Читать книгу Her Secret Weapon - Beverly Barton - Страница 9

The crisp autumn breeze swirled around Callie Severin as she stood outside the Princess Inn, located in the heart of London’s elegant Belgravia. An October rain earlier in the day had lowered the temperature, so that it was rather chilly. Shivering slightly, she wished she’d taken a heavy coat to the office with her today. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, she reminded herself. One of her American father’s favorite sayings. And that old saying definitely applied to her love life as well as to her coat!

After Laurence had so cruelly broken their engagement and ripped out her heart only a few hours ago, Callie had resigned her position as a Personal Assistant at McNeill, Inc., where Laurence had been her superior. He’d assured her that her resignation was unnecessary and she had assured him that it most certainly was. And she’d told him that she had no intention of working out a notice. He was a heartless, uncaring cad and she was well rid of him! She had repeated those words to herself so often they were now a litany.

After clearing out her desk and saying a somber goodbye to her associates, Callie had taken the tube home and then rushed down the street to her flat, hoping that Enid would be there. She’d needed a friend. A shoulder to cry on. And who better than Enid, her dearest friend and cousin, with whom she shared the flat in Kensington. But Enid hadn’t been there. So Callie had waited and waited, crying for a while and fantasizing about smashing her fist into Laurence’s aquiline nose.

After pulling herself together as best as she could, Callie had searched for Enid in all the places she usually frequented, but hadn’t found her. Enid delighted in being an artist’s model and lived a rather free and easy life, thanks to an inheritance from her paternal grandmother. Men were a disposable commodity to Enid, and she changed lovers frequently. Despite the fact that she and Enid were cousins, their mothers having been sisters, they were as different as day and night. Callie had remained a virgin until she’d become engaged to Laurence.

God! She had to stop thinking about him! Heartless cad. Better off without him.

Callie decided that the Princess Inn would be her last stop. If Enid and her new boyfriend, Niles, weren’t there, she wouldn’t continue searching. She’d go home, have herself another good cry and wait until morning to tell Enid that not only had she lost her fiancé because he was in love with another woman, she would have to temporarily rely on Enid’s generosity until she found a new position.

The pub featured a perfect Georgian era facade with Victorian decor. Elegant and probably very expensive, Callie thought, as she scanned the bar area. If Enid were here, her new boyfriend must have plenty of money. Either that or Enid was picking up the tab. Callie searched the place thoroughly, garnering several odds stares and a couple of propositions. But she didn’t catch a glimpse of Enid anywhere. Enough of this! Time to go home, she told herself. She would simply have to live through this night alone, no matter how much she needed sympathy and comfort.

Just as Callie turned to leave, she noticed a man sitting alone in a back booth. She wasn’t quite sure why her gaze fixed on him—and lingered—or why she couldn’t make herself stop staring at him. Oh, he was quite good-looking. Actually more than good-looking. He was devastatingly handsome. In a terribly masculine way. Not young. Not a boy. Probably late thirties. A good ten or fifteen years older than she.

He glanced at Callie and for a split second she stopped breathing. His eyes focused directly on her, freezing her in place. Some inner instinct warned her to run. Now! But his gaze held her hypnotized.

The man’s face possessed a world-weary expression and his beautiful blue eyes spoke silently of some deep sadness within him. She had never seen eyes such a brilliant blue or a man’s lashes so long and thick. He’d been blessed with black Irish looks—black hair, blue eyes and a fair, ruddy complexion. He was, without a doubt, the best-looking man she’d ever seen.

A heavy stubble darkened his cheeks and chin, as if he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. From the tousled appearance of his stylishly cut hair, she assumed he’d been raking his fingers through it. And his rather expensive-looking navy blue suit was slightly rumpled. She couldn’t help wondering if perhaps he’d slept in it last night.

Without taking his eyes off her, he lifted his glass, saluted her with it and downed the last drops of what she thought was probably Scotch whiskey. His lips lifted ever so lightly in an almost smile that never reached his eyes. As if it were a palpable thing, the stranger’s misery reached out to her, drawing her to him.

Callie took a hesitant step in the man’s direction, her gaze still riveted to his. Somehow she knew he was as unhappy and as alone as she. Could he sense her pain, the way she had sensed his?

He tilted his head, motioning to her, and the almost smile grew wider but remained only a parody of a real smile. As if of their own volition, her legs moved, taking her closer and closer to the stranger. When she stopped at the edge of the booth, the man stood. Unsteady on his feet, he chuckled and grabbed the edge of the table.

