“Right, because if you keep all your feelings inside, you can control them.” She lifted her hands to cup his face. “That makes me sad, Reilly. Sad for you. You never vent. You never say how you feel about Cheri working for Eddie, though it clearly bothers you. You never say how you feel about what is happening to your father or what happened to us-”

“You think I don’t feel anything about any of that?”

“Unless you tell me, how would I know?”

He stared at her.

“Look,” she said, relenting. “I know some people have trouble getting in touch with their feelings. It’s not easy, but you need to vent or-” She broke off when he picked up a file on his desk and flung it at the opposite wall, where it opened and rained papers down to the floor. “W-what was that?”

“A vent,” he said roughly. “How was that?”

“Um…” She swallowed. “Good. Really…good.”

“That’s how I feel about what happened to us,” he said. “That’s how I feel about what happened to you.” He grabbed her and she expected anger or maybe a hard, thorough kiss, but instead he put one light, gentle hand over her throat, where her bruises had started to fade, the other at the small of her back, nudging her closer.

Her entire body softened to fit his.

“If I could go back and erase that night, I would.” His hands were soft and tender, his eyes utterly fierce. “I’d like to make sure you never got hurt again. Are you getting how strongly I feel about that, Tess?”

She nodded and whispered, “Yes.”

“Good.” He pulled her hard against him, putting his mouth very close to hers. “I blame myself for that night. And I’m going to have to blame myself for this as well, as there’s no one to point a finger at. I hate it when that happens.”

And he closed his mouth over hers.

14

HE WAS KISSING HER, he was finally kissing her, fierce and demanding. Tessa gave it back to him, gave him all she had and when he came up for air, she couldn’t help it, she bit his lower lip.

With an oath, he came back at her, his big hands holding her head still for another long, ravishing, deep kiss. It was amazing, it was earth-shattering and she literally shook with it, and yet she wanted to dance and shout.

He’d really kissed her. He’d really started it and frankly, she didn’t intend to let him finish for a good long time. Lifting her hands, she ran them over his arms and shoulders and chest, but that wasn’t enough, she needed more, so she pulled his shirt front from his trousers and slid her hands beneath to his chest, roaming over his hot, sleek flesh.

He sucked in a harsh breath and bent a little so he could band his arms more tightly around her. They stumbled then, back against his desk. A stack of files fell to the floor.

Laughing breathlessly they straightened away from the desk, landing with a thud against the opposite wall, where he pinned her for a long, blissful moment during which his hands slid beneath her blouse as well, cupping her breasts and teasing her nipples.

“One of these days,” he growled, “I’m going to get you back into a bedroom. Yours, mine, I don’t care.”

With a rough sound of frustration, he undid her buttons, pulled both her blouse and bra down her arms and touched her skin-to-skin this time. Shivering, she dug her nails into his back while he dragged hot, wet, open-mouth kisses down her throat, taking special care with each and every still-visible mark on her. Only when he was done, silently paying homage to every inch, did he wander his way to her bare shoulder, then back up her collar bone, still licking, tasting, kissing.

It wasn’t enough. Even as she thought it, he plumped up her breasts with his hands, driving her crazy with nothing more than his mouth. He didn’t lift his head for a long time, and far before he did, Tessa’s body came alive-glowing, aching, pulsing with pleasure and need and heat. She wanted to make wild, messy, mind-bending love right here in his office, she wanted-

“Tessa.” Breathing heavily, he put his forehead to hers. His fingers went from making her writhe and whimper with pleasure to drawing slow, soothing circles on her back.

Not a good sign.

“This is not a smart idea,” he said a little thickly.

Definitely not a good sign. “You have a lock on your office door,” she managed to say.

He looked at the door, at the lock in question, and she could see him hesitate.

She didn’t want him to hesitate. She wanted him naked.

“I have a client coming in at two.” He leaned back to look at the clock.

Ten minutes until two.

She wanted to cry. Wanted to howl, and by the looks of him as he shoved his fingers through his hair, he felt the same way.

