A Will and a Way by Maggie Wells Page A

replay was imminent, but she had no intention of backing down.
    Not again. Never again.
    “I’m here now.”
    Truth. Plain and simple. She’d been scared the other night. She wasn’t now.
    For years she’d let other people dictate who she was and what she wanted. This was her time. And she wanted this man. This beautiful, dangerous man.
    He would break her heart, but that didn’t scare her. She’d had her heart broken time and again. It always healed. But she would never again hand over the keys to her soul. He wouldn’t break her spirit. She would never allow him or anyone to tell her who and what she should be.
    “I’m here.” Her voice came out breathy and soft. Heat rose off him in waves. It would only be a matter of minutes before she melted into a puddle at his feet. Will was a man with something to prove. She was about to be conquered, and she liked it a hell of a lot better than she ever dreamed she would. “I’m here, and I want you. Now.”
    He laid claim to her mouth again. This time his busy hands went straight to the placket of her blouse. One by one he worked the row of tiny, useless buttons she never bothered opening. And he was damn good at it. Knuckles grazed her breasts. The backs of his fingers tantalized her tummy. The slide of silk against gabardine was never as sexy as when Will yanked the slippery fabric from her waistband. The last button snagged then popped free of its moorings. She lay panting on the desk as it arced through the air then ricocheted off the dusty desktop.
    Will wrenched his mouth from hers, a baffled frown creasing his forehead. Spotting the button, he shook his head, a sheepish smile twisting his lips. “Sorry ’bout that.”
    Betty barely spared the button a glance as she rolled her shoulders, eager to be free, aching to feel his mouth on her skin. “Don’t worry about it.”
    “Collateral damage.”
    Holding her gaze, he peeled back the sides of her blouse, taking the lapels of her jacket as he dragged them over her shoulders. He left the fabric bunched at her upper arms, trapping them against her sides, leaving her virtually immobile. Betty reveled in the feel of cool air moving over her super-heated skin. The semi-restraint provided by her own clothing aroused her more than she ever imagined possible. She caught a glimpse of the abandoned plates on the kitchen table and her hormones kicked into overdrive.
    As if sensing the shift, Will kissed her again, but this time he kept his eyes open wide and his mouth frustratingly closed. The front of his shirt scraped along the lace edge of her bra. He moved his mouth against hers in a slow, deliberate dance.
    “You like this?” He murmured the question between maddening kisses. “Here. On the desk….”
    She picked up the thread and ran with it. “It’s the middle of the day. We’re in your office….”
    His teeth caught her earlobe just as he pinched her nipples through her bra. Hard. Her startled squeal melted into a moan when he soothed then immediately tweaked the straining tips again.
    “It feels…decadent. Dangerous.”
    “And you like that.”
    “Anyone could come in,” she panted.
    A sly smile lifted one corner of his mouth, and his eyes sparkled with devilment. “Anyone.”
    Casting a wary eye toward the door, Betty found herself torn by the very idea. She wanted him. She wanted him hard and hot and inside her right that very minute. But like their encounter in the bar, consensual or not, this particular coupling crossed the line of age-appropriate about a mile back. People her age, widowed women with grown sons for cripes’ sake, should not be rolling around on a desk half-naked with a strange man clamped between their thighs. He started to nibble his way down her neck again. The scrape of his teeth made her shiver. Hot, wet kisses turned her to jelly. Quivering with need, she gave sensible one last shot.
    “Maybe we shouldn’t do…Will, stop.”
    The second she said the word, he took a step