Some thought hypnosis could be used to force people to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. It couldn’t, of course, which was why it seldom worked to get people to quit smoking or lose weight. That only succeeded if it was what the person genuinely wanted; not because they were looking for a quick fix.

  But it could be very successful on willing subjects who were truly ready to meet a goal, sometimes releasing inhibitions, capturing lost memories or allowing one the freedom to do something they secretly wanted to do anyway. Though he hadn’t thought of this particular shtick before, he had to admit, Allie’s friend’s idea had been a good one. Who didn’t have secret dreams and desires that a little coaxing might help them reveal?

  The blonde, whose name, he discovered, was Tessa, was the first up. She soon had the audience clapping when she talked about how badly she wanted to win the lottery.

  “So what else would you do, other than telling your boss he needs to get laid by someone other than Angie the Blow-Up doll?” Grinning, he held the microphone toward her.

  “I’d pay to get my nose smaller and my boobs bigger. I’d go live with Jake Gyllenhaal and the entire male cast of Sons of Anarchy on some desert island that had 24-hour delivery of pizza and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. And condoms.”

  He snapped his fingers. She fell silent and lowered her head, not hearing the audience’s roars of laughter.

  The older couple was up next. While Tessa and Allie remained motionless, deep inside their minds in self-imposed isolation, he asked the pair what it was that they wanted.

  The husband answered first. “I want my wife to stop eating Doritos and watching game shows while I’m out working my ass off all day.” The women in the audience began to grumble.

  The wife didn’t respond to her husband, only to Damon, who put the question to her next. “I want my husband to stop thinking of me as a fat, useless housewife and treat me as romantically as we did when we got married.” Her voice still soft, vulnerable, she added, “And I want to stop feeling like he’s right.”

  For a woman her age, Damon thought she looked great, especially in comparison to her potbellied husband. Her spouse had obviously done a number on her self-confidence.

  “When you wake up,” he said to the husband, “you’ll be overcome with passion for your wife. From now on, no other woman will look as good to you. Every time you see her, you’re going to see the beautiful girl you married.”

  Damon faced the wife and took her hand. “From now on, you will not only see the passion in your husband’s eyes…you’ll believe you’re worthy of it. Because you are.”

  Soon it was Allie’s turn. He led her to a stool on the stage and helped her onto it. “You’re good at hiding what you want.”

  “Yes,” she mumbled, not opening her eyes.

  “But you do know what it is. You just need to admit it.”

  Under the spotlights, her hair glimmered, and her smooth, creamy face appeared even more beautiful. Vulnerable. She shifted a little, arching her back, dropping one shoulder so that one strap of the low-cut sundress she wore slipped off her shoulder.

  From here, standing above her, he could easily see the curve of one breast, cupped by a lacy strapless bra. Soft, pink, as tempting as cotton candy. Both the bra…and her skin. Only the presence of the audience prevented him from lifting his hand and scraping the tip of his finger from the vulnerable pulse point in her neck, across her throat and down between those lush breasts.

  He forced the impulse off and got back to business. “I want you to stop hiding your dreams and say what you most long for.”

  He held his breath, half expecting her to say, “True love,” or even, “World peace.” He didn’t expect what he actually got.

  “I want to be touched.”

  Damon stiffened.

  “Intimately. Sexually.” Her words were slow, almost dreamy. “I want a fantasy lover come to life.”

  Damon shifted away from the audience, focusing entirely on Allie, whose sultry tone had shot through him like an electrical current.

  “I want a man’s strong, powerful hands on me. Thick arms to hold me, a hungry mouth to devour me.” She sighed audibly, the sound amplified by the microphone.

  He was tempted to stop her, knew that he should because of the audience. But something—perhaps his own heated reaction to her throaty whispers—made him let her go a little further. Though he did have the presence of mind to pull the microphone down a few inches, making the moment slightly more intimate, as if she spoke only to him.

