Binding Arbitration (41 page)

“Huh?”

“Christmas is weeks away, and Tiffany’s is in the opposite direction.”

We were headed northbound on Lake Shore Drive. “Tiffany’s?” It took me a few seconds to catch up with her train of thought. She thought a ring would be a joke. “I pegged you as more of a Cartier kind of girl.”

She gave me an arched brow. “I forgot. There’s rich, and then there’s really rich.” She laughed out loud and the sound was becoming as familiar to me as the beating of my heart. Chuckles were quickly replacing sobs in our daily banter.

“What in particular are you interested in?”

She brought a hand to her mouth and covered it, realization dawning. “I wasn’t thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

“You couldn’t possibly have any idea what I’m thinking.” I cocked my head seductively.

“I have a sixth sense about you and your thinking.”

“Just out of curiosity, what shape would you prefer? I was thinking emerald cut for your eyes.”

“See, I knew you were thinking that when I was just thinking jewelry. That’s where you got my enamel ring from.”

Each of us spoke in circles around the other until I pulled up in front of a glass store front. Libby looked around, as her eyebrows drew together. “Why are we in Rodger’s Park?”

“Come in, and I’ll show you.” Two construction workers approached me when I stepped inside to ask me a couple of questions. I answered and asked them to locate Sal the foreman.

Libby had wandered to the opposite wall, looking at the floor plans tacked up on the wall. “Where we are right now is the reception area. We’re putting offices on either side of this central corridor and then at the very back are a kitchenette on one side and a nursery on the other.”

Libby was still thoroughly confused. “Why do you need this large office space?”

“I don’t. This is a going to be a legal aid office. I thought you might like to run it.”

Her color ran as pale as her silk blouse. “Do you know how much money I make? There’s no way this place could bill those kinds of hours.”

One of the construction workers turned on a power saw. The room vibrated and dust swept about. “But the perks are that it’s your own firm, you don’t have to report to anyone, and you can come and go as you please. Most importantly you can help people who really need help. If you get the right kind of press, things will pick up and you’ll get some high profile cases, paying clients, that kind of thing.”

“And you’re going to foot the bill for it?”

“It’s my early Christmas present to you. You lost your job because of me.”

The power saw cut off and sawdust swirled around Libby’s silken ankles. “I crossed a line. The only reason I didn’t get disbarred is because I had an impeccable record up until then.”

Sal bulldozed into the area, he shook my hand, and I introduced him to Libby. We went over his immediate questions about flooring, built-in cabinetry, and his request to replace the front windows with bulletproof glass. Once he realized the office was Libby’s, he spoke to her. At the end of our meeting, we had most of the issues resolved to complete the project.

As we left the building, Libby turned back to look at the façade. She smiled slightly, and when she caught me watching her she said, “This is better than Tiffany’s.”

I kissed her, as I helped her into Tank. “I don’t think I can go to California with this going on,” she said.

“Of course you can, you can consult with him until we go, and they can do what they can while we’re gone. The rest can wait until after the holidays, plus Vicki won’t want to go back to work until February. Then there’s spring training. I promised Cass he could go with. We’ll have to get him a tutor by then.”

“Vicki? Spring training? Tutor?”

“Yeah, Vicki. You remember your right hand. Just had a baby? That’s what the nursery is for in the back.”

“I thought that was more of a play room for Cass.”

“We’ll hire someone to help with Betty, and she can help with Cass, when I have day games and can’t take care of him.” She drew both hands to the sides of her head and then rubbed her forehead. “You have this all planned out, don’t you?”

“That’s just a basic outline. You can fill in the details or change things as you need to.”

She was silent for a long time. I heard her measured breathing. We were in the middle of my block when she looked around. “What are we doing here?”

I pulled into an open spot in the front of the house. “I think it’s about time for all of it.”

She went stark white and fumbled with her seat belt.

“You want me to carry you over the threshold?”

“That’s not funny.” She sidestepped me and looked at my front door, as if it were the gateway to the execution chamber. She looked up and down the sidewalk for a way to escape, while pulling her coat around her and knotting the sash. “That’s why you got rid of the security detail.”

I stepped into her personal space and met her wary eyes. “Nothing’s going to happen that you’re not comfortable with.”

She backed away. “I need time to think, it’s all too much.”

