Free Hot for Pepper by Emily Ryan-Davis Page B

waiter to the bar for a double. What happened?”
    Pepper sucked salt and lipstick from her lips, unable to repeat Carlton’s words.
    Mitch’s broad hands covered her knees, hot through layers of stocking, petticoat and gown. “I know he said something to you. You had this same look in your eyes when…” He cut himself off and squeezed her knees. “Pepper.”
    “When he told me Tibby was gone,” she whispered. The pain of losing her old pet echoed from her adolescence, but Mitch’s hands distracted her from the reminder. His fingers were long and tan, his wrists thick beneath the cuffs of his silk shirt and tuxedo jacket. She couldn’t recall him ever touching her before their kiss—more than a kiss—in the pool. Now, all she could think about was the comfort of his touch and how much she craved it. Remembered arousal mingled with her grief, muddling her focus.
    He’d touched Andy. Scraped, bloody knuckles and bruises came of that, for both men. Pepper tried to focus on the time before she’d started thinking of Mitch as hers instead of Andy’s, tried to steer herself away from a new course of dependence. But oh she wanted to lean on Mitch and ask him to make everything all right.
    “Damn it,” Mitch growled. His fascinating hands moved, leaving her knees cold. They reappeared on her cheeks. His fingers dug into her carefully pinned hair and he angled her head until their eyes met. “Tell me. Is something wrong with Carlton?”
    The morning’s stubble was gone, leaving behind the clean line of his jaw. Gorgeous as he was in finery, she missed his rough-around-the-edges look. Wanted him rough again, wrapped around her the way he’d been before they had to part ways and dress for the evening.
    “Pepper,” he said sharply, cutting through her mental fog.
    Pepper frowned at her wandering focus and shook her head. The movement was small because Mitch didn’t relax his hold. Still whispering, she said, “Carlton’s fine. I…can I ask you something?”
    Mitch’s thumbs grazed the corners of her mouth. “Ask.”
    “Why do you keep coming back here?”
    He exhaled. “I have an open invitation.”
    “So does your sister, but she never comes.”
    “Candace has her reasons for staying away.” Mitch glowered. “Why does everybody keep challenging my right to be here?”
    “I’m not…I just wondered. Candace has reasons to stay away. What are your reasons for coming back?”
    “Carlton gave me everything I have and made me everything I am,” he said.
    She wet her lips. “So you come back for Carlton.”
    Mitch swore beneath his breath. “And you. I keep coming back for you but I’ve been too damn stubborn to actually do anything about it until now.”
    “Carlton wants me to leave,” she whispered, sidestepping his confession and processing it from another direction. “He thinks I’m too sheltered here. That I need to see the world. He’s arranged for a real-estate agent to help me find a place in Chicago. He called in some connections to secure a position for me at an art gallery. Chicago . Do you have any idea how far away that is? Did you know he was going to do this?”
    “Baby, I didn’t know.” Truth in his words, but knowledge in his eyes. He drew her into his arms before she gave herself time to question the glint of knowing.
    She squeezed her eyes shut, not sure any answers would really matter. “What am I going to do in Chicago?”
    “You already know what you want to do. Nothing’s stopping you from enrolling in a nursing program now. Hell, nothing’s stopping you from enlisting, if that’s really what you want to do.” He settled cross-legged on the floor and pulled her across his lap, cradling her securely. “But I can tell you from experience, deployment sucks. Especially if you have any sort of affection for sex. And Pepper, I’ve been naked with you. You definitely have an affection for sex.”
    Reluctant amusement penetrated her distress. She dried her wet face on the