  “I want to know what it’s like to have a man so desperate for me he can barely control himself. No games, no ulterior motives. Just pure, undiluted want.”

  Such as what he’d felt for her since the night they’d met.

  “I want him so aroused when he looks at me that his hands shake as he strips off my clothes, piece by piece. He’ll handle me tenderly, as though I’m fragile, then more aggressively because he simply can’t help himself. He has to touch me, feel me…experience me absolutely everywhere.”

  She moaned, a feminine sound of arousal and anticipation that made Damon think of rumpled sheets and wild nights.

  “I want to do things I’ve never done with someone I trust not to hurt me—physically, or emotionally. To be wild and wicked. To make love for hours under a starry sky, with a strong nighttime breeze blowing over our hot bodies. To be with someone who doesn’t have any other agenda than the pleasure we can make each other feel. And to finally sleep in his arms, knowing we’ll start all over again when we awake.”

  She fell silent, her pose entirely relaxed. Damon stood beside her, unable to speak, her whispers echoing in his head. Silence surrounded him, broken only by the distant ding of bells and the cries of barkers hawking the games on the midway.

  Finally, someone in the first row of the audience whistled. A whisper rolled through the crowd—“Who is she?”—picking up speed and volume as the wide-eyed onlookers continued to stare at the still hypnotized young woman on the stage. Damon bit back a groan, realizing what had just happened. He’d been so captivated by Allie’s erotic fantasies that he’d allowed himself to forget dozens of other people were hearing them, too. He had let her go too far.

  He couldn’t, however, turn around. He was still too hot himself. God, her voice was like audible sex, and his whole body had reacted to it with pulse-pounding power. His cock was hard, and in these pants, that wasn’t something he could hide. Fuck, he was dying for this woman, ready to give her every single little thing she asked for.

  Unfortunately, he realized, every other man in the place probably felt the same way.

  But she was talking to me. He was certain of it.

  Finally, unable to ignore the groundswell of applause rising from the crowd behind him, he some of his blood leave his groin and drew Allie—and the others—out of their trance. They all snapped to and were drowned by the crowd’s enthusiasm, none of them realizing why the men in the audience were whooping and the women staring at Allie in shocked envy.

  He understood their reaction. After all, it wasn’t every day a woman was free to tell a man exactly what she wanted him to do to her, in great detail, and bear no responsibility for the telling. He’d wager any number of women would give a lot to have the chance to freely tell the men in their lives exactly what they wanted and how they wanted it.

  “Was it okay?” Tessa asked, wide-eyed and a little pensive, as if suddenly wondering just what she’d revealed under hypnosis.

  “As long as your boss isn’t here, you did just fine,” he murmured as he led his volunteers forward to take a bow.

  “Uh-oh,” she muttered.

  Allie snickered. “Serves you right.”

  He didn’t have the heart to tell Allie that her revelations had been much more shocking than her friend’s. At least not now, surrounded by curious onlookers.

  He’d tell her later. When he got her alone.

  Then, if he had his way, he’d grant every one of her whispered desires.

  The crowd was on its feet, pushing forward. Usually it was to meet him. Tonight, he wondered if the single men wanted to meet Allie. Fortunately, the married couple drew everyone’s attention. Because, to the audience’s surprise, though not his, the husband suddenly drew his wife into his arms and laid a deep, hungry kiss on her.

  Their kiss drew riotous cheers as well as laughter, giving Allie and her friend the opportunity to slip away.

  But he’d find her. Oh, hell yes, he was going to find that young woman and see if she was at last ready to make her secret fantasies come true.

  ALLIE WASN’T SURE when she began to suspect she was being talked about, but by the time she saw a third woman pull her husband away to avoid her, she knew it was true.

  “Why is everyone staring at me?” she whispered to Tessa as the two of them slowly walked along the carnival midway.

  Tessa didn’t reply, apparently still focused on her own performance. “What did I say about my boss?”

  “I have no idea, but I think we both need to find out.”

