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He hadn’t said anything as she looked him over, but he was hardly unaware of her perusal

"Are you flexing your muscles for me?" she asked

"That," he said smoothly, "would be vanity"

She felt herself smile in response--the first save her a darkly wicked grin "Should have known better than to try to baoverness"

Serena took a step toward him, and his smile froze She reached out and touched the point of the pin to his abdomen His breath stopped She trailed it up his ribs, and had the pleasure of seeing hiooseflesh

"I want your shoes" Her mouth was dry; she could scarcely s around the words

He bent to reht around his buocks, and the muscles in his behind shivered

So did she She waited until he straightened before handing his"

This tile, flexing precisely so He had to kno his thighs looked with all that wool hugging them He didn’t say a word, but when he’d discarded the knit wool of his stockings, he ame with the pins, one that stole her dread away Still, she handed hih yet for your nefarious plan?"

"Not quite" He grinned "Besides, you’re doing so well on your own I’d hate to interrupt you"

Her confidence was co back Serena tapped him on the chin with a head of a pin "For that impertinence, sir, I demand your belt"

"You dehtened it "Then I suppose I aue of the belt came loose, and then he pulled the belt sloay His trousers slipped down his hips a few inches as he did, revealing a dark arrow of hair, dotting down the front of his stomach

She wanted to knohere that trail of coarse hair led

"Now," she began, "I want--"

"Now," he interrupted smoothly, "it’s time for me to redeem my pins" He fixed her with a steady look

It was only a moment that he looked into her eyes--half a second, scarcely even long enough to blink--but already her pulse juled She are of every inch of her skin--her shift scarcely covered her lihtly She wasn’t sure if it was fear or arousal that had her so suddenly on edge

"My first order" He set a pin in the palht there until I come back"

She blinked, but he ducked out of the rooather breath to protest She took one step forward, before re that he’d asked with a pin, and under the rules of the game, she couldn’t follow But he didn’t return--not for severalof a bellohat in God’s na? Eventually, there was a hiss like stea a towel A stea towel

"This is a trick," he said "I learned it prize-fighting Lie down on the bed"