She paused in the doorway for a moment, smiling. It was the sound of another time, just as the heated sensations that Josh brought out in her were feelings of another time. A carefree time when the present was full of possibilities, when the future appeared as a rainbow in the distance, with joyous pots of gold at every ending.
Suddenly Melissa was there, linking her arm with Lori's and dragging her forward. "Don't just stand there, join in!"
Despite the other woman's friendliness, Lori hesitated. "I'm so new in town, I feel a bit like I'm intruding."
"Nonsense." Melissa continued tugging her toward the group of twenty or so chattering women. "We're always eager to welcome someone new."
Just as had happened on New Year's Eve, they did. Lori placed her gift on top of the pile in the middle of a table, then found herself instantly polled by a woman she'd never met before. Was it worse to be dumped on prom night or graduation night?
After adding her vote for prom night, Lori wandered to another group. A woman passed Lori a photo of a wrinkly infant wearing a why-did-you-make-me-eat-lemons? expression. In a hospital-issue cap and a teeny sleeper that read Property of Doting Parents, he? she? was adorable. Lori sighed in appreciation, then someone made a place for her at the table where the doting mommy was giving play-by-play details of the birthing process.
Glasses of wine were passed around and the childless women in the baby group groaned, gasped and gulped their wine at appropriate intervals. Then a new sound had the doting mommy turn. In another moment her arms were full of the infant whose journey into the world had just been described in excruciating detail. The sound of hearts melting into soup rushed around the table.
Food came next, then presents before dessert. As Darcy opened each one, Lori saw that she wasn't the only guest who'd chosen to give lingerie. Piece after beautiful piece of prettiness was held up, admired. Darcy's cheeks were pink and the group's laughter turned more teasing.
Someone passed around paper napkins and the partygoers rated the honeymoon outfits – holding up their scores like Olympic judges – on a scale of one to ten, one being "Not tonight, honey," and ten, "better than naked."
The best of them at math after a glass of wine, Lori appointed herself head judge. As slices of cake were being passed around, she clinked her plate with her fork for attention. With great solemnity, she cleared her throat and declared that Darcy's lingerie, on average, rated a 9.25.
The room shouted with laughter.
Lori sat down, triumphantly grinning. As the chattering resurged around her, she couldn't think of the last time she'd felt this at ease. Surrounded by women, surrounded by their warmth and laughter, Lori had found a place. Perhaps a home.
Melissa plopped down beside her and, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, grabbed a spare fork to filch a fat swirl of mocha frosting off Lori's piece of cake. "You don't mind?" Melissa said.
Remembering how Melissa had shared Lori's french fries too, her heart skipped like a little girl trying to keep up with her big sister. Lori shook her head.
"Thanks," Melissa replied. "I'm so glad you came."
"Me, too," Lori said. So glad she'd come to Whitehorn.
Along with Darcy and Melissa, she was among the last to leave the party. Lori helped clean up, then, arms loaded with a stack of gifts, she followed Darcy out of the French doors, intending to take them to the bride-to-be's car.
The restaurant's dining room was quiet now, but Lori glimpsed quite a few people still in the bar. Smiling in the afterglow of the pleasant evening and concentrating on balancing her stack, she didn't notice when someone strode toward her.
"Let me help with that."
Big hands slid beneath hers. The gifts were transferred from her grasp to another's, where they rested, looking so much smaller now, against a large, wide chest. Josh smiled at her. "Did you have fun?"
Lori's mouth dried. Her guard was completely down, left behind somewhere between the new mother cradling her infant and Melissa sharing Lori's piece of cake.
Standing in front of her was Josh. Big, sexy, Josh, whose kisses tasted better than chocolate. Josh, who had inspired her to buy two decadent items of lingerie on Sunday afternoon – one for Darcy and one for herself.
She swallowed.
"Lori?" he asked, his brows coming together over his chocolate-brown eyes.
"Fun," she managed to get out, nodding. "A lot of fun." Her gaze jumped to his mouth, and couldn't seem to move away from it.
