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  She bucked violently, coming again and again. Delight flowed warm from head to toe, carrying away the emotional residue that imprisoned her heart.

  One last lick and he moved over her, the silken hair on his chest teased her aching nipples, his torso a tantalizing weight against her breasts. Scarf removed, he covered her hands with his. “No more walls between us, Joci. Anywhere. Let me come inside you. I’m clean, baby.” His eyes shifted a fraction, enough to break contact. “And I’m sterile.”

  Too choked up to reply, knowing he wouldn’t tolerate pity and so damn horny she was going to explode, she freed a hand, grabbed his cock and slipped it inside her. A perfect fit. Wrapping her legs and arms around him, she arched her back to deepen his entry and moaned against his neck.

  Jared took her lips and then jackhammered her as if there’d be no tomorrow, demanding her ferocity in return. She gave it. Digging in with her nails, she milked him hard, so delirious with need that when she came, the screaming didn’t stop. The waves of pleasure that pummeled through her body had her fighting to stay conscious.

  Jared’s head flew back, hair slick with sweat, cheeks flushed with passion. With a feral growl, he emptied himself into her, shuddered violently and collapsed on top of the boneless mass that had once been her body.

  After the dizziness dissipated, she snuggled into his embrace, luxuriating in the warmth of his skin, the heady scent of musk, his tender caresses. “What happens next, Jared? I doubt I remember how to be in a relationship. It’s been so long.”

  “We’ll figure it out together, one day at a time, babe. It’s been awhile for me too.” He rubbed his cheek against hers. “Joci, does it bother you that I can’t have kids?”

  “Not at all. I have Kylie. How do you feel about it?”

  “My life is full of kids. I’m mostly content with that.”

  “But not always.”

  His silence did more to shout the depth of his pain than any words ever could.

  “Were you born that way?”

  “Outcome of a fight.” The neutrality of his voice was practiced, too practiced. It shone a light on the regret buried near the surface.

  “I’m sorry.” Her fingers ran through the soft patches of hair on his forearms. She ached for him, a raw physical anguish that lanced through her soul and had her turning in his arms to kiss him fiercely. His arms tightened around her. His warmth and comfort wrapped around her like a down quilt on a winter night. They held each other until sleep blanketed them both.

  * * * * *

  The phone blared, a screaming wake-up call she had no interest in answering. “The machine will get that,” Joci said, snuggling in his arms, groggy but content.

  He kissed the top of her head. “Any regrets?”

  “Not at all.”

  After showering and a whole lot more loving, Jocelyn threw together a breakfast of freshly brewed coffee, scrambled eggs laced with tomatoes and feta cheese, hot, home-baked blueberry muffins and sliced ripe melon.

  The phone rang again.

  “Odd. That’s the second call. No one calls on Sunday morning.”

  The answering machine kicked in. “Jocelyn, it’s Myron Atwater.”

  “The mayor? I better get it. ”

  Her heart sank to her feet as she listened. Jared sidled up behind her and put his arms around her, allowing her to lean against his strength. She lapped it up.

  “Let me turn on the TV and assess the damage. I’ll get back to you.” Her voice held steady, but her knees buckled. She was glad he was there to catch her.

  “Talk to me,” he said.

  “I’m not sure yet. Something about Premier Health collapsing, which means the closing of Health Corp. I need to turn on the news.”

  She grabbed his arm, her fingers digging craters into his biceps, and she led him to the living room to watch her life go directly to hell, no passing go, no collecting two hundred dollars.

  Chapter Nine

  One of Jocelyn’s hands bit into Jared’s wrist, the other shredded the couch arm. Her gaze was glued to the news reporter on TV.

  “In response to the financial scandal come to light, the Board of Directors of Premier Health has requested the resignation of the senior leadership, including the president and CEO and three vice presidents. Given the magnitude of the financial losses, Premier Health will close multiple locations across the country.”

  Her head fell into open palms, shoulders drooped. “Damn.”

  “Talk to me.” Jared’s arm circled her shoulders and coaxed her toward him, promising warmth, waiting out her resistance. It came quickly.

