The Satin Sash

“But you’ve never told her.”

“I don’t have to.”

“Women like to hear it.”

“Heath, your advice is starting to irritate me.”

Heath stacked his hands behind his head, his brows drawn up. “Women like those words. Even I know that.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” When Toni said the words to him, it didn’t feel all that amazing. He felt powerless. And she said them all the time, so easily, so unselfishly. It killed him not to say them back.

Shaking his head, he strolled to the window that made up the entire west wall of the office. “She wouldn’t be with me if she thought I didn’t love her.”

“Why not?”

“She’s proud.”

“No more than you are.”

Grey gazed blindly out at the city, seeing Toni in his mind.

“Her coffee’s practically water.” He didn’t know why that came out of his mouth. Apparently Heath didn’t, either, because he just sat there staring at him.

“She’s a reckless driver,” he continued restlessly.“This is the second time this month she’s gotten a low tire. She rubs them against the sidewalk all the time.”

“Parking tickets?”

“I can name at least five officers she knows by name.” Grey would have smiled ruefully if he weren’t still fighting the urge to tear Heath’s head off.“She rumples my hair before I leave for work. She draws her name on my files. She messes with my clothes.”

Damn. She was adorable. An adorable, mischievous, sweet little mess. When Heath remained silent, Grey turned and pinned him with a look. “I want to drown her in pleasure until she can’t remember her name, and I want us to go on for hours. Hours. I don’t want her to breathe or think or do anything but feel what we’re doing to her. All day, all night. Can you do that, Heathcliff—think of someone else’s pleasure other than your own?”

“I’ll have her writhing.”

“What I want to hear is that you’ll be careful.Thoughtful. She’s not like you and me.”

He smiled lazily. “It’s obvious she’s a woman, Grey.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it.” Grey thought of that lively imp he knew, of how he liked to take care of her, to take from her in bed and then coo and coddle and spoil her. “She’s never done anything like this,” he said.

Toni wasn’t cold or jaded, but lively and warm and excitable. Grey would never forgive himself if that was taken from her.

Heath’s smile faded, his jaw bunched with tension.“If you need the words, I’ll say them. I’d cut off my arm before I hurt a hair on her head.”

Deep down where it most counted, Grey knew this. He knew it with every cell of his being; Heath woul

d give her all the pleasure she could handle, but no more. And he wouldn’t stick around after sex. He’d be gone before anyone knew what happened, his current obsession forgotten, and never, ever, come back for more.

“I’m in control,” Grey said with steely finality.

“I’m not complaining.”

“Good.We’re clear, then.” Relaxing at last, he sank into his chair and flicked open the button of his jacket as he leaned forward, all business. “About dinner . . .”

Chapter Four

It gave her a heady feeling, driving Grey’s manly, rumbling car. An unnerving one, too, because she feared she’d scratch it or flat-out smash it up like she’d done her old Ford.

Drivers glanced at her as they sped past her, probably thinking, Why is this person in such a sporty car driving at forty miles an hour?