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"Now," she said, and guided hiood Then she arched her hps and he saw fireworks "Grace," he whispered hoarsely, nipping at her jaw "We’ve got to slon"

"Later"

She was coht And she wasn’t alone Already breathing crazily, he set his forehead to hers with a little groan as she continued to rock up against hiet hiers in his hair, her body straining and e He could feel everything tightening within hiht train to the end of the line "Grace, Christ Don’tinto her hips, but there was no hope of reining her in He didn’t even knohy he’d tried She drew him deeper into her body, and, he suspected, into her heart and soul

There was no holding back, not then, and not when she cupped his face and looked up at hiain Her eyes went opaque, his na hi with her, thrusting hard into her body before finally falling over her in a boneless heap He tried to pull back but she wouldn’t let hiht around him Finally she allowed hie, to support his oeight again

They re beside hers on the cushion, breathing the saled

It was the most perfect moment he could remember, and he planned to rewind and repeat the entire experience Just as soon as he could , war when she heard the slider open

"Hey, Josh?"

Anna

Grace’s head shot up and bashed Josh in the chin hard enough to cause stars to dance in her vision

"Josh," Anna yelled "I’ve been calling you for ten da down at the cell phone in her hand, grabbing up Josh’s cell as she passed the patio table where it lay discarded

"Ohup at Josh in horror, shoving at hi off of her

Josh, of course, didn’t budge There was no budging hied With his still sleepy, heavy-lidded gaze locked on hers, he spoke over his shoulder to his sister "Give us aht was dark, only a sliver of a moon They were in the shadows, and Josh still had his shorts on, preservingGrace, not that that helped any

Anna narrowed her eyes as if trying to see through the dark, then slapped a hand over her eyes "E! Are you kidding me?"

"A minute," Josh repeated in his no-nonsense, calm but steely voice

"Fine But call your son, who’s been de you for half an hour" With that, Anna whirled, then wheeled back to the house, dropping Josh’s phone onto the table without further word

Josh dived into the pool’s depths to find Grace’s bikini top Once he’d retrieved it, he tied the straps at her back and neck while she adjusted her botto was back in place because she was pretty much a bowl of jelly Then he strode directly to his phone and called Toby

"Well?" Grace asked worriedly when he’d hung up

"He’s fine He just wants to co to say you’re sorry, please don’t Or if you regret it, or if it was just plain awful and--"

He shut her up with a kiss A really great kiss, with lots of heat and tongue When they ran out of air, he pressed his forehead to hers "I was going to thank you I needed you tonight You were there for me"

It took her a e, but when she’d come to his office What didn’t take a moment was the realization that he’d said he needed her Not so, proudup, she cupped his jaw "You were having a bad day?"

"A bad year" He hesitated, then covered her hand with his "I sold ht"

She controlled her instinctive gasp "You did?"

"Yeah"

She was bloay "Are you okay?"

He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm "At thebut very okay"

She sht, Grace"

"’Night"

Chapter 17

Chocolate is nature’s way of ht days of craziness at work He never second-guessed his decision to sell, but there was no i of his schedule After the smoke cleared, there were a hell of a lot of people anted to talk to hiotiable condition of the contract Everyone still had jobs, status quo

But even though he’d discussed it ahead of time with everyone in his office, now that it had been done, they all needed reassurance Josh understood that, but it didn’t help with the insanity, which also included s The board had been ecstatic about his decision, and as planned, they brought in another doctor to lighten the load

Dr Tessa McGinley Josh knew her They’d gone through residency together Though they were the sarande She wasn’t made for ER work, but that was a benefit as far as Josh was concerned, since he coveted the ER The bottom line was that Tessa had been tailor-made for a practice like his, where patient care was the nu to him room to add ht about that as he dealt with four flu sufferers, three routine physicals, two cases of strep, and a partridge in a pear tree He thought about a lot of things, such as Grace He hadn’t seen her since the night they’d christened his lounge chair He had no idea what her plans were, but his were leaning toward Operation: Get Her Alone in the Pool Again

But he was gritty-eyed with exhaustion He thought maybe he could lie down on his bed and sleep for the rest of his life

Going to get better now, Josh told hi to more to the people in his life

For now, he left work and headed to the pier It was the night of the Su music, food, and booths from the local merchants He’d promised Mallory that he’d put in an hour at the Health Services Center booth, s for the passersby