Page 38 of Hard Rock Heat

I tilted my head at him,questioning.

"Sorry," he said with a shake of his head. "I don't want to get into thewhose-childhood-was-shittergame."

From the way he spoke, I was guessing he would win. Even knowing as little as I did about Ian and his struggles, I had to assume whatever it was had affected Damon just as much, and perhaps worse. As an older twin, I knew what it was like to take on the world to protect your younger sibling. I understood the burden, theheartache.

"I think it's really great you decided to throw this kind of event," I saidinstead.

Some of the darkness left Damon's eyes. "It helps to give back, youknow?"

"So you're doing this for selfish reasons?" I teased, lightening themood.

He laughed. "You did call me a narcissistonce."

"Only once?" I replied. "I'll have to make sure to include it in my dailyrepertoire."

"You're using fancy words again," he noted. "You're going to get me all hot andbothered."

"Behave," I scolded. "We're inpublic."

"So in private is okay, then?" He wriggled his eyebrows in a comically come-hitherway.

I laughed and snorted at the same time. "And here I thought we could get through one afternoon without your sexualinnuendo."

"What's the fun in that?" hesaid.

"Is it always just about fun and playing around to you?" Iasked.

"Why shouldn't it be?" He relaxed back into his chair, stretching his legs until his toe nudged mine. "Live life to the fullest, seize the day, dance like no one's watching, and so on. I've got a dozen more clichés like that in my backpocket."

"I get thepoint."

"Do you?" he asked. He stared me in the eyes, oddly serious. "I asked you before when was the last time you did anything spontaneously and you couldn'tanswer."

"I remember," I replied. "You also made me sit on a seven thousand dollar piece of technology and told me to take my pantiesoff."

Damon narrowed his eyes, a smirk crossing hisface.

"I got you to do one of them," he said in a low voice. "Want to take me up on theother?"

"We're in a greasy burgerjoint."

"That's not ano."

Damon's legs bumped against mine under the table. I shifted them back. He leaned back and stretched, knees brushing mine. I couldn't back up any further in the booth. One knee slowly edged its way between my thighs, parting them slightly. My breath caught in mythroat.

"I bet I can guess what color panties you're wearing." His eyes flashed with a wickedglint.

"Black," I said immediately. "No need toguess."

"I'll need to check for myself to make sure you're notlying."

My stomach clenched at the heat in his words. I pressed my thighs together unconsciously, accidentally squeezing his knee in the process. The fire in his eyes flared up. The vibrant green of them almost made me want to spread my thighs, to open up tohim.

The more sane part of my brain told me to shut this down,now.

I shifted in my seat abruptly, dislodging his leg, sitting up prim andproper.

"Remember our conversation?" I asked. "No dating, notouching."