Who’s the Boss?

having to move; since she’d truly begun to crave her own place filled with her own stuff, purchased with her own money.

What hurt was something else entirely, something horrifying.

She missed Joe. Missed his smart-ass comments, his from-the-gut laugh that always jump-started her own. Missed his sardonic grin and his piercing light blue eyes. His deep understanding of life and its intricacies. One day without him, and she ached.

She was in trouble.

“I’ll take everything,” Chastity said, brandishing her checkbook. “All of it.”

The doorbell spoiled the relief. “Who now?” Caitlin muttered as Chastity excused herself for a minute, needing to use the telephone.

Caitlin made her way past the open boxes she’d already started to pack. At the front door, she hesitated, putting a hand on her inexplicably rapidly beating heart. Then she pulled on the knob, only to have her heart stop completely.

Joe had his arms braced against opposite sides of the jamb. His head had dropped between his shoulders, so that when she opened the door, she could have leaned forward an inch and kissed him.

He lifted his face and pierced her heart with his gaze. He didn’t move, didn’t smile, just looked at her.

Her entire body responded, going weak and strong at the same time. Every sense became heightened so that she felt his look as she would a touch. When she spoke, her voice wavered. “You paid the mortgage on this place until the end of the month. Then you gave me a raise.”

“Ask me in, Caitlin.”

That would be a disaster. She lifted her paycheck and waved it under his nose. “Why, Joe?”

“Ask me in and I’ll tell you.”

“Was it guilt? Or pity?”

“All right,” he said evenly, pushing past her to step into the foyer. “I won’t wait to be asked.”

“Joe-”

“Where’s Vince?”

She narrowed her eyes at his low, deceptively soft voice. “How did you know he was here?”

“Where is he?” His jaw tightened as he tried to peer around her. “Upstairs?”

“Up- Of course not!” She put her hands on her hips. “I don’t want you here. I-”

He gripped her waist and hauled her to him. She felt as though she’d stepped off a cliff into thin air, as if she were falling in slow motion, slipping, gliding in weightlessness. Her heart beat hard and high in her chest “Back off.” She grabbed handfuls of his hair, meaning to push him away, but somehow ending up pulling him closer instead.

She shook. So did he, she could feel his muscles ripple against her. Their eyes locked, her breath came even quicker. “Joe-”

He claimed her mouth with his. She opened to him, hot and hungry. Hands still clasped in his hair, she changed the angle of the kiss and dived deeper, swallowing his incoherent masculine murmur of pleasure.

She wanted him, not just to hold, not just for a few stolen kisses and not just for comfort, though she wanted that, as well. She wanted him in a way that she’d never wanted anyone before. Crazy, she told herself. Insane. She couldn’t afford to be thinking about this, about him. Not with her world falling apart. But she kept kissing him. Kept holding him.

He lifted his mouth from hers, but kept her close. “If you let Vince do that…”

Slowly, the words computed past her own dazed brain. “You came here because you thought I could…with Vince…that we…” With a sound of pure frustration. she pushed him away. “How could you even think it?”

Bitterly disappointed, she tried to move past him.

Joe caught her around the waist and placed her between the wall and his muscled body. There was no doubt that he was angry when he kissed her this time, but he kept at it, nibbling and possessing until the temper evaporated into hot, delicious passion and she was kissing him back with everything she had.

When he finally released her, her body throbbed and tingled. It only marginally satisfied her to see his chest heave with his own unsteady breathing.

With a surprisingly gentle touch, he tucked her wayward hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry. You confuse me.”

“It makes two of us,” she assured him. “I didn’t even let Vince in, Joe. And he didn’t force his way in, either.”

“I never claimed to be a gentleman, princess.”

She stared at him, painfully aware of her body’s response to his presence. She vibrated with it. “I still can’t believe what you thought, or how much I care what you thought.” She slapped her paycheck to his chest. “Keep your pity.”

“Pity had nothing to do with it. You earned it. Why didn’t you tell me you could do more than answer phones?”

“I did tell you!”

Chastity came into the room, and oblivious to the thick tension, she announced, “Here’s a check, darling. I’m paying for everything. Everything. So don’t even think about cheating me when the men come tomorrow with the truck- Oh.” At the sight of Joe, she dropped her businesslike tone and switched to sex kitten in the blink of an eye. “Isn’t this interesting?”

Caitlin dropped her head back on her shoulders and stared heavenward. Haven’t I learned enough humility?

“So nice to meet you again,” Chastity said sweetly, holding out her hand to Joe. “I hear so much about you these days.”

“You can’t believe any of it,” Joe assured her. “Unless it’s all good.”

Caitlin rolled her eyes. Chastity practically preened. “Very little of what’s said about you is good, Joe. Mostly… outrageous.”

“Outrageous, huh? Haven’t lost my touch, then.” His eyes sharpened slightly. “What brings you here, Chastity?”

“Oh, we go way back,” Caitlin said quickly. “Don’t we, Chastity?”

“Old friends?” Joe smiled and nodded, as though he understood perfectly. What he really understood was that Caitlin seemed desperate to break up this conversation “That’s nice. Funny how Caitlin would pick today to socialize, seeing how she’s moving tomorrow.”

“And since I’m so busy,” Caitlin interrupted, trying to pull him to the door, “you’d better get back to work and let me get to it. Thanks for coming-”

“Looks like you have a lot left to do,” he said smoothly, evading her hands. “Maybe I should help you pack.”

“Didn’t Caitlin tell you?” Chastity laughed, managing to make the sound bubbly and full of pity at the same time. “I’m saving her pretty little hide, so to speak. I’m taking most of her things-on generous donation, of course-and using them for a charity auction next week.”

Joe looked at Caitlin. She stared at something, fascinating on the floor. She seemed pale, dispirited, and Joe felt sick.

Chastity glanced at her narrow gold Rolex. “Oops, gotta run! I’ll be back in the morning with a truck and a couple of hunks to load everything.” She scribbled something down on a scrap piece of paper, and as she walked past Joe, she stuffed it into the front pocket of his jeans, damn near fondling him in the process. He took it out and wasn’t surprised to see her phone number and address. “Wait a minute.”

“No,” Caitlin leaped to action and rushed up behind Chastity to open the door for her. “She can’t wait-she’s in a hurry. So are you. Scoot now, Chastity, I’ll see you.”

He could fix this, Joe thought with a surge of unfamiliar panic. Otherwise, she’d lose everything, and he knew how it felt to own nothing. “Caitlin-”

“Leave it alone,” she whispered frantically behind Chastity’s back. “Please,” she added so bleakly, he swallowed his protests and let her show Chastity out.

When the woman was gone, Caitlin turned to him, her face tight and drawn. “I want you to go now.”

How long had it been since he’d felt so helpless? It had been a mistake to kiss her, to touch her again. She made him feel things he shouldn’t. Made him want things he didn’t want to want. There’d been plenty of times in