With a magnanimous sweep of his hand, he bowed to Callie. “Won’t you join me, lovely lady?”

She hesitated only a second before she nodded and slid into the booth. With staggering unease, he slumped onto the seat. “May I get you something to drink?” he asked, but didn’t wait for her reply before he tried again to stand. A bit wobbly, he braced his hand on the tabletop.

“Thank you,” Callie said. That would be nice, Mr., er, Mr….?

“Lonigan. Burke Lonigan.”

His devastating smile did evil things to her stomach, making it tighten and then turn somersaults. Oh, dear me, she thought. Mr. Burke Lonigan was undeniably lethal.

“I’ll get myself another,” he said, his speech slightly slurred. “And you will have a—”

“Chardonnay,” she said, her voice creaky. She cleared her throat, feeling uneasy and uncertain. And breathlessly attracted to a perfect stranger.

Mr. Lonigan made his way across the crowded room to the bar area, leaving her with her confused thoughts. What was she doing? Had she lost her mind? She’d never been the type to pick up men in pubs. Not until now, a pesky inner voice chided.

He returned from the bar, their drinks in hand, set hers before her and slid into the booth.

“What’s a pretty lady like you doing all alone?” he asked.

“I was looking for someone.”

“A man?”

“No, actually, I was looking for a friend—a girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend, huh? Looking for her to chat her up, I suppose.”

“Yes, something like that.”

“Good friend, is she?” he asked. “Someone you can trust with your problems?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t have a friend like that,” he said, his eyes piercing her with their intense stare. “Would you like to be my friend? Just for tonight?”

A hint of tears glistened in his eyes. Unshed tears. Agonized tears. She saw the pain and understood—this man was hurting in the worst way. Hurting as she was hurting. Had someone broken his heart? she wondered.

Without thinking about what she was doing, Callie reached over and placed her hand atop his and squeezed gently. “Yes, I’ll be your friend, just for tonight, if you’ll be my friend.”

It was apparent she wasn’t going to find Enid tonight, and she desperately needed someone with whom she could share her misery. Why not this handsome man, this stranger she would never see again? She’d often heard that it was easier to talk to a stranger. Perhaps it was.

Suddenly Callie felt him tense as he looked at the whiskey. His hand beneath hers balled into a fist. As he removed his hand from hers, she noted a slight tremble.

“Do you really need more to drink?” she asked.

“If I’m going to drown my sorrows, I do,” he told her.

“Can a person really drown their sorrows? If they can, then I’d be willing to give it a try.”

“What sorrows could a pretty young thing like you have?” He lifted the whiskey to his mouth and downed half of it in one swallow. The shiver that went through his body was barely discernible.

“The sorrow of having been betrayed by my fiancé,” she explained, not really understanding why she was pouring out her heart to this man. “He dumped me this afternoon. Seems he’s been having an affair for the past two months with someone he loves madly.”

“Obviously, the man’s a fool.”

“Actually, I’m the fool.” Callie lifted the flute of Chardonnay to her lips. The taste was pleasing on her tongue. She sipped the sharp, dry white wine and decided it was the best she’d ever drunk.

Mr. Lonigan downed the rest of his whiskey. His already flushed cheeks darkened. “Why are you the fool?”

“Because I should have known something was wrong. He’s been acting odd for quite some time now and I chose to accept his rather weak excuses.”

“You were very much in love, I assume. Young girls like you always are, aren’t they?”

“I thought I was. You know how it is. He was charming and attentive and he was the first man I’d…” Callie realized she was about to tell this stranger that Laurence had been her first lover. “Well, I’d never been in love before.”

Mr. Lonigan’s mesmerizing blue eyes opened wide in an expression that told Callie he had understood only too well the meaning of “he was the first man.”

“Love, my girl, is a wasted emotion. Smart people don’t need love. They don’t give it and they don’t expect to receive it. Not from anyone. Not from friends or lovers or—” he paused, sighing loudly “—and not even from parents.”

Callie stared at Mr. Lonigan. He looked directly at her, but she knew he was looking through her. It was so obvious that his mind had drifted away to another time and another place. From the expression on his handsome face, she surmised that his memories were painful.

“Mr. Lonigan?”

“Call me Burke.” He chuckled. “What shall I call you?” When she opened her mouth to tell him her name, he shushed her. “No, no, don’t tell me. I’ll just forget it anyway. I could call you love, I suppose. But that doesn’t suit, does it? Why don’t I call you my darling? Something just as easy to remember.” He inspected her thoroughly. “Besides, you look like a darling to me. So tell me, my darling, what did you do when your fiancé dumped you? Did you scream and cry and call him names?”

