Free Just This Night by Mari Madison Page B

backstabbing snakes like the ones I’d left behind in Beantown?
    Sadly, that seemed more likely. It was still TV news, after all.
    Before I had reluctantly accepted the job offer at News 9 I had considered getting out of the biz altogether. To leave it all behind. To start fresh with something less vile. Unfortunately, after talking to various recruiters and conducting a slew of Internet job searches, I couldn’t find a single opportunity outside my field. I knew TV. And only TV.
    Not that I didn’t like being a videographer. Even after six years in the business I still got a thrill out of the whole thing. The adrenaline rush of shooting and editing a breaking news story, the coolness of seeing your work broadcasted on every TV—you couldn’t get that anywhere else.
    No, it wasn’t the craft I didn’t enjoy. It was the slime. The scum. The people of the TV news world. People like my ex-wife.
    I grabbed my backpack and slammed the SUV door shut behind me. Taking a deep breath I readied myself to face whatever the new job might throw my way. But just as I’d almost convinced myself that things could be different here, I was blindsided by an all-too familiar face crossing the parking lot. I stared, unable to breathe. It couldn’t be.
    But it was. It was her. It couldn’t be anyone but her.
    Sheer panic warred with sudden, complete arousal as I watched her approach, my knees threatening to buckle out from under me. What the hell was she doing here?
    I assessed her quickly. Her once flowing blond curls were now restrained in a severe knot at the back of her head and the scrap of a dress she’d worn to the club had been replaced by a smart, baby blue suit jacket. The skirt she wore, however, was still too short, in my opinion, to be legal and soon I found my eyes involuntarily running up and down the length of her bare legs, just as my hands had done only two nights before. Oh God. I felt my jeans tighten as I remembered all too well the satin smoothness of those thighs. Against my hands. Against my mouth. The mewing sound she’d made as I moved across her core. The sweetness she left on my tongue.
    Down, boy.
    I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts and focus on what was unfolding in front of me. She was getting closer. She was definitely heading my way. And for some reason she didn’t look half as surprised to see me as I was to see her.
    Then I remembered: the wallet.
    I had realized I’d left my jacket with my wallet behind just as I’d gotten back to my sister’s house and attempted to pay the cabbie. But I’d decided it’d be easier just to cancel my credit cards and apply for a new California license than go back and grovel for its return. I’d figured since my license had my old Boston address on it she wouldn’t be able to track me down. I’d conveniently forgotten about the letter of employment.
    I swallowed hard. She was close now. And I was a deer in the headlights, not sure what to do. Half of me wanted to run. To turn around and dive back into the SUV and speed away. But of course that was stupid. Not to mention fucking cowardly.
    Come on, Mac. Grow a pair. Take the jacket, make up some lame apology, and you’ll never have to see her again.
    â€œHey, Mac!” she called in greeting, giving me a small smile as she stepped into my bubble. A calm, friendly smile. Almost too calm, too friendly. Was she planning on confronting me for taking off like I had? Or would she pretend it hadn’t happened, just to avoid the awkwardness? After all, this wasn’t all me, I reminded myself. She’d wanted to keep it casual, too. To get back at her ex or whatever. She probably didn’t want to see me as much as I didn’t want to see her.
    Except . . . I
did
want to see her, I suddenly realized. In fact, against everything sensible inside of me, I was pretty damn happy to set eyes on her again. Which was completely