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  “I found out a little more about Stewart,” Nell said. “Not much, but some.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’ll come over. You want Chinese or pizza?”

  “Chinese,” she said, smiling into the receiver in spite of Suze and Margie’s trauma. It was disloyal, but on the other hand, there was nothing like a man who fed you. And possibly slept with you later.

  “Wear those blue silk things,” he said and hung up.

  Definitely slept with you later. The thought of it made her breathless. Everything about him made her breathless, including the sweeping way he just assumed they’d be back in bed. If he’d fumbled, she’d have been self-conscious and they’d have been awkward. And they weren’t awkward, hadn’t really ever been since the first day when she’d looked at his desk and realized how much work he was going to be.

  Little had she known.

  She ran upstairs to put on her blue silk pajamas and pick up the bedroom, pushing Marlene off the bed to straighten her quilt. Marlene moaned at her, so she dropped the chenille throw on the floor, and Marlene stuck her nose in it and shoved it around a little, stood on it and wiggled her butt, turned in circles four or five times, and then settled down with a tortured sigh.

  “Yeah, you have a rough life,” Nell said and went to clean up the bathroom.

  When the doorbell rang, half an hour later, she caught her breath and took one last look in the mirror. Color in her hair, sparkle in her eyes, heat in her cheeks, and silk on her body. “God, I’m hot,” she said to the mirror, and then she went to let him in.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Gabe came in, dropped the Chinese on the bookshelf by the door, put his arms around Nell, and kissed her until she was breathless.

  “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting to rip these pajamas off you?” he said, running his hand up her side.

  “No,” she said, her voice coming out as a squeak.

  He kissed her again, his hands sliding all over the blue silk, and then he said, his voice husky, “So do we eat Chinese while I stare at you with lust, or do we go upstairs where I throw you down on the bed and have my way with you?”

  “Bed,” Nell said.

  Half an hour later, Nell grabbed onto the headboard of her bed and pulled herself up, trying to get her breath back. “My God. Maybe we should try moving that down a notch.”

  “I wasn’t the one moaning, ‘Harder,’” Gabe said, pulling her down so that her back burned against him. The man was a furnace. “If you’d go a little slower, I’d have time to think.”

  Nell stretched against his muscle and bone, memorizing how strong and solid he was. “You want me to be passive?”

  “Hell, no.” Gabe ran his hand down her side and made her curl up again. “I’m just saying you’re not an easy woman to love.”

  “Also, I don’t moan.” Nell shivered under his hands. “That was Marlene.”

  “That would explain the stereo effect.” He kissed her neck and she shivered again, and then he drew his fingers across her stomach so that she pressed back, harder against him.

  “Stop it,” she said. “This is supposed to be afterglow.”

  “I like my afterglow with you in motion. I measure time by how your body sways.” He bit her earlobe and she rolled to look up at him. “Okay,” he said. “I just like my afterglow with you.”

  His eyes were dark as ever, but now they were hot, too, intent on her, and he took her breath away. Good grief, she thought. Look at him. He’s beautiful.

  “By how my body sways?” she said instead.

  “It’s from a very hot poem,” he said. “It comes to mind whenever I watch you move.”

  Poetry, she thought. He’ll be surprising me forever.

  Not that she was counting on forever.

  “What?” he said, and when she didn’t answer, he slid his hand up her body again to make her shudder. “You make me nervous when you get that look in your eyes.”

  “It’s hunger,” she said, rolling out of bed and picking up her pajama top from the floor. “Time to eat.”

  “Bring it up here.” He rolled and snagged her pajama bottoms from the floor before she could. “I’ll wait.”

  “Lazy.” She tugged on the hem of her pajama top, and he grinned at her.

  “Conserving my energy,” he said, and she lost her breath again.

  When they were both in bed, forking garlic chicken from the same carton, he said, “By the way, we found some diamonds today.”

  Nell stopped with her fork in midair. “The Ogilvie diamonds?”

  “Well, the Ogilvie earrings. They were in Chloe’s jewelry box.”

  Nell listened as he filled her in and then said, “And I suppose you couldn’t find Chloe in Europe.”

  “Not a chance. But I know what happened. My dad was crazy about her. He gave them to her, and she wore them for the family picture and then put them away. They’re not her kind of jewelry. I called Trevor and he said he’d see me tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to that.”

  “Diamonds are everybody’s kind of jewelry.”

  Gabe shook his head. “Not Chloe’s. I’d bet she didn’t even know they were diamonds, or if she did, she didn’t have a clue what they were worth. She was only nineteen when Lu was born. Her idea of fiscal magnificence was a restaurant with cloth napkins.”

  His voice was affectionate, and Nell stomped on the jealousy that stirred in her. He’d be a real clod if he didn’t still care about her. “You must have been really happy,” she said. “Chloe’s so sweet and then a new baby.”

  Gabe looked at her as if she were insane. “I was twenty-six and I had not planned on getting married, let alone being a father. Chloe could have been Marilyn Monroe and I wouldn’t have been happy.”

  “Oh, come on,” Nell said, feeling guilty because that was cheering.

  “Stop romanticizing,” Gabe said. “Everything turned out fine. Chloe was great, but it was not a fairy tale. Now tell me what Margie said.”

  “She talked about Stewart,” Nell said. “She hated him.” She filled in the details and inhaled chicken while Gabe ate and listened, finishing with, “She thinks he’s alive but if she doesn’t collect the insurance money, he won’t come back. She’s having a hard time.”

  “How are you doing?”

  “Me?” Nell started to laugh. “I’ve had the greatest sex of my life two days in a row.”

  “That good, huh?” Gabe leaned over her to put the carton on her bedside table. “And we’re just getting started.” He kissed her, keeping his weight off her with his arms, and she pulled him down on top of her, wanting something solid to push against.

  “I like the way you fight back,” she murmured against his mouth.

  “I have to.” He moved his mouth to her ear. “If I don’t, you’ll destroy me.”

  “I was talking about the sex,” she said, pulling away a little, and he reached for another carton.

  “So was I.” He sat back and opened the carton. “You’re a strong woman.”

  “I didn’t feel like it sometimes,” she said, thinking of all the years when she’d played passive so Tim would feel as though he was in charge, all the lost months after Tim when she couldn’t eat. She looked in his carton. Crab Rangoon. Excellent.

  Gabe took one and gave it to her. “Yeah, but how do you feel now?”

  “Powerful.” She bit into the pastry, savoring the creamy filling. “Strong. Exciting.”

  “That’s what you feel like to me, too,” he said. “Must be you.”

  “Might be you,” she said. “It’s a pretty new feeling.”

  “I find that hard to believe.” He picked up a pastry and bit into it. “I’d bet you’ve been kicking butt all your life.”

  Nell thought back over her old life. “I never really had any butt to kick. Everything went my way.” Her friends had always deferred to her, the agency clients had obeyed her every suggestion, her kid had known better than to cross her, Tim had done what she’d told him to�€