Midnight Remedy (23 page)

“If it’s any consolation, he’s been staring at you too. Every time you look away, he looks this way.”

“Maybe he’s just uncomfortable.”

“Maybe, but I doubt it. I thought you said that it was over? Doesn’t look like things are over to me.”

“It’s definitely over.” Over and done with. Finished. And he was out with another woman to prove it.

Greg patted her hand. “I don’t usually play the part of the shoulder to cry on, but if that’s what you need, I’m willing.”

She smiled at him. No, Greg wasn’t the sort women would usually cry on, he was more the type they’d cry over. No wonder, either. With looks, charm and money, what more could a woman want? And he’d been so kind to her. “Thanks, but I think I’d rather try to forget it.”

“Whatever you want.” He sipped his wine, but he kept hold of her hand.

It was too late for her to have what she wanted. Pride was all she had left. She wasn’t about to let Eric know he’d gotten to her. For at least half an hour she made sure not to look his way. When she finally risked a glance she saw that he and his date had left. Visions of what they might be doing filled her mind until she wanted to scream.

Not long after that Greg took her home. “Doesn’t Chambers know how lucky he is?” he asked her. “How could he let you go over some garbage the papers printed?”

She gave him a crooked smile. “You’ve got it wrong. I’m the one who called things off between us.”

His arms crossed over his chest, he studied her. “I hate to say this—man, I really hate to say this—but it looks like you made a mistake.”

“Why do you keep acting like I’m
 . . .
like he
 . . .
”

Greg pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Piper didn’t resist. She desperately wanted to see if Greg was wrong and she was over Eric. It was a good kiss, a pleasant kiss, even a very skillful kiss, but it didn’t do a thing for her.

He raised his mouth from hers and looked at her with a wry smile. “If you ever get over him, let me know.” He muttered, “Damn. One more,” and kissed her again, briefly, before releasing her.

“I’m sorry,” Piper said.

“It’s all right. I didn’t figure I had a chance, but,” he shrugged, “it was worth a try.”

She watched him leave, wondering why she couldn’t feel about him the way he wanted her to. But, she thought with sudden insight, Greg might not be as interested if she had been like the other women he dated.

When Eric opened the door
late that evening, Piper was the last person he expected to see. It blew him away. He wondered if he were hallucinating. Then she spoke and he knew she was no illusion.

“Are you alone?” she asked, with a hard edge to her normally soft whiskey drawl. Glancing down, he realized he wore his oldest jeans, faded at the stress points, with the top button undone. And nothing else. One corner of his mouth lifted. “What’s wrong, Angel? Afraid you’re interrupting something?”

“Am I?” She didn’t return the smile.

“Not at the moment,” he couldn’t resist saying. Eric stepped aside and she stalked past him.

“I saw you tonight at dinner,” she said.

“Yeah, I saw you too. So?” He walked over to lean a hip against the table and watch her.

“So I didn’t know you’d already started dating.”

It pleased him to hear the tightness in her voice, because it meant she hadn’t liked seeing him with another woman. “Why wait?” He shot her an astute look. “You were there with McKinnley. How long did it take him to find out we weren’t an item anymore?”

“He didn’t know until today. Tonight wasn’t really a date.”

“Business, was it?”

Piper flushed. “Obviously, your date wasn’t business,” she shot back.

The thought of her with McKinnley made him crazy. “No, purely pleasure. Did you expect me to hang around like a lap dog waiting for you to throw me a crumb? Sorry to disappoint you, Angel, but that’s not my idea of fun.”

“This was a mistake,” she said, starting toward the door.

Eric reached out and grabbed her arm. If she’d wanted to be with McKinnley, then why was she here now? He was damned if he’d let her go before he found out. “Why did you come?”

She said nothing, averting her eyes.

He could think of only one reason why she would have come. Because she didn’t want McKinnley, she wanted him. And God knows, he wanted her too. He pulled her closer until she stood between his legs, ran his hands up her back, slowly, sensuously. “Tell me,” he said softly.

His hands slid down over her bottom, he pulled her against him, so he could feel her heat through the denim of his jeans. He could smell sex in the air, feel it in the quivering tension between them, and he knew she felt it too. But he wanted the words to come from her. “Why are you here?”

Briefly, her eyes closed and opened. Her gaze locked with his. “Because I missed you.” Her voice was husky, low, the sound a seduction in itself. “I wanted so much to forget you, and I can’t.”

“God knows I can’t forget you, either.” He kissed her then, thrusting his tongue inside her mouth as it opened under his, the kiss exploding into a desire so intense that he burned with it and he could feel her going up in flames too. He swept her mouth with his tongue, engaging hers in an erotic rhythm so much like making love he wasn’t sure how long he could continue without completing the act.

