Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It

by Lucy Monroe

  Marcus's body towered not six inches in front of her while he adjusted the water to a comfortable temperature. Then, as he turned to face her, his hip brushed her stomach and his arm rubbed against her breast. Her breath hitched and he smiled.

  "Let me wash you, baby."

  She nodded, mute with desire. It would have taken a natural disaster for her to say no to his invitation. Not only had Jenny told her not to hurry, but the fear that this would be her last opportunity to share her body so completely with the man she loved spurred her.

  Once he learned how she had hidden their baby from him, he might very well hate her.

  As his soapy hands began an erotic glide over her shoulders and down her arms, even that devastating thought melted away in a haze of pure pleasure. He made a production of washing her hands, massaging her palms with his thumbs until her body thrummed in response to the unexpectedly torturing caress. Though no sexual response to him should surprise her anymore.

  Hadn't she learned that where he was concerned, her entire body was an erogenous zone?

  "You're such an incredible lover," she admitted, helpless to keep the words locked inside, where they belonged. The man didn't need an ego boost in this department.

  "It isn't me, baby. You're so responsive. I can't go wrong." He replenished the lather on his hands and moved to her back, forcing her body into contact with his.

  His already swollen sex pressed against her and she groaned, letting her head fall forward to rest on the muscled wall of his chest. "Yeah, right, like all those other women have nothing to do with you knowing just how to arouse me."

  She didn't know where that had come from. Even thinking about the scores of gorgeous women who had drifted through his life hurt. So, she had done her level best not to. Why was she bringing them up now?

  She didn't want to ruin this moment with mis-placed feelings of envy for women who had nothing to do with Marcus's current life. She'd always managed to keep her jealousy under lock and key before. Never letting him know how much it bothered her that he was so experienced while she was such a novice in lovemaking, she had flat out refused to acknowledge the fear that she somehow wouldn't measure up to the lovers of his past.

  Marcus's hands stopped moving on her back and he brought one around to force her chin up so that her gaze met his. She blinked at the blue fury she found there.

  "When I'm with you, no other woman exists for me. 1 don't try things out on you that worked on someone else's body. Got that?" The anger blazing in his eyes spilled into his voice as well.

  She tried to nod again, but his hold on her chin was too firm. "I… yes."

  His mouth was a grim line. "No other woman has ever haunted me the way you did when you left. I haven't wanted anyone else in the whole damn time you were gone and if you think that makes me happy, you're a fool. You left me without looking back, still, I wanted you and only you. Don't ever mistake what we have between us for the meaningless relationships in my past. There's no comparison."

  His words slammed into her with the force of a battering ram, but instead of leaving her feeling bruised, they caused the most amazing sense of elation.There hadn't been anyone else . There really hadn't been. Sheknew it and that knowledge burned through her like a fire blazing out of control.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but his lips slammed down on hers and his tongue invaded her mouth with marauding hunger. Steam from the hot shower surrounded them, but it didn't feel nearly as heated as her body. Running her hands up his chest, she felt him shudder before she gripped his shoulders and pressed herself more fully against him.

  She wanted him. She wanted him right now. She didn't want to wait. Not one single second, but she couldn't tell him so. Not with his tongue plundering her mouth and his lips sealed to hers with the force of superglue. So she tried to show him by pulling herself up his body and rocking her pelvis against his erection. He rocked back, forcing her body against the wall of the shower, but he didn't complete the connection.

  She moaned. She writhed and she kissed him back. Kissed him with all the passion she'd been storing up for eighteen months, just as if she hadn't already found completion in his arms three times that night. She spread her legs, making it as obvious as possible that she was ready.

  He growled and did the impossible, deepening a kiss that already felt hot enough to set her mouth ablaze… along with the rest of her body. One strong, masculine, soapy hand came down and gripped her bottom, pulling her up and forward until the tip of his penis pressed against her sweet spot. Her bodyjerked and she cried out against his lips.

  He used his male flesh to tease her sensitive nub until she thought she'd scream with the frustration of it.

  She didn't know how, but her hands were now locked in his hair and she yanked back on his head, dragging her lips from his. "Now, Marcus. I want you inside me,now !"

  Pushing the words out past a throat constricted with the force of her passion hadn't been easy, and she didn't appreciate the fact that they appeared to have absolutely no effect on him. He continued the torturous teasing and added to it by covering one breast, slick with warm water, with his free hand. He squeezed and she felt like she'd just been jolted by a maverick electric current.

  "Marcus.'"She wanted to kill him… after he made love to her.

  He played with her nipple and squeezed her bottom, increasing the sensation of his hardness rubbing against her vulnerability. "Yeah, baby?"

  "Please. I want you inside." She couldn't make it any clearer than that.

