Jennifer Greene: Ain’t Misbehaving

It seemed wisest to just wave her goodbyes in passing. Stix would probably have been the exception, but Kay caught only a glimpse of his shaggy dark head above the crowd. Actually, there was a strangely bleak stare in Stix’s eyes, fixed directly on the two of them, before she saw him turn and make a beeline for the bar.

Polite goodbyes to the host were not Mitch’s immediate priority. Coats were, and theirs were buried amid tons of others. Mitch grabbed hers, pulled it on her and buttoned it before opening the door. On the porch, a fresh fall of snow greeted them, newly arrived in the past hour. Unfortunately, though, three cars were blocking his.

“We’ll walk,” he growled.

“All right.”

“I really wouldn’t argue, if I were you!”

“All right, Mitch,” she said mildly.

A distance of five houses wasn’t a long walk. Kay, racing along at his side, stole an occasional upward glance. Mitch looked meaner than a wildcat in a cage. Her feminine instinct wanted to pacify the wounded beast…but her heart seemed a great deal more sure of Mitch than her head was.

He didn’t talk until they’d reached the front porch and she was fumbling for her key. He grabbed it from her, shoved it in the lock and pushed open the door. She was barely inside before he slammed it and ordered her to take off her coat.

“It isn’t going to work, keeping it all nice and light and civilized, ”he said flatly, yanking off his coat and tossing it on a chair. “Maybe that’s how you usually end things. I don’t know or care. At the moment, I don’t feel the least bit civilized, and if you think anything is ever going to be over between us, you’re out of your mind.”

“Look, Mitch. You were the one-”

“I’m going to marry you, Kay. I know what you feel and I heard what you said, but you never really gave us a chance. You’re not going to tell me you’ve had a lover who loved you more than I do because it just plain isn’t true. Tell me you weren’t satisfied in bed,” he roared.

She shook her head, tears shimmering in her eyes like diamonds. “Why would I want to tell you that?” she whispered. “Why don’t you tell me that I was just the first notch on your belt, and you were already thinking about…branching out? Trying your wings? I told you you wouldn’t want something permanent once you-”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I saw you at the party,” she said stubbornly, folding her arms across her chest, not about to be intimidated just because he was standing there like a glowering behemoth. “You could hardly take your eyes off Stephanie.”

“That woman you threw in my direction?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t have heart failure when she tossed her chest in your direction,” Kay said furiously.

“I had heart failure when you let that creep put his hands on you.”

Kay hesitated.

Mitch didn’t. His arms slid around her, gathering her up. He inhaled the sweet perfume that was Kay and savored the silken feel of her hair against his chin and he trembled, feeling the pliant crush of her breasts against him, so familiar. His voice came out in a hoarse rasp. “You need an experienced man in your bed, Kay? You’ll have one. For the next fifty years, you can play teacher.”

“You never needed a teacher, you fool. Can’t you tell when a woman’s happy? ” A single tear rushed down her cheek; she tilted her head and raised trembling lips to his. “But you took off like a shot when I said the first word about your wanting to test out other waters.”

“ You took off like a shot after we made love the first time. What was I supposed to think?”

“Just what did you think?”

“That you weren’t…satisfied. That you were subtly trying to tell me you wanted to move on.”

“Why the Sam Hill would I want to do that?” Kay’s voice came out in a breathy roar of outrage. How could such an intelligent man be so unutterably dense? He’d mixed up everything.

Mitch’s lips suddenly twisted in an uneven grin. A ruddy flush returned the color to his face, and his dark eyes glinted at hers, coming closer. “Darned if I know. You’ve got it all, you foolish woman. I’m more than willing to shower you in jewels, I’ll buy you plants until you’re a hundred and three, and I absolutely adore you, Kay. How on earth could you have gotten everything so totally mixed up?”

“Me?” It was amazing how one could shout through laughter, as if both of them were suddenly aware that the argument was over. It was just as amazing how fast a room could turn silent. How shadows could turn soft, how colored lights on a Christmas tree could suddenly spin and blur when the thing wasn’t moving at all. Only Mitch was moving, filling her world, the love on his face filling her heart.

His lips molded hers like warm honey, soft, smooth and sweet. “Don’t you ever be so foolish again,” he whispered. “I don’t want anyone but you, Kay. I don’t need anyone but you. If I’ve had to fight for life every inch of the way, you’re the reason why it’s been worth it. The chance to love you, live with you, be with you-”

“You don’t have to shower me with jewels, Mitch,” Kay returned softly. “I just wanted to be sure…that you would be happy.”

Mitch’s thumb gently traced the line of her cheek. He drew back. Kay watched the play of emotions on his face, the last of the tension fading to a lazy, loving tenderness, the dark intensity in his eyes subtly changing to just a hint of the hell-bent-for-leather mischief-maker he had been once. “I’m not happy,” he growled.

“You’re not?”

He cocked his head in the direction of her room. “Hey, teach,” he drawled. “If you’re still concerned that I’m looking for ‘experience,’ a few wild oats to sow-maybe you’d just better give me a few private lessons.”

“I’ll do that,” Kay said gravely, and shook her head. “These slow learners…honestly. A woman could spend her entire life-”

“Exactly,” Mitch agreed, “what I had in mind.”

Jennifer sold her first book in 1980, and since then she has sold more than eighty books in the contemporary romance genre. Her first professional writing award came from RWA-a Silver Medallion in l984-followed by more than twenty nominations and awards, including being honored in RWA’s Hall of Fame and presented with the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. Jennifer has been on numerous bestseller lists, has written for Harlequin Books, Avon, Berkley and Dell, and has sold over the world in more than twenty languages. She has written under a number of pseudonyms, most recognizably Jennifer Greene, but also Jeanne Grant and Jessica Massey.

She was born in Michigan, started writing in high school, and graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in English and psychology. The university honored her with their “Lantern Night Award,” a tradition developed to honor fifty outstanding women graduates each year. Exploring issues and concerns for women today is what first motivated her to write, and she has long been an enthusiastic and active supporter of women’s fiction, which she believes is an “unbeatable way to reach out and support other women.” Jennifer lives in the country around Benton Harbor, Michigan, with her husband, Lar.