Take Me

He didn’t ever remember having Jessie’s…zing, for want of a better word. She crackled with energy. Was gloriously, unabashedly alive.

“What?” She glanced up to find him staring at her.

The milling crow faded as Joshua bracketed her face between his hands and brought his mouth down on hers. Her lips felt smooth and soft beneath his. He eased his tongue into the warm wetness of her mouth. She tasted of the caramel corn she’d eaten earlier. He’d never cared for the flavor before, but, on Jessie, the too sweet flavor tasted like ambrosia.

He stroked down her back and held her lithe body against him in an agony of want. The sun shone brightly on Joshua’s closed lids, bathing him in gold. I’ve lost it. We’re in the middle of the street for heaven’s sake! Surrounded by hundreds of people— A magnitude-ten shudder traveled from his face to his groin when Jessie used both hands to hold his head steady, then lightly stroked his cheeks with her thumbs as he kissed her. Her agile tongue played with his, darting and playing tag until Joshua felt weak and stupid with desire.

Once. That’s all he’d need. One time in Jessie’s bed. One time in Jessie. Surely to God that was all that was required to get her out of his system. Jessie Adams was just too much hard work. He was used to picking up the phone and having his woman available immediately. With Jessie he had to watch the ball.

Her tongue slipped from his mouth, and an ache of disappointment pressed against his chest. No. His arms tightened about her slender waist. But his Jessie wasn’t done with the kiss, after all. She brushed her damp lips across his, once, twice, then nipped his lower lips between strong, white teeth, and all the while her soft hands stroked his face.

Joshua had never experienced anything like it. Hell, he’d been horny before. He’d been turned on before. Sex was fine. Gratifying. A stress reliever. But with Jessie he wanted… What? More? Joshua went hazy for a moment as Jessie’s body shifted against him.

She was dangerous…lethal. Damn it, he didn’t do commitment. He wanted her to be the same as other women he’d dated and slept with. He needed her to be just like them. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

She finally pulled her mouth away. “We’re going to be arrested if we don’t stop.”

Joshua looked at her through dazed eyes. “What?”

Jessie smiled, her mouth blush-pink, damp and swollen from his kisses. Her unruly hair flew about in the warm spring breeze, strands stuck on the front of his sweater. Bonding them.

Joshua took a step back and stuffed his hands in the front pockets of his Armani slacks. “I don’t do public displays of affection.”

“Really?” Jessie’s brown eyes danced. “I’ll have to remember that the next time you grab me for a kiss in public.”

ANOTHER DINNER DATE. Joshua vowed he wouldn’t see this woman anywhere dangerous. Like a street fair. Or a parking lot. Or standing beside her car outside the theater in broad daylight.

There was something wrong with him, Joshua knew. He was incapable of feeling true emotion. Oh, he could fool most people, and he was quite proud of his ability to project the illusion. But the reality was he didn’t experience emotional highs or lows like other people. He had some sort of missing gene.

He could claim it was because unemotional, uncaring parents had raised him. But he was an adult now, capable of seeing their selfishness for what it really was. No, the failing was his and his alone. It just wasn’t in him to have any depth of feeling. It wasn’t a problem. He’d managed perfectly well without it for thirty-three years.

It was easier to move on and not linger when he had an affair. No one got hurt. He was upfront and always told the woman that he had no intention of getting involved. Hell, fact was, he couldn’t get involved. It just wasn’t in him. It was always her choice if she decided to stay or go. He never admitted he didn’t have the emotional fortitude to sustain any kind of relationship.

Take it or leave it. This was who he was. The Glacier.

Joshua had coldly analyzed his obsessive attraction to and fear of being with Jessie. He didn’t want her to get close enough to see through him to his empty heart. He didn’t want her to know that what she saw was merely the shell of a man going through the motions. Like Pinocchio, he wanted to be a real boy. Unfortunately he had a wooden heart. If he had a heart at all.

Fortunately Jessie would never know just how much he relished basking in her joie de vivre.

“Are you angry because I went to Paris without you?” he asked, reigning in his thoughts. She’d been quiet all evening.

“A.” Jessie broke a small loaf of sourdough bread and absently handed him a chunk. “I’m far too busy to go gallivanting off to Europe at the drop of a hat. B, I wouldn’t have gone even if you’d asked me.”

“Then why are you so annoyed?”