  She grabbed his head and brought his mouth back down to hers for another soul-stirring kiss. He lifted her the small increment necessary to poise his erection at the opening of her feminine flesh. She brought her legs up and clasped her ankles behind him, just above his gorgeous bottom. Then, she pressed down, taking the magnificent width and length of her lover into her in one strong downward thrust.

  It felt so good, so right, that tears leaked out of her tightly closed eyes to mingle with the water cascading over them from the shower. She went still and so did he, their mouths and their bodies connected, but unmoving. She wanted to stay this way forever, locked together with him, secure in the knowledge that for at least this moment in time he belonged one hundred percent completely to her.

  Then he moved. Just one long, slow thrust. She wanted more of the same, more of those long, slow thrusts that pressed him deeply into her body and connected them in a way that she had never been connected to another person.

  She almost blurted out her love for him right then, but her last shred of sanity saved her and she said his name instead. ''Marcus .. ."

  He cursed and her eyes flew open.

  His face wore the expression of a man facing the rack. "I forgot the condom."

  Her inner muscles clenched around him and he moved within her, just the tiniest bit, but enough to let her know that her body was on the very verge of going cataclysmically over the edge. She wanted to tell him not to worry about it.

  Desperately.

  But memories of nine months as a single, pregnant woman pushed entirely different words from her tight throat. "Get it."

  He nodded and pulled away from her, a low rumble of displeasure rolling out of him as their bodies separated.

  He set her on her feet and she sagged against the wall, unsure if he'd find her standing when he returned. Her legs felt like she'd just done a two-hour thigh workout. Pushing open the glass door to the shower stall, he stepped dripping into the bathroom and walked through to the bedroom without bothering to shut the door or grab a towel. He was back seconds later, an already open foil packet in his hand.

  He didn't wait for her to put it on him but took care of donning the condom with more speed than a NASCAR driver, his beautiful mouth set in grim lines of extreme desire. His eyes had turned such a deep shade of blue that they looked almost black and his cheekbones were scored with color. He grabbed her without preamble and lifted her high against the wall before driving into her with satisfy
ing urgency.

  They both groaned as her body once again molded itself to him. She locked her legs around him again, this time holding him even more tightly, feeling almost afraid that something else would end their time together before their souls had completely meshed.

  "Oh, man, baby. I wanted this to last." His words had barely registered in her desire-fogged brain when he began thrusting with all the power of his six-foot, two-inch frame while holding tight to her hips to ensure deep penetration.

  She didn't bother to answer. She couldn't have if she'd wanted to. It took all her concentration just to breathe as the ultimate pleasure began to take hold of her. She didn't know how long he pounded into her receptive flesh before the world exploded around her and in her head, but when it was over, he was shouting something and pulsing inside of her so strongly that she could feel his climax to the core of her being.

  "I love you, Marcus. I love you so much."

  She'd been biting back the words since practically the first day they'd met, but they exploded out of her in the aftermath of their lovemaking with volcanic force.

  He stilled and then held her so tight, she felt like her ribs might crack. "I'm glad, baby. So damn glad."

  So it wasn't a vow of undying affection, but it wasn't the reaction of a man running from strong emotion and possible commitment either. All in all, she found herself smiling as she buried her face in his neck.

  "Me too," she whispered against his slick, warm

  Monday morning, Veronica slid into her office chair at five minutes to eight—ten minutes later than she normally arrived for work. Adjusting her glasses, she resisted rubbing tired eyes. Aaron had been up off and on all night long with his teething. The poor little bunny had had not one, but two teeth come in at once and to her way of thinking, his misery had more than doubled. He'd been irritable, restless and whiny.

  She was more than a little relieved that Marcus had plans that night. Hopefully by the next day, she would have gotten sufficient sleep to face the challenge of introducing him to their son.

  Though she couldn't even pretend to herself that she didn't want to see him, that she didn't miss him. Only every second of every day. It had been bad enough when he'd first come to Seattle and the hot kisses they'd shared in his car hadn't helped. But all her defenses had crashed and burned on Friday night as they made love.

  She could only pray that he would understand what had motivated her to leave him in ignorance about her pregnancy eighteen months ago and then about the birth of their son eight months later— because she couldn't imagine the future without him.

  She flipped on her computer and then turned to check her voice mail while it was booting up. She wrote several quick notes to herself in response to the expected messages left on Friday after she'd gone home. She also listened to a rambling message left on Saturday by one of the design team engineers. She couldn't figure out exactly what he was asking her and made a quick note to herself to call him. About to hang up, she was forestalled by the digitized voice telling her that she had three messages that morning.

