Page 99 of Playing With Fire

Before she could speak, he was at her side, gently pulling her to her feet.

“I have a family.”

She tried to laugh it off, acutely aware of the gentle pressure of his hands on hers. His eyes were so dark that she could see herself mirrored in their ocean blue depths. Her voice wavered. “And they need me. That’s enough for me.”

Jodi let herself be pulled into his arms, giving in to the deep yearning which pounded through her veins and colored her cheeks. They stood, thigh to thigh, hips almost touching, the broad expanse of his chest hard against her soft breasts.

Her lips grazed across the warm exposed skin of his neck, and she felt the rumble of desire that reverberated through him. His grip tightened.

“Is it?” he asked gravely. He lifted her chin and stared into her eyes. “And what if I need you, Jodi Ruskin? But don’t worry, I don’t.”

Her eyes widened. He leaned forward and kissed her outraged face, beginning with her nose, then both cheeks, her forehead, and ending with her lips. For a second Jodi was tempted to demand an explanation, but the kiss was so darn amazing that she lost track entirely.

He pulled back a little.

“Mmmm?” said Jodi, and he laughed at the dazed satisfaction on her face.

“Okay, I do need you, just a bit. But I love you. Every little bit of your beautiful body and the cute way you twist your hair when you’re nervous and the way your eyes flash when you get fired up. And that little gasp when I kiss you, like your stomach is doing flip flops.”

Jodi blinked. “Ummm.”

And who says that communications degree was wasted?

He kissed her again and pushed back a long blond curl which had gone rogue.

“And in case you’re thinking that I’m simply after your body, I love your mind, your crazy brilliant brain, and that stubborn determination to do the right thing, whatever it takes.”

“Okay.” Jodi knew this was a totally inadequate answer, but Ricky seemed satisfied for the moment.

Something niggled at the back of her mind. She had something to tell him.

Oh yeah.

She traced her fingers down the side of his face, vaguely aware that Jaime, tired of being ignored, was trying to climb Ricky like a tree.

“The board has appointed a new editor, and I’ve declined their offer to stay,” she said. “Just this morning. Ms. Dependable just became Ms. Impulsive. I’m...considering my options.”

Her thoughts flew to her carefully reworked resume and to the emails she would send that night to Manhattan. To the land of Italian coffee machines and firefighters who breakfasted at dawn in a tucked-away café in Far Rockaway.

She dragged her mind back on track back. There was more. Her stomach tightened. Suddenly she wasn’t so sure, not at all, about what she wanted to say.

“Good,” said Ricky. He reached down and hoisted Jaime up with one arm. He leaned over and kissed Jodi. “Better than good. Exceptional.”

Jodi laughed. Her big romantic moment and here was a two-year-old right in the middle. Which reminded her of the only other elephant in the room. Kind of a biggie.

“Your little girl...” she said tentatively. “You didn’t find her after all.”

Ricky delivered a smacking kiss on Jaime’s cheek. “No, I didn’t. But all that anger I had, all that rage, was about me, not about my child. I can’t believe that I wanted to rip her away from her family, just to make me happy.”

He nuzzled the child’s neck and inhaled a lungful of sweet baby.

“I’ll have to wait for Lioba. She’ll come looking one day, my daughter, and I’ll be there waiting.”

“That’s an unusual name. Lioba.” Jodi’s voice was soft. “I looked it up. You do know what it means?”

He shrugged.

“It means ‘beloved’.”

---