Bare Facts Read Free Page B

have to look at myself in the mirror every morning,” she said, bringing her hand up to capture his wrist. She did the same thing with his right hand, fingering the nub of his missing finger before drawing both wrists down to waist level.
    “You like to be in control,” he said, glancing at his wrists bound in her fists.
    “Yes, I do,” she said, moving her right foot and widening her stance. The only way Daniel was going to take her seriously was if she proved she was more than a pretty face. And the aikido move she had in mind should do the job nicely.
    She pulled her left foot inward and brought her right arm across his chest, keeping her left arm fully extended forward, forcing Daniel to bend backward as her arm came down across his neck. She twisted her hips, following the movement through, throwing Daniel off balance and stepping away from him.
    Daniel caught her wrists as she tried to step away, pinning her arms to her sides and stepping in close behind her. “I didn’t realize you were familiar with aikido.”
    “Are you?” she asked.
    He moved his right arm above his head, dragging her arm up with his, pulling her off balance. He wrapped an arm around her waist.
    “Yes,” he said. The easy way he held her told her that in one-on-one combat he could hold his own.
    “Is this why you don’t want a bodyguard?” she asked.
    He swiveled his hips and she felt his erection nudge the small of her back. “No, this is.”
    “You’re attracted to me,” she said, so very tired of having men be turned on by her looks and not her skills or her brain.
    “That’s an understatement.”
    “You don’t even know me,” she said, bringing both of her hands to the arm around his waist and trying to subtly move her stance so that she’d be able to gain the advantage and throw him over her shoulder.
    “I’m not going to let you gain the advantage here,” he said, moving his stance so that they were back to where they’d been before.
    She had a few other moves that she could use but they were down and dirty street fighting and would really hurt Daniel. Something she was oddly reluctant to do.
    “I’d love to really spar with you,” she said.
    He laughed. “I think I’d like that, too. The next time I’m in D.C. I’ll call you.”
    “So you still want me out?”
    He dropped her arms and stepped away from her. “Yes. I think you’ll prove to be more of a hindrance than a bodyguard.”
    “That’s insulting,” she said.
    “I don’t mean it to be,” he said.
    “Then how should I have taken it?”
    He shrugged and straightened his suit coat. “Just that I want you and right now that could be a huge disadvantage for both of us.”
    “I’ve been in this business long enough to keep personal feelings out of the equation,” she said, not sure what he was getting at.
    He closed the distance between them again, cupping her jaw and tipping her head back. His mouth came down on hers, not hard like she’d been expecting, but so softly that she melted. He brushed his lips over hers repeatedly until she wanted to relax her guard and sink into him. To have his big, strong arms come around her. That freaked her out big-time because she wasn’t usually distracted by men. Not even Senator Perry Jones, whom she’d thought she’d marry.
     
    Daniel hadn’t gotten to where he was in life by not going after what he wanted. And he wanted Charity Keone. He’d experienced lust before—hell, he was thirty-eight years old. He’d thought he was past the point where lust at first sight was an issue, but he was glad to be proved wrong.
    Instinctively he’d known that forcing her to his will wasn’t the way to get the kiss he wanted from her. And since they were going to part ways shortly, he saw no reason to deny himself a kiss. God, her mouth was so lush and full, it distracted him almost as much as her curvy body and her aikido moves. He was the first to admit he was drawn to strength.
    There was something about