To All a Good Night

by Donna Kauffman, Jill Shalvis

  “Stop.” She tugged on his arms, but he would not budge.

  “Relax, babe.”

  Panic filled her. Deep down she knew Charlie would not physically hurt her or force her. That if she screamed, the guys at the security desk would come running. But, for the first time, she did not want to be rescued. She wanted to fight back and take a stand. To show him she was good for something other than making him happy.

  She tramped down on the inside of his shin.

  Charlie let out a howl just as Spence came around the corner. Even out of breath and doubled over, Spence managed to outshine Charlie.

  “You okay?” Spence asked, through sharp breaths.

  “I am.” She sidestepped Charlie as he jumped around the inside of the car, swearing his head off.

  “Everything’s fine,” Spence shouted to the security guards on their way to the elevators as he waved them off.

  “It is now,” she mumbled, feeling very satisfied.

  “Did he hurt you?”

  Yeah, over and over again. “Not this time.”

  “Her? The bitch kicked me.” Charlie’s incredulous yell echoed in the lobby.

  Spence took a threatening step forward. “I told you never to talk about her that way again.”

  “Spence, don’t.” She held onto his arm. “He’s not worth it.”

  Charlie stopped shouting long enough to point fingers. “We were making out, then she hauled off and kicked me.”

  “We were not.” The idea of being with Charlie again repulsed her.

  “That’s it.” Spence took one step, and with one hit to the jaw, knocked Charlie to the floor.

  Charlie squealed and grabbed his face. “What the hell was that?”

  “An early Christmas present for Natalie.”

  Spence leaned into the elevator car and hit the button for the fourteenth floor. “Go recuperate in your office.”

  “You’ll pay for this.”

  The door shut on Charlie’s threat.

  “I can’t believe you hit him.” Nat shook her head to loosen the shock holding her brain. “He is going to be furious.”

  “Nothing new there.”

  “He’ll use this against you in the partnership dissolution. He may even bring charges.” The possibilities were endless and awful.

  “I don’t care.”

  “Spence, this is serious.”

  He acted as if he could not hear her. “Did he touch you?”

  “I’m fine.” She grabbed Spence’s arm when he punched the up button on the elevator panel. “And you’re not going after him.”

  “It’s my office. I have to go back sometime.”

  She said the first thing that popped into her head. The one thing she wanted but feared the most. “Come home with me instead.”

  He turned around. The red-hot anger seeped from his face as he stood there. “Nat, you don’t owe me anything.”

  “It’s my turn to make dinner.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Definitely.”

  He smiled. “I guess pizza’s off the menu.”

  “So are donuts, french fries and everything tasty. You’ll live.”

  “I’ll take what I can get.”

  9

  S pence tried not to touch Nat. On the drive over, on the elevator ride up to her apartment, all he wanted to do was put his hands all over her. So he held them behind his back. He was not an animal. He could refrain from groping her in public. Could wait ten seconds to make sure they both wanted the same thing.

  Seeing Charlie with her had sent a rush of jealousy racing through him. An overreaction, Spence knew. After all, Nat had injured the guy. She clearly did not want Charlie anymore. Spence’s mind knew all that. The other parts of him were not so forgiving.

  Landing that punch helped, but the adrenaline rush would not die off. She had to fight Charlie off on her own, and Spence hated that fact.

  “Here it is.” Nat opened the door to her apartment and flicked on the light.

  The small room reminded him of her. Warm and light. Books packed the shelves and a small crooked Christmas tree graced the corner.

  The smell of her morning coffee lingered in the room. So did the signs of her gift wrapping. He walked over and fingered the white ribbon that matched the one on his present.

  “Let me get that.” She grabbed the remnants out of his hand as she whipped around the room cleaning up and straightening everything.

  “Natalie?”

  “Yeah?” She turned to him with an armload full of unfolded sweaters, a glass, and a garbage bag.

  “Put all of that down.”

  “I was just—”

  He lifted the glass from her hand and put it on the kitchen counter. After that came the sweater, a shirt, and the bag of leftover wrappings. He kept unloading until her arms were empty and open.

  “Your house is fine,” he said.

  “It’s small.”

  Funny how she could recognize the apartment as small but still saw herself as this huge giant of a woman. “It’s you.”

  “Messy?”

  “Comfortable.”

  He took advantage of her empty arms and filled them with his body. His hands slipped around her waist like they belonged there. Feeling her fingers brush against his shirt and tangle in his buttons ignited a brushfire in his nerve endings.

  Stepping up close, being wrapped in her arms, he could see the sparkle in her green eyes. Smell the scent of her skin. Watch her breath catch in her throat as she made eye contact and saw the determination in his face.

  “Is this where you collect on my part of the tape deal?” she asked, in a small voice.

  Her insecurity kept him from losing his temper. “This is the part where we forget about Charlie and the damned tape and everything but us.”

  “We should talk about this.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  He decided to take control until she was ready to believe she could be in charge. “Do you want me, Natalie?”

