Right. Now, they’d better shower so they could get to bed before they drowned.

She wasn’t cooperative about taking a shower and groused when he made her stand up. Instead of annoying him, her crankiness charmed him and he shook his head at himself. Cranky women were not appealing, but Beth was different. She was just so darn cute, the way she grumbled and pouted and leaned against him like she couldn’t be expected to stand on her own.

He managed to get the tub drained, their bodies washed and dried, her back in bed, and the water mess on the tile floor wiped up before falling in bed beside her, exhausted.

He didn’t fall asleep right away though. He was totally wiped, but his mind could not let go of how out of control he’d felt with Beth in the bathtub. It should have been a pleasant way to end their lovemaking session, not something that had been close to soul shattering.

He was thirty-two years old. Beth was right when she said he had more sexual experience than her. A lot more. He wasn’t suicidal, he didn’t sleep with anything willing in a skirt, but he’d had sex partners who were more sophisticated, more knowledgeable about what turned a man on and willing to use that knowledge than his little Sunshine, but not one of those women seduced his senses the way that she did.

He had never even come close to losing his control with another woman. He’d never forgotten the condom or doubted his ability to withstand temptation, no matter how alluringly packaged. But he’d been positive that if she tried to get them off by rubbing herself along his cock that he’d end up inside her. The knowledge was far from pleasant.

What was so different about her?

It had to be her innocence…her emerging sensuality…the seductress that shone forth from her soft brown eyes. The sex had been so intense because they’d been living out her fantasies. Beth wasn’t the first woman who had told him that he starred in her most private dreams, but she was the first one who had exploded all over him with an excess of passion that came from not living those fantasies out with anyone else. Ever.

She’d been engaged to Hyatt, but she’d never bound him to the bed. She’d been a sexual powder keg waiting for the right spark and Ethan had been more like an inferno. And that’s what bothered him. His response had been over the top. He enjoyed mind-blowing sex as much as the next man, but he always stayed in control and he couldn’t do his job while he was at the mercy of an overactive libido.

Sex was fine. Hell, sex was great…he’d had it with other women on the job. Sometimes for the job, but he had to turn the intensity down a notch with Beth. Or he wasn’t going to be able to keep her safe. And that was not an acceptable scenario.

Definitely no more handcuffs.

And on that note, he finally fell asleep.

Beth slid another surreptitious glance at Ethan. Doing a great job of ignoring her and the interested looks he received from the other female passengers and their flight attendant, he was working on an expert-level Sudoku puzzle. The man did nothing in moderation. Not his job. Not his sports activities. Not his brain teasers. Not sex. Nothing.

So, why had she felt he was holding something back this morning when he woke her up for a quickie before they went to the office for a couple of hours prior to catching their flight? Her orgasm had been spectacular, though she hadn’t cried afterward again. Thank goodness. His had seemed pretty darn good, too, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d stepped back from her.

The restraints had been nowhere in evidence when she woke up, not that she wanted to try that soul-shattering experiment again anytime soon, but he’d put them away. Why? And he’d barely talked while exciting her body to a fever pitch and then sending her over with him inside her.

He hadn’t been cold, or anything. He’d smiled at her and insisted on making her breakfast. But he hadn’t been warm either. Or maybe that wasn’t the right word. Affectionate. He hadn’t been affectionate and he’d neatly sidestepped any attempt she’d made in that direction.

He was so good, she hadn’t realized at first that he didn’t want her touching him outside of the bedroom. His subtle movements to avoid her had only registered as he’d taken her arm to lead her onto the plane and she realized it was the first time he’d touched her since they got out of bed that morning.

She’d stilled and almost pulled away in an instinctive shock, but he’d whispered for her ears only, “It starts now, Beth. I’m the possessive boyfriend, remember?”

And that’s when she’d realized. He hadn’t let her touch him at his apartment. He had avoided touching her in the office. He’d touched her on the plane, but that was because it was showtime. She didn’t know who he thought was going to see her on the flight, but apparently, he’d decided that now was the time to start acting in character. Which only underlined his earlier behavior in bold black.

She turned to look out the window, her thoughts in turmoil.

Because along with the realization that Ethan did not want her touch outside of the bedroom was the disturbing revelation that she wanted to touch him with affection. She wanted to be touched. He’d told her what they had was only sex, but she hadn’t let herself really think about what that meant. Now, she had no choice.

She’d thought it didn’t matter that his primary reason for going to bed with her was the case, but now she knew it did. Ethan would do whatever it took to succeed in bringing down Prescott, but that didn’t extend to pretending affection for her he did not feel. Because he didn’t think he had to.

After all, hadn’t she told him she didn’t want love and happily ever after, or even a good run at it? Apparently, he’d taken that to mean she wanted nothing more than the overwhelming pleasure she found with his body. And really, that’s almost basically what she’d told him, wasn’t it?

Welcome to the real world of sex without commitment, Beth. It hurt. She didn’t want to love him. Refused to consider even the possibility, but she hadn’t expected this no touching outside of the bedroom except for the case thing. She’d had no idea what to expect, if she were honest.

Alan had loved her and she’d loved him and that had extended to all their time together. Ethan had none of those feelings for her. At best, he cared for her like a friend, but he was not a touchy-feely person. That meant he wasn’t going to hug her shoulder, or brush her nape, or hold her hand-he wasn’t going to offer or accept any of the casual touches of affection she craved. Except for the sake of the case.

Why did that hurt so much? Why did facing a reality she had known existed before she ever flashed him with her panties make her feel wounded and vulnerable? She wasn’t vulnerable to him. She wouldn’t let herself be. And she had no business feeling wounded by actions that were in keeping with everything he’d said to her, everything she knew about him.

But she felt cheap and that was an ugly feeling. She couldn’t let herself feel used. It had been mutual. They had both derived pleasure out of the other’s body. But he was more prepared to deal with commitment-free sex than she was and she was just waking up to that fact. Was she dumb, or just a little blind when it came to her own limitations?

He didn’t need the trappings of a relationship to enjoy her body. And she was going to have to learn to deal with that reality because she didn’t think she had the strength to turn him down for sex. Not now that she knew what happened when they touched. Fantasies were not enough anymore.

They picked up a car at the airport and then checked into a hotel on the western edge of the metropolitan area, so their drive to the coast the following morning would not be hampered by city traffic. There was only one bed in the hotel room and while it wasn’t as big as Ethan’s monster bed, it was king sized, dominating the room and Beth’s thoughts with its presence.