Playing to Win

smoky strip joint, not from Miss Image Makeover.
    Savannah put her hand over Liz’s. “I’m sure you’ll be a beautiful bride.”
    “Thank you.” Liz turned to Cole and gave him a glare. “You behave yourself. And please cooperate. This is the only chance you’re going to get.”
    “I promise to be on my best behavior.”
    “Why does that worry me so much?” She rolled her eyes and walked out the door, leaving him alone with Savannah.
    He turned to face her. “Did you enjoy that?”
    She gave him a benign look. “Enjoy what?”
    “Leading me on. Letting me think you were some strangeralone at the party, when the whole time you’d been watching me and you knew who I was.”
    “I can’t help what you thought, Cole. But you behaved like a gentleman. Not at all like the tabloids portray you.”
    “I told you the media lies.”
    “We’ll see.”
    He’d wanted something different between them. His body wanted something more than what his mind wanted. He was still attracted to her, and now he had to work with her. This sucked. “Now what?” he asked.
    “Now you can go back to your party. We’ll get started tomorrow morning.”
    “Can’t. I work out with my trainer in the mornings.”
    “Where, and what time?”
    He told her.
    “Fine. I’ll meet you there.”
    He arched a brow. “You going to work out?”
    “I might. But we’ll do our work after you’re finished.”
    “Whatever.”
    Her lips lifted. “I promise, these lessons won’t hurt at all.”
    “Lessons? What lessons?”
    “You’ll see. Good night, Cole.”
    For the second time that night, she walked out on him.
    SAVANNAH LAID HER PURSE DOWN ON THE GLASS table in her living room, kicked off her shoes, and headed into the bedroom, reaching for the zipper of her dress. She pulled the dress off and hung it up, then stopped in front of the bathroom mirror to stare at herself.
    She’d worn her La Perla bra and panties tonight. They were so pretty, a blush pink, with lace and silk. Sexy, provocative.
    Unfortunately, the only person admiring the ensemble was her.She inhaled and let out a long sigh, removing the clip and pins holding her hair up. She ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it forward.
    She wasn’t bad-looking. Average breasts, her body a little on the curvy side. She liked to eat and she could easily slip into the overweight category if she wasn’t so active. She had a lot of restless energy, so she burned a lot of calories that way, which kept her metabolism rolling at a pretty high rate. But she had great legs. She worked out regularly so she could maintain her stamina at the level required to keep up with her clients.
    Like her new client, Cole Riley, who’d hit all her hot buttons tonight. Actually, he’d been the first client she’d been assigned to who’d turned her head and made her think of him as something other than just a client.
    That man had testosterone stamped on every inch of him. He was hard to ignore. The way he looked at her, pursued her, made her wish he wasn’t her client.
    But he was. Starting tomorrow.
    Tonight, though, she could think about what might have happened had she been able to indulge in the attraction that had been so obvious between them.
    She’d always gone for the bad boys, the kind her mother warned her against, which made her want them all the more. And the one thing her mother had told her was that you could never change a bad boy.
    But that’s what she did now, and she did a damn good job of it.
    Too bad she was going to have to change Cole Riley. He was bad boy personified, and one look at him tonight had revved all her engines.
    She rubbed her thumbs over her nipples, sucking in a breath at the sensitivity she felt even through her bra.
    She moved to the bedroom and stretched out on her bed. The bed she’d be sleeping alone in tonight, just like every night. She dugin her heels and pushed backward until she lay in the center of the bed, then spread her legs, letting the ceiling fan bathe her body with cool air.
    Cole Riley was interesting. If he hadn’t been her assigned client, what might have happened between them tonight?
    She undid the clasp on her bra and freed her breasts, allowing her hands to wander. Not at all the same as a man’s hands—a man’s very large hands that would cover her breasts, rolling her nipples between his fingers.
    She gasped as the sensation sparked between her legs. She clamped her thighs together, her pussy pulsing with the need to