Friends and Lovers Trilogy 03 - Seduced by Beth Ciotta Read Free Book Online Page A

or be insulted. “Damn, Marino. I was just messing with you.”
    Instead of dropping the towel in a flustered moment of outrage, she clutched it tighter, effectively concealing her magnificent breasts—much to his disappointment. She narrowed her bloodshot eyes. “You mean we
didn’t
sleep together?”
    He leaned against the jamb, one eyebrow cocked as moist steam swirled behind her, heating up the pulse-pounding scene. “Oh, we slept together, babe. You were all over me.” He itched to needle her for the sheer hell of it, but her mortified expression had him bailing. “Relax. If I’d nailed you, trust me, you’d remember. Besides, I prefer my women sober.”
    She smirked. “Since when?”
    Well, tou-fucking-ché and then some. But, hey, okay, this was good. Hard to be attracted to someone who’d just driven a spear through his heart. Jaw clenched, he passed her the clothes and returned to his coffee. “Get a move on. We’ve got work to do.”
    “Joe, I …”
    “Forget it.” The softness in her voice suggested she was about to apologize. Lulu had probably told her about Julietta’s death. He didn’t want to talk about it. Especially not with Sofia. “I struck. You struck back. You’re a fighter. That’s not a bad thing.” He snatched up his cup and turned, his gaze sliding from her bruised forearms to her skinned knees. “In fact, it may have saved your life.”

    Sofia wanted to go home. Far from whatever mess she’d gotten herself into.
    Far, far from Joe.
    She could feel his frustration seeping through the bathroom door as she quickly dressed. Luckily, the clothes he’d provided her with were baggy so she didn’t have to worry about underthings. Her G-string and bra were hand-washed, rinsed, and hanging over the towel rack to dry. Maybe she could ask him to make a lingerie run. She’d bet her shoe collection Joseph Bogart was no stranger to buying sexy undergarments. Probably kept his girlfriends stocked in racy teddies. He certainly didn’t strike her as an I-like-my-women-in-flannel kind of guy. While he was deliberating over a lacy thong or satin G-string, she could steal away.
    But then what? She had no money. No ID.
    Where the hell was her purse?
    Maybe she’d been mugged. If she’d fought back as Joe had suggested, that would explain her scrapes and bruises. Thing was, she didn’t remember an assault.
    She braced her hands on the vanity and took a deep breath. She felt horrible. Not just because she had a fierce hangover, and a lapse of memory, but because she’d been unwittingly cruel. Yes, she hated that Joe had blatantly used a young woman as a means to an end. A woman who, by his own admission, had been insecure and dependent on drugs and alcohol. And, yes, she empathized with Julietta Marcella who’d fallen for a charming man’s lies. Sofia had been down that road more times than she cared to remember. But as irresponsible as Joe had acted, in her estimation anyway, Julietta’s death wasn’t his fault. According to Lulu, who’d gotten it straight from Murphy, Joe believed otherwise. He blamed himself so much that he’d walked away from his job with the FBI.
    She definitely regretted throwing Julietta in his face.
    But,
dammit
, he shouldn’t have teased her about something as serious as lovemaking. She hadn’t been physically intimate with anyone since her breakup last summer with Chaz Bradley. Her exagent had promised her a bright future, professionally and personally. He’d made her feel secure and cherished,
special
. But like every other man in her life, when he’d used the “L” word, he’d really meant “lust”. For some reason she was never “the one”, just “the one of the moment.”
    Then Joe had kissed her, two short months after her breakup with Chaz, and she’d felt herself falling … again. When she’d learned that the sexy special agent was sleeping with another woman, and worse, that he was using that poor girl, it had reinforced her opinion