"Lori?" His voice turned tense. Tight.
Her name ran like a shiver over her skin. It suddenly felt tight too.
She risked a look into his eyes. "Josh … I…" All sorts of shameless ideas rolled through her mind. Chocolate kisses. Open-mouthed kisses. Where she wanted to kiss him.
"I…" Her heart pumped a new surge of excitement through her veins. "Would you follow me home?"
His shoulders relaxed. "Sure. Still nervous in the dark?"
"The dark?" Lori stared at him.
Oh. He didn't get it. His expression remained watchful, a little less than casual, but he wasn't presuming. Or if he was, he was presuming on the safe side. The cautious side. He thought she was just asking for an escort home.
Darn him.
She swallowed. "I mean, I want you to follow me home and then … come in.
He stilled. "Lori. You're sure?"
Oh, yes.
Josh must have read that answer on her face, because he smiled, slow and patient and so sexy that she shivered. His smile widened. "I'll be right behind you."
Despite Josh's words, he got hung up in a conversation with a business associate as he gathered his coat to leave the country club. He waved her on ahead, and Lori had gone, glad for a few minutes alone at her apartment before Josh arrived.
She let herself inside, then scurried around, resetting a pillow on her small living-room couch, putting out fresh towels in the bathroom, straightening the comforter on her bed. The bed.
She stared down at it, her face heating as she imagined sharing the double mattress with Josh. He wouldn't fit!
Unless he was really, really close to her.
Lori's breath caught. It wasn't panic, though, but anticipation that closed her throat. She was going to be with Josh. He was the prize at the end of this long road of getting her life back. He was the proof that she was a normal woman again.
He was the man she wanted in her bed. In her life.
Heart fluttering, she walked back to the kitchen. She should offer him something when he arrived. Coffee? Tea? Her hands shook as she filled the kettle and set it on the stove. As she whirled back toward the cupboard that held the teabags, her gaze caught on her answering machine, shoved in the far corner of one counter. The message-light blinked an insistent orange.
She pushed the Play button automatically.
Three replays later, her doorbell rang.
* * *
Josh waited outside Lori's door for her to answer his knock, trying to clamp down on the driving need pulsing through his body. She wanted him.
His patience had paid off. By letting her pick the time, the tine had arrived much sooner than he'd expected. His heart slammed against his chest as her door slowly opened. It was going to be so good between them.
Then he saw her face. It was pale, so pale, the sapphire blue of her eyes glittering with unshed tears.
His hopes fell to the ground, broke into a hundred pieces. She was afraid again. He took a deep breath, drawing on his well of patience. "Honey," he said, his chest aching with the need to reach out to her. "It's okay. We don't have to—"
"You don't understand," she said, her voice thin.
"I do," he answered. "You're entitled to second thoughts. Third, fourth, whatever you need."
Her head shook from side to side. She pulled the door wide. "Come in and sit down."
Puzzled, Josh obeyed. He took a spot on her couch, then looked up at her, waiting for her next move.
She bit her lip. "Te
a? Would you like some tea?"
He didn't want anything but the answer to what was disturbing her. But she looked like she needed something, so he nodded. "Please. Lots of sugar." That's the way he hoped she'd fix hers, too. He wouldn't drink the stuff, but she seemed almost … in shock.
The idea worried the hell out of him.
He didn't, feel any better when she came into the living room carrying two steaming mugs. She handed one to him, then took a seat in a small chair across the room. With precise movements, she set down her mug on a small table beside it. Then she frowned at the tea, fussing with its placement, until it sat directly in the center of the tabletop.
Her odd concentration worried Josh even more. "Lori."
She didn't look up.
"Lori. Honey. You need to tell me what's going on."
Her eyes closed. "I should have told you before. I … just couldn't bear to."
Josh's gut clenched. "Tell me now, honey," he said gently.
Her lower lip slid out. "I wish … I wish I didn't have to."
