All Through the Night (25 page)

“The thing is,” he said finally, “nobody else can be Regan.”

She froze in terror.
Oh, God. No. No. I never wanted that, never
.

“And there’s only one Bobby…”

He knew—he knew… She felt a soaring relief that she was not alone. Tony
understood
. Tony had felt it too—that never-to-be-admitted moment of wanting to be someone or something that you weren’t.

“And they were bound to come together again,” Tony went on inexorably. “Whatever Regan did—or didn’t do— she was always saving herself for him. And that’s the end of that story.”

“I tried…” she said brokenly.

“Fruitless, Ang. For all those years. You couldn’t have stopped them. That’s the one thing we have to learn from this mess. No one could have stopped them. Bobby was going to come back sometime. There were too many ends left untied. Too many questions. Too many things left unsaid.”

“I did that.”

Tony held up his hand. He didn’t want to know. Angie would have to live with her deceits. And so would he, and maybe those were the things better left in the ether.

“It doesn’t matter now, Angie, because the other thing, the best thing is, we found each other.”

She smiled tremulously. “Right in plain sight.”

“Think of it this way:
they
brought us together and we just have to go on from here.”

She groaned.

“So let’s not talk about them anymore. In fact,” he took her in his arms, “let’s not talk at all anymore…”

“No matter what you’re planning, Bobby Torrance,
I
have work to do.”

“Your work today is me. But we’ll go to the office anyway. I have things to say to Tony.”

“You have nothing to say to Tony. He was never anything to me but a good friend.”

“He was and is a guy who wants to screw you and waited around until he could have his turn. Don’t be naive, Regan. That much hasn’t changed.”

“You’re saying every man wants to fuck me? That sensibility hasn’t changed, either.”

“Yeah, I’m saying that. But I can live with it.” He slanted a simmering look at her as he held the door open for them to exit the Inn where they’d just had breakfast.

Immediately she felt his fingers on her, in her, owning her. That was the difference. This time he knew it. And she knew it, too.

She glanced at her watch. “I’m late.” Even though it was just a five-minute walk to the office.

“Tony won’t care. You’re about to give the agency a whopping commission.”

“I am?”

“Yep. I made some executive decisions in between… well, there’s nothing like a good fucking to clear the mind.”

“Decisions are fine, but we’ve cleared nothing up.”

“Don’t worry. Everything will be clear by the end of this day.”

She sent him a skeptical look as she pushed open the agency door. “Hey, Kelly—is Tony in his office?”

“Yes… but—” the receptionist put out a detaining hand—and too late. Regan knocked and opened the door… and there was Angie, breasts bared, hanging over Tony’s chair and offering herself to him.

“Oh.
Oh
.” Regan slammed the door and whirled to face Bobby. “Did you see…”

“Love it,” Bobby said. “There’s something so deliciously symmetrical about it. I couldn’t have ended it better myself.”

“Bobby…!”

“REGAN!” Tony bellowed. “Get the hell in here.”

“You, too,” Regan said, grabbing Bobby’s hand. “She’s your sister.”

“Does she have to be?”

She pulled him reluctantly into Tony’s office where Angie sat in the far corner, all to rights again, except for the pink stain on her cheeks and the fact she couldn’t look either of them in the eyes.

“Sit the hell down,” Tony said.

Regan sat. “I’ll stand,” Bobby said. “I have a lot to say.”

Angie’s head snapped up at that. “Bobby—I…”

“In fact,” Bobby said, ignoring her, “I think I’ll just take the command position here. Tony—go away.” He eased himself behind Tony’s desk and looked at them with a benign expression.

“Okay, first. Ang—I know everything. And you know what I mean. But you know what—I’m not going to hold it against you. Maybe it was the right thing to do, I don’t know, and I don’t care at this point.

“Here’s the thing. I’m still in love with Regan. That’s the reality and that’s what you still have to deal with. But smart you: you found a way, and I am very happy for you, even if you didn’t announce it quite the way you intended to.

“So this is what’s going to happen. I will be leasing the first floor in the Metro mall and moving the paper’s operation over there. Mother will be moving to Florida. No, she doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll do it. You’ll persuade her, Ang. Tell her she’ll be happier when she reacquaints herself with some old friends, and finds some new ones.

“And you, Ang, get the house, because I sure as hell don’t want it.

“And the rest—well, that’s for me and Regan to decide. Okay? Got it? Big commission, Tony. And Cargill will follow the minute I sign the papers, so you’re on your way making inroads under the el.”

“Regan’s on her way,” Tony said, his voice a little hoarse. “That’s damned generous, Bobby.”

“Well, it’s time to reclaim the past. We’ve all wasted too much of it already. Regan? Work or play today?”

“Oh, I think I deserve a day off after snagging that big client.”

“Go for it,” Tony said.

“Bobby—?” Angie’s voice, tremulous and low.

“Ummm?”

“I’m so, so sorry.”

He felt a stab of compassion. “I know.”

He loved the shoes. He couldn’t think of anything more arousing than watching Regan strut around naked in her stilettos. Anything more provocative than her standing before him, naked in those heels, her legs splayed, her breasts thrust forward, the insolent expression of a well-fucked woman on her face.

“Well, aren’t you the juicy one today,” she murmured, reaching for his penis. “Marry me,” he said suddenly.

“
What
?” Now? This soon?

“Marry me. Why not?”

“Because… because—”

“Good reason.”