I took her hand. “Let’s go inside and talk.”

She wrangled her hand away. “I don’t think that’s what will end up happening.”

I pulled her body up alongside mine. “I need you.”

Her voice shook. “I’m not ready. I’m going to go home.”

“Libby, you’re a beautiful, smart, sexy woman, and you need to figure out why no one could suit you. I’ll give you some time, but I can’t live in the same world with you without touching you.” I wanted to lash out, but not with my temper. I could wait if that’s what she needed.

I had overwhelmed her and now she was going to retreat. “I’ll pick you up in the morning.”

She started off down the sidewalk, forcing her bag over her shoulder, without looking back.

My gut knotted, and my heart lurched, but I knew I couldn’t push her. After all this time, when I looked at her, my insides twisted, and I wondered how I’d regain the self control I’d always prided myself on. I was ready to beg for the physical affection I needed so desperately.

I tried a regular workout first, but I let myself become so lost in my fantasy that I didn’t know she had come back until I heard the shower door spring open. My left forearm was leaning heavily against the shower wall and my other hand desperately sought release. I turned toward her unabashed.

Her startled eyes went from my face toward my right hand. I spoke on heaving breaths. “This is what I’ve sunken to.”

“I’m sorry.” She closed her eyes, even the soft stroke of her lashes a seduction. “I need you, too.” She let her blazer ripple past her shoulders like petals lost on a gentle breeze.

I drew her toward me fully clothed. “Come.”

“Wait my clothes!” She gasped through the spray of water, as I pulled her under it.

I caged her into the corner and bathed her lips with my tongue in punishing strokes. Fleeting thoughts of gentleness were bombarded with fiendish ones of completion. The way she tore at my shoulders indicated she didn’t care what the gentle beast did to her as long as he didn’t stop. Her blouse buttons pinged off the walls, as if they, too, were trying to find release. I kneaded her backside, while she squirmed in my hands and bit my tongue. The blouse slipped to her elbows, locking her arms at her waist. My prisoner, my captive.

My mind whirled, and my body responded, boring her deeper into the corner. I pulled the blouse down her arms, and her bra found its way to the drain. The silver-beads on her necklace stood on her upturned breasts. She looked like some wild woman in a monsoon in the Amazon, bare to the waist and shameless about it.

I sampled the luxurious surface of one nipple with my mouth, it rippled like rosary beads. When her legs almost betrayed her, she anchored herself with her fingers woven into my hair. As I bent to take more of her, my hand traveled the length of her body to the hem of her skirt, which I dragged up her body, scoring her with my fingertips. Her silky thighs enticed me. My fingers found the back of her knee and drew one of her legs up, parting her body. Mine responded, instinctually moving closer. “I’ll make it up to you next time.” I struggled for self control. “I need you now.”

Without more than that, I pushed the sliver of silk out of my way. I was at the gateway of the place to which I prayed for entrance with more awe than that of the holiest site. The very tip of myself revered there, waiting for her to accommodate me.

She arched against me, drawing me into her temple on panting groans. When she threw her head back, I sampled the water from her collarbone, lapping it up like a sinner luxuriating in the water of baptism.

As she sucked on my tongue rhythmically, I adjusted her weight and slid into her on a muffled gasp. I closed my eyes and chanted prayers for endurance. Our foreheads were resting together and she stared at me for a long moment as silent and as silky as her depths.

The pointy heels of her shoes dug ruthlessly into the back of my thighs, trying to find purchase. I didn’t feel any pain in that moment, because with the sinking of her spikes into my flesh, I pushed into her a part of my soul that I had never shared with anyone. I was willing to burn in sacrifice to worship in her fiery tabernacle.

It was steamy and frantic. I was enraptured, the beating of my heart and my pulsing thrusts pounded out the sprays from the shower heads. In a euphoric moment, she raised her hands over her head, the back of her hands sliding along the slippery tile. It was a simple act of surrender, of giving control of her body to me, that heightened my response, my eager fingers moved to where our bodies were joined. She arched, offering me more, reaching out for my stroke.

“Please.” She contorted around me, tensed with her breasts thrust against me. I saw flashes of her erect nipples, as they rubbed against my chest hair. Her head fell back and her mouth opened to the water cascading into it. It wasn’t to cleanse, but to fill yet another part of her body.

