Excerpt From PARTY OF THREE:

A single table lamp glowed behind Ben's head as he leaned against the couch, one bare foot resting on the coffee table, a beer bottle in hand. His blond hair was damp with perspiration and his T-shirt stretched across his chest. When he saw her he straightened. "Hope I didn't wake you. Want a beer?"

"No, thank you." Ally sat on the extreme end of the couch, conscious of the late hour, the darkness and his long fingers wrapped around the bottle. Now that she was here her plan to tell him she wasn't available seemed presumptuous. "How did it go at the restaurant tonight?"

"Full house. Was Danny okay? I hope you didn't think I expected you to baby-sit; he's old enough to stay on his own. God knows, he did it all the time at his mother's."

"Danny was fine." She wasn't, though. She was boiling in her heavy robe and the wool was making her itch. "It's a warm night." She loosened the belt and pulled the lapel away from her shoulders.

Ben's eyebrows rose fractionally and his eyes seemed to take on a glow. Uh-oh. He might not have been thinking anything before but now he was, she could swear it.

"I made you something," Ben said. "I was going to save it for tomorrow but since you're up..." He rose and went out to the kitchen. A moment later Ben was handing her a fork and an entire chocolate tart topped with whipped cream. "This is a thank you for taking me and Danny in and commiseration for your break up with your fiancé."

"You shouldn't have," Ally said, wondering if you had to count kilojoules eaten in the middle of the night.

"Dig in," he urged. "Go on."

"Maybe just a sliver." Carefully she began cutting a section from the crust so as not to break up the dark silky surface any more than she had to.

Ben grabbed the fork from her and jabbed it straight into the middle of the tart. Ally opened her mouth to protest and he filled it with chocolate and cream.

"Mmm," she moaned, unable to speak. "Oh, oh... Oh! This is...this is...you-know-what."

"Orgasmic?" Ben supplied. He held out another forkful.

"Wait! I'm going to end up with it on my dressing gown." She slipped her robe off her shoulders and pushed it aside, trying to ignore the way her breasts pressed against the thin fabric of her nightie and Ben's gaze drifted downward. If he ravished her now it would be her mother's fault. Only Cheryl would buy her a designer dressing gown that needed dry cleaning.

"I can feed myself," she insisted, trying unsuccessfully to take back the fork.

"Nope. You'd eat a dainty tidbit and chew it twenty times. What you need is to wallow. Open up."

She obeyed and he gave her a second heaping forkful. Her eyes closed as the rich chocolate flavor and velvety texture traveled a direct path to the pleasure center of her brain. Unable to help herself, she moaned.

"Look out, a bit dropped on you." Hands full with the pan and the fork Ben nodded to a creamy morsel above her right breast.

Ally glanced down at herself, half-naked and flushed with heat, and at him, broad-shouldered and tousle-headed, leaning toward her. She wiped the chocolate off her skin. Good grief, where was this heading?

Abruptly, Ben put the chocolate tart on the coffee table. "Ally, since we're going to be living under the same roof there's something I ought to tell you."

He had insatiable appetites and needed sex five times a day. He was into bondage and whipped cream-

"I'm not interested in getting involved with anyone."

Ally felt a chill despite the warm night. Did he think she was coming on to him and was rejecting her before she got any more carried away? How humiliating. She drew her dressing gown back over her shoulders and pulled it tight. "Good," she said. "Because frankly I'm a little vulnerable right now." Yeah, right, vulnerable like a Sherman tank. Since she'd gotten rid of George she felt invincible.

"I know and I don't blame you," he said. "I'm not one to take advantage of a situation. What kind of guy would move in and immediately start hitting on his landlady?"

A guy with really gorgeous green eyes might get away with it, she thought wistfully.

"I need to concentrate one hundred percent on Danny," Ben went on. "I've wanted custody for years and this is my chance to prove to him and to my ex-wife that I can be a good dad."

"I understand." He wasn't interested in her as a woman. Fine. No, good. She wasn't ready for that anyway. She hadn't had time to sort out why she kept choosing the wrong guy and Ben sure didn't fit the profile of her perfect man. "I should go back to bed. Thanks for making me a tart." Then blushing furiously she muttered a hasty goodnight and scurried back to her room.

Ben clamped a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing but he sobered quickly. That had been a bit too close, he thought, recalling how tempted he'd been to lick the chocolate off her breast. Thank goodness he'd restrained himself. His focus was on Danny and only Danny.

Ally'd surprised him, though. Nobody who enjoyed the pleasure of taste that much could fail to savor the other senses. Somewhere below her prim and earnest exterior lurked a sensuous woman.

Interesting.