“It’s the doorman’s dog, Maples.”
She smiled, her eyes looking soft. “Maples is the doorman or the dog?”
“Dog.” I touched her brow and came away with blue powder on my fingers. “Why the brows?”
“You know how I get after I have a job blending in. Why is the doorman’s dog on the screensaver?”
“He wants to keep me. Don’t you think that’s why he put it here?”
She frowned at the photo in deep concentration. “I think he wants to keep you because he’s not an idiot. I think he put the photo here because he wants you to think that he wants to keep you. He’s very smart.”
I nodded. “He really is. What do you think he’s going to do with me? I’m not sure I can shoot anyone, even after therapy.”
She snorted and pushed my shoulder. “Maybe he’s going to have you learn to cook and be his perfect housewife.”
I wrinkled my nose. “That would be torture for both of us. I’m not really into torture, but I could pretend to cook and clean. It’s really no trouble to have things delivered and take them out of the oven, and cleaning isn’t something I mind, other than dishes, because they ruin my hands, and you know how much I—” I pulled her into a sudden hug that made her gasp while I squeezed her ribs too tight. “No one’s going to put you in a hospital ever again.”
She squeezed me back and put her bony chin on my shoulder. “Nope. And no one’s going to hurt your hands, and no one’s going to tell you to sell your body to the highest bidder. You’ve got a whole company to run now, unless your grandfather has decided to disown you.”
I pulled away and straightened up, trying to look like I hadn’t had a lapse in self-control. “Then it wouldn’t be my problem to reorganize the entire structure so it isn’t a problem for Dirk and his interests.”
She raised that pastel brow. “You’re putting his best interests above your own?”
“His best interests are my best interests.” I tapped the tablet, and there were the lists of everything he was in the process of patenting or creating, exactly as he’d said they would be. “I am going to make certain that his company is running as well as it can be. I should check some things now, but I need to go back to bed and touch him.” I gave her another quick hug and got up, heading for the bedroom door.
“Go get it, girl,” she said with a laugh and went back to her Scooby Doo.
Love. Dirk was giving me love, the most addictive substance in the world, and he’d keep giving it to me until he tired of it. Well, two could play that game. If he was going to love me so well that I could never leave him, I’d return the favor with interest.
As soon as I closed the door behind me, Dirk was there, the force of his body against mine thumping me against the door, not enough to knock the breath out of me, and nothing like pain, but a shock that made me gasp even as his lips pressed against mine, insistent as he slid a hand up my arm to my shoulder, grasping me with just the right amount of pressure. I sagged against the door, held up by his chest and the hand that grasped my waist.
“You think that you can leave me alone in your bed?” he murmured low in my ear with a rough growl at the end before he started kissing my jaw.
My knees were weak as he lifted me up and carried me back to the bed. My bed. Our bed. He lowered me down on theEgyptian cotton sheets and then curled up behind me, pulling me against him and wrapping his arms tight around me.
I blinked in the darkness. “What are you doing?”
“Spooning you. You left, so you defaulted on the right to be the big spoon. I’m holding onto you.”
I wriggled a little, and his arms tightened around me, and he nipped my shoulder through his robe. “You aren’t going to do that lovemaking thing again?”
“In the morning, but only if you stay in bed all night.”
“You promise?”
He sighed heavily. “Of course, but I have to get up at five to put the turkey in the oven.”
“Turkey?”
“Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. We’re going to have a small affair, you, me, Toni. It’ll be like our honeymoon with your best friend.”
“I noticed that the doors are soundproof. I couldn’t hear her Scooby Doo until I went into the living room. So, if you wanted to practice that lovemaking thing tonight before you get up to do the turkey, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”
He nibbled on my ear, and a rush of heat and hunger went through me. I tried to turn in his arms, but he was so deliciously strong. “If I started making love to you again, there would be no night, and then I wouldn’t have strength to make the turkey. Also, it’s not the lovemaking thing; it’s making love.”
“Ah, such a fine distinction. Perhaps you should demonstrate the differences to me.” I twisted quickly, but he caught me and rolled on top of me, pinning me very thoroughly while I soaked in the feel of him, his weight pressing into me. My heart fluttered, and butterflies exploded everywhere, leaving happiness shrapnel behind.
He growled, “First, you have to let me spoon with you and sleep. I didn’t like waking up without you and knowing thatToni might be a double agent who was working with your father all along, and she’d convinced you to forget this marriage and responsibility for your company to run away knocking over bars all across the country. There’s also the thing where I haven’t slept in four days. If you want to really enjoy your husband’s prowess, he needs his rest.”