  “I should’ve seen this coming, all the signs were there.” Joci was grateful beyond words to have arms around her during a crisis, his presence offering a tonic to the anxiety churning through her chest. She kissed his shoulder where her cheek had found haven. Her mother’s arms were the last to give her comfort, weak as they’d been, after Nick left. Her dad and her brothers had never dealt with emotional pain well, which had left the care of her mother, now her father, to her.

  “Joci, I get this is bad but I’m new here. Tell me what this means.” He laid his head against hers and stroked her shoulders, back, lending his strength to hers.

  “About six months ago, Premier Health bought up Health Corp, one of Madison’s largest companies. It employs over two hundred people and a number of local businesses, including Don’s, depend heavily on its contracts. After the acquisition, it looked as if Premier would close the Health Corp site. They wanted several technologies Health Corp had invented, not the company itself, so we put a team together, demonstrated the value the firm offered if it stayed open. They agreed, even talked about expanding the site. It was too easy. They rolled over too soon. Now I see why. They used it as a financial cover.”

  “That’s what you were doing when we met at the airport.”

  “Yes, and that’s what we were celebrating when you arrived. You were too busy mauling me in the conference room to take notes.” She allowed herself a smile even though her life had just been slammed headfirst into the toilet.

  “I’d like to be mauling you now but finish the story.” His hold tightened around her, a temporary sanctuary against the chaos banging at the front door.

  “Two of the vice presidents who negotiated the deal were fired so we can assume the deal’s off and they’ll close Health Corp as initially planned. We’ll lose those jobs and other health care companies that can’t adjust quickly enough to the loss of Health Corp’s contracts. The economy’s fragile, barely recovered from the decline of manufacturing. This will be a serious blow.”

  “What happens now?”

  Although all she wanted to do was lose herself in the man next to her, that wasn’t her way. “We get to work.” Ripping herself out of his embrace, she gathered her laptop, the portable phone, her Blackberry, a pen and paper, and dumped it all on the kitchen table amidst their half-eaten breakfast. She cupped his face between her hands and kissed him, fast and hard, a last indulgence before she dove into the problem at hand. “Roll your sleeves up, good-looking. We have a town to save. You’re on the computer, I’m on the phone.”

  Jocelyn’s shift from playful, affectionate lover to tough-as-nails CEO kicked his ego in the balls with a metal-tipped boot. He knew he was being unreasonable, but anger ground up what was left of his breakfast, whether it was warranted or not.

  Instead of fucking her to heaven and back, which was what he should be doing, he’d morphed into her assistant, caught up in a flurry of business meetings, phone calls and intelligence gathering. This was Joci’s world and he understood why she fought relationships. A town sat on those slender shoulders and she dragged it around without a word. When she thought no one was looking, she ducked into a corner, wiped off the sweat, sewed a smile on her face and came back swinging. If he wanted her, he’d have to lift some of the weight, not jump on the crush wagon. Association of Executive Assistants, here he came. “More coffee?”

  “Plea
se,” she said, not looking up from the notepad, her hand scribbling.

  Coffee mugs on the table, he massaged her shoulders, his fingers kneading through knotted flesh. “Whatever you need me to do, I’m here for you, baby.”

  “You’ve done this before.”

  “Of course, I have physical education and kinesiology degrees. I know all the muscles in the body, every nerve ending,” he nipped at the pulse beating in her neck, “and all pleasure points.”

  She sighed and leaned into his hands. “If only…but there’s too much to do.”

  The frustration in her voice had him backing off and stuffing down the image of her riding tile marks into his back on the kitchen floor. He threw himself in a seat to hide the tent that had set up camp in his pants and focused on the computer screen.

  Giggled goodbyes and a slamming door startled them to attention. Kylie had come home.

  Wide eyes and unhinged jaw, Kylie’s stare volleyed between Jocelyn’s blue silk bathrobe and Jared’s naked chest.

  “Coach Wyatt, what are you doing here…without a shirt?”

