Leave Me Breathless by Helenkay Dimon Page A

smile. “Hit me.”
    “You gonna listen to Mark’s advice?”
    “Advice?”
    “Orders. About staying away from me. Staying out of my bed.”
    Callie shook her head. “Of course not.”
    His fingers found her waist. “Then I think we should go home and take our clothes off.”
    “I’m impressed with the way you think.”
    “I have other skills.”
    She wrapped her arms around his neck as her lips hovered right over his. “Show me.”

Chapter Ten
    A n hour later, Emma’s Georgetown town house stood dark on the first floor. Mark had checked every room, every closet, and underneath every piece of furniture. He locked the doors, did a perimeter check, and looked over everything a second time. Emma knew because she heard every one of his steps echo through her three-story house.
    Now she sat on the edge of her bed wearing nothing but a sheer white nightgown and waited for him to come upstairs. He would. That was their pattern. She would turn off the lights and he would show up, strip down, and climb into bed with her. He was strong on the outside and broken deep within.
    And she loved him with every breath she took. Something scarred and lonely inside him spoke to her. Ben brought sunshine and Mark wallowed in blackness.
    The door opened a few seconds later. The light from the hallway put him in shadow. Seemed fitting somehow.
    He stripped as he walked. His tie flew to the right. The buttons of his shirt came open as he practically ripped the thing down the front. His belt clanged as he slid it open and then let it drop to the floor. By the time his knees touched hers, he wore only his pants and shoes.
    This wasn’t about talking and soothing. It was about deep, hot sex. A release that would last them until the next time, and there would be a next time until she stopped him. She had tried that before and spent every day in aching pain and every night racked with guilt as she slept with her then fiancé instead of the man she truly loved. She had learned. Mark couldn’t give her everything, but he could give her this time.
    “Is this okay?” he asked into the quiet of her bedroom.
    “Are you?”
    “What do you mean?”
    She heard his zipper slide down. Couldn’t see his face clearly but knew he wore a frown because a certain harshness flowed through his voice. “You were angry at the hospital.”
    “At Ben. At Callie. Even at myself, but not at you.” With material sliding against skin, he let his pants fall to the carpet.
    “Why the attitude with Ben?” She gave into the need then and brushed her hand over his cheek.
    Mark sighed as he placed a kiss in her palm. “Does it matter?”
    On some level it did. “I think it does to you.”
    “He’s being cavalier with his life.”
    “You don’t trust Callie to keep him safe?”
    “Can she do that when she’s under him?”
    Emma had to smile at that. Mark didn’t think like other people. Didn’t seem to recognize that his self-appointed job was to help her, and yet he was two seconds from making love to her. It was the very same thing he faulted Callie for doing.
    But he saw everything in terms of black and white, safe and unsafe. Life was about rules that applied to other people. He was immune. It wasn’t a matter of ego. No, it was more a sense that he viewed himself as being different from the people he protected. As if he were disposable and unimportant. He pushed emotions out of his mind and ruled with a fierce determination that demanded everyone else obey.
    Nevertheless, Mark was keen enough to understand Ben was falling hard for his supposed bodyguard. Mark’s sudden emotional clarity impressed Emma. She was afraid to hope that meant he could learn, but the idea did pass through her mind.
    “I don’t want to talk about him now.” Mark dropped to his knees and put his head in her lap.
    She took the opportunity to thread her fingers through his soft hair and place a kiss against his ear. She loved him in private the way she longed to love him