  “Yes.” No waffling. Just the truth delivered with bright red cheeks and shiny eyes.

  “I want you, too.”

  “I’m not your type.”

  She refused to see their attraction as a mutual thing. “You’re a woman.”

  “Last I checked.”

  He trailed his hands down her back until they landed on her backside. He squeezed.

  “Spence!”

  “From what I can feel, the answer is yes. You’re all woman.”

  “But you like—”

  He refused to hear another denial. “How about you stop telling me what I want and let me show you instead?”

  “I’m just trying to warn you.”

  He hated to ask but wanted to know. “About what?”

  “That I’m not the same as the other women you’ve been with.”

  “That’s true.”

  Her head shot up but her mouth remained closed. For once.

  “You’re bossy, sexy as hell, and too stubborn to realize it.”

  “I was talking about the stretch marks and the extra ten pounds.”

  She was determined to ruin the mood. To push him away before he could reject her. He saw the tactic and decided to ignore it.

  “Stop.” He covered her mouth with his fingers. “Let me judge what I like and don’t like in a woman.”

  “That’s kind of what I’m afraid of,” she mumbled around his hand.

  Time for a grand gesture. He had not carried a woman in a long time. It was one of those moves best reserved for younger men with better backs. But if ever a woman needed a man to carry her around for a few seconds, it was Natalie.

  He slipped his arm under her knees and put the other behind her back.

  Her panic set in immediately. “What are you doing?”

  “Taking you to bed.”

  “Spence, don’t. You’ll hurt yourself.”

  He lifted her into his arms without even a groan. “Which way?”


  “This is ridiculous.”

  “I’ll stand here all night if I need to.”

  “You’ll need traction.” When he continued to stand there, she rolled her eyes and pointed to the small hallway next to the kitchen. “There.”

  The apartment was small enough that he made the journey to the bedroom in about five steps. Stepping over the threshold he hit the wall switch with his elbow and saw exactly what he had fantasized for the last two nights—a bed. A queen-size bed filled with pillows and puffy bedding and all he wanted to do was throw her on top of it.

  A wild need clawed at his insides. She deserved gentle. He hoped he could beat back the need coursing through him long enough to give it to her.

  He set her on the bed and followed her down until he lay over her. “You’re beautiful.”

  “You’re strong.” She skimmed her hands over his shoulders.

  “Why, thank you.”

  “You didn’t even break a sweat.”

  “I’m sweating, believe me. Hot and sweating. But my state has nothing to do with carrying you. It has to do with wanting to get you naked, then get inside you.”

  “What’s stopping you?”

  The husky invitation set the need in his gut spinning. “Be sure.”

  Her fingers slipped beneath his tie. The silk scraped against his collar as she pulled it out and it landed on the floor. Then she went to work on his buttons.

  He wanted to be smooth and careful for her, but she was making that damn difficult. Her hands were everywhere. Roaming and undressing, caressing the bare skin of his chest while her mouth sucked against his neck.

  Screw going slow. They’d go slow the next time. This time they would go with fast and frenzied. Variety worked for him.

  He captured her mouth in a searing kiss. Lips, tongue, mouth. They all melded together in an explosion of heat and desire until all he saw was her.

  And her hands kept moving. When he lifted his head, he was naked to the waist and her hands rested on his belt.

  “Two questions,” he said, through rough breaths.

  “Make it fast.”

  “I like the way you think.” To prove his point, he kissed her again. “Condoms?”

  “In the nightstand.”

  He refused to think about how the condoms were once purchased for Charlie and grabbed for the box. “I’ll try to go slow and—”

  “Don’t.”

  “No?”

  She opened the condom package and held one out to him. “I want you now.”

  “That’s all I need to know.”

  With the green light on, his hands did some traveling of their own. He lifted the sweater up and over her head. Desperate to taste her bare skin, he took only a second to admire her lacy black bra before reaching around to unhook it.

  Her breasts fell into his waiting hands. So smooth and soft, like the purest silk. As his gaze wandered, her hands jerked as if she intended to shield her body from him. He refused to give her the chance.

  He lowered his head and took a tip in his mouth. Licking and sucking, he tasted her. He rolled his tongue over her nipple and felt it harden. Smoothed his fingers over the firm roundness of her breasts.

  He pulled back to see the wetness from his mouth glisten on her pale skin. “How can you think your body is anything but perfect?”

  She let out a nervous giggle. “I’m too—”

  “Perfect.”

  His fingers found the waistband of her pants. He watched her eyes cloud over as he lowered the zipper and slipped his hand inside.

  He brushed his hand against the fluff of hair he found there, but the brief touch was not enough. He wanted to plunge his fingers deep inside her wetness. Feel her from the inside while he readied her body and brought her to orgasm.

  He tugged her pants off before she could protest or give him a lecture on belly fat or some other annoying thing. He saw pink skin and the most adorable little roundness over her stomach. She was not a twig or all bones. She was a voluptuous, stunning woman.

  He kissed her belly to let her know he found it as beautiful as she was.

