Embraced by Love Read Free Page A

good. He had been swept up by her charisma and her energy, and no doubt his imagination was supplying him with this memory of near perfection.
    She sat down on an empty park bench, and opened up her lunch box.
    Cooper swept past her, the wheels of his skateboard making a swishing sound on the concrete.
    Hot damn! She was even prettier than ever out here in the sunshine.
    He turned his head to watch her and nearly ran smack into a lady walking a pack of five dogs. He had to use some acrobatic moves to keep from running over an excited terrier and landing on his face. As he skidded to a stop, he realized Josie was watching him. He grinned and winked at her, and to his surprise, she smiled back.
    That was when he knew that he was going to marry her. It was that smile that clinched it for him.
    He courted her slowly, taking his time even though he wanted her so badly there were times he could barely remember his own name. And he knew she wanted him, too.
    Cooper remembered the first time she let him see that he turned her on, the first time he looked into her eyes and saw the fire burning inside of her.
    They were dancing at a block party. The moon was full, and its silvery light outshone the lanterns that had been strung across the street. There was magic and romance and the wildness of the full moon in the air. When he gazed into her eyes and saw that flame, he stopped dancing and kissed her, a deep, soul-shaking kiss. She pressed herself against him and he pulled her even closer, his tongue fiercely sweeping into her mouth, possessing her, claiming her. If they had been alone, he couldn’t have stopped himself from making love to her.
    But they were in the middle of the street, surrounded by hundreds of celebrating, happy people. Somehow, some way they kept dancing and the moment passed.
    Summer stretched on, the weeks flew by, and the nights became hotter. One stormy August night, they raced from a movie theater to Josie’s apartment through the pouring rain. As they stood dripping wet in the entryway, out of breath from laughter and exertion, Josie turned to Cooper and said, “Stay tonight.”
    He had stayed. That night, and every night since then.
    Five years had passed. Half a decade had gone by, and he still loved Josie deeply. God knows she wasn’t perfect, but neither was he. She had the power to drive him crazy with the zealous attention she gave her computer software company. But she had started her business on a shoestring out of one tiny office, and now it was a multi-million-dollar corporation, with over a hundred employees occupying two entire floors of a midtown office building.
    Zealous attention? Hell, face it, she was a workaholic. But her drive for success wasn’t based on greed or need for power, but rather a very healthy fear of being poor. She’d grown up in a depressed part of Tennessee, escaping from the endless cycle of poverty by winning a full scholarship to Columbia University. She’d graduated at the head of her class. Her skills at designing and writing computer software, together with the business courses she had taken and her no-bullshit attitude were a winning combination.
    But she worked day and night. He’d quickly set up a rule—no work after eight. From eight to midnight every night, she belonged only to him. Half of Saturday and all of Sunday, Josie couldn’t so much as discuss business. Most of the time she complied.
    But then there were times like last spring . . .
    Josie had wrangled a contract with Duncan Industries. They were twice as big as any company she had ever worked for before.
And
they wanted their software in half the usual time.
    For three hair-raising months, Josie had been in her office from six-thirty in the morning to eleven-thirty at night. She had worked both Saturdays and Sundays. She had worked until she dropped and then she’d slept. When she had awakened, she’d gone straight back to work.
    It had not been fun for Cooper, but Taylor-Made Software had met