“I slapped his silly face and then I resigned my position in the firm where we both worked.”

“Ah, so you’re without a man and without a job.”

“It appears so.”

“Mm… If you’re as smart as you are pretty, you won’t be without either for long.”

Burke excused himself for a trip to the bar, but when he asked if she’d like another, she declined. She watched him staggering as he disappeared into the crowded bar area. He returned within minutes, smiling, another whiskey in his hand.

The moment he sat down, he reached for the Scotch. Callie grasped his hand before he could pick up the glass. “I’ve told you my sad story,” she said. “Why don’t you tell me yours?”

“My sad story?” He lifted his eyebrows as if surprised by her request. “What makes you think I have a sad story to tell?”

She tightened her hold on his big hand. “Because you’re drinking to drown your sorrows and—” she hesitated momentarily “—you look like an unmade bed.”

He tossed back his head and laughed. Genuine, gut-deep laughter.

When he looked at her again, a rather cocky, crooked smile remained in place. “I like honesty in a woman. Unusual quality in most. So, I look like an unmade bed, do I?”

“Yes, you do. And the moment I saw you, I noticed the sadness in your eyes.”

His smile vanished. He knocked her hand aside and lifted the whiskey. This time he downed the entire drink in one long swallow. Afterward he coughed several times.

“Observant little thing, aren’t you?”

“Please, don’t drink any more. You’ve had more than enough.”

He deliberately pinched his cheek. “I’m afraid I can still feel, so that means I haven’t had enough.”

“Want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Why is it that women always want to poke and probe into a man’s business? If you really want to help me, then why don’t you come closer and I’ll tell you what will really make me feel better.”

She noted that he’d begun to slur his words more and more. Another drink and he might not be able to walk. So, why do you care? an inner voice asked. This man doesn’t mean anything to you. He’s a stranger. But he is a stranger in pain. He needs someone tonight. Someone to ease his pain. And you need someone, too, that inner voice reminded her. Someone to ease your pain.

Callie slid closer to him so that they were shoulder to shoulder. Then she draped her arm around his waist and cuddled to his side. “Don’t drink any more and we’ll discuss what we can do for each other…how I can ease your pain and you can ease mine.”

She had no intention of giving this man anything more than sympathy and caring. The two things they both needed. But first she had to find a way to stop him from drinking, didn’t she?

He grinned at her. The bottom dropped out of her stomach. She’d never had such a strong physical reaction to a man—not even Laurence, and they had been lovers. It was as if she and this stranger, this Mr. Lonigan, were somehow connected. She couldn’t explain the odd attraction she felt for him. Did he feel it, too? she wondered. She thought that perhaps he did. Right now he was looking at her as if he could see straight through her clothes. His intense scrutiny made her feel completely naked.

“Would you come home with me, my darling?” he asked, his voice a deep, sensuous invitation.

“I’ll make sure you get home safely.” She made a counteroffer.

“Will you now?”

Callie’s heartbeat quickened when he stared at her, his eyes twinkling with devilment. “I’m not really into casual sex,” she admitted. “I’ve just lived through one of the worst days of my life and obviously you have, too, so perhaps—”

“No sex, huh?”

“I’ll get us a taxi,” Callie said. “And I’ll see you home.”

Burke glowered at her. “Take-charge kind of girl, are you? Well, I don’t need anyone to take charge of me, thank you kindly.” With that said, he tried to stand. After swaying right and left, he quickly sat. “I seem to be quite blotto.”

Callie couldn’t suppress the giggle that escaped from her throat.

“You won’t get an argument from me. You, Mr. Lonigan, are most definitely blotto.”

Within ten minutes Callie, aided by a pub employee, eased Burke Lonigan into a black cab, then slid in beside him. While she rummaged in her purse for money to tip the young man who had helped her, Burke handed the man an overly generous twenty quid.

“Where to, governor?” the driver asked.

When Burke gave the driver his address, Callie gasped. His home was in Belgravia? Only the extremely wealthy lived here. Multimillionaires. Was her Mr. Lonigan that rich? she wondered. Not your Mr. Lonigan, an inner voice scolded.

Burke slipped his arm around Callie’s shoulders and pulled her against him. His whiskey breath was warm and soft against the side of her face. A tingling shudder rippled up her spine, and her stomach fluttered with sexual awareness.

