“I don’t need you.” Carson said it with pure venom.

She lifted her chin pugnaciously. “Thank God,” she said through her teeth.

He opened his mouth, but Cash intervened. “Go on home, Carlie,” he said, as he grabbed Carson by the arm and steered him into the office.

“So that’s Carson,” Michelle said as she drove toward Carlie’s house.

“That’s Carson.”

Michelle drew in a breath. “A thoroughly unpleasant person.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“He really has it in for you.”

Carlie nodded. “Told you so.”

There really didn’t seem to be anything else to say. Michelle gave her a sympathetic smile and kept her silence until they pulled up in front of the Victorian house she shared with her father.

“Thanks for the ride,” Carlie said. “My turn to drive tomorrow.”

“And my turn to buy gas.” She chuckled.

“You don’t hear me arguing, do you?” Carlie sighed, smiling. “Gas is outrageously high.”

“So is most everything else. Have a good night. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sure. Thanks again.”

Michelle parked her car in front of the house, noted that she really needed to take it through the car wash, and started toward the front door. Sara’s car was missing. She hadn’t mentioned being away. Not a problem, however, since Michelle had a key.

She started to put it into the lock, just as it opened on its own. And there was Gabriel, tanned and handsome and smiling.

“Gabriel!” She threw herself into his arms, to be lifted, and hugged, and swung around once, twice, three times, in an embrace so hungry that she never wanted to be free again.

“When did you get home?” she asked at his ear.

“About ten minutes ago,” he murmured into her neck. “You smell of roses.”

“New perfume. Sara bought it for me.” She drew back just enough to see his face, her arms still around his neck, his arms still holding her close. She searched his eyes at point-blank range and felt her heart go into overdrive. She could barely breathe. He felt like heaven in her arms. She looked at his mouth, chiseled, perfect, and wondered, wondered so hard, how it would feel if she moved just a little, if she touched her lips to it...

His hand caught in her long hair and pulled. “No,” he said through his teeth.

She met his eyes. She saw there, or thought she saw, the same burning hunger that was beginning to tauten her young body, to kindle needs she’d never known she had.

Her lips parted on a shaky breath. She stared at him. He stared back. There seemed to be no sound in the world, nothing except the soft rasp of her breathing and the increasing heaviness of his own. Against her flattened breasts, she could feel the warm hardness of his chest, the thunder of his heartbeat.