Perfect Partners

the next light. The Jeep shuddered to a halt, as if taking offense at the maltreatment.
    “Joel? Is something wrong?”
    “No.” He sucked in his breath. “Nothing’s wrong.”
    Letty said nothing more for the remainder of the drive back to her apartment. A thousand jumbled thoughts flooded Joel’s brain, but he could not put any of them into words.
    The disconcerting feelings finally subsided as Joel parked the Jeep in the underground garage of Letty’s apartment building. He began to focus clearly once more.
    In the elevator, Letty studied the numbers on the control panel. “I take it you plan to invite yourself in for a nightcap?”
    Joel eyed her profile. He could not read the expression on her face. “I intend to invite myself into your bed for the night. We’re having an affair, remember?”
    “I wasn’t quite certain how it was going to work.” She scowled at him in alarm. “You’re not going to just move in, or anything like that, are you? I never said anything about us living together. This is just an affair. That means we maintain separate households, doesn’t it?”
    “Jesus, Letty. There aren’t a lot of rules we have to follow. Nobody’s going to check to see if we’re doing it right.” He took the key out of her hand as they went down the hall. He wondered why he felt oddly hurt. “If you don’t want me to stay over tonight, just say so.”
    She flushed as he opened the door. “I wasn’t sure you’d want to. Not after what happened today.”
    “You mean Dixon showing up and you ducking out on me?” Joel opened the door. “I didn’t like it, but that was business. This is personal.”
    “I’m not sure the two can be separated.”
    Joel closed the door and reached for her. “Listen to me, Letty. I will say this once and once only. You will never have to worry about me marrying you in order to get Thornquist Gear. I was accused once before of wanting to marry a woman in order to get my hands on a company. I’ll be damned if anyone’s going to accuse me of it again. Got that?”
    She searched his face intently. “What should I worry about?”
    Joel smiled slowly as he lowered the zipper of her down coat. “Tonight you don’t have to worry about a single thing.”
    Her eyes were brilliant with excitement now. He could feel the passion rising in her like a glittering wave of energy. Her tongue touched the corner of her mouth. “Joel?”
    “Look at you,” he whispered against her throat. “You’re already hot, and so far all I’ve done is take off your jacket. I told you last time that I’d do it right this time.”
    Letty cleared her throat hesitantly. “Yes, well, I suppose I’d better change into my nightgown. Or something.” She pulled away slightly, turning as if to make for the bedroom.
    “Forget the nightgown. You won’t be needing it.” Joel caught hold of her and tugged her down onto the carpet.

13

    J oel took his time, and the results were spectacular, just as he had known they would be from the start. He had never experienced anything like Letty’s fiery passion in his entire life. It swept through him, igniting his own desire and turning it into an inferno. His whole body felt tight and hard and ready to explode.
    He paused to look down at Letty as he prepared to enter her. “You’re beautiful,” he managed hoarsely.
    It was as though the contours of her body had been designed for his hands—soft, firm breasts, full, rounded buttocks, the inviting triangle of hair below her belly. Everything seemed to have been created with his personal preferences in mind.
    Either that or his personal preferences had changed when he met Letty.
    But in a pinch he could have resisted those lures. Hell, he was thirty-six years old. He had resisted a lot of lures in his time.
    But he knew now as he drew his fingers through the wet heat between her legs that he could never have resisted the overwhelming generosity of her passion. She took whatever he gave her and magnified it a hundredfold. Then she turned it back on him.
    She touched him as if he were a living treasure, cradling him in her gentle palm, stroking him until he groaned aloud.
    “You’re magnificent,” Letty breathed. Her thumb moved across the broad tip of his shaft. “Absolutely incredible.”
    Hell, Joel thought, the longer he made love to her, the better it got. “You’re the incredible one in this room.” He leaned down to taste one taut nipple. He felt the shiver that went through