“There’s still stuff—” Regan said, emphatically sitting down beside him.

“What stuff?”

“Stuff we never talked about.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. We both know what happened. I thought our half hour with Tony cleared the air.”

She looked at him mutinously. “I hate this guy thing about not talking about it.”

“Okay, talk about it.”

“I can’t talk about it.”

“Jesus, Regan, isn’t this enough? Isn’t my coming back for you, isn’t our coming together, enough? What else do I have to do? And don’t say
no damned sex
, either.”

She eyed him speculatively and then looked at her shoes. Remembered the first fantasy, the thing she’d thought of the day she’d bought the Mascolos.

And when did a woman ever get a chance to exact such a revenge?

“Maybe not.”

He threw up his hands. There was nothing like a man in thrall to an aching penis. He’d walk over damned coals just to get this settled and get himself crammed up into her cunt. “Okay. Tell me what do.”

“Down on the floor.”

“What?”

“
On
your knees. On your face, actually. Mind your penis. It’s precious to me. Good. Now you’re where I want you.”

She lifted her leg and planted her foot on his butt.

“Jesus, Regan…”

“Oh, this is good, Bobby. I believe now you can figure out something to say.”

“Jesus—I’m sorry…”

She pressed her heel harder into his naked butt.

“How sorry?”

“Sorry for every damned thing. Sorry it didn’t work, sorry I left you, sorry I ran away, sorry I never called, or came back, or seemed not to care about you. Sorry I didn’t fight for you, Regan. Sorry beyond belief we lost all these years.”

“Go on.”

“Sorry I didn’t have faith. Sorry I was so jealous. Sorry I didn’t give it a chance, didn’t give you a second chance. Sorry I didn’t stand up to Mother after my father died. God, what a litany of my sins. And I paid for every damned one of them, too.”

He rolled over into a sitting position as he felt her remove her foot. “I deserve you, Regan. I love you, and we deserve another chance.”

She towered over him, an Amazon, a goddess. The stuff of men’s fantasies, the bedrock of his.

“We do and I will,” she whispered, she promised. What more did she need than the knowledge he had always wanted her, he’d never given up hope, and he was the man of every one of her forbidden dreams?

And
he’d given her everything she’d asked for, besides.

She braced her hands on his shoulders, and slowly, purposefully she lowered herself down, down, down until she sheathed his erection, until she enveloped it, enfolded it, and made it hers.

Satisfy Me

Lori Foster

Chapter One

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“Do you believe the audacity?” Asia Michaels asked, staring through the dirty window of the company lounge to the newly painted building across the street. Soft pink neon lights flashed
Wild Honey
with bold provocation, competing with the twinkle of Christmas lights around the door and windows. A porn shop, she thought with awe, right in the middle of their small town. Cuther, Indiana, wasn’t known for porn. Nope, it was known for pigs and toiletries, which meant most everyone either farmed or worked in one of the three factories.

Asia worked in a factory as an executive secretary in the marketing department. She liked it, the routine, the security. She’d found independence in Cuther, and peace of mind. Not in a million years had she thought to see a sex shop called
Wild Honey
erected among the main businesses.

Seated next to Asia at the round table, Becky Harte gaped. She blinked big blue innocent eyes and asked in a scandalized whisper, “You’re sure they sell porn?”

Erica Lee, the third in their long-established group and a faithful friend, laughed out loud as she set her coffee and a candy bar on the table. “Well they’re sure not raising bees.”

Asia shook her head. Erica was probably the most sophisticated of the three, and the least inhibited. Every guy in the factory had asked Erica out at one time or another. Occasionally, Erica said yes.

Now, Becky, she didn’t even look at men, even when the men were staring as hard as they could. Becky’s fresh-faced appearance and dark blonde curls were beyond cute. Not that Becky seemed to care. If anything, she did her best not to draw male attention. Her best pretty much worked. If Asia had to guess, she’d swear Becky was still a virgin.

Asia took a bite of her doughnut. “We should go check it out,” she teased, hoping to get a rise out of her friends.

“Get out of here,” Becky rasped, horrified by the mere prospect. “I could
never
go in that place!”

“Why not?” Erica asked. “You refuse to date, so maybe you’d find something that would make your time alone more… interesting.” She bobbed her eyebrows, making Becky turn three shades of red and sputter.

Laughing, Asia pointed out, “None of us dates, at least not much.”

“I date.” Erica shook back her shoulder-length black hair. It hung bone-straight, looked like silk, and made every woman who saw it envious. Because her own hair was plain brown and too curly, Asia counted herself among the envious group.

“I just don’t meet many guys worth dating twice,” Erica explained. “That’s all. And it’s not like Cuther is a hotbed of eligible males, anyway.”

Asia accepted that excuse with silence. Her own reasons for not dating weren’t something she cared to discuss. Cuther was a new life, and her old life was well behind her.

Try as they might, none of them could stop looking at the sex shop. “It’s rather tastefully decorated, isn’t it?”

Becky and Erica stared at her.

“Well, it is.” Asia shrugged. “I would have thought the curtains would be red velvet and there’d be lewd signs in the windows. But there aren’t.” The curtains were actually gauzy, sheer and delicate, in a snowy white, with beige shut-ters against the red brick. Other than the bright neon sign with the name of the shop, the place looked as subdued as a nail salon or a boardinghouse. And being that it was close to the holidays, there was even a large festive wreath on the door to go with the holiday lights, lending the building a domestic affectation.