Burke nuzzled her ear and laughed when she trembled. “You’re as jumpy as a virgin, my darling.”

“I’m not a—”

“Of course you’re not. You had a fiancé, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Engaged long?” Burke asked.

“Nearly a year,” she said. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you married or engaged or anything?”

“Never married. Never engaged. But a great deal of anything.”

His teasing manner helped her relax just a bit. “Have you ever been in love?”

“Depends on your definition of love.”

“I suppose what I’m trying to ask is why you’re so sad tonight. I thought perhaps you had a broken heart, too.” She cuddled against Burke Lonigan’s large, strong body. Oddly enough, being encompassed in this stranger’s arms made her feel safe and comforted.

“Ah, I see.” He released her, scooted her toward the opposite side of the taxi and then laid his head on her lap as he stretched his long legs across the seat. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“No.” And she really didn’t. Unable to stop herself, she threaded her fingers through his wavy black hair, which felt incredibly soft and silky to the touch.

Burke lifted his right arm. Reaching up, he caressed the back of her neck with his fingertips. He lowered his left hand to begin a similar maneuver with her knees.

She could stop him. She should stop him! But she didn’t. His touch somehow soothed her as, at the same time, it excited her. An odd combination, but she knew no other way to describe the sensations fluttering inside her body.

“My father died.” Burke’s voice was low and quiet, as if he were talking to himself.

“Oh, I’m so very sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. The old bastard lived to be nearly eighty!”

Callie didn’t understand the bitterness in Burke’s voice or the sudden tenseness in his body. Why would anyone refer to their father as an old bastard? Although she and her father didn’t always agree on everything, they got along rather well. Arthur Severin had been a strict but loving parent who had done his best to bring up his only child after his wife’s untimely death when Callie was twelve.

Burke chuckled. “Actually, I’m the bastard. My parents were never married. He was an older married man and she a young Irish maid. My mother married a Yank soldier when I was ten and we moved to America. I only became acquainted with my real father when I returned to England as a grown man.”

“Did the two of you never reconcile?” Callie asked.

“In a way, I suppose we did.” Burke halted his caress of Callie’s knees, allowing his hand to cup her kneecap. He lowered the hand at her neck until it rested at his side. “I’m afraid Seamus Malcolm didn’t have room in his life for an illegitimate son, so in all the years I knew him, he never actually acknowledged me. Just kept me on the fringes of his life. Tossed me a crumb from time to time.”

“He sounds like a beastly man.” Callie’s heart ached for Burke Lonigan, for the little boy inside him who still longed for a father’s love and attention.

“Not really. He was just a man of his time.” Burke harrumphed. “Old Seamus died last week. I was out of the country. On business. His family—his legitimate children—didn’t even bother to try to contact me. I wasn’t here for my own father’s funeral. I returned to London this morning and when I telephoned him, as I often did after I’d been out of the country, I was told that he had died.”

Burke lifted his head from her lap, then slowly pulled himself into a sitting position. “When I stopped by the house this afternoon to pay my condolences, I was told I wasn’t welcome.”

“Oh, how dreadful for you.” Callie wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to her.

Engulfing her in his embrace, Burke melted against her. “The maid who turned me away followed me out into the street and told me that Mr. Seamus had asked for me on his deathbed and they had told him I wouldn’t come.”

“Oh, God!” Callie held Burke, offering him sympathy and comfort and tender care.

He buried his face against her neck. She caressed the back of his head, then turned and kissed him sweetly on his temple. He lifted his face to her, and his breathtaking blue eyes glistened with moisture.

“It’s all right,” she said. “It really is quite all right to cry for your father.”

“I don’t cry,” he told her, the tone of his voice hard, even if his words were slightly slurred. “I’ve cried only once since I was a lad of six, when someone called me an ugly name and I knew what it meant. The other time—the last time—was when my dog Skippy died. I was eleven and knew better than to act like a crybaby.”

She couldn’t bear it, Callie thought. This beautiful, brokenhearted man, who so desperately needed the relief of tears, refused to give in to his emotions. Horrid masculine trait! She wanted nothing more at that moment than to ease his suffering, to erase the pain she saw in his eyes and somehow give him the emotional release he needed.

As if he could read her mind, Burke studied her intently and then without a word he covered her mouth with his. The kiss was wildly passionate, and yet an odd blend of tenderness and savagery. He devoured. Taking, demanding, needing. At first, she simply allowed his plundering, but within moments she responded. Hesitantly she opened her mouth, inviting his invasion. But the second he cupped the back of her head, pressing her deeper into the kiss, she ignited, like dry timber to a lit match. Rational thought ceased. Sensation ruled her completely.

