the hell is Christopher?”
“My agent.” Steph explained quickly. The last thing she
wanted was to fight with him. His intense reaction had her
floored. “Most of my jobs are in the big four: New York, Lon-
don, Paris and Milan. Of course I already have an apartment in
Manhattan. So investing in real estate in Paris and Milan just
makes good financial sense.”
“Why didn’t you buy an apartment in London?” He
snapped. Steph could feel his anger continuing to build, and it
was the opposite of the reaction she had expected. Her temper
flashed white hot. She sat up to face him head on.
“What the hell, Phillip? Why the hell would I need an
apartment in London?”
He raked a hand aggressively through his gorgeous hair.
“Oh, I don’t know, perhaps because I live in London!”
Steph felt her whole body relax as his words made her melt.
A smile bloomed on her face. She leaned closer to him and
rocked his shoulder with hers. “That’s why I figured I wouldn’t
need one. I was hoping to crash with you…have some little
17
TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE
sleepovers.”
He blinked at her a few times. and she could almost hear
him manually cranking back the time machine and reprocessing
everything she’d said since she’d left the bathroom. Leaning in, he fisted her tawny hair, and kissed her tenderly. When he pulled away, he looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry. Of course you’ll stay
with me.”
“What’s going on in that head of yours, baby?” She placed
her hands on both sides of his scruffy, centerfold-worthy face.
The apples of his cheeks were still red from his angry outburst.
and she felt her eyes scouring his face for hints about his unusual behavior.
“I’ve just been really stressed lately, love.” He sighed and
brushed one of her fiery tendrils off of her cheek. “I need a vacation.”
She pulled his mouth to hers, and after several wet, explora-
tive kisses she pulled away. “I thought we were supposed to be
on one of those.”
“Indeed we are.” He tossed his keys to her apartments onto
the bedside table and pushed aside her spaghetti strap aside, nipping at her shoulder. She squealed and squirmed happily beneath
him. His sapphire eyes darter over her face, and his expression
turned somber again. Stephanie stared unflinching back up at
him, lovingly tracing her thumb across his lips. It would be a
new adventure, living close enough to date him for real. She
wondered if they’d last a month once he got to know her and
witnessed all her quirks and idiosyncrasies. He turned his face, kissed her thumb, and then pulled it into his mouth sucking on it.
She purred when she felt his growing hardness pressing against
her thigh.
“So just how much did you miss me?” Stephanie whispered.
He was grinding against her and she found it distracting as hell.
He abruptly pulled away. and she started to object, but she re-
leased a contented sigh as he descended her body, skillfully pull-18
RAGE
ing off her panties with his teeth. When his mouth returned to
hers, he wore a fiendish grin. A desperate moan escaped her as
he gently tugged at her lip with his teeth.
“Oh, about nine inches.” He growled, pushing one of his
muscular thighs between hers. She gasped and clawed his ass
with both hands as he roughly entered her.
19
CHAPTER TWO
“Aren’t you going to eat that?” Phillip nodded to Steph’s
peanut butter crescent. He’d been watching her disapprovingly
all through breakfast as she pushed fruit around on her plate. To pacify him, she’d forced herself to eat more fruit than she’d intended to. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. He
snatched the crescent off her plate and ripped into it with his
teeth. My caveman.
“I’ll take more coffee, though. With cream.”
He picked up the French press and warmed up her cup with
a wry smile. “You’re quite a fan of the cream.”
“Charming.” Steph quipped as she dumped an