“Some of the buildings I’ve loved working with most are the ones where, when I’ve pushed, she’s pushed back just as hard.”

“Your buildings are feminine?”

“Most of them.”

She rolled her eyes. “Figures.”

He gave her shoulder a little nip. “Can I get back to my point now?”

She lowered her mouth to his shoulder and nipped him back. “Go ahead.”

Of course, instead of finishing his thought, he needed to slide his hands into her already tangled hair to kiss her breathless. They were both breathing hard by the time he finally let her up for air.

“I think I get your point now.” She looked back down at his mouth, then up to his eyes. “They probably have such great sex that nothing else matters.”

He should have jumped to agree with her. But for the first time in his life, he found he couldn’t play the part of the player who only had sex on the brain.

“I’m the last guy to say sex isn’t important. But there’s got to be more than that if things are going to work long term.” When she didn’t respond, simply stared at him as if seeing him for the first time, he tried to explain. “My siblings, my cousins—I’ve seen the way they are with their spouses. Sure, they can’t keep their hands off each other, but that’s just a part of what binds them together.”

“What else do they have?”

“Respect. Trust. Dedication.”

“Wow, I’m impressed. You didn’t even need to think about that list.”

“Like I said, I’ve seen an awful lot of couples in love, with my parents right at the top of the list.”

“Maybe you should have been a wedding planner instead of an architect.”

He put his mouth to hers, found her tongue with his, and then gently bit it.

She was laughing even before he let it go. “Did you just bite my tongue?” she asked through her laughter.

“Someone had to for saying that.”

He loved the feel of her shaking with laughter on his lap. So much that he really didn’t want to let her go any time soon.

“Look, all I’m saying is that maybe they like the pushing. Maybe they both like the challenge. Maybe they’d be bored with someone exactly like them, someone who thinks the exact same way. Maybe they like the excitement of knowing their partner will always surprise them.”

“I’ve never looked at things that way.” She looked pensive. “I always thought friction was a bad thing in relationships.”

How, he wondered, had they progressed to talking so seriously about relationships? What they did on their nights together was supposed to be just sex. Instead, somehow, he was having to work to stop himself from thinking about how a real relationship with Kerry wouldn’t be boring, because they didn’t think the same way at all. Because she always surprised him.

Sex. He needed to turn the focus of their night back to sex, and quickly, before things went any deeper and they both had regrets in the morning when they came to their senses.

“All this talk of friction”—her skin was soft beneath his lips as he laid her back on the bed, peeled open her robe, lifted her arms up over her head, and began to kiss his way down her gorgeously naked body—“has given me an idea. Want to hear it?”

“Maybe,” she said as she licked her lips, “you should just show me instead.”

“It would be my pleasure.” He grinned as he pulled the satin sash from her robe. “And yours, too, I hope. Have you ever been tied up before?”

“What?” She sat up with a start. “No.” She shook her head. “God, no.”

She looked so adorable when she was shocked that he had to kiss her. “Good.”

“Good?” She looked confused and maybe even a little irritated, too. “Why is that good?”

“Because,” he said as he gave her another kiss, “I like knowing I’m going to be your first.”

“You’re not going to be my first. I can’t let you tie me up.”

“Why not?”

She made a little growly sound at the same question he’d asked her when she’d first told him she couldn’t date him, and he was hard-pressed not to grin like a fool. There really was something to this oil-and-water stuff, it seemed.

She was just so much fun, both to wind up, and then to watch come unfurled in his arms.

“Because.”

He couldn’t hold in his laughter anymore. Fortunately, by now her lips were twitching at the corners, too. “One good reason, Kerry. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t use this strip of satin to tie your wrists to the headboard.”

“Here’s one great reason: I’m not like the other women you’ve been with.”

“I’ve never for one single second thought that you were.” He dropped the sash so that he could put his hands on either side of her face. “And if I ever do anything to you that makes you feel like you are—if I ever do anything that you don’t like—promise you’ll tell me so that I can do everything in my power to make it up to you.”

* * *

All her adult life, Kerry had stuck to her list of what was and wasn’t acceptable. Obviously, letting a man tie her up in bed was on the not acceptable list. Then again, since she was already having a sexy night in a hotel with a totally inappropriate man...

“I’ve liked everything you’ve done to me.” But that wasn’t good enough, wasn’t anywhere near close to the full truth, so she made herself tell him, “I’ve loved it.”