  “Spence…”

  Not yet. The woman needed to be cherished. To have a moment be all for her. He vowed to give her that and moved down the bed until he sat between her upraised thighs.

  Her eyes grew wide just as he dipped his head to taste her. His fingers pressed inside. Her scent filled his head. His tongue pulsed with the memory of her.

  “Yes,” she groaned, as her legs shifted on the bed.

  The idea of a slow tortuous tasting appealed to him, but his body burned for completion. In just a few days he’d gone from liking her to not being able to think about anything but her.

  “Tell me you want me,” he mumbled, against her heated flesh.

  “God, yes.” She grabbed the comforter in her fists.

  When her wetness flooded his hand, he moved back up her body, stripping his pants off as he went. With a rip, he opened the condom, then slipped it on.

  He balanced his body over hers, touching skin to skin until she opened her eyes and stared at him. “Do you still doubt how much I want you?”

  One of her hands drifted over his chin before winding behind his neck to pull him down for a kiss that gave him his answer and blinded him to every intelligent thought. Then her other hand landed on his cock and he lost the power of speech. Those fingers curled around him, pressed just hard enough to force a harsh exhale from his lungs.

  “Damn.” He brushed his nose over hers before capturing her mouth in another kiss.

  “Spence?” Her head tipped back against the bed.

  “Yeah, baby?”

  “Come inside me.”

  That’s all he needed. No more foreplay or teasing. His body took over. His hips flexed as he pushed just inside her. The gentle suction of her body around his broke him. With a long firm push, he entered her without stopping or giving in to the friction of her body against his. He filled her.

  Her back arched off the bed, pressing her breasts tight against his chest. The feel of her body naked under him, around him, clipped the last hold on his control. He pulled out, then pressed deep again. Over and over, faster and faster, he plunged and retreated until her head pressed deep into the pillow and her body moved with him.

  When her breaths rushed out and her hands clenched as hard as her internal muscles, he knew she was as close to the edge as he was. The spiraling tightness kept coiling inside him, stiffening every muscle until the pleasure bordered on pain. Unable to hold back, he pressed harder, went deeper, and his body let go.

  His last memory was of a shout ringing around the room. He just did not know if it was hers or his.

  10

  N at tried to remember when she’d last had sex that good. If she ever had sex that good.

  “I can’t believe you think you’re fat.” Spence mumbled his thought into the pillow beside her head.

  She refused to talk about that subject now. Not when her body still hummed from their lovemaking.

  “I feel bad for all those courthouse clerks. Those poor women do not know what they’re missing.”

  He opened one eye and stared at her. “Funny.”

  “Who’s kidding?”

  He turned and pushed up on one elbow. With an ease she did not expect, he leaned in and kissed her. Then he kissed her again.

  Despite what they had just shared, the idea of giving him the full frontal view made her a bit uncomfortable. She grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it across her body. She hoped he missed the action.

  “Still shy?” he asked.

  Nothing got by this guy. “It’s a hard habit to break.”

  “I’ve been inside you and touched you all over. You really think a stretch mark is going to turn me off?”

  “Yes.” And she did.

  “I am not as shallow as you think.” He traced his fingertip over her lips. “I’m also not the emotionless parasite you make me out to be in your head.”

 
Guilt washed over her. “Haven’t I apologized for that?”

  “A few times.”

  “Then can we forget it?”

  “I have my reasons, you know.”

  The quick change of conversation threw her for a second. “For?”

  “For how I conduct my cases. I used to get involved. Brought all of my clients’ worries and concerns home with me. I spent hours trying to change their lives and ignored my own.”

  “Which explains why you’re still single.” She knew there had to be a reason.

  “I thought I was doing something good.”

  She sensed a terrible story on the horizon. To encourage him to tell it, to get it out, she brushed the back of her hand against his bare chest. He grabbed on like it was a lifeline.

  He lifted her palm to his mouth for a kiss. The gentle touch tickled and comforted her.

  “I was assigned to this client who smacked his wife around. A guy who functioned at work, coached his kids’ teams, and seemed like a good guy.”

  “I guess he wasn’t.”

  “It happened years ago.” Spence pressed her hand against his chest. “He would apologize. Went into an anger management program. We talked and talked about how he could make it up to his wife and be a better man.”

  “I’m not sure he could do either, but it was good of you to try.”

  Spence continued as if lost in the need to get the poison out of his system. “When he got out of the program, he violated the protection order. Went to her house and killed her.”

  Shock rumbled through her. She held the blanket to her chest, but her focus stayed on Spence. It was her heart that ached for the woman and for Spence. “That’s awful.”

  “The experience shaped me. Changed the way I practice. I learned not to make friends with clients. I represent them, give them advice, and refuse to live their lives.” He shifted until he leaned against the headboard. “The feelings are there, Nat. I just have to handle these matters in a certain way if I want to survive.”

  How did she ever think of him as emotionless? He was a kind and decent man. He had shared a private piece of his world with her.

  She wanted to give him back the same. She rested her head on his shoulder. Not seeing his face might make the telling of the story a bit easier.