Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) - By Elizabeth Ruston Page 0,90

her however he liked. She would take her own turn with him later, she knew, but for now she had absolutely no problem with Joe exploring her first.

He slicked his hands slowly over her breasts. She leaned back against him, feeling the hardness, savoring it, knowing how it would feel inside her, in no hurry to get there. She was tired of rushing with this man. She wanted long hours with him, the languorous kind of sex they had experienced the past two nights in the privacy of their own apartments. No more furtive lovemaking on the run. She was tired of hiding. She couldn’t wait for him to be free of the case so they could be together in the open.

Her carefully styled hair was already in uncontrollable coils, but she didn’t care. He had seen her that way plenty of times when they were younger. What she cared about were his hands, now venturing lower, coaxing her thighs apart, one strong arm bracing her against him while the fingers on his other hand did their delicate work.

Sarah sighed with the force of a body finally letting go: letting go of the tension, the anger, the resentment, the fears that held her back. She thought she had already given it all away, but here was the last of it, the marrow of it, working its way up to the surface and washing away in the steam. If she was with him, she was with him all the way now. He could have her in every configuration: her body, her desire, her passion, her heart, her mind, her love.

She turned to him, and if it wasn’t the right time, not important or special enough, then she couldn’t help it: it had to be said.

“I love you, Joe. I’ve always loved you.”

He covered her mouth with his and pulled her tightly against him. Then he shut off the water, lifted her from the shower, and set her dripping on the floor. They dried each other as hurriedly as they could in between kissing and caressing, and then Sarah knew there would be no slowness this time, no long, languid build-up, because it had to be now, they needed each other too much, and Joe barely got her to the bed before sheathing himself and entering her in almost the same motion.

She lay wet and loose against the sheets, her legs wrapped around him, her hands gripping his shoulders as he kissed her deep and long, her body absorbing every thrust of his hips, wanting this part to go on and on, because it was the best expression she could think of for how close she felt to him now, how much she needed him, how much she trusted and loved him and wanted him to feel the same from her, how she was with him now, and would be, how much better it could be now that they knew what they’d had and knew too well what they had lost.

Sarah could feel the power mounting, the force of her desire pushing its way to the surface, the release that her body craved even if her heart never wanted this part to end.

She exploded with a cry, her hips bucking against him, her back arching, her fingers digging into his shoulders as Joe drove into her harder now, more urgently, and then he was with her, too, shuddering with the release, his face and body slick with sweat, his mouth still hungry for hers.

Sarah held him against her for a long time, captive in the double bind of her arms and legs. Then finally the two of them realized she couldn’t breathe with his full weight on her, and she let him shift to the side.

She heard him say something, but the curtain was already lowering in her brain, and she was almost asleep. Joe pulled the covers over both of them and that was the last she remembered before his watch alarm woke them in the morning.

Joe kissed her awake and told her that he loved her.

“I love you, too,” she said.

Such a sweet beginning, Sarah thought later, to one of the hardest days of her life.

Thirty-five

“Hi, Ms. Henley. Ryan Sollers. Very nice to meet you.” Chapman’s replacement shook Sarah’s hand.

“‘Sarah’ is fine,” she said, taking in the upgrade in both manners and appearance of the new attorney. He looked more like a California surfer than a litigator, with his blond hair and a tan that looked like he earned it