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Jodie was glad Mitch had ignored her when she’d told him to leave her apartment. Her perfectly awful day was beginning to look up. It was suddenly a beautiful night, and if she was lucky, she could persuade him to help her break in her patio, instead of moving things into the bedroom. She liked the thought of making love to Mitch while looking up at the stars.
With teasing thoroughness, Mitch took control of Jodie’s kiss, clasping her hair to hold her mouth at the angle he wanted her. Jodie writhed in his lap, pressing her sensitive breasts into his muscled chest. She could feel him, hard and ready beneath her and wiggled her hips. She was rewarded with a groan that she captured with her lips. He tasted of beer and peppermint and Mitch. It was divine, and Jodie needed more. Her fingers found their way to the bottom of his t-shirt and began to tug it up his body.
Strong hands clasped her wrists to stop her and their kiss ended. Jodie looked down at Mitch. His eyes were dark and heavy-lidded. His breathing laboured. His lips bruised by her kisses. Oh yeah, she definitely needed more of him. And she needed it now.
“Stop,” he said.
It took a minute for the word to register.
“Stop?”
“Yeah.” He rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.
Jodie waited for the rest, but nothing was forthcoming. “Why stop?”
He sighed, lifted his head and looked into her eyes. “We’re in a relationship now, yeah?”
As much as it galled her to admit it, she had agreed to his terms, so she nodded.
His lips twitched up at the corners. “I can see you’re still thrilled about that.”
“Did you expect anything else? You blackmailed me into this. Now the whole town is probably talking about what happened outside the spa today. They think we’re seeing each other.”
“That’s because we are seeing each other, baby.” This was said with more annoying lip twitching.
“Whatever.” Jodie huffed in exasperation. “Why are we stopping?”
“Because...” He paused, which made her think she wasn’t going to like what he said next. “We went about this relationship thing backwards. I think it would be a good idea to cool off the physical for a while so we can get to know each other.”
Yep, she was right. She didn’t like that one bit. Plus, it didn’t sound normal, reasonable or healthy.
“I don’t need to get to know you. I’ve been clear. I’m only in this for the sex.”
“You were clear, but things changed when we kissed outside the spa today. Now we’re a couple, and I think it’d be a good idea if you knew the guy you were dating, don’t you?”
No. She didn’t. “I know what I need to know. I know that you’re handy in a legal crisis. You give good gifts. And you’re great in bed. What else is there to know? Now can you stop being annoying so we can go to bed?”
He looked up at the starry sky for a moment. Jodie got the distinct impression he was praying. She hoped it was for some sense, because his current thinking was seriously twisted.
“Look.” He tipped his head back down towards her. “Why don’t we talk for half an hour and see where it goes?”
“We just talked. I don’t see why we have to do it again. We talked about you getting rid of the protestors. We talked about shoes. We’ve talked enough.”
He stared at her for a minute. His face was hard to read, but he was clearly displeased. “You are murder on a guy’s ego,” he muttered, then took a deep breath. “People who date spend time together while they aren’t having sex. They talk. They get to know each other. We’re dating. I want the stuff that happens outside of the bedroom too. So, starting from now, we’re going to put sex on the back burner while we hang out.”
“What?” Yeah, she was screeching. She wasn’t proud. “No sex? What the hell is the point of having a boyfriend if you don’t get sex?”
“Babe, I haven’t been your boyfriend. I’ve been your sex toy.”
“I thought you liked being my sex toy.”
“I did. I do. But I have other needs.”
Now she was confused. “What other needs?”
“The need to get to know you.”
And they were back to that again. “Seriously? We’re doing this? You would really rather talk than get naked?”
To her relief, he at least looked conflicted. “Yeah,” he said at last.
“This is pathetic. Other men, real men, don’t want to sit around talking. Real men don’t whine about their women not meeting their emotional needs. In fact, no man in the history of the universe has ever said ‘let’s talk’ when a woman offered him sex. Until now. With me. I must be so special.”
Mitch’s smile was devilish. “I’m a lawyer, baby. A boardroom negotiator. You can’t manipulate me into taking you to bed just to prove I’m a real man. I am totally secure in my maleness. We’re going to talk.”
“What if I don’t want to talk?”
“Half an hour, Jodie. You can do half an hour, then as a reward I’ll take you to bed and I’ll do all the work. Agreed?”
She bit her bottom lip. “Promise?”
“Promise.” He sounded solemn, but his eyes were laughing at her.
“Fine.” She waved a hand. “Let’s talk.”
She stared at him. He stared back. No one spoke. Jodie drummed the fingers of her left hand on the bicep of her right arm.
“You want me to start?” Mitch said.
“It’s your bloody idea!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
They stared at each other some more. Jodie was beginning to get majorly agitated. The kind of agitated that could only be assuaged by pacing and ranting.
“Well?” she demanded. “I hope these silent minutes count towards the half-hour mark.”
“Give me a second. This is harder than I thought it would be.”
“That’s probably because you didn’t think about it enough to begin with.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Not helping.”
“What do you want? Topics? Fine. Let’s discuss the weather. Or Scottish independence. Or women’s rights. Or who makes the best fries, Dougal or Deke. I’m sure we’ll know loads more about each other once the conversation is over.”
Mitch said nothing, so Jodie carried on.
“Or what about first-date topics? Favourite colour. Favourite music. Favourite pets.”
Still nothing. For a guy who wanted to talk, he wasn’t making any effort.
