Reason To Believe by Roxanne St. Claire Page B

at noon?”
    She snorted as if the idea were utterly preposterous. “I don’t work today, unless the studio calls for pickups.” She planted her hands on the counter behind her and hoisted her backside up, swinging her legs like it was her favorite seat in the house. “They do all the editing and sound stuff on Fridays, and I don’t have anything to do with that particular kind of make-believe.”
    “No, you handle the other kind of the make-believe.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Not funny.”
    “Come on, Arianna. I was there at the end, remember? You had lines, for God’s sake.”
    “Pickups are different.” She leaned back on both hands, the position jutting her breasts just enough to accentuate the tiny, hardened nipples in yet another ridiculously thin tank top. “You know, I was thinking about you in the middle of the night.”
    That makes two of us .
    “You know what I find amazing?” she continued. “That a man who has been into outer space, seen the world from far away, who has actually touched the sky, doesn’t believe in the afterlife.”
    “Sorry, sweetheart. Too weighty a question when that man has been denied coffee.”
    “What do you believe in, then?”
    “Laws.” He stood a foot in front of her and crossed his arms. “Einstein’s law of relativity, Newton’s laws of motion, Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, Bernoulli’s law of lift. I didn’t get into that tin can, as you so eloquently put it, on blind faith. I got in it because I understood the hard, cold facts of science that got it there and back. When you understand science, there’s no room for the paranormal.”
    “But what if you’re wrong? What if you’re thinking with your head, and not your heart?” She reached out and flattened her palm on his chest. “What if your friend’s energy really was in that studio, and he really did want you to have closure, or to know something about his death? Are you willing to take a chance and ignore that life-changing possibility?”
    She had to feel what that did to his pulse. “He wasn’t my friend. And you and I had a deal.” He put his hand over hers and lifted it, but she just gripped tighter, pulling him toward her, spreading her legs enough to ease him into the space of the counter where she sat.
    “The deal was I wouldn’t try to read you and talk to Michael. Not that you wouldn’t talk to me. What happened to him?” She curled her fingers around his, lifting his hand to her mouth. Very softly, she kissed his knuckles, a featherlight air kiss that tightened the band around his chest. She added pressure with her knees on his hips. “Tell me.”
    It was impossible to look at her and lie. Or hide. That was her magic. She was as powerful as gravity and just as undeniable.
    But he could deny it, and he would. “No.” He shook his head, feeling her soft breath on his hand, losing himself in the pull of her grass-green eyes, the urge to climb right on top of her and inside her and exchange his reason for her magic.
    “You need another law to believe in, Rocket Man,” she whispered, brushing his knuckles with her lips. “Killian’s law.” She turned his hand over to graze a kiss on his palm. “Which states that no matter how big a mess you make in life…” Another kiss, and a flick of her tongue. “With enough love and faith and positive energy…” She opened her mouth, suckled the skin at his wrist. “It can be completely cleaned up.”
    The band around his chest slipped as all the blood flowed far away from his brain, instantly swelling him. But the erection wasn’t what forced him closer, it was her. Her eyes, her mouth, her tempting, charming voice.
    She was pure magic.
    “Eventually,” she said, releasing his hand to slide her hands up his arms, slowly enough to explore every muscle, “you will believe me.” She locked her hands behind his neck, never taking her eyes from his, inching him closer to the inevitable meeting of the mouths.
    The kiss was