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If You Could Read My Mind...
Jeanie London
IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND…
Jeanie London
TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON
AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG
STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID
PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND
To my very own hero—always.
Happy anniversary, honey!
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
About the Author
Coming Next Month
Prologue
When the trouble first started
EXACTLYwhy had she fallen in love with this man again? Right now, Jillian Landry honestly couldn’t remember, which was saying something since this man was her husband of seven years. Before marriage she’d dated him for five years and, before that, tagged after him for the better part of her life. Ever since the day her older brother had returned from kindergarten to proclaim Michael Landry as his new best friend.
But at the moment…after being restrained in said husband’s dental chair, Jillian couldn’t remember what she’d ever seen in a man who’d obviously lost his mind between the time he’d locked up the clinic after the staff’s departure and his return trip.
“Michael, what are you doing?”
Flipping off the overhead fluorescent lights, he shot her a smile that dazzled in the suddenly dim room. “I’m creating a fantasy for you. You said you wanted a fantasy, remember?”
Oh, she remembered all right. The whole idea of fantasies had come up during a conversation at a recent Main Street Rehabilitation fund-raiser. She and Michael had been chatting with the Prestons during cocktail hour, when Amelia Preston—a society matron with enough money to discuss whatever was on her mind—began an interrogation about how to keep the romance alive in a marriage.
Jillian hadn’t been sure whether Amelia had been grilling guests for tidbits to spice up her own decades-old marriage or the dull pre-dinner party. Whatever the motivation, she’d succeeded in getting Jillian to consider the question in the car on the way home.
No denying that after seven years of marriage, there’d been some trade-off of excitement for predictability. Not necessarily a bad thing, she’d been quick to point out. Orgasms were better than ever because practice made perfect. After so much practice, Michael was a locksmith with all the right keys.
But she’d admitted to seeing the appeal of a little fantasy now and then to keep the romance alive.
Apparently now was then.
The best Michael could come up with was handcuffs?
“Are you open for something different tonight, Jilly?” Michael shrugged off his white lab coat to reveal the shirt and pants she’d just picked up from the cleaners yesterday.
“Dare I ask how different?”
He strode purposefully toward her, his smile promising a satisfying answer to her question. “How about you just stick around to find out?”
Stick around?
Testing the steel restraining her to his dental chair, the very one his last patient had vacated not a half hour earlier, Jillian had to wonder where he thought she could go.
She wouldn’t ask where he’d gotten the handcuffs. Michael cared for the smiles of over half the police force in their hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. And those spit-polished good old boys—most of whom were lifelong friends—would be smiling if they knew why Michael wanted restraints. Just the thought was enough to make her wince.
Or maybe the crick in her neck was to blame.
Or her numb arm and tingling fingers.
“How about you just relax and trust me to show you a good time?” Michael loomed over her, blue eyes glinting with sexy innuendo, and slipped his hands beneath her uniform smock.
His warm fingers caressed her skin with tantalizing slowness as he eased the hem up, up, up, until he bared her bra to his gaze.
With that smile still playing around his lips, he descended, his mouth making contact with her skin to trail moist kisses in the wake of his hands.
“That feels nice.”
“You just wait.” His words broke against her skin in breathy bursts then, in one skilled move, he popped open the fastener on her bra.
Her breasts tumbled free, nipples puckering at contact with the climate-controlled air. Michael was there instantly, dragging his warm tongue over one peak in an arousing stroke, easing his fingers around the other and weighing her in his warm palm.
Willing herself to relax, Jillian forced her focus onto her husband’s sexy ministrations and not the dull throb of her shoulder. She supposed there’d been no other place to attach the handcuffs besides the mechanism under the chair arm. She might have suggested something more user-friendly had Michael not taken her by surprise by cuffing her here in the first place.
Now, she didn’t want to say anything he might perceive as a lack of enthusiasm. He wanted to create a fantasy tonight, and as she’d been the one to pursue Amelia Preston’s conversation…
But Jillian couldn’t help wondering if Michael had taken action on that conversation because he’d noticed the trade-off between excitement and predictability, too.
Surely all the passion couldn’t have gone after only seven years of marriage?
Of course not.
Through sheer determination, Jillian forced all her focus onto the feel of Michael’s mouth on her, the caress of his warm hands, the promise of an orgasm that was bound to leave her gasping.
Arching her back slightly, she lifted her breasts in an eager posture and bullied her libido into a response.
And there it was…a life sign.
Awareness flickered deep inside, and she closed her eyes to shut out everything but the feel of Michael’s mouth, the swirl of his tongue, the slow pull of his lips.
