Mitch kissed her again until her muscles gave a bit, but his own control had obviously slipped badly.He groaned, shaking with the effort to hold back. He slid his hands beneath her hips, along the back of her thighs, drawing her legs up. “That’s it, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Relax, baby. Yeah, like that.” He lifted her onto him until he could sink slowly into her, deeper and deeper, until he was halfway to a climax and hadn’t even moved within her.Then, he found a rhythm as natural as breathing. He watched her eyes glaze over, heard her let go with an erotic sigh of pleasure as he slid in and out of her body. Her hands rushed over him, soothing, urging, frantic, and he bent to taste her again.Their gazes met, and Mitch would have sworn he could see her soul, and his, mirrored there. Stripped completely bare.He understood her fear suddenly, but understood as well, that they were in this together, that wherever they ended up, they’d at least be with each other.Jussie cried out, an
It was then he happened to glance up.In the next office, where his wife was bent over what looked like stacks of work, Jack walked in.No harm in that, Mitch said to himself when his entire body went tense. No harm at all. After all, she and Jack worked together, and Jack probably came into her office on a daily basis.But then Jack smiled.And Jussie smiled back; a wide, open, carefree smile such as he hadn’t seen since . . . Dammit. Mitch had never seen one like that, not since he’d returned.Early this morning, she’d gone back to her house and covered that sweet, delectable body in a tailored shirt-dress the color of her eyes. Now she looked good enough to eat. But she seemed oblivious to that, and to the fact that when she leaned close to take the files Jack handed her, her bodice gaped slightly, revealing the pale, perfect slope of a breast.The pencil in Mitch’s hands snapped in two.In the next office, she laughed. Then she leaned a hip back against her desk and swung a long,
“I thought we could start at the beginning. Get to know each other again. We’d go real slow, have a good time. Enjoy ourselves.”“How?” she asked suspiciously.He laughed. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to have fun. Never mind, I’ll have to show you.”She was intrigued, then nervous. “About what you said to me. You know. How you . . .”“You mean how much I love you?”She nodded, swallowing. “You’ll be wanting me to return that sentiment.”“Love is a gift, Jussie,” he said with such dignity, she felt like a monster. As if incredibly weary, he turned away, leaned over her desk, and dropped his head between his shoulders.She swallowed again, because her mouth had suddenly gone dry as cotton. She watched him stretch his shoulders as if they were kinked. “I know it’s a gift.”“Do you?” he wondered. “Because you make it sound like an obligation.”“Well, maybe I don’t feel obligated,” she whispered, butterflies attacking her stomach with what she did feel. “Maybe I feel it back. A litt
Devlin shifted, avoided her gaze. “What?”“You didn’t.”Now he crossed his arms, and Mitch watched with some amusement as Justine goaded someone other than himself for a change.“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Devlin claimed stoutly.“You did!” Justine clapped a hand to her mouth, but a laugh escaped. “You slept with her. Oh, Dev. That’s so . . . desperate.”“No, despei'ate is knocking it out in the stock closet!”“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” But her eyes slid guiltily to the couch behind them and Devlin hooted.“And your couch!” he added, doubling over while he laughed, slapping his thigh. “Talk about despej-ate. Ah . . . sorry, Mitch,” he added politely. “No offense meant.”“No offense taken,” said Mitch with the straightest face he could manage. “But just because we know Mitzy has, uh . . . excellent taste in men”—he broke off to give a mock glare to Jussie when she scoffed—“doesn’t mean much in the way of her character. Unless someone here knows something
“Late’s okay,” she murmured, reaching for him, but he just laughed and held her off.“No, sweetheart. I meant, if we don’t go now, I’m likely to mess up that drop-dead-gorgeous dress.”“I don’t care if you do,” she assured him, trying to press up against his body. She wanted more, now.“I care.” He groaned when her breasts brushed against his chest. “I want you so badly, I’m shaking with it, but I don’t want to be worried about your pretty hair or smearing your makeup.” He lowered his voice, skimming his fingers over her neck, lower.“Just a kiss, then,” Justine begged.“One won’t be enough. And when I take that dress off you tonight—which I’m going to—it’s not going back on.Heat flooded her face, her mouth dropped open. Her eyes were wide, wild, and . . . expectant. “Oh.”Quite satisfied with his world, Mitch leaned forward, whispering in her ear exactly what he planned to do to her once he got the black velvet off.Her eyes glazed over, her fingers dug into his shoulders. “Tell me
“Jussie, sweetheart, shut up and take me. I’m dying here.”She laughed huskily and moved on him. His hands helped, encouraged, roamed over her, stroking, smoothing over her breasts, her belly, her bottom. Her breathing quickened, panted, and she rested her forehead to his. “Oh, Mitch—” But that was all she managed before she shattered in his arms.In the next breath he shattered in hers, coming to an explosive release that shook his entire body.Hojne, he thought as he clasped her close and shuddered.He’d finally come home.- - -Mitch pulled the car through the lot, still grinning. “I can’t see a damn thing,” he said, swiping at the window as he slowly drove past the building.Justine glanced at his ridiculously pleased smile and had to laugh. “Just don’t get us pulled over. I don’t want to explain that your idiotic grin has nothing to do with alcohol.”Mitch’s amusement faded at the sight of Devlin standing alone in the night, waving his hand to get their attention. He pulled over
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said to Mitch. “You took longer than I thought.”“Hopkins?” Mitch lowered his gun as Devlin moved aside with Mitzy. Relief filled him when he realized it had been Hopkins in the other car. “You came? Why?”Hopkins didn’t look at Mitch. Without so much as blinking, he lifted what he had in his hands—a gun—and aimed it at Mitzy.She screamed. Behind Mitch, Justine gasped.And for the first time in his life Mitch went blank. Absolutely, mind-numbingly blank. The gun slackened in his own hands. Mitzy, while a definite pain in the ass, hadn’t lifted a finger to Hopkins in threat, so he didn’t understand why the man he’d trusted so completely was pointing a gun at her. “What the hell—”Hopkins fired. Devlin bellowed and caught Mitzy as she slumped against him.“That’s for screwing me over,” Hopkins said quite calmly as he looked down at Mitzy in disgust. “For sneaking around behind your father’s back and dipping your nose in where you had no business being. A
Justine pulled one hand free, dipped it down the neck of her shirt, and took off the gold chain. Her two rings dangled as she offered it to him. “Aren’t you ever going to ask me to marry you again? I’ve been waiting and waiting you know.”Mitch smiled through misty green eyes, and took the necklace. His large hands never faltered as he removed the rings from the chain. “I never stopped being married to you in my heart.”“Yeah, well,” she said huskily. “You never got to see the best part of my wedding outfit, and believe me it was hot, so I think it’s only fair that we do the whole thing over again—”His mouth cut off her words. They kissed and laughed and cried, and then kissed some more. “I wanted to convince vou,” Mitch said a minute later when he lifted his head and caught his breath. “I was going to use ice cream.”She laughed, then sobered. “There’s us,” she whispered. “I don’t need anything else. Ever.”Touched, he cupped her face, needing to touch her, see her, feel her. “I’ve