She became aware of my devotion to her face. I tried to slow my pace. She blinked misted lashes at me before she clutched me so hard I erupted inside her like lightening. I thrust and shuddered, and she squeezed and stroked, creating a frantic frenzy in me. She had succeeded, but in completion, I stood in reverence of her body, knowing that what had transpired was indeed the holiest of sacraments.

I forced myself to focus on her face. “That wasn’t how I planned on it happening.”

She smiled a shy, yet knowing smile before running her tongue along my jaw line. “What had you planned?” Her laughter made my body respond inside of hers.

“Silk sheets and rose petals,” I whispered as I laved her ear, and then nibbled along her neck. “Let me get these clothes off you.” I unwillingly lowered her body and turned her toward the wall. I unzipped her skirt, sliding it down her legs, taking off her heels. She stood perfectly composed as I ran my hands up her body to the waist of her panties, which I peeled down her legs along with her thigh-high hose. I licked the back of her knees, the back of her thighs, the cleft in her derriere, the base of her spine. When I reached her neck, I bit into it to hold her in place, with her hands over her head again, I kneaded her breasts. “That was better than the first night, which registered on the Richter scale.”

“We’re like an earthquake when we’re together.” She drew one of my large hands toward her sanctuary. Before she grew too excited, I wanted to get her somewhere more comfortable. With reluctance, I changed the momentum of my hands from seduction to industriousness, as I soaped every inch of her exposed flesh. Slippery, she took the soap from me and washed me. Every place her hand caressed rippled red with need.

We were both sudsy, and our bodies slid together, knowing how our puzzle pieces fit together. I was rock hard with need again, and she was panting in my ear. In a few moments, her expectations would demand more.

I pushed us both under the sprayers with deft movements, so fast that I think she became uncertain. Unasked questions rose in her misty eyes.

“I have a few other things in mind first,” I explained.

She groaned in my ear, which she bit just enough to send my mind whirling.

“That just gave me a few more ideas.” I grabbed a large bath towel and wrapped her in it, then used another one to blot some water from her ropes of hair. I kissed her shoulder, raising gooseflesh. My body, too, shivered in anticipation.

She reached out for the towel. “You’re cold.” She ran her fingertips across my pecs.

“I’m far from cold.” I put her fingers in my mouth and ran my tongue over their wrinkled tips. She closed her eyes. Her towel was slipping away, revealing the edge of her nipple, pebbled and inviting me to taste what was finally mine.

I barely managed to get her onto my bed, dropping the towels along the way. I sat her on the edge of the mattress and got on my knees between her legs. I looked up at her face, pulling her toward me by the neck, and I tasted her mouth. I plunged and I pursued. She pulled my torso toward her center, wrapping me in an embrace of long legs, encouraging proximity between her skin and mine. “Please,” she whispered.

“Not yet.” I pushed her onto her back going backward with her. I kissed her lips and every inch of her delectable skin between one pair and the next. I feasted on the taste of her, the luxurious lure of Adam’s ale. She arched against my mouth and pulled me by my hair toward her. She was so intense, her body hyper aware, that the moment my fingertips brushed alongside my tongue her scream rattled my thoughts.

I worked my way up her body; I hovered over her abdomen.

“Don’t,” she said pulling me toward her.

I traced the faint fine lines below her belly button with the very tip of my tongue again. “Why not?”

She yanked on my hair to pull me away. “They’re ugly.” She burrowed her face in my neck.

I pushed her hair away from her face. Her flushed cheeks sent a wave of desire vibrating through me. I swallowed, so I could speak. “Those marks are mine, the physical manifestation striated into your skin for eternity. You bear them because you harvested part of me.” My fingertips grazed her abdomen.

She pulled my hand to her breast, molding her hand over mine as it explored. “Yes,” she moaned and moved, showing me that her body was mine to use as I saw fit. It was all the invitation I needed to sink deep into her. I could no longer tell where I began and she ended. I moved with the need of a starving man. She panted, bringing me closer. Her mouth was on my shoulder, and when she bit into my damp flesh, my body aligned with hers to bring us both to climax, screaming the other’s name. I bathed her neck, shoulders and face with careful caresses until her stilted breathing wavered no more.