by Cindy Gerard
“Come in.” She stood back, opening the door wider so he could step inside. “It’s cold out there.”
Another woman would have laid into him. Another woman would have slapped him hard, demanded to know where the hell he’d been for the past four weeks, then cursed him out before slamming the door in his face.
But she wasn’t another woman. She was Steph. Giving. Forgiving. Vulnerable.
“You’ve got to be freezing.” She headed for the kitchen on bare feet. “I’ll make coffee.”
“Don’t,” he said with a stiffness in his tone that made her stop abruptly.
A man who loved a woman didn’t treat her the way he’d treated Steph during the past month. He didn’t just clam up, and not call for a solid month, didn’t not explain himself.
And he sure didn’t show up unannounced in the middle of the night and expect coffee before he sliced open a vein.
When she just stood there, her back to him, her silence and the rigid set of her shoulders giving away how uncertain she was, he almost lost it.
“You don’t have to make coffee for me,” he said inanely.
Her chin dropped to her chest. Her shoulders sagged.
Aw, hell.
In two steps he was behind her, pulling her back against him. He wrapped one arm around her waist, another around her chest so his forearm was sandwiched between her breasts.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he lowered his head and pressed his lips against the silk of her hair. “Steph . . . I’m . . .” Hell. Sorry didn’t begin to cut it.
She turned in his embrace, lifted her arms around his neck, and, with a desperation as sharp as the hurt in her eyes, drew his head down to hers.
“Don’t talk,” she murmured against his mouth. “I’ve missed you. I’ve been so worried.”
He tasted the salt of her tears on her lips, and it was all over for him. He had no defense against this. No resistance. No restraint.
He slammed his mouth over hers and took what he’d been missing but had no right to claim. Not anymore. But the instant her body pressed against his, he stopped thinking about right and wrong and just reacted. Like he always reacted when surrounded by the feel and the taste of her.
“Joe,” she whispered.
No anger, no censure. Only welcome.
Only giving.
Only love as he scooped her up and carried her into her bedroom, where soft lamplight gave the room a warm, yellow glow.
He laid her down on the bed that still held the sweet scent and lingering warmth of her body and kissed her deeply. Then he wrenched himself away and started shucking his clothes.
His pulse slammed like crazy as he shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it on the floor. Her gaze followed every move as he whipped his black sweater over his head, then reached for the snap on his jeans.
Hunger flamed in her eyes as he stripped off his pants and boots and finally, naked, knelt beside her hip.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispered again, her fingers skimming slowly up the length of his thigh, then circling over his hip before trailing across the tightly clenched muscles of his belly.
“Missed you,” she repeated on a breathy sigh, and finally brushed her fingertips along the throbbing length of his erection.
He groaned and she sat up; her robe slid off one shoulder to reveal a creamy, round breast as she slowly pressed her mouth to all the places her fingers had been. Her lips trailed fire along his thigh, his hip, and the taut, quivering muscles of his belly.
He was one live electric nerve, one raging sexual urge, when she finally caressed the tip of his penis with a slow stroke of her tongue . . . and damn near blinded him.
He sucked in a harsh breath, let his head fall back, and knotted his hands in the silk of her hair. Then he lost himself in the sweet, wet caress of her lips. Let her enfold him in sensation with the delicate tip of her tongue and the hot, fluid suction of her mouth.
She always drove him out of his mind with the selflessness of her giving, and tonight was no exception. She humbled and thrilled him with the passion of her sighs and her touch, until mindless pleasure gradually transitioned to a dawning understanding.
He didn’t know what finally triggered his synapses to connect and make him realize that her fervor had evolved to desperation. That her desire had become a plea.
Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.
She didn’t say the words. She didn’t have to. But it was clear that she knew he’d come to say good-bye. With every kiss, every wild and reckless caress, she told him she knew and that she was begging him not to go . . . bargaining with him to stay.
Regret and guilt finally brought him back to his senses.
He couldn’t let her do this.
“Steph,” he whispered. “Steph, don’t.” He tipped her head back so he could look at her.
At the tears trailing down her face.
At those beautiful brown eyes so burdened with pain.
He hated himself for doing this to her. He’d made her beg, and he was so far from being worth it.
He gently laid her down on her bed and brushed his fingers across her cheek. “I’m sor—”
“Don’t.” She caught his face in her hands, dragged his mouth down to hers. “Don’t talk. Just love me. Please . . . just love me now.”
A better man would have resisted.
A better man would have done the right thing.
But he’d stopped being a better man when he’d chosen the course that was going to take him away from her and everything he’d ever stood for.
Helpless to deny her, he lowered his body over hers and captured her mouth with his. And when she wrapped her ankles around his hips and opened herself for him, he drove deep. And kept on driving, gratefully accepting the one good thing he’d ever had, for what could be the last time ever.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
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
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Last Man Standing
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
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
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Last Man Standing
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