  Unfortunately, since a lot of out-of-towners had poured into Trouble for the last night of the carnival, Allie recognized a few people but didn’t personally know any of them. So why on Earth did they all seem so fascinated by her? “I’m definitely being stared at.”

  “You don’t think he made us take off our clothes or anything, do you?” The hint of a grin on Tessa’s face didn’t quite match her concerned tone. “I mean, I know he’d like to get you to take off your clothes, but I doubt he’d have included that other couple, or me. Unless he’s into kinky stuff. Threesomes. Exhibitionism. Orgies.”

  Oh, wonderful. Tessa spoke at high school gym teacher volume, so if they hadn’t been stared at before, they certainly were now. One scruffy, rough-looking carny worker was positively leering at them from a game booth a few yards away, and a trio of teenage boys appeared to be egging each other on to come talk to them.

  “Would you shut up?” Allie said from between clenched teeth. “We’re already getting enough attention—and I want to find out why.” Just not from any scruffy-looking men or cocky teens.

  “There’s one person you could ask. I bet he’s waiting for you in the back of his tent right now.”

  Her friend was probably right. Allie didn’t have to hear the words to know Damon hadn’t given up on the idea of something happening between them. The heated stare he’d laid on her as she’d left the stage had said a lot.

  Come to me. Give yourself over to it. I know what you want.

  And, oh, boy, did she suspect he was right.

  “Actually, I know better than to wait for her,” a silky voice said from behind them. “She has a habit of disappearing.”

  Allie jumped, instantly realizing who had overheard. “You.”

  “Me.” Never taking his eyes off her—as if afraid she would leave—he addressed her friend. “Tessa, you talked about winning the lottery and made one crack about your boss.”

  “Kind of a take-this-job-and-shove-it thing?”

  Damon’s lips curved up the tiniest bit with a hint of amusement. “Something like that.”

  “Whew,” Tessa said. “I mean, who doesn’t fantasize about winning the lottery and quitting their job?”

  Judging by that enigmatic sort-of smile, Damon hadn’t revealed everything Tessa had said, and probably for a reason.

  “Okay. What about me?”

  His smile immediately faded. In the colorful glimmer of light provided by the carousel lazily turning nearby, his expression suddenly appeared intense. Dangerous, even.

  “You…talked quite a lot.”

  “About what?”

  “I think we should go someplace private to discuss it. Will you excuse us, Tessa?”

  The traitor waved them away. “Oh hell yes, get her somewhere private, away from this crowd!”

  “Thank you.” Taking her elbow in his hand, he steered her away from Tessa, away from the midway. Toward the perimeter of the fairgrounds and the long line of trucks and campers beyond.

  “I’m not going to march to your trailer with you right in front of all these people.” She tugged her arm away, frantically looking around to see if they were being watched.

  They were. By what looked like every person who’d attended the show.

  He followed her stare. “Damn.” Letting her go, he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned a shoulder against the side of a game booth, as if it had been his destination all along.

  She liked him for that. “Thanks.” Turning, she slid her heels against the booth and leaned her back against it as well. She was fully visible, facing out, so any busy-bodies could clearly see her and know she wasn’t making out with a sexy stranger in public. Even though a naughty part of her wished she were.

  She hadn’t realized quite how intimate even this casual position could be until she looked up at Damon, standing perpendicular to her shoulder. He was staring at the deep V of her sundress with outright lust in his eyes, which suddenly made her very grateful indeed that she had retained some serious curvage after she’d stopped breast-feeding Hank a few months ago.

  “You are so fucking sexy,” he muttered.

  He meant it. The sex god really meant it…about her, mouthy, silly little Allie Cavanaugh, the college dropout and inexperienced single mother who’d grown up in the shadow of her tall, perfect, blond-haired older sister.

  Her legs shaking, she pressed her hands flat on the wall behind her. She was so out of her league here. Because instead of getting all seductive and flirtatious like a normal, experienced woman might, she wanted to do a happy dance that this amazing man wanted her. Then she’d rip off her clothes and let him have her.

