"Okay." He shrugged, giving her a wicked grin. "So, like what? Doctor their website so they're wearing dresses?"
That was appropriately horrible. She liked it. "Do you know who they are?"
"Yeah. My friend Kirk knows one of them. They're three twenty-something computer geeks who do web design. One of them was fired from Microsoft, and they're all college drop-outs." Evan shrugged. "You know the kind. Almost too smart to be normal. A couple of people told me the same thing, that they're hackers on the side, mostly for fun, for the challenge of besting security."
Evan frowned as he spoke, and started down the hall.
"You're mad because they hacked your site, aren't you?" she asked, wiping her sweaty palms on her pants and following Evan into his bedroom.
"Hell, yeah, I'm mad. Besides, they got you naked. If anyone's going to get you naked, it should be me."
Halley froze. What the heck was that supposed to mean? Evan wasn't facing her, but his voice sounded light, as if he was joking, but still. She thought about his behavior that morning, and his… tongue sliding into her. Maybe she wasn't the only one with a sudden case of lust.
He had been a long time without a date, longer than anytime since she'd known him. Maybe she had been a convenient sexual release.
She didn't bother to answer him, since she had no clue what to say.
His bed still wasn't made. She was tempted to do it herself, just to get the view of those wrinkled sheets out of her sight, but that would mean leaning over the bed. Smelling his masculine scent on the sheets and being far too close to a vertical position were dangerous.
Evan had the website up in a minute. Halley studied the three men over Evan's shoulder. They looked a little on the geeky side, one wearing glasses and all three in need of a wardrobe consultant, given the overabundance of plaid. But they also looked a little brazen, as if they knew the world would dismiss them on appearances, but they had gotten the last laugh.
"I've never seen any of them in my life, so I don't why they did this to me. And why do three men have a personal web page together? That freaks me out."
"Who knows?" Evan shrugged, his hand moving the mouse around. "So what do you think? Floral dresses for them?"
"Just for the one with glasses." Halley narrowed her eyes as she took in the cocky stance of the taller one on the left with dark hair, as they posed in front of a brick building. "For him, I think you should make him naked. Skinny, hairy, and naked."
Evan laughed in surprise. "Are you serious?"
"Very." Let them see how it felt.
He turned and gave her a searching look, before breaking out into a grin that made her forget all about revenge. "Then I have a better idea."
"What?"
"Let's give them breasts."
Halley felt her jaw drop open. Oh, Evan was much better at this than she was. "Can you do that?" The bizarre image of naked men with breasts popped into her head, and she quickly banished it again. Funny, yes, but definitely freaky.
"Sure." Now Evan was the one looking a touch arrogant as he shrugged. "We just need to find the breasts. I'll download Pamela Anderson or something."
Halley hesitated. "No, her breasts get too much airtime as it is." Not that she was jealous or anything. "Someone else."
"I know who." Evan leaned back in his chair.
Now she was jealous. She didn't want Evan to make suggestions on other women's breasts. She didn't want to know that some movie star or pinup could inspire that lusty gleam in his eye.
She opened her mouth to tell him to forget it, that she had changed her mind.
He spoke first. "How about you, Halley?"
"Me?" She took a step back in horror. Did he mean with her clothes on or off?
"Yes, you." He looked up and grinned. "You've got perfect breasts, sweet stuff, and think of the irony of putting your chest on those guys. It's hilarious."
Well, she wasn't laughing. More like choking on her own tongue.
"No way. I'm just not going to take my shirt off in front of you." There would be no possible way she could do that without flinging herself into his arms.
He scoffed as he stood up. He started toward her. "Oh, come on. I've seen plenty of breasts before, including yours once when you dropped your towel by accident after your shower. It's no big deal."
Not to him. But it was to her. She could not fake nonchalance wearing no shirt in front of him. Taking another step back, she said, "No, I'm not doing it."
Halley stopped moving, frozen to the spot an inch in front of Evan's bed. She was trapped and he was right in front of her. He took her hands, squeezed, slid up her arms, continuing on and on.
"Come on. I've slept in the same bed with you when you were wearing nothing but a T-shirt and panties. You've thrown up on me. I can take a picture of your breasts without it being a big deal."
She wished he hadn't brought up the whole throw-up thing. A few too many shots on her twenty-third birthday and she had lost her dinner of sweet and sour pork down the front of Evan's shirt. Not one of her sexier moments.
The whole thing was depressing. It just served to emphasize how little he thought of her as a woman if he could stand there while she stripped her shirt off and be totally unaffected.
Or would he? Neither of them could claim he had been immune to her earlier. No one could fake a hard-on like that.
Suddenly she wanted to do it. She wanted to strip off her shirt for Evan and see that he could take her picture without any further interest whatsoever.
It was playing with fire, she knew. But they had already crossed some strange line with that wax-melting kiss, and she needed to know. She needed to see that it was forgettable, that Evan had only reacted to her and had no real desire for her.
If he could stand there and watch her half naked and not want her, then hopefully it would be the bucket of cold water needed to douse this fire between her legs.
Breath hitching, she stepped to the side out of Evan's reach and yanked her tank top up over her head. "Fine. If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother me. Use mine."
Evan's head swam as every drop of blood in his body rushed south to create the largest, most agonizing hard-on ever known to man. Damn.
Halley's chest rose and fell as she defiantly dropped her arms to her sides. Creamy pale flesh taunted him everywhere he looked. Her breasts were straining to escape a pale blue sheer bra.
The hard pinkness of her nipples was clearly visible through the barely there fabric. Evan couldn't move, couldn't think.
While he sure as hell had wanted her to strip, he hadn't for one minute thought she actually would.
In fact, he had never meant to suggest it out loud in the first place. And he hadn't meant to persuade her as vehemently as he had.
But she had done it. And all he could do was drink her in and wonder how easily that sheer stuff on her bra might rip between his greedy fingers.
"Where's your digital camera so we can take a picture?" Halley wet her lips, her fingers hovering over the front clasp on the bra.
Not only was he going to get to see her breasts, he was going to have documentation of it. On film. Double damn.
Where the hell was his camera? Moving quickly, he plundered drawer after drawer of his desk, tossing a dictionary and his palm pilot on the floor, scattering pens left and right.
Trying to hide his urgency, he said softly, "Don't move, sweet stuff. I need to find the camera."
Desperate that any delay and Halley might change her mind, he whirled around. The closet. That's were it was. The door slammed against the wall as he threw it open, and as he fumbled around on the shelf, a barrage of sweaters tumbled down onto his head. Followed by a tennis racket, which he just managed to dodge.
Camera finally in hand, he turned around in triumph.
Halley's fingers played with the clasp on her bra. She stood very still, her chin tilted up a little and her eyes wide. Her hesitation was clear.