Her brown eyes were so dark they were almost black as she gave him a waspish glare. “You were gone for ten days.”

Joshua bit back a satisfied smile. “Not a lifetime, surely?”

There was a pregnant silence when she said, “I hate playing games,” and she suddenly looked frustratingly lost. Some of the heat left her eyes.

“You do it remarkably well,” he told her.

She stared up at him, her eyes huge. “I won’t sleep with you tonight.”

“A. I haven’t asked you to.” He smiled coldly. “And B, when we’re in bed, we won’t be sleeping.”

Jessie made a low growling sound. “The reason I agreed to meet you tonight was to tell you to go to h—” She paused to look up as a family settled themselves noisily at the table next to them.

“You were saying?” Joshua ground out over the child’s shrieks as its mother stuffed its flailing legs into the high chair their waiter had pulled up. “Jessica?”

She turned back, her expression dazed. “What?”

“You came here tonight to tell me to go…?” He knew damn well what the little shrew was going to say. He wanted to inform her he would go to hell after he had taken her to bed and made love to her until she couldn’t remember her name, let alone give him so much aggravation.

“To tell you…” She looked at him blankly, glanced back at the fussy baby, then in a split second recovered herself. She smiled. Lord, he had never seen anything more captivating than Jessie’s smile. “To tell you I missed you,” she said huskily.

The waiter must have been trained to wait for the most inconvenient moment. He chose right then to deliver their entrée, then fussed with salad and plates and refilled water glasses. Joshua sent him off with a glare.

Before he went to hell, before he was driven out of his mind, he was going to have to spend at least a week in bed with this infuriating woman. He didn’t like this sensation of not being quite in control. She smiled a sweet, gentle smile before picking up her fork.

Joshua had never experienced anything like this in his life. Not when two people’s desire for each other was so palpable. Jessie Adams was just as turned on by him as he was with her. And still she held him off.

Half of him was annoyed by her reticence. The other half admired her restraint. When they did finally have sex he’d better alert the fire department.

He glided his fingers up her thigh. Jessie shivered, then grabbed his hand and set it back on the table. For a split second, her eyes flashed. The child at the next table broke into a high-pitched babble capturing Jessie’s attention again for a moment. When she looked back at him she gave him a dulcet glance and picked up her water glass. Her cheeks were flushed.

She laid her napkin on her lap. A fraction of a second later, her eyes met his, a warm, soft smile touched the corners of her lips. A jolt of pure desire sizzled through him.

His heartbeat sped up as he said gruffly, “I want you very much, darling, so if you don’t stop looking at me like that—”

She laughed, that deep, throaty, sexy-as-hell laugh of hers. A couple of heads turned, people smiling reflexively with her. “Behave,” she told him sternly.

Her mouth, pale and free of lipstick, tempted him beyond endurance. Damn her. “Impossible. You wore that red dress expressly to make me crazy. It did its job. Now you have to pay up.”

He leaned forward for a brief taste of her smile, slanting his mouth over hers briefly. He felt the quick, unexpected flick of her tongue. Perhaps he’d better place busy restaurants on his dangerous locations list. Electricity shot through him and he jerked away from her potency. After a quick glance his way and a raised eyebrow, Jessie resumed eating.

Joshua enjoyed the delicate greed with which she consumed her meal. A silky strand of hair trailed down her shoulder. He was sorely tempted to pull out the rest of the pins and see how it would look tangled after their lovemaking. He grew harder just at the thought.

“Tell me about Paris,” Jessie demanded, leaning forward. “What you like about it. What you hate. What does the city smell like? Did you walk along the Seine in the rain? What’s the food like?”

Joshua laughed at her outpouring of questions. So Jessie. Having her focus her entire attention on him was intoxicating. In the flickering candlelight, her skin looked translucent and incredibly soft. Her long, elegant legs were hidden beneath the table, but he could feel the erotic brush of her foot against his calf.

Once the honeymoon part of the relationship ended, he wouldn’t have to invest as much time and energy into getting her into bed any time he wanted her. He didn’t like wasting the time thinking about sleeping with her. He wanted to do it, and then go back to concentrating on Falcon International.

He bought failing businesses, put a competent manager in place, and when the business was once again in the black, sold it off. Much like not having the emotional fortitude to bond with a woman, he didn’t form emotional attachments to the companies he purchased either. Everything about his life was controlled, planned and had a finite ending.

An ending of his own choosing.