Free A Marriage Between Friends by Melinda Curtis

kiss someone? And not just anyone.
    She was kissing her husband!
    “I love…the way you kiss,” Vince murmured against her mouth, pulling back before breaking this wondrous connection completely. His breath drifted over her skin, into her mouth.
    Jill absorbed the moment, absorbed Vince into her shuddering system. Mellow heat spread through her, making her bones feel soft, her body deliciously sinuous. So this was what she’d been missing.
    Vince’s large hands drifted lazily across Jill’s shoulders, skimmed down the slope of her back, creating a tender cocoon around her. She cuddled closer. As if on cue one of Vince’s hands slid over the curve of Jill’s bottom, the other beneath the hem of her T-shirt. As his hand ventured northward, the warmth of his palm against her spine was electric, sending a startled jolt through Jill’s muscles, sending her careering against Vince’s hard, powerful chest.
    “Oh, baby.” Vince hauled her body against him, his kiss no longer gentle, but urgent, demanding, reminiscent of that night Craig hadn’t listened when she’d said, “No!”
    “No!” Jill cried into Vince’s mouth, twisting her body and pounding his chest, gasping for air as panic vaulted into her throat. Not again!
    She fell onto the wet gravel path, sending the air out of her lungs in a high-pitched whoosh. The clay mountain soil hadn’t absorbed the rain from last night. Water soaked through the seat of her jeans. There was little chance of getting into the apartment without Teddy seeing what a mess she was. And she was a mess. She should have known better.
    “What the hell?” Vince bent to help Jill up, but she scuttled away, gravel biting into her palms. Vince took a few steps back, his face probably as ashen as hers. “I’m an ass. I should have realized. I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t apologize. Let’s just…forget that happened.” Would her legs hold her if she stood? She’d been trembling since before they’d kissed. First with anticipation, then with desire and finally with fear.
    “We’ll go slow next time.” Vince extended his hand to Jill once more, his eyes filled with remorse.
    “Don’t you get it? I can’t do this. I haven’t since…” Jill scrambled up off the ground before Vince could touch her, giving herself a head rush that nearly sent her tumbling into him. “You got your end-of-the-marriage kiss. I think you should go.”
    But Vince wasn’t listening to her. “Have you talked to someone? A counselor? It’s been…”
    “I know how long it’s been.” Sometimes the loneliness was unbearable. When Jill looked at Vince she kept her eyes carefully above his mouth, kept her voice below a freaked-out shriek. “Please leave.”
     
    F OR THE SECOND TIME in twenty-four hours, Vince wondered how he’d lost control. The kiss was meant to put Jill in her place, retribution for her asking for a divorce and a way to divert attention from his gut-spilling tirade. The opposite had occurred. It was Vince who had been humbled, Vince who felt sorry.
    Vince, the man who had once vowed to protect Jill, had acted nearly as uncontrollably as Craig. It was Jill’s panic that sent comprehension surging through Vince’s system, quenching his desire as he watched her stumble away from him.
    He needed a reality check. This was Jill, with her average curves and her average face. Except…he liked looking at Jill. He always had. Her facial expressions gave away her emotions much too easily, and her smile…he’d always liked her smile. Vince found it hard to believe that she hadn’t been smiling at some backwoods sap all this time.
    Sure, Jill had a good reason to become celibate eleven years ago— damn Craig to hell —but she practically lived like a nun. Vince frowned. Jill had made a home out in the middle of nowhere with a security system Tom Cruise would envy. A man would have to be pretty damn determined if he wanted to infiltrate Jill’s defenses. Was it any wonder she hadn’t