One Hot Weekend

Around them people milled, some going in to dinner, some leaving, and he wished he’d chosen a less public place for this meeting. A place where he could pull her into his arms and see her reaction. Every instinct he possessed insisted he reinstate the physical bond between them, and bind her to him with the pleasures of the flesh.

More than the plans he’d made in the dark were driving him now. The fevered dreams that had haunted him had a chance of becoming reality. He’d been searching for the white-hot passion he’d found in her arms since he’d left her.

Revenge, he reminded himself. But that was no longer his only motivation. The tyrant in his pants was awake now and didn’t care that Sophia had betrayed him in the past.

“What did you mean exorcise? In bed?” she asked, tipping her head to the side. One long strand of her thick hair brushed against his hand. Her perfume, a light floral scent, beckoned him closer. He wanted to bury his face in her hair. And then feel it against his naked chest.

Her composure was still shaken but he realized she was slowly pulling it back around her like a cloak. She made him feel too big in the small space. She seemed so ladylike and gentle that for a moment, he couldn’t remember why they were in the bar instead of in his room.

Her nails were pretty and manicured. She tapped one of them on the table. He realized then that simply shocking her wasn’t going to be enough to knock her off her guard.

“I don’t remember us ever confining ourselves to a bed.”

Her lips parted and her eyes widened. He wondered how she’d changed over the years. Her breasts looked a little smaller; he wanted to cup them and find out how much smaller they were. Would her nipples still tighten and nuzzle into his palm, begging for more caresses? She’d always had an extra five pounds that she wanted to lose but the woman before him was slim and very…dainty.

“What makes you think I still want you?”

But he knew she did. He’d seen her reaction in the hallway of the courtroom when he’d stroked the back of her neck. That spot was Sophia’s sweetest one. One touch there and she’d turn into a bundle of nerves. Gooseflesh would spread down her body, her nipples would darken and tighten, and she’d get all creamy between her legs. He dropped his hand from the back of the padded bench to her shoulder and she quivered.

“Don’t you?” he asked, stroking the side of her neck with his thumb, making broad circles on her skin, coming closer and closer to that one spot. She inhaled sharply and he decided to toy with her a little more.

He wrapped that long strand of hair around his forefinger. Her hair was a remembered luxury, thick and soft. He ran his hand through that one strand, toying with it. She shuddered and her pupils dilated.

“Stop,” she said huskily.

He swallowed. She was soft everywhere. Such a contrast to the hard-as-nails woman he’d seen in court this afternoon. She’d removed her suit jacket and wore only a thin silk shirt. The blouse didn’t cling tightly to her breasts but he remembered the shape of her. And he knew he had to have her again.

“I can’t. I have to get you out of my system.”

She trembled at his words, her mouth parting on a sigh. And he leaned closer to her, brushing her lips with his. Just a light butterfly kiss that promised so much more. She leaned forward as he pulled back.

He licked her bottom lip. Damn, she tasted good. He shifted his grip on her strand of hair until he was instead cupping the back of her head. He didn’t want to see her response. Thinking was now beyond him as he ceded control to his instincts.

As he tasted her mouth with long strokes of his tongue, she shifted on the bench, her hands coming to rest on his shoulders. Damn, he wished he’d shed his jacket in his room.

She slipped her hands under the lapels of his jacket as he pressed a lingering kiss to her lips. Her long fingers stroked over his muscles until she found his nipples. She stroked her finger around and around. His cock jumped at the thought of that same caress all over his body.

Thrusting his tongue deeper into her mouth, he moved his hands through her hair. He tasted her as deeply as he could, not stopping until he knew that he’d do something lewd and get them both arrested if he didn’t.

He pulled back. Her lips were full and swollen. Her eyes were closed and her nails dug into his pecs. Oh, yeah, they still had it.

That made everything so much easier, yet at the same time more complicated. Because the woman he’d just kissed the socks off of, awakened the man deep inside him that he’d struggled to bury beneath short-term affairs and one-night stands.

She blinked a couple of times and then pushed his hand from her hair.

“What do you want from me?” she asked.

“I already told you.”

“Are you only doing this because of the past?”

He looked into those wide blue eyes, and saw the future and the past converge. And knew that he had to decide how important his revenge on Sophia was.

“I’m not sure anymore.”

SOPHIA DIDN’T TOUCH the rest of her wine. She needed a cold glass of water…splashed on her face and overheated body. She’d settle for getting out of the bar fast. Anything to clear her head and shake off the languid feelings he’d evoked.

What she really wanted to do was take his hand and lead him to an empty elevator. Once inside she wanted to hit the emergency close button and finish what that kiss had started while they were secluded and alone. She wanted to make him come so hard that he forgot all his plans about her. Because she saw beyond his arousal to the cold calculation.

But that would be really stupid. Despite her present predicament, Sophia was rarely a victim to her own whims. But her body argued that Mitch was a known quantity and dallying with him wouldn’t be stupid and her heart agreed.

Her mind…her mind said if she was going to listen to those two she needed a plan to protect herself. Only a fool would start anything with a man she had once betrayed without planning for the fallout. Because no matter what Mitch felt physically for her, sooner or later the hormones were going to ebb, and he was going to start thinking again and remembering.

“Do you want to talk about the past?” she asked. She kept repeating herself but she was still in a haze of arousal from his kiss.

Ultimately that was why she’d sabotaged Mitch years ago. He’d held a power over her that she doubted he had even known he had. But she’d known. She’d felt it every time they were together and more sharply when they were apart.

Not a day went by that she didn’t relive their last moments together and wish she’d been a different woman. One who could have blended both her professional and personal lives and not sacrifice either one.

“Do you?” he asked in that cocky way of his that made her want to smack him.

“Only if it will make you go away,” she said. Which was honest. But she hoped he wouldn’t go away. Until that basket of beer had landed on her desk she hadn’t realized she’d been substituting court wins for real excitement.

He laughed. “Babe, I’m not going anywhere.”

Big surprise. This was her penance and semigood Catholic girl that she was, she’d do it. “I was afraid of that.”

“Fear can be a good thing.”

Their lovemaking had always had an aura of danger around it. Mitch was very dominant and had used that to master her completely. She hadn’t minded it in the bedroom, but outside she’d found herself getting lost in the image of what Mitch saw instead of who she really was. “Maybe from where you’re sitting.”

“The view’s very delicious from my seat,” he said, eyeing her breasts.

She glanced down and saw that her nipples were plainly visible beneath her silk shirt and lacy bra. Her first impulse was to cross her arms over her chest and hide from him. But hiding wouldn’t do any good, so she just thrust back her shoulders and let him look his fill.

“Are you here to ruin my career?” she asked, while he was distracted.

“Babe, don’t give yourself too much influence over my actions. I’m here for my client.”

That cut her, which wasn’t surprising since she’d never really gotten over Mitch. There had been no natural end to their affair. Only that abrupt ending that she’d forced on them. “Why did you send me Corona and Stevie Ray, then?”

“I thought we covered that?” He rubbed the back of his neck and stretched in the too-tight space. Was he a workaholic like her? She hoped not. She hoped he had a balanced life. And she’d always wished that he’d started the family he’d wanted with a nice girl.

“Exorcism?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

She thought about what Mitch wanted from her. She was tired of staying home by herself and though self-pleasure worked as a temporary ease, she needed a man. Not just any man but Mitch Hollaran. She needed to find the bridge between the passionate woman she’d once been and the cold one she’d become.