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“Wetter, you mean.” Her voice sounded seductively breathy.
“Since I think I already qualify—”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you are, make more.”

She laughed and slipped her hand to her sex. “Aye, aye,
sir.”

Tentative brushes of her fingertips glided over his dick.
She clenched around him, throwing her head back so that her dark hair cascaded
halfway to her ass. He reached up to wind his hand through her curls, pulling
harder than he’d intended. Needing that jolt to remind him this was real, that
she wasn’t a figment of his overworked imagination.

The slap of their bodies moving together echoed in his head.
Real. Brutally honest. Stripped bare. They were that together and more. For one
night, they’d given each other that much.

For long suspended moments he drove into her, expending a
breath every time she took him deep. She captured him inside her, inner tissues
rippling, her body fisting him for a beat, then two, until she cried out and
let go.

Fuck yeah.
Now.

Karyn pulsed around his length so wildly he couldn’t hold
back. He groaned and thrust hard, surely leaving marks, probably ripping out
her hair while he stroked into her without reserve. She let out a sound crossed
between a wail and a scream, her spasms extending when he changed the angle. Christ,
she was coming again. He buried himself to the hilt, his cock jerking as he
drained himself into the condom. Giving her all of himself. More than she was
probably ready to take.

He collapsed on top of her, the scent of her sweat-sheened
skin making him want to burrow deeper and never leave. Eventually he made
himself roll over but he didn’t open his eyes. Too much effort. Even breathing
took all his concentration.

“You fucking killed me,” he said in between bouts of mutual
wheezing.

Karyn turned over to face him and blew away a damp curl. “I
pretended to be really mad. Next time I’ll work on furious.”

Chuckling, he slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled
her closer. Only then did he realize crushed grapes clung to her breasts. He
bent his head and flicked her nipple, savoring the sweet fruit and even sweeter
woman. She moaned and threaded her fingers through his hair, holding him
against her until he’d consumed every last drop of juice and mashed chunk of
grape.

“Bet I’m so clean I sparkle,” she murmured. “You, on the
other hand…”

He glanced down, noting the cheese he now wore as a spread
on his knees. Who the hell knew where the dishes and the wine bottle had gone.

“Think we’re gonna need another shower,” he said with a
grin.

* * * * *

Karyn awakened to the sound of bells. Church bells? A
wedding?

They continued to chime until she discerned it wasn’t bells,
plural, but the doorbell. Of her house. She rubbed the cobwebs out of her eyes
and ignored it, figuring it could be a new paperboy or something. When the bell
rang for, oh, the seventh time or so, she realized her visitor with pathetic
timing had no intention of leaving.

Jeff tightened his arm around her waist. “Want me to handle
it?”

She smiled. God, it was nice having a man around again.
Especially one like Jeff. And what that meant she had no intention of dwelling
on.

“No, I’ll get the door. You’re a guest.” She slid away from
him, already missing his body heat as she reached for the robe hanging from one
of the bedposts. The blue terry cloth covered her from neck to ankles, but
Jeff’s attention as she tied the belt made her skin prickle with awareness. “Go
back to sleep.”

On the way to the door, she tried to fluff her tangled hair.
She quickly gave up. Hopefully she wouldn’t horrify anyone.

“Who is it?” she called as her bare foot hit the cold
hardwood floor of the foyer.

“Lon.”

Her hand fisted around the banister. Terrific.

She inhaled a deep breath and marched forward, determined
not to be deterred in her own home. At least it would be hers for a while
longer.

“Hi,” she said as she pulled open the door and squinted in
the early morning sunlight. “You’re early.” She made herself smile. “By about
six hours.”

He cocked his head, rolling the newspaper he held between
his palms. His brown hair fell in disordered waves around his rawboned
face—tousled by Daisy’s hands perhaps—and he wore mirrored sunglasses that hid
his dark eyes. His eyes were always sleepy, always bored. At first she’d
assumed it had to be an affectation. But she’d slowly, painfully learned his
cool disdain came naturally.

“You said morning. It’s almost seven. That’s morning,
right?” He tossed the paper on the hall table and scratched his smooth jaw.
“You have my phone?”

