“By all means.” He held out his hand, gesturing for me to begin my striptease, but there was nothing teasing about it. I turned my back, pulling the dress off my shoulders, and hugged my arm across my breasts. I pulled a T-shirt out of my drawer and put that on first. I’d at least give him something to obsess over—I didn’t bother with a bra.
Next, I pulled on a pair of yoga pants under my dress. Again, I didn’t bother with the underwear. I had hoped that he would follow through with his promise and I wouldn’t need it.
He only grinned when I returned to my desk and, like an obsessive compulsive, laid out my pens, pencils, and notepaper. Opened my textbook and fished my study notes from my bag.
“Of course you have index cards.” He laughed.
“They are extremely effective. Don’t knock the index cards.”
I turned my attention back to my studies, extremely aware of Max lying behind me. He had grabbed a magazine from my nightstand, and with every flip of the page my concentration skipped a beat, reminding me he was here. In my bedroom. On my bed. Where I had been fantasizing about him nonstop.
I groaned. “This isn’t working.”
“I told you so.” He sung the words in a too high octave, and continued to flip through the magazine.
I circled in my chair and threw my pencil at him.
As if expecting my move, he caught it and let it fall to the bed. “I have an idea.” He sat up and scooted to the edge. “Give me those cards.”
Was he interested in the law? With confusion, I did as he’d asked.
He sifted through them. “When I was little we had a dog. We adopted it from the shelter, and it was poorly behaved. My mom paid for a trainer to come to the house and he taught us how to use incentives. Every time we wanted the dog to do something, we’d reward the good behavior with a treat.”
“So you want to feed me dog treats.”
“Not exactly.” He held up the cards. “Every time you get an answer right, I will remove one article of clothing.”
“Wha…” I snorted. “Like strip studying?”
“You don’t like my incentive?”
On the contrary, I very much liked his idea of an incentive. But…it defeated the purpose. How the hell was I going to study when he was naked? Besides the skin on his arms and legs, I hadn’t seen one inch of Max’s torso.
“Let’s say I play your game. And let’s say I win.” He nodded. “What happens when you’re naked?”
“That depends on you.”
A shiver raced up my spine. This was it. This was the moment I got to have sex with Max Levin. I’d wanted that since the moment I laid eyes on him. A feeling that was both exciting and unprecedented.
“Don’t you want to know what happens when you get a question wrong?”
“I won’t.” I winked. God, I was flirting with him so shamelessly. “Let’s do this.”
I settled with my legs crossed on my chair, facing him.
He flipped through the cards, his eyes raking over the words.
“No fair, you don’t get to choose.”
He looked up, giving me a grin. “Sure I do, I’m the one getting naked.”
He slapped one half of the stack against the other. “Question one: Primary responsibility for establishing a corporation’s social responsibility is exercised by the…”
I knew this one. Corporate law was my specialty.
“Board of directors.”
“Very good.” He set down the card and pulled at his bow tie. The material fell away from his neck and he slid the thin strip from under his shirt collar. In an exaggerated move, he held it up and then dropped it to the floor.