They clung to each other and moved together as if they were trying to become one, until she spasmed around him and took him over the edge with her. They collapsed together. Time ticked by in silence until their breathing evened out.

Until Julie said, “Luke–”

“Don’t say it,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. “You’re not going. I’ll find another way.”

“What if you can’t.”

“I will.” Because he had to. Because he wasn’t letting anything happen to her.

***

Gina threw her purse down on the kitchen counter as she entered her apartment, disgusted from thinking about how Julie had floated around museum, being complimented by everyone. They all loved Julie at that party, and what was Gina? Her assistant. Her f**king assistant.

Marco came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “What’s wrong, bebe?”

She turned in his arms. “Even you wanted her,” she accused. “I saw how you looked at her.”

“I looked at her,” he said, not even asking who she meant, because he knew. “I touch you.”

“Not tonight you won’t.” She tried to push away from him, but those big strong arms of his held her, one big hand molding her closer.

“I know what you need,” he claimed softly, that damnable sexy accent of his tingling along her nerve endings. “Something special to make you forget how much you hate this woman you work for.”

“I don’t want to forget.” She wanted to remember. Oh yes, she wanted to remember, and she wanted to do something about it.

He slipped a feather light strip of something to her lips and she frowned as it began to melt, pulling back. “What is that?”

“A new kind of pleasure,” he promised. “You will feel me in ways you never thought possible.”

She didn’t do drugs. It had always been her taboo. She didn’t like feeling out of control. But whatever he’d given her began to dissolve on her lips and instinct made her scrape it with her teeth, the sweetness of it drawing a swipe of her tongue.

“That’s ma belle,” he approved, and pressed more of the sliver of sweetness into her mouth and this time she accepted it willingly. It was good and he was just so damn convincing without even trying.

Suddenly she felt warm and wonderful, and wait, was she on the bed? How had she gotten on the bed? And where were her clothes? Not that she cared. Naked was good. Naked with Marco was even better. Her world was spinning, but in rainbow colors where time and space seemed some distant place. Marco was nowhere, yet he was everywhere, kissing her, whispering naughty, wonderful things to her.

“You hate Julie, oui?” he asked by her ear, and his hand was on her stomach, heat seeping into her skin and sending these amazing sensations through her.

“Yes, I hate her.” She rolled over and wrapped her arms around him but then she blinked and everything went blank. She couldn’t remember what she’d said but she was pretty sure that, oh wow, oh, yes....she’d just had the orgasm of orgasms. “Do it again,” she demanded. ”Make me come again.”

“Non,” he declined, his lips on her neck. “Not until you give me something. Remember? That’s how we play this game. I give you pleasure. You give me...something. Now, tell me more about this journal.”

“The journal,” she whispered, trying to remember why she hadn’t told him about it before now. Wasn’t there a reason? She couldn’t think of the reason. This was Marco, the man who made her feel so good, the man she wanted to be rich and na**d with for the rest of her life. “The judge,” she whispered, pressing his hand to her breast. “He will pay for it.”

“How much?”

“I don’t know...I thought fifty thousand....” Rainbows floated in her vision again and she blinked them away. “I think much more.”

“And where,” he said, against her mouth, “is this journal?”

“Julie has it.”

Chapter Nineteen

It was early Friday morning, the day of the party, and Luke had yet to get instructions about where to go and when. He sat at a coffee shop several tables from where Julie was meeting with a client, his MacBook open. She’d called in with the flu for two days, and then worked twelve-hour days from his office. Today though, she insisted she had to go by her office for a meeting and to pick up some files. He planned to wait on her in the building.

Luke’s cell rang and he snatched it from his belt and grimaced at Murphy’s number. “Why do I know this is you trying to convince me to take Julie to Arel’s party?”

“I’ve studied this guy for two years,” Murphy said. “He’s got the same mentality gangs operate with. The strong get respect and rise to the top. The weak are destroyed. You told the judge you use Julie to get to her high-powered clients. If the judge shared that information, which considering he’s trying to stay on Arel’s good side, I’d venture that he did, then Arel will want the power you have by the impression that you basically own Julie.”

“So he wants her.”

“He wants the power and the control,” Murphy said. “You make damn sure he knows that she’s yours and hands off. Be good to you, and he’ll get rewarded through you.”

“Great information,” Luke said, “but nothing I’m going to put to use tonight.”

“Two more dead teens last night in Jersey,” he said. “We have to shut them down.” He hesitated. “That missing agent we told you about.”