Page 30 of Between the Lines

She kept her face buried, and he liked how it felt. Finally she sighed again, then spoke.

“The other part was that I loved you.” She shifted position, now pressing her cheek against him. “I loved you, and I believed that you were capable of taking over the world if you wanted to. Instead, you seemed intent on self-destruction. I couldn’t just sit by and watch.”

Theo opened his mouth to reply but found that he had no idea what to say to that. Most of the decisions that he’d made over the years had been pondered with Jo’s voice in his ear. He’d done it with an eye to proving himself to her, even though he wasn’t sure if he’d ever see her again.

He had no idea that she’d thought him capable all along.

A drop of rain splashed squarely on his nose, breaking up his thoughts. It was followed by a sprinkling of rain in Jo’s hair.

“Shit.” Clouds rolled in, thick as soup, and a bolt of lightning lit up the sky and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up straight as the electricity charged the air around them. “Let’s run!”

Jo squealed with laughter as he grabbed her hand, tugging her back in the direction they’d come. They were both soaking by the time they reached the car, which he’d thankfully folded up the top to.

He opened her door, helping her in, before sprinting around to the driver’s side. When he was safely enclosed in the dry space, he shook like a dog, cursing as he looked down.

“Since when do you get so worked up about rain?” Peeling off the silk scarf, Jo combed her fingers through her hair, which was sleek with moisture. “I distinctly remember you once streaking down the street in it after a few too many beers with your school friends.”

Theo grimaced, unbuttoning his suit jacket. “I’ll go streaking anytime you want me to, baby. But I’d prefer not to ruin this suit. I was assured that it was made by blind monks on a hill somewhere, woven out of their blood and tears or some such nonsense. That’s the only explanation behind the price.”

He tossed his jacket behind his seat, then loosened his tie, unbuttoning the top of his shirt. Moving on to loosening his cuffs, he found Jo watching him with more than a hint of hunger on her face.

He didn’t think; he just acted, placing his palm flat on the nape of her neck and hauling her against his chest. She made a muffled moan as he crushed his lips to hers, his tongue immediately tracing the seam of her mouth, demanding that she open for him.

She did, a sigh of surrender on her lips when he slipped his tongue into her mouth and tasted her. The smoky scent of cinnamon that he swore came from her very skin surrounded him, drugging him as he stroked between her lips the way he wanted to taste between her legs.

A crack of thunder so loud that the car vibrated crashed through the air, and they jolted apart, both breathing heavily. When he looked at Jo, saw her lips swollen from his kisses, her cheeks flushed with desire, it took everything he had not to haul her astride him then and there.

He didn’t want their first time again to be in a cramped car outside a graveyard. No, what he wanted was to strip her naked, lay her out on his bed and do every single thing he’d ever dreamed of doing to Jo Marchande.

The way she was looking at him right now? He thought he might finally have the chance.

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