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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.
“I’ve got a deal for you, Mitch,” she said. She thought of that tub of Coronas in the car and the bag of limes and how years ago she’d always let him set the tone of their encounters. It hit her that she needed to find something of herself she’d lost. Something that her recent affairs had lacked. Something she suspected she’d given away when she’d betrayed Mitch.
“What kind of deal?” he asked. The waitress brought his second beer and he took a swallow.
“One weekend of love slavery.”
There was a sparkle in his eye that told her he liked her plan. It had been a long time since she’d had this kind of fun—this kind of sexual excitement in her life.
“Who gets to be the master?” he asked. His hand fell on the back of her neck and she prayed he wouldn’t move it. She was still aroused from that one kiss. One damned kiss and her panties were damp and she was ready to lie down for him.
“Me,” she said. She needed to be the master. She needed to control him and use him as her sex toy for a weekend. Then maybe she’d reclaim what she’d lost and be able to move on.
“I don’t think so,” he said, caressing the side of her neck.
Of course he didn’t. Mitch had never been malleable. Why would he suddenly start now? “What do you propose?”
“That we let our prowess decide.”
His caressing finger was distracting and she decided two could play at that game. She dropped her hand to his thigh, kneading the firm muscle under the taut fabric of his pants. “Meaning?”
“Whoever wins in court is the master. Whoever loses the slave.”
A vibration started in the center of her body and spread outward. “Will that satisfy you?”
IT WOULD TAKE MORE than a weekend to satisfy him, but his plans for vengeance might be quenched, or at least assuaged. He wanted her to feel the way he had. He didn’t care if that was right or fair. And a weekend with Sophia was a good start.
“Counselor, you’ve got a deal.”
First thing tomorrow morning he was going to be all over Florida case records like a rash. He’d have to have Deke and a couple of assistants come out from L.A. to help. But he was going to put together an airtight case. Not just to save Spinder’s ass but to win this side wager.
He needed to have Sophia under his control. He even knew the first thing he’d make her do. Take off that damned suit and put on the velvet ribbon.
She fished her valet claim check from her purse and left some bills on the table. “Good. Well, I guess I’ll get going, then.”
He grabbed her hand to keep her from standing. He wasn’t ready to go up to his room and deal with Dev’s troubles. That was all that awaited him tonight, worry for a friend that he didn’t know how to rescue from himself.
He did have a strategy meeting with Marcus, Jason’s publicist. But that wasn’t until later. He wanted to spend more time with Sophia, which he didn’t examine too closely. “What’s the hurry?”
“I’ve got work to do.” She watched him with those wide blue eyes of hers, guarding her words.
“You work too much.”
“How do you know?”
“You’ve got circles under your eyes,” he said, tracing the fine purple shadows. Her skin was porcelain smooth and softer than the down pillows on his bed. He hadn’t taken the time to notice earlier.
“You sure know the way to a girl’s heart.”
Her heart. Damned if he was going after that again. He’d learned the hard way that Sophia’s heart was kept under lock and key and only a masochist would even try to get at it. And as kinky as he liked his sex, he’d never liked physical pleasure and emotional pain together. “I’m not interested in your heart.”
She blanched and looked down at her purse. “No, you aren’t.”
What a bastard he could be. “Don’t try to make me feel bad about that. I wanted your heart once upon a time.”
She sighed and tilted her head to the side. Her careful gaze moved over his face and he knew she wasn’t seeing him but the younger man he’d been. “But I was afraid to give it to you.”
“Was it fear that stopped you? Funny, I thought it was greed.” As arousal was dying down in his veins, anger was rising. Why were they talking about the past? It might be what brought them together tonight, but beyond that he didn’t want to delve into it.
“Greed? Is that what you’ve thought of me all these years?”
“Babe, I respect you too much to tell you what I really thought of you.”
“I don’t blame you. I never should have lied to you,” she said.
She’d never been a woman to try to manipulate a man and he’d trusted that sweet innocent face and of course that sexy body that he knew as well as his own.
“Why did you?” he asked before he could think better of it.
She twisted the valet claim check in her hands. He watched her try to find the words to answer him.
“I was losing myself, Mitch.”
Never in a million years would he comprehend what she’d just said. She’d been in the top five at Harvard Law. Her mentor was one of the most powerful women in the law community and had in the intervening years become a Supreme Court Judge. Sophia had been a woman on the cusp of becoming very capable and powerful in her own right. For her to say she had feared losing herself sounded like a cop-out to him.
“I don’t understand.”
“You can’t. You’ve always known who you were. Even when life shakes you up, you land on your feet.”
She was the second person to say as much in less than three hours. He didn’t like the sound of it. Sure he had a plan and nothing was going to stop him from achieving his goals. That didn’t mean that life was any easier for him than it was for others.
“You had some pretty strong supporters at Harvard. And I’ve stumbled plenty of times.”
“You look like you made it back to your feet.”
“Of course I did. And I didn’t have to shove anyone out of my way to do it.” He had to get out of here before he did something really foolish like let her see how badly that had affected him.
He stood, tossed some bills on the table. “See you around, babe.”
He walked out of the bar without a backward glance. The lobby was opulent and crowded. Mitch blended in with the businessmen returning from a day of meetings heading toward the elevator.
“Mitch?”
He stopped, but didn’t turn around. He was still angry. More than angry—he was pissed and he’d never been one of those people who could be polite when he was mad. He knew he’d say something he’d regret especially if he turned around.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Maybe we should call the bet off.”
He pivoted and walked over to her. “Babe, there’s no way in hell we’re calling that wager off. You’re going to be mine for a weekend and when I leave you’re going to miss me for a long, long time.”
The elevator car arrived and he walked away from the woman who’d given him the greatest joy in life, and the sharpest pain.