“Or how about we discuss past sexual partners? I hear guys love to talk about that.”
“Okay.” Mitch placed a hand either side of her waist and lifted her off him. He stood, grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet. “Conversation over. Which way is the bedroom?”
“At last. Some sense.” Jodie dragged him down the short hallway off the living room.
Jodie kicked open her bedroom door and flicked on the recessed lighting. She loved this room. It sat in the peak of the old church roof, with slanting ceilings, exposed beams and a stained glass window that let in multi-coloured light. Like all the stained glass in the building, it was one mass of geometric patterns rather than depicting religious scenes. Jodie had always considered this a good thing. She didn’t think she’d be comfortable sleeping under a biblical tableau—or doing anything else under it, either. Not that she thought God had anything against sex—He did invent it after all—but she was a Catholic schoolgirl at heart and programmed to feel guilt at the sight of religious artwork.
Jodie watched Mitch’s gaze flick around her bedroom, which she’d decorated in multi-coloured hues to match the window. The walls were whitewashed, the warm wood exposed on ceiling and floor, but the rest of the room was an eclectic assembly of colourful materials.
“Jodie Miller, you are such a girl,” he said with a grin.
“Well, duh.” Jodie pulled her shirt over her head, revealing the lavender tartan bra she’d bought from Kirsty Benson’s lingerie store.
“You’ve got a girly side.” Mitch wasn’t going to let this go, she knew it.
“Mitch, I run a spa. That’s about as girly as it gets. Now get undressed.”
He put his hands on his hips and glared at her. Although she noted that his eyes warmed when she’d gotten rid of her trousers and was only standing in front of him in matching lingerie.
“Mitch, naked. Chop, chop.” She waved a hand at his clothes.
“You know, this relationship is not going the way I’d planned.”
“Join the club.” Jodie climbed onto her bed. “I didn’t even want a relationship. I’m here under duress.”
Mitch shook his head, but she was glad to see his t-shirt was gone and he was unbuttoning his jeans. That was more like it. What she didn’t like to see was the look of determination on his face.
“I will get to know you,” he said. “I will break through the wall and get to the soft, girly centre.”
“You make me sound like a candy bar.”
The smile was back. Mitch divested himself of his underpants, which made Jodie smile too.
“You taste like a candy bar.”
“Yeah?” Jodie leaned back against the many pillows that covered her bed as Mitch crawled up the length of her body.
“Yeah.” His voice was a husky rumble as he buried his face in the crook of her neck. Jodie’s arms and legs automatically wrapped around him. She smiled as Mitch kissed her throat, the hot weight of his body pressing into the length of hers.
“Why are you still wearing this?” He tugged her bra strap off her shoulder.
“I thought you’d enjoy removing it.”
That earned her the nip of his teeth on her shoulder. She shivered at the feel of his bite.
“Give me one thing.” He kissed his way up her throat to her ear. “One thing that’s about you. One thing normal people tell each other while they’re dating. Give me one thing, baby, and I’ll unwrap you and show you my appreciation.”
Jodie’s breath caught in her throat at the thought of Mitch’s appreciation. She knew exactly how good that could be. Somehow, being close to him like that, wrapped around him in her bed, made it easier to give him what he wanted. She cleared her throat.
“My favourite colour is blue.” She felt him still, before his arms squeezed tight around her. His lips never left her throat. “The kind of blue you only ever see on the ocean after a stormy day. That deep blue-green that’s impossible to find anywhere else.”
Mitch flicked the clasp of her bra open before slipping the strap off her shoulder.
“My favourite food is Indian. Especially pakora. No, onion baji.” She wasn’t sure why she kept talking when she’d already given him one thing. All she knew was that it felt easy like this. Her reward was the feeling of his smile against the curve of her breast as he lowered the cup of her bra.
“I love spring rain, when the air is fresh and there’s the promise of bright, warm sun after the downpour.”
Mitch’s teeth rasped her nipple and she clung to him, one hand moving to the back of his head, where she could keep him pressed against her.
“I always wanted to go to Paris in the springtime.” Her mind was torn between the words spilling from her lips and the delicious feeling of his mouth suckling her. “I could walk down the Champs-Élysées and pretend I was an actor in a classic Hollywood movie. Something with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant.”
Mitch’s free hand caressed down her side, over her hip until he cupped her backside. He pulled her up tight against him. Jodie’s head went back as that wonderful dizzy sensation flooded her brain. The one where she felt like she was floating, only tethered by Mitch’s touch.
“One day,” she said breathily, “I want to learn to sew and make all my own clothes.”
That earned her another grin against her skin. His head went back and Jodie moaned at the loss of his mouth from her breast.
“You are such a girl.”
“I like football,” Jodie said. “I genuinely believe in girl power and I am convinced women should be in charge of all governments.”
His grin got wider, and Jodie searched his eyes to see if he was laughing at her. She didn’t think he was, but she wasn’t sure.
“Strong,” he whispered, closing the gap between them so that she felt the words against her lips. “Girly and strong. A formidable force, my Jodie.”
My Jodie.
She stopped breathing at his words.
And then Mitch opened his mouth over hers and she gasped in a breath. A breath filled with the taste and the scent of Mitch. The man who thought she was his. For the first time in her life, Jodie was frozen with indecision. She didn’t know whether to fight, run or surrender.
The fact she didn’t know what she should do terrified her, just a little. Because deep in the back of her mind, she was worried that Mitch might be making a place for himself in her heart. A place where she might one day call him hers.