what she was talking about.

“Like you want to tear my clothes off with your teeth,” she said.

Ben bit his bottom lip and let his fingers trace patterns over hers.

“More like I want to crawl under the table and slide my tongue into your pussy,” he said. She shivered. He felt triumphant.

“Finish that beer, asshole, and as soon as we get back to my suite, I’m going to hold you to that.”

They left the bar thirty minutes later, after Ben pulled all the cash he had out of his wallet and threw it on the table. Anna shook her head at him as they walked back to the elevator for the second time that night.

“You didn’t have to do that—everything is charged to the room.”

Ben shook his head.

“I did indeed have to do that—there was a photographer there! No one will ever be able to imply I was a bad tipper.”

He took her hand on the way to the elevator. Holding hands with Anna felt exciting, illicit. He’d never before been able to touch Anna in public, and now he could, and it was all because of a big joke they were playing on the rest of the world. This was going to be so much fun.

They didn’t talk on the elevator back to her room. They barely looked at each other. But he could feel the electricity running through and around and between them. It was so tangible, he could almost feel his hair crackle.

They got off the elevator and walked down the hall to her room, still hand in hand. She walked differently when she was public Anna—he noticed that after they got back from Palm Springs. She stood taller, her shoulders more proud, her head high. At other times, she was more relaxed, softer, warmer. He found both sides of her impossibly sexy.

She opened the door to her suite, and as soon as they got inside, she grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him toward her. He felt a button snap off of his shirt. He fucking loved it.

He backed her up against the wall and kissed her hard. She reached for his remaining buttons.

“You turned me on so fucking much up there,” she said as soon as he moved his mouth from her lips to her neck.

“I know,” he said. He pushed the V of her dress to the side and brushed the tip of her nipple with his thumb. He could feel her tremble.

“I liked it,” she said.

He pulled her bra out of the way and touched his tongue to her nipple.

“I know,” he said.

She grabbed his hand and guided it to the inside of her thigh.

“You made me so wet,” she said.

He dropped to his knees and grabbed her underwear with both hands. With one twist, the thin lace fell off of her body. He didn’t apologize.

“I couldn’t wait,” he said. And then he slid his tongue inside her. He licked and sucked and bit and hummed until she writhed above him. And then he slid a finger inside her and sucked harder until she gasped and collapsed to the floor, bringing him along with her.

They lay there panting together for a while, until she turned and grinned at him.

“Are you always this good at fulfilling your promises?” she asked.