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“Yes, Joe, that was what you were saying.” She waved her hand back at him in a gesture of frustration. “What did you do for the last two and a half years? We both know you weren’t a virgin when you came to my bed. How many women have you had since me?”
“No one.”
The answer had her flailing for a response; instead, she could only stare back at him in shock.
She stared back at him silently as he came closer, his expression dark and intent as he watched her.
“You tormented me, Maggie.”
She shook her head desperately. “Don’t play with me like this, Joe. Please.” She was willing to beg. She had left him, believing he didn’t hold her heart. Now, two and a half years later, she admitted the truth she hadn’t wanted to face then. She had loved him then, and that love had never died.
“I’m not playing with you, Maggie.” His hand covered her cheek as she lost her breath. The sound of her tremulous gasp would have been humiliating if his touch weren’t so warm, so needed. “I’m trying to save us both this time.”
She was panting for air, certain her shaky knees would give out before she found the strength to move away from him.
“Do you remember what it was like?” he asked her gently.
Maggie stared back at him, dazed, uncertain, as his lips lowered to breathe a kiss against hers.
“All night long,” he whispered over her lips. “I would fall asleep, still buried in your body, still hungry for you. Do you remember that?”
“I remember seeing you with another woman.” She forced the words past her lips. “I remember you staring at me across the room, your expression as cold as ice. That’s what I remember, Joe.”
His jaw clenched. “You can forget that.”
?
?No, I can’t forget that.” She pushed away from him slowly, fighting back the regret as she did so.
“I didn’t sleep with her, Maggie.”
The tension tightening his body had her stepping back further. She could feel the certainty that he was at the edge of his control. Once he slipped past the veneer of civility, denying him wouldn’t be an option. The hunger in him called to her too fiercely, pulled at her too desperately. When Joe began coming after her in earnest, she would be lost, and she knew it.
“It doesn’t matter that you didn’t sleep with her,” she told him softly as she moved to the couch. There was no way in hell she was heading to the bedroom. “It’s not about the woman, Joe, it’s the fact that you did it. You weren’t as invested in me as I was in you, otherwise you would have told me about the party. You would have told me about your date.”
She curled into the corner of the overstuffed couch, drawing her legs up until they bent to her side and gave her a measure of protection against the throbbing heat between her thighs.
He hadn’t moved from where he stood, other than to turn and follow her progress across the room with his eyes. She knew what he was doing, what he had been doing all day. Trying to push her buttons. From the first words out of his mouth that morning, when he accused her of pouting, to now, he was trying to work her, to get what he wanted without giving any of himself in return.
That wasn’t enough for her now. She wanted as much in return as she had to give, or she wanted nothing at all. And giving all of himself wasn’t something she thought Joe would do easily. He faced her, his jaw flexing with tension, his brown eyes raging with frustration and arousal.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Joe?” She tilted her head when he said nothing. “What would you have done if you’d seen me on another man’s arm that night?”
“I would have torn him apart,” he snapped.
“Your date left with all her hair and teeth intact,” she pointed out gently.
“And you never came back,” he growled. “You wouldn’t answer my calls. By God, you didn’t want to hear explanations.”
“No, I didn’t,” she admitted sadly. “The explanation should have come before the reality of it kicked me in the gut, Joe. I watched you that night, pretending you didn’t know me, that I was nothing, as you danced with another woman.…”
“I never took my eyes off you.”
“Or your hand off her,” she reminded him.
“It was a fucking case, Maggie,” he snapped, a grimace contorting his face. “Do you think I wouldn’t have told you if I thought you would be there? After I saw you it was too late; I couldn’t jeopardize the case.”
“I cover the society page, Joe,” she yelled back, infuriated with his logic. “You should have known I would be there. You should have warned me.”