  Shit. “Kylie Johanna Wade, that is not how I taught you to talk to adults.” Sheer willpower held the flush of embarrassment from creeping up her neck to her cheeks. Not the way she planned to tell her daughter about Jared, but this had to be addressed now.

  Kylie kicked at the floorboard of the living room. “No, Mom. Sorry, Coach Wyatt.”

  “Guess we need to talk, baby girl.” She took Kylie’s hand and guided her to the couch. Jared headed upstairs, presumably to finish dressing.

  “First things first. How’d you get home? I was supposed to pick you up later.”

  “Tessa was at the sleepover. Ms. Atwater came early, said she’d take me home to help out, that you and Mayor Atwater were dealing with some big crisis. Are you and Coach Wyatt, um, a couple, Mom?”

  “Yes, honey. It’s still new and we have to see how it grows. How do you feel about that?” Jocelyn relaxed back into the couch, giving her space to think.

  “You don’t date, Mom. Why Coach Wyatt? He always got your mean look. I didn’t think you liked him.” Curiosity, not anger, filled her voice. A good sign.

  “I liked him too much. That scared me, a lot. My marriage to your father didn’t work so well so I used my mean look to keep him away. He stayed anyway.”

  “Coach Wyatt never gives up on you. It’s why I like him.” Kylie twisted and untwisted a lock of hair around her finger, her face puckered as if deep in thought. “It’s kinda weird, you dating my coach, but I’m okay with it. He’s hot, for an older dude.” Her grin and glowing face said it all.

  Jocelyn laughed as she pushed that lock of Kylie’s hair behind her ear. “You’re growing up way too fast.” Once again, Jared’s fingerprints littered the crime scene, stealing her heart, one deed at a time.

  “Will he sleep here, Mom?”

  She did not see that coming and never before had to deal with the question. The last batch of parenting advice books swam through her head but she let her heart make the choice. “Yes, sometimes,” she said, more confident by the second word.

  “Good. We could use a man around the house.”

  “Kyles, we get along just fine without one.”

  “We laugh more when Uncle Gid’s around. Even with Uncle Tommy, but he’s more intense. I think it’ll be the same with Coach Wyatt.”

  “That’s settled. Did Ms. Atwater tell you about the crisis?”

  Kylie shook her head.

  “Health Corp may close, for real this time. There’s a meeting here tonight, likely the first of many.”

  “Maybe Tessa could come over with her father, hang out. I’ll call her.”

  Wow. Kylie taking the initiative. Crisis be damned, she was starting to love the direction her life was taking and the man in the driver’s seat.

  * * * * *

  Upstairs, Jared’s heart was light. In the midst of a crisis, she dropped the world, kicked it aside and raised Kylie to the center. Workaholic sure, had to be nowadays, but her priorities were screwed in straight and tight. Just the way he liked them. Dressed, he ambled down the steps to find Kylie bounding up. “You okay with this?” he asked.

  “Yeah, it’s good for Mom. She won’t admit it though. I worry about her sometimes.”

  Jared chuckled at that. Insightful, like her mother even if she didn’t let it show that often. “Promise you’ll talk to me if this creates a problem for you on the team and I promise to help you with your worries about your mom. Deal?”

  “If I can get out of the push-ups, deal’s sealed.”

  “No special treatment.”

  Kylie laughed, a deep, rich timbre that could have been Joci’s. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

  “Your mom taught you well. Now she’s got me in training. I have to go help her save Madison.”

  “She’s good at that.”

  He found Jocelyn on the couch, her gaze drilling a hole through the floor. “You okay?” he asked, falling into the cushion next to her.

  Her tongue was in his mouth, fingers gripped his cheek, a kiss to end all kisses, ripe with promise. “You’re amazing,” she said, breathless, face flushed, forehead pressed against his.

  Yowza, everything was moving in the right direction. “Not that I’m disagreeing or complaining, but what was that for?”

  “My talk with Kylie was painless and mature. Before soccer she was moody, dour and unpredictable, rarely in a good way. Since you swaggered that fine ass into town, everyone in this house is much happier. Kylie’s approved you hanging around here.”

  He grinned from ear to ear. “Women like me.”

