Private Scandals

was time to step back, she thought, and take stock. “I’m sorry, Marshall, Angela’s counting on me to see this party through. And to be honest, things are moving a little fast for me.”
    He didn’t remove his hand, but she sensed him drawing in. “I didn’t mean to push.”
    “You weren’t. You haven’t.” She curled her fingers over his wrist in a gesture that was both apologetic and affectionate. “I tend to be cautious—maybe overcautious—in relationships. There are reasons, and I’ll explain them to you, when I can.”
    “No need to rush.” He let his hand drop away from her chin. “You know how much I want to be with you, and it’s not simply sexual.”
    “I know that.” Rising to her toes, she laid her cheek against his. And remembered, very clearly, the feel of her cheek resting against Finn’s as they’d danced.
     
    He was tired, and he didn’t tire easily. Years of snatching sleep on trains and planes and buses, of camping out in jungles and deserts and behind enemy lines had toughened him. He enjoyed the fine linens and mint-bedecked pillows of luxury hotels, but Finn could sleep just as soundly with his head on a bedroll and the echoes of artillery fire as a lullaby.
    Tonight he pined for bed and oblivion. Unfortunately, there was unfinished business. He might have been a man to ignore rules, but he never ignored problems.
    “That was the last of them.” Angela swept back into the living room looking as fresh and lovely as she hadhours earlier. “Everyone was so glad to see you again.” She wrapped her arms around him, nestling her head beneath his shoulder.
    His hand lifted to stroke her hair in a habitual gesture. She felt soft, and somehow pink, he thought. It was like being tangled in a fragrant, climbing vine. If he didn’t nip off the feelers, it would certainly choke him.
    “Let’s sit down. We need to talk.”
    “I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m about talked out.” She skimmed a hand down his shirt, then back up to toy with his top button. “And I’ve been waiting all evening to be alone with you, to give you your real homecoming.” She leaned forward for a kiss. Her eyes flashed like jagged cobalt when he held her off.
    “Angela, I’m sorry. I’m not interested in picking up where we left off six months ago.” He kept his hands firm on her shoulders. “We ended it badly, and I regret that, but we did end it.”
    “You’re not going to punish me for being overly emotional, for saying things in the heat of the moment. Finn, we meant too much to each other.”
    “We had an affair,” he corrected. “We had sex. It was great sex. And we had a kind of odd friendship. We might be able to salvage the friendship if we put the rest out of the picture.”
    “You’re being cruel.”
    “I’m being honest.”
    “You don’t want me?” She tossed back her head and laughed. The sound, like her eyes, was glassy. “I know you do. I can feel it.” Her skin was glowing as she stepped toward him again. Her lips parted, curved, as she watched his eyes drop to them and linger. “You know what I can do for you, Finn. What I’ll let you do to me. You want as much as I want.”
    “I don’t take everything I want.”
    “But you took me. Right here, on this floor the first time. Remember?” With her eyes locked on his, she slid her hands up his chest, shivering with triumph when shefelt the unsteady thud of his heart under her palm. “I drove you crazy; you tore my clothes off of me. Remember what it was like?” Her voice lowered, sliding through his system like tainted honey.
    He remembered, and the memory made him sick with desire. The bite of her fingernails on his back, her teeth at his shoulder. She’d drawn blood and he hadn’t given a damn.
    “I want you to take me again, Finn.” She watched his face as her hand crept downward.
    His fingers curled at her back, digging into the silk. He knew what it would be like and, for a moment, desperately craved that moment of violent pleasure. But he remembered much more than the urgent sex and the dazzling fantasies.
    “It isn’t going to happen again, Angela.” He let his hands drop away from her back. She was quick. He should have been prepared, but her vicious backhanded blow knocked him back two steps.
    His eyes heated like suns, but he lifted a hand and coolly wiped the blood from his lip. “More than this room hasn’t changed, I see.”
    “It’s because I’m older than you, isn’t it?”