“Yes, I do.” She bit her lip and wondered how long Jeff
would stay upstairs. Before she’d finished the thought, she heard thundering
footsteps on the creaky steps. “Come in,” she said, opening the door wider just
as her lover stepped into the front hall.

He’d put on his jeans. She was grateful for that much. But
he hadn’t bothered with a shirt and definitely didn’t bother hiding the
disgusted curl of his lip.

“Jeff, you know Lon,” she said, moving back as the two men
stared at each other. If someone threw a punch she wasn’t about to get caught
in the crossfire.

She took the opportunity provided by the heavy silence that
hung between them to study the two men. Jeff was shorter, stockier, more built.
He also had harder edges. Even the glint in his gorgeous eyes spoke of his
willingness to take a swing to defend her honor. She didn’t think he waded into
most of the messes he came upon but if necessary, he wouldn’t be a bystander.
He’d get down and dirty with the best of them.

Lon loomed over them both, though he didn’t have an extra
pound on him from his years of careful diet and exercise. He never spoke a
cross word or grew impatient. No, he simply checked out. Even the reflective
surface of his sunglasses offered a perfect mirror of his personality.
Hot-blooded he wasn’t. At least not with her.

“I know him. How’s Daisy this morning?” Jeff asked, crossing
his arms over his chest.

“She’s fine. Why are you in my home?” Lon didn’t sound
pissed, just mildly curious.

“Your home. Not hers, even though she lives here too and
you’re long gone.”

She shot Jeff a glance, simultaneously gratified and
dismayed by his quick defense. Didn’t he understand arguing would only make
everything worse?

For whom? How much longer can you stay mute and numb?

“Jeff’s a…friend,” she said in an attempt to quiet both her
mind and her lover. She didn’t want arguments, didn’t need strife and she
definitely didn’t like the hot look Jeff tossed her.

What did he expect her to say? If Lon had half a brain, he
could guess what had happened between them.

“Yeah, I’m her friend who just put on his pants.”

Karyn didn’t attempt to stop Jeff when he turned around and
headed back upstairs. She just wanted peace.

She shoved her hands through her hair in frustration. God,
when was she going to realize she wasn’t going to
get
peace? It just
wasn’t going to happen. She needed to stand up for herself for once—and for
Jeff—or she’d be on her own again and it would be her own damn fault.

“You’re
sleeping
with Maddox?”

She would’ve taken outrage better than shock. Lon sounded
stunned at the mere possibility she had a lover. No wonder her self-confidence
needed some work.

“His name is Jeff.” She dropping her hands to her sides.
“Yes, I’m sleeping with him. Since you’re involved with his sister, you can’t
claim to not understand the family appeal.”

For once he had the courtesy to look embarrassed. “Daisy’s a
student of mine at the night school. She came in to take a course and—”

“And you decided to hell with professional ethics?”

“It’s not a university,” he said under his breath. “They’re
just continuing education courses. She’s above age.”

“Barely.”

“That’s not the point. The point is you. How long have you
been sleeping with him?” he demanded, showing more interest in her than he had
in years.

She glanced at the slim bangle watch around her wrist.
“Seven hours, give or take.”

“You know better than to go for a rebound relationship,
Karyn.” The bored, patient tone she’d grown so used to had again returned to
his voice. “You’re not experienced enough to be able to sleep with someone
without your feelings getting all tangled up.”

“So? What if they are tangled? Did it ever occur to you
maybe he wouldn’t mind?”

She didn’t know what Jeff would or wouldn’t mind but it
wasn’t for Lon to speculate on. They could discuss things, if and when they
needed to. In the meantime, he needed to get his sanctimonious ass out of
her
house.

“Maddox? He’s hardly your type. The guy growls more than
speaks.” With a shake of his head, he held out a hand. “I’d like my phone back
now.”

“Maybe he just growls at you. Ever think of that? Since
you’re fucking his little sister and he knows you’re married.”

For the first time she could recall, he smirked. Actually
smirked at her. “Check your left hand. So are you. Doesn’t look like it stopped
him, now does it?”