All her bruised and battered emotions clashed with sexual heat and the two melded into raw, primitive need.

“Here we are, governor,” the driver said, then hopped out of the cab and opened the door.

Burke ended the kiss, slowly. As if he had all the time in the world. As if some heavyset, gray-haired cabdriver wasn’t watching them. As if passersby couldn’t see them.

Still lost in a sensual fog, Callie’s mind swirled. She eased out of Burke’s arms, her body decidedly weak.

“Want me to help you with him, miss?” the driver asked.

“Sir, are you implying that I can’t walk without assistance?” Burke demanded, but his tone implied a teasing attitude.

As if to make a point, Burke climbed out of the taxi and stood on his own two feet. Callie slid out directly behind him, then searched in her purse for money to pay the driver.

Burke grabbed her hand. “I’ll take care of this.” He removed his wallet, pulled out several large bills—twice the cost of the taxi ride—and handed the generous sum to the driver.

“Thank you, sir. Thank you, indeed.” The middle-aged man smiled broadly. “I’ll be glad to help you inside, governor. No extra charge.” When he chuckled, his potbelly jiggled like jelly.

“My darling, do you need any assistance putting me to bed?” Burke draped his arm around Callie’s shoulders.

Under the streetlights, Burke’s hair shone a rich blue black and his eyes glimmered with temptation and promise.

“Thank you,” she said to the driver, “but I think I can handle things.”

Callie tried not to let Burke’s beautiful period house in prestigious Belgravia intimidate her, but she couldn’t help it. The house must have cost him no less than two million pounds! She was far from poor and had been raised quite comfortably by an American diplomat father and a disowned-by-her-family English aristocrat mother. She had friends from every walk of life, including her independently wealthy cousin Enid. But the kind of money it took to live in Belgravia was the kind possessed by oil sheiks and business tycoons. Just who was Burke Lonigan? she wondered. And what am I doing with him?

When Callie remained unmoving on the pavement in front of his home, Burke nudged her into action. “You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”

Although his steps were unsteady because of the large amount of liquor he had consumed, Callie’s movements were shaky for a different reason. Suddenly, she felt very uncertain about going inside this mansion with a man she really didn’t know.

When they reached the front door, Burke dove his hand into his pocket and brought out a key, but before inserting it into the lock, he turned and wrapped his arms around Callie. She felt small and vulnerable. With her flats not adding any height to her five-foot-three-inch frame, Burke towered over her a good nine inches.

He pressed his face against her neck, then nuzzled softly and whispered into her ear. “You need me tonight, my darling, just as much as I need you.”

He kissed her. A preview of things to come. A hint of the passion they had shared in the taxi sparked, and she knew it wouldn’t take much to set them aflame.

When he unlocked and opened the massive front doors, she went with him into the dark belly of his home. He didn’t give her time to assess the situation or to get her bearings before he led her deeper into the cavern of the large foyer. The downstairs area was pitch black, but at the top of the impressive staircase a dim light shone from an open doorway.

On their ascent up the marble staircase, Burke continued kissing her, his lips brushing her cheek, her temple and her jaw. All the while he kept his left arm securely wrapped around her shoulders, he maneuvered his right hand alongside her waist and up to gently cradle the underside of her breast. She sucked in a deep breath when his fingertips brushed her nipple.

The light in the hallway came from a bedroom. Burke’s bedroom, she surmised. While her mind instructed her to look at the room, to appreciate the decor and take time out to catch her breath, her senses felt no compulsion to do more than enjoy the ardent attention of the man who kissed and caressed her.

You need this, an inner voice prompted. You need to be loved tonight. Mindlessly, passionately loved. No commitment. No concerns beyond this one night. Don’t think. Feel. Feel what it’s like to be with a man like Burke Lonigan.

Burke shed his coat and let it fall haphazardly to the floor. Then he loosened the buttons on his shirt and tossed the fine linen garment aside. With trembling fingers, he caught the hem of Callie’s cashmere jumper and lifted it up and off, then added it to the pile of clothing accumulating on the floor. Before she could catch her breath, he tumbled them onto the massive mahogany bed. His laughter rumbled from his chest as he rolled Callie on top of his long, hard body. She gazed at him, into his sexy blue eyes, and felt her bones beginning to liquefy. Her feminine core clenched and unclenched. Her nipples peaked.

