His gaze trapped her, holding her hostage as they teetered on the sharp edge of a very sensitive issue. When she found her voice again, she replied, “That’s awfully possessive.”
He shrugged a shoulder, the look in his eyes unapologetic. “Yeah, I suppose it is. But that’s the way I feel about you, all the more so because I stand the chance of losing you.”
Her heart stopped, then resumed at a breakneck pace. She saw the determination glowing in his gaze, and undiluted panic raced through her blood, filling every pore with a throbbing, aching kind of fear.
“I love you, Paige,” he said, low and fierce.
Oh, Lord, she’d known that was coming, thought she’d prepared herself to hear those three little words from Josh and not let her need and yearning interfere with her self-control. She shook her head in a frantic attempt to stop the rush of emotion bubbling to the surface. “Josh, no,” she forced out, her voice choked.
“More than friends,” he went on with a tender ruthlessness, ignoring her plea. “More than acquaintances.” In a blur of movement she couldn’t have anticipated, he grasped her hips and dragged her closer, until his body pressed against her side and his face loomed above hers. Her hands automatically caught his arms, holding on as uncertainty played havoc with her mind.
Male heat radiated from him, raw and untamed. He locked his gaze with hers, the intensity in the depths of those amber orbs shaking her resolve.
A shudder ripped through her, stripping away the protective layers she’d secured around her heart. She had no defenses when it came to Josh. Her need and desire for him was too strong to deny, and she suspected he knew it, too.
Tears stung her eyes. The reciprocating words jammed in her throat, wouldn’t pry loose. Knowing no other way to express her feelings, she slid her fingers into his thick hair, brought his mouth to hers and kissed him with all the love that crowded her heart to overflowing-for him.
He groaned at the first touch of her lips on his, the sound encouraging her. His strong body shuddered when she boldly stroked her tongue against his. From there he took over, responding to the fevered heat burning between them. He kissed her just as deeply, just as demandingly. Neither could get enough of the other, their hunger and need an insatiable thing.
Hard and urgent eventually gave way to soft and exploring. Time slipped away as they indulged in every kind of kiss imaginable. Languid, drugging kisses. Tender, cherishing kisses. Deep, wet, slippery kisses that made her melt. Sexy, erotic kisses that elicited a greater need and urged her to move shamelessly against him.
With his mouth still fused to hers, he shifted, slipping a hard thigh between hers. She welcomed the pressure, gasped when he rubbed sensuously against that tender nub of flesh that throbbed so insistently at the apex of her thighs.
Her body quickened and her hips undulated. She made a desperate sound, tightened her thighs around his and arched, but she couldn’t get close enough. Oh, God, had she ever needed anything so badly? Her breath came in heavy pants, and she tore her mouth from Josh’s. His dark eyes reflected the same passion thrumming through her veins.
“Josh…” Confusion and wanting thickened her voice.
“Shh…” Tangling his fingers into her hair, he lowered his head to feather more kisses over her lips, her jaw, her throat, drawing a moan of pleasure from her. “We’re just kissing and touching,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck, then lapping his tongue over the pulse fluttering at the base. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
Better than good, she thought. Closing her eyes, she cradled his face in her hands and brought his lips back to hers, answering his question with a lazy, openmouthed, tongue-tangling kiss. The hand on her hip roamed, sliding upward over silk. He pushed aside the thin strap of her chemise, eased it down her shoulder and cupped the heavy weight of her breast in his palm.
She sucked in a sharp breath when his thumb flicked over her taut nipple. Her breasts felt swollen, heavy, too sensitive. He lightened his touch, brushed his knuckles over the velvety crest to soothe the ache, but even that simple caress electrified her nerve endings. She couldn’t stop the whimper that escaped her throat.
He lifted his head and looked at her, concern knitting his brows. “Are you okay?”
She bit her lower lip and nodded, unwilling to voice her suspicions about
He gave her a lopsided smile. “I think it’s a great idea, but I understand.” Reluctantly, he moved back to his side of the bed. “I guess we ought to call it a night.”
She nodded her agreement, already missing the warmth of his body next to hers. Regretting, too, that the evening had to end this way.
Picking up his plate, he headed for the door. Hand on the knob, he hesitated and glanced back at her. His gaze was fierce as it held hers. And incredibly warm. “I meant what I said earlier, Paige. I love you.” Then he was gone.
Emotion welled inside her and she tried not to cry at the hopelessness of their situation, but lost the battle. A one tear trickled down her cheek and she whispered to the empty, lonely room what she couldn’t bring herself to say to Josh. “I love you, too. More than friends. More than acquaintances.”
She always would.
“SO, YOU WANT to tell me what’s going on between you md Paige?” Nick asked the question as they each saddled up a horse for the early-afternoon ride Josh planned to take Paige on before they headed back to Miami. “Besides you guarding her until the case is over?”
Josh slanted his father a wry look, wondering where that insightful question had come from. Since Paige was up at the house helping his mother clean up after lunch, he felt relatively safe in discussing the subject. “Are my feelings that obvious?”
Nick shrugged his broad shoulders as he fitted a saddle onto Desiree’s back. “I know you’ve always cared for her, but your mother and I were talking last night md we both sense something between the two of you has changed. Has it?”
“My feelings for Paige have grown over the years,” he admitted, unable to deny the truth to his father. “But I never would have acted upon them with her being married to Anthony. Now that he’s gone, I think we’ve ooth realized there’s more to our relationship than just being friends.” Coaxing Paige into admitting those emotions, though, was another thing. The kiss she’d instigated last night spoke volumes, but it wasn’t enough, not when he wanted forever with her.
“What are you going to do about it?” Nick asked after a quiet moment had passed.
“I honestly don’t know.” Josh tightened the girth on Lacey’s saddle, then gave her an affectionate rub along her sleek neck. “Anthony didn’t leave Paige with the best impression of being a cop’s wife, and I’m finding it difficult to compete with those bad memories.”
Understanding glimmered in Nick’s gaze. “Not everyone is cut out to be a cop’s wife. You know that as well as I do.”
“Mom did it,” Josh stated, not wanting to think about the high divorce rate within their profession.
“Your mother could have been a sergeant herself.”
Josh chuckled. Despite his father’s grumblings, there was no doubt in Josh’s mind that Nick’s comment was spoken with respect and adoration for the woman who’d put her husband and family above all else. And Nick had been just as loyal and dedicated. Their marriage had been a mutual compromise, a case of giveand-take.
Not so in Paige’s case. She’d given and Anthony had taken, leaving Paige empty and stung by several different forms of betrayal. Was it no wonder she was so distrusting of her feelings?
“Your mother and Paige come from two different backgrounds,” Nick went on as they led the two mares from the stable and out into the warm sunshine. “Anna grew up the oldest in a household. She was only ten when her mother died, and raising her younger brothers and sisters made her older and wiser than her years. By the time I met her, she’d already developed that take-charge kind of personality. She has an inner strength few women possess.”
Josh firmly believed Paige had that emotional fortitude within her as well. It might have withered from Anthony’s manipulative abuse and neglect, but hadn’t she demonstrated that courage when she’d made the decision to leave Anthony and demanded a divorce that last day they’d been together? She hated the situation
