A book in the Bad Boys Anthologies series, 2005

Lucas Manning was absolutely certain he hadn't ordered a box of neon pink dildos.

Yet there they were, packed four across, three deep in plastic bags, a faint rubbery smell rising from them. They were very bright. With sparkles.

"Holy crap."

Lucas closed the box back up to find the packing label. He hadn't actually looked to see who it was addressed to. The package had been sitting on the front porch outside his door and he'd brought it in the house with the rest of his mail.

He sure in the hell wished he'd looked first.

Or hadn't looked at all.

The box was addressed to Ashley Andrews, who lived in the upstairs apartment of his house. Ashley, his best friend Jason's older sister, who Lucas had secretly been lusting after for, oh, about the last decade.

And she had bought a case of dildos.

Lucas opened the box again and was sorry he had. They were so goddamn pink. And there were so many of them. What did one woman need all these for?

Since Lucas was a chemist and schooled in logic, he was convinced there must be a logical explanation for this. He just had to figure out what it was. Leaving the box on his kitchen table, he went to the refrigerator for a beer.

He needed it to think.

So maybe Ashley had got up an order together with her friends so they could receive a group discount. That was kind of uninhibited, but plausible.

Maybe they were all for her, so one was always in easy reach. Lucas took a sip of his beer, swished it around his mouth. One for her bedroom, one for the living room, one for her purse… He stuck the cold bottle to his head. He was sweating.

One for the shower-damn, there was an image. Ashley, her wet blond hair clinging to her breasts, water sluicing down her fair skin, rocking onto a neon pink… He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.