on her shoulder. He toyed with a strand of her hair.
“Please don’t.”
“Why not? You used to like it.”
She knew she’d been right not to let her guard down around him. “We’re not lovers any more.”
“That’s right. We aren’t.”
She was surrounded by him. The spicy scent of his cologne, the heat of his body, the weight of his arm. She closed her eyes, but that only intensified her other senses. She opened them and looked straight at the man who was back in her life, and not just because of work.
“What do you want from me, Mitch?” she asked. The sooner she figured it out, the sooner she could escape to her home and rebuild the defenses he’d so easily ripped through.
He tilted her face toward his and the intensity in his eyes set every nerve in her body on fire. Perhaps she should just take him upstairs and have sex with him. Let him be in control of her body, and assuage the ache that was growing as she sat here.
“Everything you have to give,” he said.
She clenched her thighs together. She wanted him. Wanted those big hot hands on her naked body. She wanted to take the Coronas and limes up to his room, put on Stevie Ray and make love to him all night long.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why not?”
“Are we playing a schoolyard game?”
“We’re both a little too old for that.”
“Then why the word fencing?”
“Honestly, Sophia, you make me feel fourteen again.”
“I don’t mean to.”
“You can’t control it. And neither can I. That’s why I sent you the basket.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m here for more than my client, babe.”
He leaned back, drained the rest of his beer. Drawing the tip of one finger down the side of her face, he said, “I’m here to exorcise you from my dreams.”
3
MITCH SIGNALED the waitress to bring another beer. Leaning back against the padded seat he observed Sophia. It had taken a lot to fluster her and even now he wasn’t quite sure he’d actually done it. Only her tight grip on the stem of her wineglass and the flush on her cheeks gave her true emotions away.
“Wow, I didn’t see that coming,” she said.
“What did you expect?” he asked.
“I don’t know, maybe that you wanted to express some anger.”
“Express some anger? If I get pissed off I’m not going to invite you for a drink to ‘express myself.’”
“This is the first time we’ve been alone since college,” she said.
“Did that basket lead you to believe I was angry?”
“Not exactly.”
He wanted to crack her shell of confidence and lay waste to her dreams the same way she’d shattered his illusions ten years ago. He reached into his pocket and touched the black velvet ribbon he’d kept since they’d parted. The one she’d used to wear at her neck with a little heart pendant he’d given her.
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