He swallowed. "I know."
Her gaze flicked toward his face, then went back to her mug of tea. "What I told you before, about my ex-husband, well, that wasn't all of it."
"Okay." Josh told himself to take it slow. "What's all of it?"
"I told you how I left him after that second beating."
"Yes." And the hearing of it had nearly pulled his heart out of his chest. There'd been a roaring in his ears then, an anger rising up in him that he had wanted badly to vent. But knowing it would only make her more wary of men, he'd battled it back.
"I went to a motel and immediately called a lawyer, who made me file a police report. I eventually didn't press charges in exchange for David's cooperation during the divorce. That part went surprisingly quickly." She picked up her tea and sipped at it, a tinge of color returning to her cheeks.
"But then he came after you again."
Lori looked up at him, obviously startled. "How did you know?"
Josh hoped he looked calm, though he felt anything but. "An unlucky guess."
She released a breath, and the steam rising from the mug in her hands shifted. "He was waiting for me after work one night. He said he wanted to talk. I knew that wasn't a good idea, but when I tried to get to my car, he … hurt me again."
"He beat you."
Lori straightened her shoulders and met his gaze squarely. "Yes."
"You called the police?"
"I drove to the station immediately afterward. They arrested him. He agreed to an anger-management program."
"But it didn't manage his anger?" Josh heard his own voice, controlled. Cold. He'd never felt such icy coldness.
"No. So I switched jobs, made sure my phone number was unlisted, changed what town I lived in. I did everything I could, Josh, to get away from him. But he kept finding me. Finally I got sick of my fear and moved out-of-state. To Whitehorn."
No wonder she honed her self-defense skills. Her ex-husband had not only hurt her, but he'd stalked her. Was stalking her? Josh heard that roaring in his ears again. "Has he found you here, Lori?" Part of him hoped so. Part of him wanted five minutes, just five minutes with the bastard.
"I don't know. I don't think so." She shrugged. "But when I left, I asked one of our old neighbors in the condo complex to call me if David left town. He was still living there, you see."
"And?"
Her gaze flicked toward the kitchen. "Mrs. Ayers left a message on my machine tonight. David's mailbox is overflowing. There are newspapers piling up outside his door. She hasn't seen him in four days."
"Maybe he's just sick," Josh said.
"Maybe." Lori shrugged again. "But when Mrs. Ayers mentioned the papers and mail to another neighbor, he said David told him he was taking a vacation out west."
Unable to sit still any longer, Josh jumped up from his place on the couch. He paced to the front window, staring into the darkness. "Does he have any idea that you moved here?"
Lori hesitated a moment, then shook her head. "I don't see how he could. Still…"
"You're scared."
"I'm…"
Something in her voice made Josh turn around. "You're…?" he prompted.
She looked at him, her gaze running from his eyes to his feet, and then back. A wave of color rushed up her face. "I'm angry." She blinked, as if her own answer surprised her.
"Angry?"
She nodded. "I'm mad, mad as hell." Her mug hit the little table beside her with an impatient clack. "This is my life and I don't want him messing it up again." She rose from her chair and strode toward him.
In the face of all that sudden female determination, Josh froze. Emotions were twisting through him, outrage, protectiveness, worry, but there was a militant light in Lori's eyes that pushed his feelings aside. When she stood, toe-to-toe with him, he looked down into her flushed face and bright eyes.
He read rebellion.
"Lori, I don't know what's going through that beautiful head of yours, but—"
"I want you."
His heart slammed against his chest. Lust surged. "Not as a way to forget," he heard himself saying. Damn, where were all these scruples coming from?
The expression on her face echoed his own mental question. "I wanted you before I got the message about David," she said hotly.
There was that, of course. But still… "I want this to be about us, Lori. I don't want it to be about you proving something to your ex, or even just to yourself."
Her face softened. "Josh, don't you understand?" She placed the palms of her hands on his chest "If it wasn't you, if there wasn't an us, I wouldn't be this far."