He let his hands join the game, pinching her nipples as if recognizing he’d have to break out the heavy artillery to coax her body to life after such an exhausting day.
A few firm squeezes did the trick. Her insides melted, and desire pooled warmly between her thighs.
“Mmm.” She exhaled the sigh on a breath.
“Like that, do you?” Michael sounded very pleased with her response.
“You know I do.”
He squeezed again, this time earning a shiver. “I can think of a few other things you like, too.”
“Be still my heart.”
He chuckled. “Uh-uh, Jilly. There’s going to be nothing still about you by the time I’m through.”
To prove his point, he caught the elastic waistband of her pants and tugged them over her hips and down her legs. Then he reared back and raked a hungry gaze over her.
“As gorgeous as ever.” He dragged his fingertips lightly over her stomach, a teasing touch that made her tremble. Then he toyed with the edge of her cotton panties, easing his fingers inside just enough to make her sound breathless when she said, “I’m very glad you think so.”
“Oh, I do, my beautiful bride. I do.” To prove his point, he gazed down pointedly at his crotch, drawing her attention to the promising bulge there.
“If I had free hands, I’d undress you, too.”
“Allow me.”
She thought he might free her, but he began a careful striptease instead. So, lying in his dental chair, nearly naked and definitely aroused, she watched him peel away clothes that showed the effects of the long day to reveal all the tantalizing secrets below.
He was just thirty-two, two years older than she was, and she could still see the boy she’d fallen in love with inside this more mature version. He’d been the high-school football star. The handsome homecoming king. The proud fraternity president. A devastatingly romantic groom.
Jillian still felt a tingle when she thought about all those yummy memories, still admired his strong features, the glossy black hair that contrasted so sharply with his blue eyes.
Michael.
She’d been involved with him for most of her life. She supposed it was only natural that their relationship ebbed and flowed. They’d weather this lull just as they’d weathered tough years during college and dental school and a financially difficult start to his practice.
Of course they would.
1
Several weeks later
THE WHINING of the high-speed drill hadn’t faded to silence before Michael Landry heard his wife say, “I’m leaving now.”
Glancing up from his patient, who reclined in the dental chair with his open mouth exposing a problem molar, Michael found Jillian standing in the doorway. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her, looking all brisk and businesslike in her colorful smock and white pants.
She wore the same uniform as his staff, although she’d applied her business degree toward managing his office ever since he’d set up his practice after dental school. Several years might have passed since they’d bought this old building in downtown Natchez, but Jillian looked the same as the sparkling-eyed young girl he’d fallen in love with so long ago.
She was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
Strawberry-blond hair waved around her face, and she had warm brown eyes that could melt with pleasure or twinkle with laughter. She could still catch him off guard with her smile.
“You remember we have an interview with the caretakers from New Orleans at the camp tonight,” she said.
“What time is it again?” He wasn’t about to admit he hadn’t remembered.
“Seven. If you lock up right after your last patient and leave with the staff, you should have plenty of time to get through traffic.”
“To Camp Cavelier?” Louis Bernard lifted his head from the headrest, almost nailing the equipment tray before Michael made a quick save. “You’ll make the camp by seven if you’re driving on the shoulder up State Road Twenty.”
“Not if he leaves with the staff,” Jillian said firmly. “Are you sure you don’t want me to wait for you?”
“You said you needed to look over their paperwork. Go ahead. I’ll be there.”
He could hear Charlotte snicker from behind her paper mask and shot his nurse a look he hoped would deter her from comment. He was already in enough hot water with Jillian about their latest investment venture.
But Charlotte O’Brien wasn’t in the habit of being deterred by him. This sixty-ish, pixie-ish dynamo had been a nurse since long before Michael had even thought about going into dentistry. She had a lot of know-how, and despite their years together, he still hadn’t decided why she worked for him. Some days he thought she was impressed with his skill and chair-side manner. Other days, he suspected she felt it was her duty to tell him what to do to keep his patients safe.
She didn’t even bother trying to hide her amusement now. “What your wife wants here is confirmation. Go on and tell her you’ll let us drag you out the door when we leave before she gets a gray hair.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong.” He slid his stool back and stood. “Jillian’s just doing what she always does—keeping my schedule straight so I can devote myself to my patients. Don’t know what I’d do without this woman.”
He caught her around the waist and waltzed her through the cramped space in the exam room. With a gasp, she melted into his arms the way she always did, as if her luscious body had been designed exclusively to fit close.
“Michael!”
“Yes, my beautiful bride?”
