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"Not talk?" He sounded incredulous

"About us," she clarified "I can’t see beating the subject into the ground, can you?" Any further discussion would lead to h the last few days In her heart of hearts she’d accepted that he was going to marry Blythe Hoive me an opportunity, I’d like to tell you about Blythe and me"

"Please, no," she said quickly before he had a chance to drag the other woman between them Not that Blythe wasn’t already there, as bold as could be She had been since the beginning: suave, sophisticated, re she would never be

Other than being strikingly beautiful, Blythe Holmes was sober faced and serious minded One couldn’t look at the woman and not speculate at her importance She was the perfect wife and professional for an up-and-coed about her grandson’s achieveh for Joy to knoas considered brilliant

"All right, on’t talk about us," Ted agreed reluctantly

Joy wasn’t sure if it was by accident or design, but they see side by side as they were, their shoulders touched Then, without her being sure how he ed it, Ted positioned hiht, and then gradually, al his broad chest for support

His hands cupped her shoulders and eased her back even ment allowed herself to be drawn into the warm, welcome circle of his arms His nose nuzzled the side of her neck, and his hot breath fanned her cool skin

Unable to raise so much as a token resistance, Joy decided she eak, much weaker than she ever realized For the first time in days she felt warm and content It was cold outside Ted’s arms, cold and lonely She knew his attention was te at best, but she needed his touch and his tenderness

Joy, a willing participant, maneuvered their positions so they faced each other His hands framed her face, and his thumb skidded across her lips She knew he intended to kiss her long before he brought his mouth to hers Knew it and welcomed it

His hed at the simple pleasure his touch produced They’d kissed before This keen sense of satisfaction shouldn’t have coers into her hair, bunching it up in his hands as his lided over hers He molded the shape of her lips with his, with a heat and a need that seared her senses

A frightening kind of excitement took hold of Joy, and she opened her ue went in search of hers, and she moaned aloud at this new level of intiressed froone back on and the elevator hadn’t abruptly jolted the under his breath that she couldn’t fully decipher What she did reed with entirely

"I have a dinner engagerandh the elevator had started to move "Can I come see you afterward?"

"Ah" It shouldn’t be this difficult to decide

He kissed her again with a hunger that sent her world spinning off its orbit "Okay," she agreed, sounding weak and unsure At theher to her feet, "you’ve got to trust ht? That’s all I ask"

The elevator arrived, and Ted stepped off reluctantly He backed out of the elevator and raised his fingers to his lips in a gesture of farewell

"Said the spider to the fly," Joy murmured

Trust him That was all he’d asked Her heart told her she should, and her head, her know-it-all head, insisted otherwise Joy grinned and decided to believe her heart

"What happened?" she asked the first person she sahen she stepped off the elevator

"Happened?" questioned Justine, a library committee member

"With the electricity"

Justine stared at her blankly "I don’t know"

"We didn’t lose power?"

"No," Justine said "What et hoe her clothes before Ted showed up outside her door

"That was fast," she said, but in truth she was pleased The tied and she padded barefoot back into her kitchen

Ted caught her by the hand and brought her into his eh she wasn’t certain she would have, before he kissed her

She was breathless and witless by the time he finished

"That was about the fastest dinner on record," he told her "As soon as Grandry"

"You didn’t believe her, did you?"

"Not on your life"

"Good"

"But that doesn’t mean I didn’t take her to her favorite fast-food place, order her the works, and drive her back to the Wilshire Grove in record ti a minute more without you I’m crazy about you, Joy"

She shut her eyes and turned her head away froripped her by the shoulders and turned her so that it was impossible to hide from him "You don’t want to hear how I feel about you?"