“Okay, but would you say between us we have the combined IQ of at least a garden slug?”

“Why did you call me?” he said.The question took her aback. She touched her tongue to her upper lip in a gesture she hoped would distract him. “I should think that would be obvious by now.”He smiled. “Honey, that was obvious from the first time we locked horns in the court room.”

“What? Have I stunned you into silence? Shocked you with myforwardness, maybe?”“Nah, I was just searching for the weather report from hell. I’m guessing it must have frozenover down there.”

“The look he shot her was incredulous in the extreme. "You have a filing system for your shoes?”

“He caught her hand. “What do you want from me, Grace?”That was easy. “Everything.” She wanted to touch his chest, but since he held her hand prisoner, she insinuated one leg between his legs, delighting in what it did to his breathing. “I don’t want you to hold anything back. I don’t want you to be so careful with me all the time.”“Grace….”“I want you to give me as much as I can take, and then I want you to give me more.”“Like I did last night?”His voice was rough, laced with self-disgust. God help her, she’d never loved him more.”

“You are so beautiful,” he breathed. “Watching you come like that … feeling you come like that…. Christ, Nita, I could die happy.”She closed her eyes.“No, don’t baby. Keep your eyes open. I want you to stay with me while we kiss and whisper and f#ck.”

“He pulled her into the alley between the restaurant and the art gallery next door, pushed her up against the cool brick of the building and kissed her.It was not a searching, tentative kiss. It was urgent and fiercely demanding, as were the hands that skimmed down her shoulders to her hips.”