  * * * * *

  Madison’s leadership descended on Jocelyn’s house. She opted for the warm comfort of a living room over the cold steel of the Chamber building to manage the tensions that would flare in the meeting. What worry plagued her disappeared when Tessa Atwater arrived on her father’s arm and sped to Kylie’s room as soon as she crossed the threshold. Jared’s eyes smiled back at hers, adding to the joy hesitantly moving into her heart. He behaved as part of the household—taking coats, pouring drinks, slicing cheese, moving furniture. His periodic light touches on her arm, her lower back, her shoulder kept her spirits high. When Brenda arrived on Don’s arm, she winked to let Jocelyn know she had noticed and would follow up.

  When all the participants had drinks in hand, she kicked off the evening. “I’m not going to mince words. Premier Health is hemorrhaging financially and closures throughout the country are imminent. We are one of their newest facilities, unproven, and unnecessary since they own the technology patents. We must assume the company will close and focus on managing the recovery.”

  Don crossed and uncrossed his legs, folded and unfolded his arms. “Jocelyn, I don’t agree. We should focus our top resources on keeping Health Corp open.”

  “I concur, keeping the facility open is the only real option we have,” said Debbie Hester, leaning over Jared to offer cleavage and well-tanned legs for his viewing pleasure.

  She should do something about that cellulite. Meow. So below you, Joci.

  “Jocelyn, why a different strategy this time? What’s changed?” Myron asked.

  “The deal we struck assumed the firm was growing. We demonstrated the Madison facility could spur that development by helping it enter new markets. The recent scandal revealed the poor financial situation of the company. Its only survival strategy is to scale back operations and reduce market size.”

  Tension thickened the air. Reality was sinking in and it hurt.

  “We don’t know that for sure, do we, Jocelyn?” Don’s voice projected the anger and fear simmering underneath his in-control façade.

  “No, nothing’s certain at this stage, which is why I’ll ask you to lead a small team to Premier’s Headquarters to ferret out the facts and negotiate if there is an opportunity to keep Health Corp open. I’ll form the team here for recovery activities. To put all our eggs in one basket would be
foolish.”

  Her allies rallied, her opponents resisted, but the neutral parties wavered. She needed them on her side. A light went on, she knew what to do.

  “Before we break up, I want to form a committee to focus on civic pride. It will keep the town motivated and engaged in the difficult times ahead. Given the importance of sports to the county, I would ask Jared Wyatt to head that team.”

  His eyebrows hit the ceiling, lines of displeasure streaked across his brow. Quickly pulling it together, he pasted a smile on his face for the rest of the crowd, but Jocelyn noticed it never reached his eyes. She’d worry about it later, after she made this work.

  The recommendation was a hit. The nonaligned jumped on board and the first meeting for the civic pride committee was set.

  Jared stayed after the others left to clean up the house. Kylie’s presence provided a respite from the tension that surfaced between them.

  Kylie in bed, Jocelyn addressed the strain immediately. “What’s bothering you?”

  “Why didn’t you talk to me earlier about heading a committee? You sprung it out there where I couldn’t say no.” He leaned against the kitchen threshold, arms folded, lips in a tight line.

  “I just thought of it. A lot of groups were wavering and I needed them on my side.” She smiled provocatively, not really sure what spurred his anger. “Why don’t you want to work with me on this?”

  “Babe, I do, but we decide together how. I’m not one of the town chess pieces you can move around at will. Discuss it with me first next time.”

  “Unfortunately, in this town, you are one of the pieces on the chess board. But I hear you and promise to consult you first, when I can.”

  “No, Joci, I’m not, and this stops here. Whether you admit it or not, you’re always showing who’s in charge. I’m not the right choice for the job, Derrick Karsen is, and you know it.” Storm warnings flashed across his eyes, deepening the blue to midnight black.

  “I used every advantage I had to end that session in my favor.”

  “Listen to yourself, Joci. I’m not an advantage, I’m your lover. Everyone follows your lead without question, but they expect you to carry their burdens. I don’t. I make my own decisions, babe, and take care of my own messes. You want me to do something, ask me first.”