She didn’t think she’d ever wanted anything so much in her entire life. Sanity warned her that she was making a mistake. But lust promised her ecstasy beyond her wildest dreams.

She straddled him, the action hiking her skirt to mid-thigh. At the apex between her spread legs, she felt the large, throbbing bulge of Burke’s arousal. Every nerve in her body quivered.

He ran one hand underneath her skirt to cup her hip. “You’re wearing tights,” he complained. “Take them off.”

She kicked off her shoes, then lifted her legs and hastily removed her skirt and her tights, leaving her in only a pair of coral silk panties and matching bra.

“That’s better,” he said, as he tried to unbuckle his belt. When his fumbling attempt failed, he cursed under his breath.

“Here, let me.”

Callie had never undressed a man, not even Laurence, who had preferred to remove his own clothes and be waiting in bed for her. She went at removing Burke’s clothes like a madwoman intent upon stripping him bare at record speed. Within two minutes, his shoes, socks, belt, trousers and underpants lay askew across the foot of the bed.

“Eager little thing, aren’t you?” Burke teased her.

“Very eager,” she admitted.

“Been awhile, has it, since a man pleasured you?”

She covered his body with hers and quickly spread hot, damp kisses over his broad, muscular chest. A soft sprinkling of black hair ran from one tiny male nipple to the other. When she licked each nipple in turn, Burke groaned deeply.

“I’ve never been with a real man,” Callie said. “Only with one very self-centered boy who didn’t know the first thing about pleasuring me.”

Her confession poured gasoline on an already blazing fire. Burke captured her mouth, thrust his tongue into her waiting warmth and began a sensual assault that soon had her breathless and desperate for satisfaction. His mouth tasted of the Scotch he’d drunk earlier and his skin still retained the faded scent of some expensive men’s cologne.

She felt his mouth on her breast and vaguely wondered when he had removed her bra. Did it matter? an inner voice asked. No. No! Nothing mattered except that he continue touching her.

His hand crept up inside her scanty bloomers, cupping and caressing her bare buttocks. She writhed against him, loving the feel of his body so intimately entwined with hers. They turned and tossed on the bed, exchanging the dominant position again and again as they caressed, licked, kissed and nibbled each other’s bodies. Sometime during their sexual tumble, Burke removed the last barrier between them—her silk bikini panties.

The moment Burke’s lips touched her intimately between her thighs, Callie realized she was completely naked. She had no time to protest, no time to think about what he was doing to her. The masterful strokes of his talented tongue treated her to a lush, hot treat that left her panting when release shot through her body like fireworks in the nighttime sky. As the aftershocks of her climax rippled through her, Burke mounted her and lifted her hips. She stared into his face and saw the savage arousal of a primitive man. She cried out when he entered her with a forceful lunge. She clung to him, loving the fullness he created inside her as he filled her completely.

She met him thrust for thrust as the pressure increased. Throbbing, blinding, all-consuming hunger like none she’d ever known. She tensed, her body rioting with sensation, and like a thunderbolt, Callie experienced the most incredible pleasure of her entire life.

As her nails raked his back, her moans of completion sent him over the edge. Burke hammered into her, intensifying her fulfillment. And then he groaned like a wild animal—a roar of masculine triumph—as he shuddered violently inside her damp, receptive body.

He eased to her side but kept his arm possessively draped around her. Callie felt weightless and sated beyond belief. Drained. Sleepy. Deliriously content. Without another thought, she curled up against Burke and fell asleep.

In the wee hours of the morning, with dawn at least an hour away, Callie gathered her clothes and crept into the loo adjoining Burke’s bedroom. She washed quickly, refusing to turn on a light or to glance at herself in the mirror. Once she had put on her clothes, she tiptoed across the room, but stopped briefly at the foot of the bed to take one last look at Burke Lonigan.

She couldn’t believe that she’d had sex with a man she barely knew. Twice! Unprotected sex, she reminded herself, and groaned silently. Maybe he was the most gorgeous man alive. Maybe they had truly needed each other. And maybe the sex had been the absolutely greatest she’d ever experienced. Scratch that. No maybe about it. It had been the greatest sex!

But Burke had been plastered and couldn’t be held totally responsible for his actions, where she on the other hand had been perfectly sober and could be held responsible.

She left the bedroom, made her way down the marble staircase and rushed hurriedly through the huge foyer and out the front door. She glanced at the house and said goodbye to her lover. She’d never see Burke Lonigan again. In a few weeks, he would be nothing more than a sweet memory.