He groaned. "Lori—"
"I don't want anything to ruin our plans for the evening." She slid her palms upward to link her hands behind his head. With one tug they were mouth-to-mouth. "Don't let him take something from me again."
Once more, anger flamed inside Josh. The SOB had taken from her. Stalked her. Scared her. Hurt her. It took every ounce of willpower he had to tamp down the fires of rage. She didn't need that now.
And the truth was, he needed something even more. With a slow, deliberate movement, he placed his hands on the curves of her hips. Lightly, without possession.
She swayed toward him. "Please, Josh."
He bent his head. "Please, Lori," he echoed, "let me please you."
* * *
Chapter 9
« ^ »
Josh's touch, warm and gentle, caused Lori's heartbeat to pound even as her stomach clenched in nervousness. As much as she wanted to be with him, she worried that her fears might get in the way.
But she wouldn't let that happen. She wouldn't! Retreating wouldn't be fair to Josh, not when they'd come this far.
She lifted her mouth and touched her lips to his. He was big, so big, but he was Josh. She only had to focus on that.
He lifted his head, a half-smile on his gorgeous mouth. The corners of his eyes tilted up in good humor too, but the irises were dark, darker than she'd ever seen them. She suppressed a shiver.
Josh lightly palmed her hips. "How are we going to do this?"
Lori swallowed. "Don't you know?"
"Aren't you funny." His lips twitched and he tapped her nose with one long finger. "'Course I know how. But I also know I make you nervous."
Lori wished she could deny it. "I'll be fine." Josh smiled, that slow, patient one that had won her over from the very start. The one that, if she told the truth, also made her burn. "I'm counting on it." His voice lowered. "So dance me to your bedroom, honey."
"Dance?"
"I don't think I want to let you go, not even for a minute. So dance me there."
What could she say in the face of all that charm? Lori found herself smiling, and walking backward, too, toward the short hallway. "I've never been danced to bed before."
"Cha-cha-cha." Josh wiggled his eyebrows. Lori was laughing as she crossed the threshold to her bedroom. Then Josh's gaze moved past her and h
is face changed, its masculine lines hardening. Her laughter died and she glanced behind her, seeing what Josh did – the dim room, the wide bed with its comforter turned back, the satin scalloped edge of one pillowcase gleaming in the soft light from the bedside lamp.
"I'm making you nervous again."
Lori's gaze jumped back to Josh. His expression was rueful. "No, I—" She shrugged, rueful herself. "Yes."
"I am still a man, Lori."
Oh, she'd never doubted that. Not with his heavy shoulders beneath her hands and his brawny thigh muscles brushing against hers. She had to smile. "That's what I like best about you."
"Tease." Josh leaned down to touch his lips to hers, his mouth serious, the kiss deep.
Lori parted her lips and he brushed his tongue across the lower one. She heard herself moan. It was an unconscious invitation, so needy-sounding she surprised herself.
Josh lifted his head. "Lori," he whispered. His eyes searched her face and then he lowered his mouth to hers again. His tongue swept across her lips once more, then swept inside her mouth. The kiss swept her away.
His tongue was hot and smooth and it slid against hers. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, the wide maleness of them not so frightening as substantial, something worth holding on to as ripples of reaction skittered across her skin. She sank into the sensation, she let herself drown in the heat he was building inside her, she drifted deeper so that her fears couldn't find her.
His tongue retreated, then pressed into her mouth again, more insistent. She crowded up against him, her tightening nipples needing contact. His touch still light on her hips, he urged her closer with his palms. She breathed in Josh-scent, green and clean and good. So good.
His hands drew her even nearer. She went on tiptoe, rubbing herself against his hard chest.
Josh shuddered.
Lori froze.
He must have felt the new stiffness in her body, because he broke off the kiss, groaning. "Lori," he said hoarsely. "I'm sorry, honey. I'm so damn clumsy. I didn't mean to—"
IN LOVE WITH HER BOSS Page 10
