Picture Me Sexy by Rhonda Nelson Page A

and somehow more beautiful and fragile than ever. His heart tripped an unsteady beat in his chest, gooseflesh skittered along his skin and his scalp prickled annoyingly once more. The perpetual hard-on strained against his zipper, tried to point at her like some sort of damned sexual divining rod.
    Sam swallowed a curse and decided to distract himself by tossing an old line into the conversational pond. The silence hadn’t necessarily stretched beyond the comfortable—in fact, both of them seemed a little too shocked at the moment to be uncomfortable—but he desperately needed to try and divert his thoughts north of his groin.
    He rubbed the back of his neck. “You, uh, mentioned during the shoot that you’ve done a lot of things lately that were out of character,” Sam reminded her. “Besides what you’ve done here, what other things have you done recently?”
    Delaney cocked her head in his direction and a small smile curled her lips. “Well, for starters, I took off work for the rest of the week.”
    â€œAnd that was out of character?”
    A soft chuckle burst from her throat. “Most definitely. I haven’t had a sick day, much less a vacation, in the last three years.” Eyes twinkling, she cast him a confiding glance. “Much to the annoyance of my perfectly capable staff, I have to make sure that everything— everything —down to the last little detail is perfect with the catalogue before it goes out.” She blew out a breath and shoved her hair away from her face. “I’m manic about it. It has my name on it, it’s got to be right.”
    Another rumor that held true. He’d heard those things about her and couldn’t help but be impressed. It was exactly that attention to detail that had made her business the industry competitor it was today.
    â€œSo you took a few days off?” Sam said casually. “Sounds like you needed it. Have you got any special plans?”
    Her lips slid into a self-deprecating grin and she peeked at him through lowered lashes. “Other than shipping all the wedding gifts over to Roger for him to deal with when he gets back from my honeymoon, no.”
    Sam winced. “Ouch.”
    â€œI know.” She traced a line of stitches on the quilt with her fingertips. “Though my staff doesn’t believe it, I’m fine. Really,” she added at his skeptical look. “Today was simply an off day.” She shot him a confiding glance. “I found out about Roger and Wendy and my stolen honeymoon today.” Her brow folded in consternation. “Frankly, I was more pissed about the honeymoon. I’d spent months planning thatsucker, had seen to every single detail, not to mention that I paid for it. So, in my defense, I really think that I had every right to be upset about that—” her lips formed a secret, almost evil smile “—and I handled it accordingly.”
    Uh-oh. That was certainly an ominously mysterious statement. “What did you do?”
    â€œWell, like I told you, I cleared my schedule for the rest of the week, and then I drove over to Roger’s house and vandalized his yard.”
    She said it so matter-of-factly, it took a minute for that last sentence to penetrate, and when it did Sam’s jaw almost dropped. “Come again?”
    She laughed at his admittedly dumbfounded expression. “I vandalized Roger’s yard.”
    â€œEr, how exactly?”
    â€œWeed killer.”
    He arched a skeptical brow. “In winter?”
    She nodded. “Roger’s lawn is green year round. His turf is one of those expensive designer blends. He’s very proud of it,” she told him. A hard edge colored her tone.
    Sam felt his lips tremble with a suppressed smile. “And you killed it?”
    â€œNo, not all of it. Just part.”
    Just part? Sam thought, thoroughly intrigued. He turned to face her more fully. “Okay,