  She gave in to the urge to rub her temples. Monday morning crises were not her favorite things. Andcrisis was the first thought that came to her mind when she discovered that three people had needed to talk to her before she'd even made it into her cubicle that morning.

  The first message began to play. Jack had called at seven-thirty, looking for her. He didn't sound stressed, though, and left no specific request. She frowned over that oddity. Was he looking for a date again?

  She had hoped that Marcus's embarrassing little comment that day in the cafeteria had at least had the effect of ridding her of Jack's overt interest. Then, again, remembering the way her boss had referred to her as Ronnie simply to get male one-upmanship with Marcus, she sighed. Obviously the more challenging, the better, as far as Jack was concerned.

  Sandy had also left a message. This one was both specific and annoying.

  The blonde wanted to know if Veronica knew if Marcus was attached and, if not, did she have Marcus's telephone number at his temporary apartment? Sandy lived with the belief that as an admin, Veronica had access to the answers to the universe.

  Was Marcus attached? She wanted to believe he was—to her. He'd made it clear he wanted only her right now he wasn't happy about that fact and she couldn't blame him. It couldn't be very soothing to his male ego to want a woman who had not only sold company secrets, but also abandoned him in the process.

  So what should she tell Sandy? I love the guy and you'll stay away if you know -what's good for you?

  Somehow that message seemed just a little melodramatic. Which did not mean she felt no temptation to send it in an all-caps e-mail to her friend. Maybe if she ignored the message, Sandy would look elsewhere for her information. Maybe she would even go straight to the source and Marcus could tell her he wasn't interested. Then, again, maybe he wouldn't.

  The third message started playing. She smiled, her heart picking up its beat. It was from Marcus.

  "Hey, babe. I was just checking to see if you were in yet. I missed you this weekend. Maybe next time, we can do your domestic stuff together."

  She hit the button to repeat the message three times before finally hanging up without deleting it. That sounded like a man committed to one woman. At least now she knew what to say to Sandy if she did indeed decide to call the blonde back.

  She could only hope that circumstances would not drastically change after she dropped her bombshell on Marcus the following night.

  Dialing Jack's extension, she simultaneously clicked her e-mail to download messages from the weekend. She got Jack's voice mail and left a brief message saying she was returning his call before hanging up. Then she turned her attention to the e-mail. Making a quick scan of the new project team's e-mails, she noticed that the message implicating espionage had been removed from the server. All of the messages she'd downloaded had recognizable senders and recipients.Thankyou, Lord ,

  She skimmed them, looking for required action on her part before deleting all but two off her system.

  "Hi, sweetheart. Busy?" Marcus's voice had her spinning around in her chair to face him.

  He stood in the opening to her cubicle, looking sexier than any man had a right to look in a garish red Hawaiian shirt and khaki-colored Dockers.

  She felt her mouth curve into a smile. "Hi, yourself."

  "Did you get my message?"

  She nodded.

  "And?"

  "And what?"

  "Next time can we do the domestic bit together?"

  The prospect of sharing Aaron with his dad suffused her with a warm glow. "I'd like that very much."

  His smile spread that glow into the tiniest recesses of her heart. "Great."

  He looked over her shoulder and his body went stiff. "Isn't that e-mail addressed to someone else?"

  She turned back to her machine, momentarily at a loss as to what he could be talking about, and then she noticed that she'd left the technical marketing engineer's message on-screen because it was something she had to coordinate with the design team's admin regarding schedules.

  She refocused on Marcus, feeling lighthearted enough to tease him "Yes. but you're not supposed to be reading my e-mail over my shoulder."

  It was a matter of common courtesy and company security. Of course, by rights, she should have blanked her screen when she heard his voice, but she trusted Marcus.

  He shrugged. "You know me. I'm always look-ing."

  She felt another silly smile overcome her good sense. "I know. You're an information monger. It's what makes you and Alex so good at what you do."

  His frown surprised her. "I'm beginning to wish 1 wasn't so good at my job."

  "Why?"

  "So whatare you doing with someone else's e-mail?"

  Typical Marcus to ignore her question to ask one of his own.

  She didn't see any reason not to answer, however. "It's pretty common for admins to be given access to a team's e-mai
l in order to keep track of schedules and project details. It's kind of like having your mom listening to your messages and writing stuff down on the calendar for you."

  "I wouldn't want my mom hearing some of my messages." His sinfully sexy voice had gone low and seductive.

  She laughed out loud, surprising herself. "I can imagine. Some of these messages aren't appropriate for moms either. I try not to read anything personal. "

  Then her lighthearted mood vanished as she remembered what she'd unwittingly read last week. Maybe she should talk to Marcus about it before she went to Mr. Kline. She chewed on her lip, weighing the pros and cons, and in the end decided she should trust him enough to at least ask his advice, unlike last time.