She reached down and yanked off her ring and threw it against
the wall. It bounced and hit the hardwood with a satisfying ping. “There. Now
what? You want me to agree to the divorce?”

She turned and charged into the living room, continuing into
the connected dining room before her brain could engage. She didn’t want to
think. Her anger mobilized her. For once she didn’t care if she’d taken the
wrong step. Moving itself was enough.

“Karyn,” Lon said in a soothing, steady tone as he followed
her. “Take it easy. Are you all right?”

Ignoring him, she grabbed the papers she hadn’t touched in
almost three weeks. Like a damn ostrich, she’d dug her head so far in the sand
it covered her ass. As usual she’d tried to pretend she didn’t have to deal
with her life. That if she just waited the situation out, it would all go away.

Just as her parents’ divorce had gone away. They’d almost
divorced so many times, but look at them. They were still together, thirty
years later. Despite how many divorces they’d started and dropped, despite the
fights, despite the river of tears she’d seen raining down her mother’s face as
she sat on the kitchen floor cradling the latest piece of crockery her father
had broken in a rage. But he’d never touched her mother or her or her younger
sister. Not in anger. That was what mattered, her mother said. Words didn’t
wound like fists.

Yeah, right. What a load of crap. Both words spent and words
deferred hurt. Holding feelings back, guarding them like a miser hoarding
pennies, tore holes in people. Her husband’s seeming lack of emotion had torn
damn sinkholes inside her and she’d done the shittiest patch-up job ever.

She balled up her divorce papers, breathing so hard her
chest and back ached. Her mother was wrong. She didn’t want just to get by
while telling herself it could always be worse. Being happy mattered. And she
needed to grab her happiness with both hands and hold on no matter who tried to
rip it away.

For once, she needed to fight.

“Karyn?” Lon touched her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“So take him for all he’s got. Any judge would side with
you.”

But did she want this house? She loved her studio, yes, but
she’d lived here with Lon. It had been the cracked shell around their broken
marriage for so long. Could she truly move on while she was stuck in the same
old muck?

Would she even know until she tried?

She’d made mistakes too. Funny how one night with Jeff had
shown her more than months of recriminations. But then, if she were honest,
last night was the first time she’d shined a hard light on her life. A fucking
shame it had taken having a stranger at her side to make her acknowledge the
truth.

Except Jeff wasn’t a stranger. If she just counted the hours
they’d known each other, fine. But in all the most vital ways, he already knew
her. He got the parts of her she liked best. He got
her
.

“Karyn?”

She turned her head to look at Lon, unsurprised to see he’d
yet to lower his sunglasses. But she didn’t look away. Instead she stared into
the flat soulless mirrors over his eyes. “Why wouldn’t you come to Christmas
dinners at my parents’ house?”

She expected surprise at the question, but she didn’t get
it. He slipped his hands in the pockets of his baggy trousers and swallowed
hard enough to make his Adam’s apple bob. “It always felt too tense there. Even
though we had our issues, we weren’t at each other’s throats. But sometimes
that place seemed…contaminating. Like they’d infect us too.”

The divorce papers in her hand shook. How much else hadn’t
she faced? It had been so easy to blame Lon. He was evil incarnate, for no
reason except to make her life miserable. She’d been above reproach.

Except she wasn’t. Apathy and denial were no less toxic than
outright violence. Maybe they didn’t harm as quickly but they harmed just the
same.

Lon might’ve closed down on her, but she honestly didn’t
remember when she’d been anything but closed off herself. Except last night.
Why she’d found a way to open up to Jeff, she had no clue.

All she knew was that she intended to fight like hell not to
go back to where she’d been before. No matter what.

“You never told me,” she said, not looking at him.

“You never listened when I tried.” He cupped her shoulder,
his fingers exerting gentle pressure. “I loved you once.”

I loved me once too.

A knot formed in her throat. She tried to speak, found she
couldn’t. She shut her eyes and let the grief pour through her. The last thing
she’d do was fend off these emotions when they were finally struggling to break
through the surface.