Sliding his hands up under her dress, he caressed her hips, finding only a thin wisp of nylon
 . . .
and Piper. He shoved her skirt up above her hips, settled her more firmly against him and heard her indrawn hiss of breath when she realized he was already fully aroused.

“You’d better be sure about this, Angel, because you’re not going to get a chance to change your mind.”

She rocked her hips against his and pulled his mouth back to hers. With a muffled groan, he backed her up so that her hips rested against the edge of the table.

He jerked the blouse out of the waistband of her skirt and ran his hands up under it to rest below her breasts, to feel her smooth, warm abdomen rise and fall. Beneath the cotton bra, her nipples tightened. Her heart rate increased, her skin flushed. She was as ready as he was, or would be in moments. A shiver coursed through her as he massaged her breasts through soft cotton before flicking her bra open to expose her bare skin.

“Damn.” Somewhere, he had a condom, but he didn’t want to stop to find it. He wanted to be inside her now, sooner than now. “Damn,” he repeated. “Wait, I have to get something.”

Her hands touched his zipper. She said, breathlessly, “The pocket of my skirt.” Slowly, she dragged the zipper down.

“You came prepared.” He searched for the pocket in the crumpled material of her skirt. “You came here for this.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

His fingers closed around a small packet. “Good. Because I can’t wait for the bedroom.” He laid her back on the table, covering her nipple with his mouth, sucking deep and strong before he traced his tongue over to her other breast. She arched and groaned, her hands buried in his hair. He slid her panties off and all he could think was he had to have her now, right now. His fingers found the slick heat between her legs, he had only to stroke her a few times before pushing her to the edge.

Sweet, hot little sounds came from the back of her throat and he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell he could slow down or wait a minute longer. He barely managed to rip the packet open and protect her before he buried himself deep inside her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, raising her hips off the table to meet him thrust for thrust.

Had he ever felt like this? A burning frenzy, an almost crazed need for her that he’d never felt for another woman. Piper was as wild as he, taking him with the same nearly savage desire he took her. Then he felt her convulsing around him and he thrust again and again, hard and fierce and endlessly until he exploded deep within her.

Eric didn’t know how long it was before he realized she lay underneath him on the table and he’d taken her like some kind of lunatic. But she wasn’t upset. Her eyes were closed and the smile that curved her lips spoke of satiation. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

“Better than okay,” she said in a sexy murmur that made him want her again, right then, right there.

Reluctantly, he eased away from her, taking her hands in his to help her sit up. “Come on, let’s go to the bedroom.” He carried her in, laid her on the bed and began to strip off the rest of her clothes.

“That woman you were with tonight,” she said hesitantly. “Have you been dating her long?”

“Are you delicately trying to ask me if I’ve slept with anyone since you?” He jerked her blouse off and she gasped.

“Have you?”

“You should have asked me that before now, Angel.” And with that, he flung her skirt to the side. He smiled. She was naked now and waiting for him. He shouldn’t still want her so much, but he did. “But no, I haven’t.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me?” Her hand whispered over his chest and trailed down to his erection.

“No.” Because if he didn’t know the answer to that, then he didn’t know Piper at all. He planted his knee between her legs and said, “Now be quiet and let me make love to you.”

A long time later, she said, “I’ve got to go.”

“Not yet.” And he made love to her again.

Late the next day,
with her hands full of a large, muddy orchid, Piper felt an arm slide around her waist.

“Hi,” Eric said, dropping a kiss on her ear. “If you’d put that plant down, I could find out something I’ve been wondering about all day.” His lips trailed down her neck.

Her stomach did a somersault at the sound of his voice and the feel of his lips on her skin. She turned to be pulled into his arms and ruthlessly kissed. She had the feeling that in about thirty seconds the door would be locked and she’d find out what it was like to make love standing up in a greenhouse.

She managed to pull back and give a shaky laugh. “You don’t believe in starting off slow, do you?”

He smiled, but he looked serious, sexy and appealing with his hair falling over his brow. “Will you marry me?”

Just like that. Out of the blue. Totally flabbergasted, she stared at him. “M—mm—marry you?” she stammered out.

“Yes, marry me.” His eyes weren’t green now, they were deep gray and fathomless.

There was no mistake, he’d asked her to marry him. “Why?”

He looked a little amused at her blunt question. “Because I love you. You must have figured that out by now.”

Slowly, she shook her head. “No, I hadn’t.”

Eric took her hand and kissed it and then kissed her gently on the lips. “I love you and I want you to marry me.”

She wanted to say yes and fling her arms around his neck and not worry about a thing, but she couldn’t. He didn’t trust her. He desired her, he thought he loved her, but he didn’t trust her.

“You’ve never mentioned marriage before.”

“I’m mentioning it now. What’s wrong? Is it Cole? You know I want him, Piper. I want to be his father.”

Piper took her hand from his, desperately trying to put a distance between them. “It’s not Cole. But I can’t marry you.”