  Obviously realizing she had no idea how to respond, Damon cleared his throat and looked away. “Okay, we do need to talk, but I don’t want to give anybody anything more to say about you.”

  Right. So ripping off her clothes was definitely out.

  “Why don’t you go to your car, then come through the back gate of the lot. My camper’s the fifth on the left.”

  His camper. His bed.

  He might say he wanted to talk to her, but Allie was no fool. If he wanted merely to tell her what stupid, idiotic thing she’d done on stage, he could do it right here. They were a dozen feet away from the nearest wide-eyed, nosy onlooker, so they could be seen but not heard. Yet he didn’t do it.

  “You want me to come to your camper just to talk?”

  He shook his head, stepping closer, so that his silky shirt brushed her bare shoulder, and his pants caressed her leg. Her skin sizzled in both places as her head filled with his scent.

  “No, I don’t just want to talk.” He leaned down, as if to whisper in her ear, but instead pressed a deliberate kiss on her temple. Light. Soft. But still so damned erotic that Allie almost slid down the side of the booth and melted onto the dusty ground.

  “I want you to come so that I can touch you,” he whispered, the words flowing over her as smoothly as warm water.

  Oh, God.

  “So I can use my hands and my mouth on you. Take your clothes off slowly—piece by piece—almost shaking as I try to keep myself from ripping them off and having you immediately.”

  Allie did start to sink then, sliding down the wall. Her feet probably would have gone out from under her if Damon hadn’t reached out and grabbed her hip, his arm stretched across her stomach as he tugged her back up. Inflaming her.

  “Say you’ll come.”

  Oh, she had no doubt she’d come if he did what he promised to. She’d been on the verge of climax since seeing his face on the side of that damn truck a week ago. Now she was almost out of her mind with the need to explode with pleasure in his arms.

  “Say it.”

  She shouldn’t, she knew that. How foolish would it be to have a one-night stand with someone totally out of her realm? A traveling carny who probably picked up a woman in every town.

  But oh, was it tempting. Hank was safe at home with Miss Emily, her landlady, who absolutely adored the little boy. She’d already told Allie she would put him to bed in the crib she used when she babysat him during the day, and to not bother waking him up if she came in late. So she could come in late. Very late.

  Damon’s warm hand rose, sliding from the curve of her hip up to the indentation of her waist. Then higher, until he was cupping her midriff, the tips of his fingers almost brushing the bottom of her aching, hypersensitive breast.

  “Come.”

  He was using that hypnotist voice on her, the command weighty and deliberate, accepting nothing but full capitulation.

  And suddenly she couldn’t resist it anymore. She might only have one night, but that would be enough. Enough to sate the hunger. To fill the emptiness. To perhaps even begin to eradicate the memories of the last man who’d touched her intimately, then not only abandoned her and their unborn child, but had tried to hurt her and her sister.

  “I’ll come,” she whispered, hearing the throaty want she couldn’t possibly disguise. “I promise.”

  As if not trusting himself to speak, he stepped back. Spinning around, he walked away, in the direction of his camper, so sure she’d show up that he didn’t even say, “See you soon,” or “I’ll be waiting.” He demonstrated his certainty of her with every firm stride he took in the opposite direction.

  Overbearing. Cocky. But, God, that confidence was sexy.

  Allie knew she should find Tessa, but she didn’t want to deal with the knowing look she’d see on her friend’s face. Instead, she headed toward the parking lot, feeling as if she were floating over the ground rather than walking on it. Even the stares and whispers of a few people she recognized from the show earlier couldn’t deflate her mood or dampen her excitement.

  Only one thing could do that. And three minutes later, when her phone rang, it did. When Miss Emily called to tell her she was taking Hank to the emergency room in the next town, Allie didn’t pause, didn’t consider one thing other than getting to her son.