Face the Fire Page 0,36

me with you to finish this."

"What I need isn't yet clear."

He lifted a hand, grazing a knuckle over the line of her jaw. An old gesture. "And what you want?"

"Wanting you sexually isn't life and death, Sam. It's scratching a vague itch."

"Vague?" Amusement brightened his face as his hand slid around to cup the back of her neck.

"Vague," she repeated and let his mouth come to hers, let it rub teasingly. And entice. "Slight."

"I was thinking more . . ." He danced the fingers of his free hand up and down her spine. "Constant. Chronic." Nibbling on her, he eased her closer.

She kept her gaze on him, her arms at her sides. "Desire's only a hunger."

"You're right. Let's eat."

He ravished her mouth, shifting so swiftly from gentle warmth to raging heat that she had no choice but to plunge with him.

Her hands gripped his hips, squeezed, then ran roughly up his back to hook like talons over his shoulders. If he would push her to the brink, she thought, she would push him harder - and further. She let her head fall back, not a gesture of surrender but one of demand. Take more, if you dare. When he dared, she purred in pleasure.

Her scent seemed to pour over him, into him, until his belly ached and his head spun. In one desperate move he dragged her closer and prepared to fall with her onto the couch. The front door opened. The cheerful jingle of bells might as well have been sirens.

"Go rent a damn room," Lulu snapped and let the door slam behind her. It gave her dark satisfaction to watch the two of them spring apart. "Or at least crawl into the backseat of a car if you're going to act like a couple of horny teenagers." She slapped her enormous purse on the counter. "Me, I've got a business to run around here."

"Good point." Sam slipped an arm possessively around Mia's waist. "We'll just take a walk across the street."

It was another old gesture, Mia remembered. Once she would have hooked her arm around him in turn and leaned her head against his shoulder. Now, she simply stepped away.

"That's a charming offer, really, but I'll just take a rain check. The business that Lulu so helpfully pointed out needs to be run is mine. And we're opening in . . . less than an hour," she said after a glance at her watch.

"Then we'll make it fast."

"Another delightful offer. Isn't that sweet, Lu? It's not every day a woman gets an invitation for a quick roll before operating hours."

"Adorable," Lulu said sourly. She felt sour - and preferred blaming it on Sam rather than on not being able to sleep well since her Saturday-night hallucination.

"But be that as it may . . ." Mia patted Sam's cheek absently, then started to turn away. He took her chin in a firm grip. "You're playing me," he said softly. "You want to make this a game, then I should warn you. I don't always play by the rules now."

"Neither do I." She heard the back door open, close. "Ah, there's Nell. You'll have to excuse me, Sam. I have work. As I'm sure you do."

She nudged his hand away, then walked over to meet Nell as she came in. "I'll take that up." Mia scooped the first box of baked goods out of Nell's arms. "Smells fabulous." She sailed up the stairs with the scent of cinnamon rolls floating behind her.

"Um." Nell cleared her throat. Walking into the tension had been like walking into a wall. "Hello, Sam."

"Nell."

"Well, I've got . . . more," she managed, then escaped out the back again.

"In case you haven't noticed," Lulu said, "we're not open for business. So get."

He could still taste Mia. With his mood hot and ripe for trouble, he walked to the counter and leaned over close to Lulu's scowl. "I don't give a damn if you approve or disapprove. You won't keep me away from her."

"You did a good job of that yourself these past years."

"Now I'm back, and we're all just going to have to deal with it." He strode to the door, yanked it open.

"If you want to play guard dog, there's something a hell of a lot more dangerous than me you should be snapping at."

Lulu watched him stalk across the street. She wasn't sure there was anything more dangerous to Mia than Sam Logan.

No family. The wine-and-junk-food-induced hallucination had been wrong about