LITMIR.BIZ

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held up a hand. The bride had finally remembered that today was supposed to be all about her. “Fine. Have it your way.”

      Cassandra pulled out the wand of mascara, soft brown, waterproof, because the last thing Beth needed to worry about was tears.

      Cassandra didn’t have to bother with waterproof. “No tears” was one of her rules, as well.

      NOAH BARCLAY rolled in his bed, feeling the warm body right beneath his hands. She was there, her dark hair a thick curtain over her face. God, he loved her hair. He moved inside her, deep, deeper, and her legs tightened around his waist, taking him further inside. Then she smiled up at him and cocked her head. She was taunting him. He leaned down and kissed her, long and thorough, and when he drew back, she surprised him by pulling his head down again. This time she was biting his ear. Pleasure, pain.

      He started to laugh. So she wanted to play? He could do that. He began to pound inside her, watching her dark eyes widen first with surprise, then pleasure. Her lashes were so long, thick, a mask she hid behind. He wouldn’t let her hide from him. He brushed back the hair from her face, and still he pounded.

      Pounded.

      Pounded.

      Damn!

      Noah sat upright in his bed, the pounding noise still there.

      What the hell?

      He looked at his clock: 11:07. He’d slept in late this morning, but then, that was what happened when you returned from conducting business two continents from home.

      Shaking off the remains of sleep, he pulled on a pair of boxers, noticed the swelling down below, then hastily reached for a pair of jeans, adjusting everything so that the pants would fit.

      Back to reality. But, man, he wanted to go back to that dream.

      For the past six months the dream had always been variations on a single theme: one beautiful woman, one desperate man and the kind of love-making that could bring a guy to his knees.

      Noah gave himself a firm head-slap. Daylight was here, and there was an incessant knocking on his front door.

      “What?” he snapped as he swung the door open.

      It was Joan—the woman he normally called his sister. Today the label of choice was nuisance.

      “You’re not awake?” Joan asked, swaggering into his apartment with that awful perfume.

      “Go away,” growled Noah, thinking that if he didn’t get too close to Joan, he could return to bed and finish the dream.

      “You can’t keep these sorts of hours, Noah. Look at you, circles under your eyes, and your hair, well, your hair looks terrible. You have a wedding tonight and I have a full list of items that I will need you to report on.”

      “I’m not going,” he shot back, now sadly realizing that all hope of the fantasy replaying was gone.

      She pulled her face into one long frowning line of disapproval. It was a look that he never fully appreciated until he’d cut through a camel market in his travels abroad. Definite similarities. “You have to go. You promised me.”

      “I said I would think about it. I did. No.” He looked around the room. “God, I need coffee. Where’s my coffee?”

      “It’s in your kitchen. For heaven’s sake, wake up.”

      Noah glared and then wandered into the kitchen, trying to remember where he kept the coffeepot.

      “You have to go,” called Joan from the other room.

      Noah put the coffee in the filter, rinsed out the pot, put it on the launchpad and then flipped the switch.

      Nothing.

      Well, what the—water.

      He needed water.

      He filled up the coffeepot, poured it through the top grid, then snapped the pot back in place. Happily, the gurgling started.

      Eventually there was enough for a cup and he held it to his nose, inhaling the caffeine, letting it soak through his blood.

      He wandered back into the living room, taking his first hit. Ah, much better. His blood started moving. He stared at Joan. Why was she here? Oh, yeah. The wedding.

      “I have to know how many guests there are, the details of her dress, attendants, if you could get the name of the florist that would be wonderful, too,” she intoned.

      That was when he knew she’d read one too many bridal magazines.

      “Aren’t you over Spencer? You wanted the divorce. Hell, you’re getting married, and Harry is really nice, by the way. Don’t screw this one up.”

      “You think this is about Spencer?”

      Noah took another sip of coffee. God, he really didn’t need to have these conversations in the morning. “Yes.”

      “It’s about her.”

      “Her?”

      “Beth,” she said, spitting out the name. “She wants the wedding of the season when I have the rightful claim. No way will she rob me. Spencer always told me, ‘City hall, darling. It’s romantic.’ What does she get? Stained-glass windows by Tiffany and a caterer imported from New York. It’s a war, Noah, and I’m going to win.”

      “I’m not going. Goodbye,” he repeated, yet still not awake enough to open the door.

      “Please,” she said, using her wheedling tone, a tone she had used when they were little, and he would be the one to inevitably end up in trouble. It still bothered him.

      “No.”

      “Most of Chicago’s city council will be there, Noah.”

      Noah stopped. Okay, that was tempting. He had been trying to get onto the list of bidders for the new transportation project. For fourteen years he’d done construction work overseas, but this would be his first project in the U.S. His first project since he’d come home. “How would you know who’s been invited?”

      Joan smiled and lifted an eyebrow. “It only takes one well-greased request to the wedding planner and you’d be surprised what you can find out.”

      If it had been any other female, he would have been shocked. Unfortunately, Joan was his sister. His only sister. He knew her good qualities, her bad qualities and her worse qualities.

      So, the city council would be there. Alderman Brown, Alderman Showalter and Alderwoman Weller among them. Spencer, aka the groom, covered the city beat for the Herald so it wasn’t a surprise.

      “Why don’t you want to go?” asked Joan.

      Noah shifted in his seat. “I don’t like weddings,” he said. It was a good answer, but not the right one. He didn’t want to go because he knew exactly who would be there and that worried him.

      Not the Chicago city council. Not the state of Illinois’ biggest politicos. No, he was worried about one Cassandra Ward. The Windy City’s original party-girl. Vamp extraordinaire, she could seduce a man with a single look. Breasts like B-32s, but it was her mouth that took on mythical proportions.

      He had turned her down once and he wasn’t man enough to do it again.

      “The groom is your brother-in-law,” Joan said, ripping him away from thoughts of long, leisurely nights with Cassandra.

      “When you divorced him, he officially became not-my-brother-in-law.”

      Joan shrugged. “Don’t split hairs. He’s family. You need him.”

      What Noah didn’t need was the raging erection he got every time he thought about Cassandra. And then there were the dreams. Wet dreams were supposed to stop with adolescence. Noah blamed it on lack of sex.

      There were plenty of women available. All nice, all lookers, but they

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