Page 31 of It's a Widow Thing

Michael set down his bags on the coffee table in front of her office sofa and tugged the scarf from his neck. “I’m clueless, but I hear women talk about it all the time.”

Sabrina made her way around her desk. “It’s a way to bring out the bone structure in your face. You know, like cheekbones.”

Michael took her hand, rubbed her palm with his thumb. “Ah, yes. Bones. Very important.”

Sabrina wished she could send Lucy a psychic message to vacate the room. She wasn’t able to say it with her eyes because she couldn’t keep them off him.

Lucy cleared her throat loudly. “I’m on my way home unless you need anything.”

“Have a good night.” Sabrina’s pried her eyes from Michael, but it took a concerted effort. “Thank you for everything. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“No problem. No problem whatsoever.” She tapped the doorway with her finger. “You guys have a good night, too.” With a click of the latch, she closed the door to Sabrina’s office.

“You too…” Sabrina’s voice trailed off as Michael let go of her hand and removed his jacket, tossing it over the back of a chair. It had been such a long day. How nice to see his face at the end of it. “It’s so good to see you.”

“I couldn’t stay away.” He pulled her into his arms, planting a soft but demonstrative kiss on her lips. “I missed you today.” His fingers made maddening loops on her neck while his lips hovered above hers.

“I know you were busy with work.” Her head swam when she caught a whiff of his scent, warm and citrusy. She couldn’t help but dig her fingers in a little when she skimmed her hands over the ripples in his back. “I heard it was a monster day on the market.”

He shrugged, his sights seeming focused on her mouth. “Yeah, it was okay. I didn’t pay that much attention, to be honest.” His thumb swept across her lower lip. “All I could think about all day was you.”

Sabrina’s cheeks flushed with heat. “Really?”

He went in for another kiss, their tongues meeting. “Yes, really.”

He missed me.“Me too. I thought about you a lot. Even when there was exciting work stuff going on.” She fingered the buttons on his crisp, slightly rumpled pale-blue dress shirt. The garment belonged on the floor. The office was empty, after all.

“I brought dinner. You said you were probably going to have to work late and I hated the thought of you ordering some awful takeout.”

“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“You have no idea.” He took three long steps to her office door and flicked off the light switch.

Her heart began to beat wildly. Those few seconds of anticipation as he closed in on her were too much. “I take it we’re eating in the dark.”

“It’s not very romantic otherwise.”

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

Michael closed in on Sabrina,anticipation making his heart pound. He had big things he needed to talk to her about, but serious topics could wait, right? “Are you starving?” He cupped her shoulders, his fingers caressing her arms, silky and bare in a sleeveless dress.

She shook her head. “I could… um… wait.”

Normally patient, Michael had been anything but as he’d waited to see her today. Now that they were together, alone, in a darkened office, he’d reached the point of no return. And if they were about to do what he hoped they were about to do, he could put off extending the invitation his father had insisted he make. “Waiting can be good.”

She pressed a soft kiss to the corner of his lips. “Didn’t we decide we’d done more than enough of that?”

“We did.” He reached for the zipper on her dress, noting each click the pull made as he tugged it lower. Those clicks meant she was one step closer to being his, but hearing them wasn’t enough, he wanted to see every inch of her. He walked around her to her back, which brought out a sweet sigh of approval from Sabrina. He dragged a fingertip down the first few bare inches of her spine.

“I was going to say that bringing me dinner was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me, but I have a feeling this is going to be better.”

“I will certainly try.” He continued to unzip her slowly, teasing her dress open, placing kisses along the channel of her spine as he went. With a decisive final pull of the zipper, he reached the end. He flattened himself against her back and nudged her hair aside with his nose. As he tugged the clingy dress from her shoulders and began to pull it down from her body, he peppered her neck with kisses until the garment settled on the floor.

He reached around and placed his hand on her belly, pressing her body against his. She craned her neck to kiss him, reaching up and cupping the back of his head with her hand. Her lips were impossibly soft. An escape from hard reality. He wanted to get lost in them and have them get lost on him. He slipped his hand between her back and his chest, staying as close to her as possible, and unhooked her bra. She dropped her hand from his neck, shrugging the straps until they slid slowly down her arms and met the same fate as her dress.

Being a step closer to his reward only made it that much more urgent to reach it. She was down to black satin panties and the shiny stilettos that never failed to grab his attention in the elevator. He loved having her in this vulnerable position, her body at his mercy, his for the taking. He clutched her left hand, pinning it against her hip. He took her other hand and placed it behind his neck.

He traced her belly in slow, deliberate circles with his fingers. Her skin was so delicate and her breathing so pronounced, there were times when a whisper-thin sliver of space was left between their skin and a current still traveled between them. He kissed her neck softly, gently nibbled on her ear.