“We could go lock the glass doors,” she said quickly. “And pretend you’re not here-”

“Tess. I can’t take you here, not like this. We need privacy.” He slid her bra straps back up. The backs of his fingers brushed her pebbled nipples, ripping a shiver from her.

He groaned. “And hours,” he said roughly. “We need lots of hours.”

“I think I only need a minute.”

He closed his eyes and murmured, “Don’t make this harder.” He slid his fingers into her hair and tilted her head up to his. Eyes still closed, he kissed her, one long, clinging kiss that made a soft, clingy noise that tugged between her thighs.

“Tess,” he whispered, just that, just her name.

Her heart stumbled and she hugged him hard.

They heard the doors opening, signaling the arrival of his client and they stared at each other.

“I’ll bring the files you need,” she said, but didn’t let go of him. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?”

“For showing me how you feel. I know it must have been hard.”

He smiled ruefully and said, “Hard? You don’t know the half of it.” He shifted his hips against her, showing her what exactly was “hard,” making her laugh softly as she pulled away.


MUCH LATER, long after he’d seen his client, Reilly surfaced from his computer and stretched, glancing at his clock.

Six-thirty.

He pushed away from his desk and went down the hall, wondering if-

No, Tess hadn’t left without saying goodbye. She sat at the front desk, bent over a stack of papers, her hair falling into her eyes as she chewed on the eraser on her pencil and muttered to herself.

Just seeing her there made something within him soften and relax. “Hey,” he said quietly, not wanting to startle her.

For the first time since he’d met her, she didn’t jump. Instead, she craned her neck to give him a smile that was at once both sweet and unbearably sexy.

His gaze dropped to her mouth.

So did hers and she let out a little laugh that sounded just a tad unsure. That made two of them. “It’s past quitting time,” he said.

“I know.”

“I appreciate all the extra work you’ve put in since Cheri’s gone Benedict Arnold on me.”

“You’re going home, right?”

Ah. Now he got it. He’d babysat Eddie and now she was babysitting him. He moved around, turning off the stereo, pulling the shades, turning off most of the lights before moving toward the front desk to shut down the computer for the night.

One thing his life experiences had given him were heightened senses, whether he liked it or not. Even from across the room he could smell her, some complicated mix of soap and shampoo and lotion that probably hadn’t been designed to drive him insane.

“Reilly?”

There was only the one light left, by the elevator doors, and the glow of it fell over her face as she moved to stand in front of him and put her hand on his arm. Her eyes were so incredibly green and so incredibly focused on him, he felt as if she could see all the way through him.

He liked to keep himself distant, he prided himself on it, and yet with her it was damned difficult. Even when he shut her out, which he’d done on purpose rather than cave in to what she made him feel, she didn’t give up on him. He should probably tell her to, because he could tell she had hopes for him. He should just say right here, right now, for her not to bother.

Pinning hopes on him was just a waste of time.

“Are you going home?” she asked again.

He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. He did it as an excuse to touch her, which was startling. “That’s generally the idea behind leaving work.”

She cocked her head and gave him a long look. “You’re being evasive on purpose.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. You’re going to Eddie’s. He said I needed to keep you from doing that. He said you needed to go home to bed, Reilly.”

To bed. With her?

Something within him went hot at that thought. She blushed, letting him know that he was slipping, that he’d let that thought show. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll walk you out.”

She grabbed her purse and they got on the elevator. She stared at the closed doors as they began to descend, then looked at him. “I’m sorry about earlier, when I said you didn’t have any feelings. That was wrong of me.”

The elevator doors opened into the lobby. There were only a few people milling around and no one close. He stopped her when she would have walked away. “I don’t want you to be sorry.”

“What do you want?” she asked.

He stared at her. Hell if he knew.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. She started walking away, counting change out of her purse.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting my bus fare ready.”

His stomach did that slow somersault that only she could cause. “I thought your car was fixed.”

“Was being the operative word, apparently.”

“I’ll give you a ride.”

She looked up, then laughed softly. “Thanks, but don’t worry. I’m off duty. I’m no longer your responsibility.”