Dodging Temptation (The Retreat) by Avery Flynn

through this afternoon. He removed his cowboy-boot cuff links, dropped them into his shirt pocket, and rolled up his sleeves as he made his way to the freezer, getting there in time for Harper ’ s big finish.
    Dressed in black yoga pants and a tank top that made his mouth go sawdust dry, Harper sang her way to the front of the freezer with her eyes closed and a spoon for a microphone. “All I want for Christmaaaaas is youuuuuuuuu.”
    When the note cracked, he broke in. “You know it ’ s May, right?”
    Harper ’ s eye ’ s snapped open, and the drawn out “you” turned into a startled yelp. Her singing was pitchy, but her scream was downright earsplitting. A deep flush raced up from her cleavage, turning the miles of creamy flesh nearly as red as her hair.
    “Would you stop doing that?” Eyes narrowed and attitude set on kill, she stormed out of the freezer armed with her spoon and half a gallon of ice cream and kicked the door shut behind her.
    “What?” He didn ’ t bother hiding his grin. “Telling you the month?”
    She stormed past him, giving him a wonderful view of her ass covered in the clingy black fabric, and headed for the hall door. “No, scaring the shit out of me.”
    “Sorry.” He slipped in front of her, cutting off her escape route, and tapped on the frozen half gallon ’s lid. “What ’ s the flavor tonight?”
    “Cookie dough and, before you ask, no—I ’ m not sharing.” But she didn ’ t make any moves to circle around him. For as cold as her words were, everything else about her was fiery hot.
    She nibbled on her bottom lip and the tension that had ebbed out of his muscles came back in full force. Last night her full lips had tasted of mint chocolate chip and temptation. Tonight, he wanted to taste more than the ice cream off her lips. He wanted to drown in her. Mixing business and pleasure was about to get interesting, but as long as he remembered who she worked for, he’d be the one coming out on top.
    She smelled of lilacs, fresh soap, and the kind of trouble a man couldn ’ t help but get tangled up with. Pink tinted her porcelain skin, the last reminder of her earlier flush. Her nipples tented the smooth fabric of her tank top. From the freezer or him? If it wasn ’ t him, he sure as hell wanted his chance to show her what he could do.
    Hard and hungry for her, Dodge stood his ground even as every urged him to take what he wanted—what she wanted. This wasn’t a typical mutual seduction. He had to take it slow so he could find out exactly what she was planning with his grandfather and counteract it without either of them being the wiser. But, of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to enjoy every minute of it.
    “You’re not sharing?” Instead of reaching for Harper, he toyed with the carton ’ s lid, popping it open, his gaze never leaving hers. “Not even a spoonful?”
    “No.” She slapped her hand over his, shutting the ice cream lid. “You ’ re on my shit list.”
    “That makes us even. You ’ re on mine, too.” He brought his thumb up, stroking it across the center of her soft palm, even that simplest of touch making his cock hard. “Half a spoonful and in exchange I ’ ll provide the whipped cream and maraschino cherries…as long as you promise not to sing.”

    I t was the whipped cream that pushed Harper over the edge into saying yes, not the tingling sensation traveling up from her palm when Dodge touched her or the slip-sliding warmth that settled low in her stomach every time she saw him. She sprayed a second shot onto her ice cream. Definitely the whipped cream.
    She lifted the spoon, but her muscles locked when she glanced up. He was staring at her with enough hot lust in his green eyes to set off every alarm bell and oh-girl-get-out-now warning bell in her head. No one had ever looked at her like that before. Not her parent-approved boyfriends, not her ex-husband on their wedding day, not a single solitary soul. But Dodge did,