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But her body betrayed her. Her feet carried her close again, her hands lifted to warm her palms against his chest. His heart beat against her flesh and her body trembled in return. How could she ache for something she so badly needed to reject?
And as usual, he could read her like a book. His palms cupped her face. “I won’t hurt you.”
He’d said that before. And again, she didn’t want to give him the chance, but he was kissing her and she was letting him. More, she was reveling in giving over to him.
She wanted to give him everything, anything, all of her.
“Whoa.” It was Dean who separated them this time, but he was smiling as he held her away. “Is it just me, or is it smoking in here?”
She laughed, he made her that giddy, and then she reached over to flick off the clothes steamer they used to de-wrinkle the merchandise. “Hate to break it to your ego, but the mist is machine-made.”
“Yeah? I think you should give this man another chance to prove himself.”
Oh, God, she wanted to. She was going to. Marlys felt as feminine as a pair of marabou-trimmed satin mules when he curled his muscled forearm around her hips and pulled her even tighter to him. His silvery eyes burned and she unconsciously licked her upper lip, gratified when he groaned at the instinctive, seductive signal.
She laughed again, a purr that she’d never heard herself make, and threw caution to the wind as she wrapped one arm around his neck and slid her other hand into the back pocket of his jeans. Paper rattled.
He halted halfway to her mouth. “Oh,” he said. “You make me forget everything.”
“That’s two of us,” she murmured, drawing his head closer. At the moment, she couldn’t care less about the condition. Another kiss would be worth a little amnesia.
But he broke from her hold to straighten and reach into his pocket himself. “I have something for you from Juliet. When I was re-stowing my gear in the guesthouse, she asked me to give it to you.”
Marlys covered the quick sting she felt at the sound of the other woman’s name. “Oh?” She shuffled back, then tucked her arms over her chest. “How is my evil stepmother?”
Dean’s eyes narrowed, then he shrugged his shoulders as if dismissing an itch between the blades. “From what I understand, she’s troubled by the latest crap in the tabloids and on the gossip sites.”
Marlys didn’t blink. “I heard about that.”
“You know it isn’t true. I told you that’s not Noah.”
“I don’t really think that Jennifer Lawrence made a baby with a martian, either, but they have a picture of it on the cover of Gossip Universe.”
“The scandal hurts your father’s reputation, too,” Dean said.
Marlys didn’t see it that way. “My father was a hero. He could have been President of the United States, but then he married her.”
“Is that what you wanted?” Dean cocked his head. “A canopy bed in the White House?”
“No! My point is, if he hadn’t married—”
“Marlys, he failed you long before he married his second wife.”
“How can you say that?” She tightened her arms around herself. “My father’s dead.”
“Death doesn’t make him a saint.”
Marlys turned away, not wanting him to stir the embers of the emotions she’d been banking from the day her mother dragged her away from the last base she’d lived on. “My father’s dead,” she mumbled again.
“I know that. Have you accepted it?”
She shoved her hand in the pocket of her black pants, and finding the silver tear, squeezed it so tight it bit into her skin. “Dean…”
“Angel.” He sighed. “All right, I’ll let it go. But here.” The paper he held out had been folded into quarters.
Marlys opened the sheet and stared at the slick-looking flyer. “What’s this all about?” she asked, looking up at Dean.
“Juliet’s throwing her own launch party for your father’s book.”
“There’s already a party planned.”
“One she isn’t invited to attend, right?”
Marlys refused to feel the slightest pinch of shame. The only thing she felt bad about was that she’d confessed to Dean that Helen had left Juliet out at her request. “We’ve already been over that.”
Dean sighed. “You’re right. But Juliet wants to be sure you know that you’re invited to the party she’s throwing.”
Marlys glanced back at the flyer. “What’s this place? Malibu & Ewe?”
“A shop on the Pacific Coast Highway. I gather it has plenty of parking.”
