Me and Mrs. Jones

by Linda Cajio

Genres: Women's Fiction; Romance; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

In Linda Cajio’s wonderful tale of passion reignited, a pair of ex-lovers make a running start toward overcoming the barriers that have long divided them.
 
Kate Perry’s well-ordered world goes topsy-turvy when she brings a stray tabby to the vet with an injured paw. The doctor on duty is her ex-husband, Mitchell Jones, and seeing him again reminds her of the ecstasy—and agony—they once shared. But ever since her divorce, Kate finds that intimacy has just been too painful. So she avoids it at all costs—despite the way her body reacts when she gets too close to Dr. Jones.
 
One look at Kate tells Mitch that the heat between them remains, although there are some major obstacles to winning her back. His disastrous second marriage—to Kate’s high school rival—may be over, but it left him a single father to a daughter who needs him more than ever. Besides, Kate’s different now, sharp and businesslike. But underneath the tailored suits and high heels, the fun-loving Kate is in there somewhere, and Mitch will find her again . . . no matter what it takes.

Release date: April 15, 2014

Publisher: Loveswept

Print pages: 256

Sample

ONE
 
He was beautiful, golden and sleek, with eyes the color of warm butterscotch.
 
Kate Perry stared at the creature who was sprawled before her in all his glory, then closed her eyes. Don’t fall in love, she told herself firmly. Don’t fall in love.
 
She looked at him again to find him watching her with those fathomless eyes. Patient. Knowing. She felt helplessly trapped. The first time she’d seen him she’d sensed something between them. She’d fought it for as long as she could.…
 
“He’s gorgeous and very charming,” the woman standing next to her said in admiration. “But don’t get sucked in by his appearance. These drifters can look terrific. A whole lot better than the tame ones. Except for this …”
 
Dr. Barron reached out and touched the hind foot, swollen to five times its normal size. The purring instantly stopped and the tail flicked once in annoyance. Other than that, there was no indication of bad manners in the large orange and tan tiger-striped cat. A wide swath of pure white fur ran down his chest to his stomach. Four white boots added the final compliment.
 
“He’s been hanging around for a few weeks,” Kate said. “When I saw his paw this morning I thought I’d better bring him in.”
 
“I’d like to think he’s been catting around with some female in heat and got in a fight with another male. Are you sure you don’t know if he has an owner?” This was the third time the vet had asked the question.
 
Kate frowned and shook her head. “No. He’s just been … around. A little too much, if you know what I mean.”
 
The woman sighed. “He probably doesn’t have one. What about what bit him? Are you sure you don’t know? A neighbor’s cat? A dog?”
 
“He just showed up hurt,” Kate said.
 
“Well, if no one can claim him and we don’t know what bit him, we have no choice: He’ll have to be destroyed.”
 
“Destroyed!” Kate gaped at her. “I just thought you’d fix him up and I’d advertise for an owner in the paper’s Lost and Found column. If that didn’t work, then I’d take him to a shelter. Why would you destroy him?”
 
“We have no choice,” Dr. Barron explained. “Our county is in a rabies alert area—half of New Jersey is. Any animals with suspicious-looking wounds have to be confined or leashed if their rabies shots are current or, if they aren’t, kept in a cage for six months. If no one owns him or is willing to do that, then we have to destroy the cat in order to test for rabies. It’s the law. Has he bitten you?”
 
“No!” Kate looked back at the cat. The creature gazed at her with those damned fathomless eyes, completely trusting. He had been a nice fellow, hanging around her town house complex for the past several weeks. He greeted her every morning as she left for work, and on weekends she often saw him in the midst of an adoring gang of neighborhood children. Then he hadn’t shown up for a while, and when he had he’d been injured. Destroyed, she thought, sick at heart over the notion. He was so beautiful and gentle.…
 
The vet leaned over the table and stroked the cat under the chin, clearly affected in the same manner as she. The animal leaned into her caressing fingers and purred loudly. “You’re quite a guy, aren’t you? Maybe I’m making a wrong diagnosis. Let me get Dr. Jones to look at it.”
 
She swept from the room and into the human and animal traffic going up and down the hallway outside.
 
Jones.
 
Kate sank down into a molded plastic chair and let out her breath, her heart racing with anticipation and dread. She reminded herself that Jones was a common name, one she faced somewhere nearly every day. Yet it could still get to her after all these years. Its being coupled with “Dr.” was what had done it this time, she thought. Too close to the bone.
 
The cat gazed at her unblinkingly, bringing her back to reality. His expression seemed to say, “You’re the only thing between me and the big litter box in the sky, Kate Perry.”
 
“Thanks a lot,” she muttered. Involvement was not in her repertoire. She didn’t even own a goldfish. For the past eleven years she’d lived contentedly alone, devoting herself to her job with a national insurance company and avoiding a serious relationship with any man. She’d had one once. The pain was not worth repeating.
 
“He’s got a suspicious bite, Mitch,” she heard Dr. Barron say as she returned to the examining room.
 
A man followed her, and Kate’s well-ordered world, already turned topsy-turvy by a cat, went completely upside down.
 
Mitchell Jones was taller than she’d remembered and his frame, which had bordered on skinny when he was twenty, had filled out. His face, though, was as she so vividly recalled: narrow featured, his light blue eyes giving him a look of intensity and belying the easygoing nature underneath. His hair was still that funny color of dark chocolate and in need of a trim. The shoulders were broader and more square, tapering down to a lean waist and leaner hips. The simple plaid cotton shirt and faded jeans hid nothing. His hands were slim and strong, lightly dusted with dark hairs.
 
Staring at him, at his body, she remembered the ability of those hands, even at twenty, to ignite her young body beyond sanity. She remembered the laughter in bed. She remembered them reading the Kamasutra and trying every position in the book, shocking themselves with their delightful audacity.
 
A sharp pain shot through her at the way the woman, Dr. Barron, stood so close to him, reminding Kate of the agony she and Mitchell Jones had caused each other.
 
“You cut your hair,” he said, staring back at her, as shocked as she.
 
She automatically touched her neck, feeling the short hairs sliver along her palm. Her hair was full on top, then cut close around the ears before tapering off at her nape. When he had last seen her, her hair had fallen nearly to her waist and had been his pride.
 
“Yes,” she said finally, dropping her hand away. “I cut my hair.”
 
She wanted to run, wanted to get as far away from this veterinarian’s office as she could. Run and hide, just as she had before, after he’d walked out on her.
 
“You two know each other?” Dr. Barron asked, gazing at the two of them.
 
“Yes,” Mitch said. “She’s my wife.”
 
“Ex-wife,” Kate said.
 
Mitch gritted his teeth at the correction. “Ex-wife.”
 
She was different, entirely different, he thought. Yes, the wide gray eyes were the same, but they held a hardness he’d never seen before. And her skin was paler, though still the color of rich cream and flawless; during their teen years, it had always aggravated him that she never broke out. The nose was still upturned and the lips full. But her facial features weren’t cute anymore. They had grown into their promise of sensual maturity.
 
He had seen that from the beginning, despite the braces she’d worn then, and it had drawn him like a magnet. She’d been insecure about her looks as a young girl, but when the braces had come off she’d had a spectacular smile. Unforgettable. He’d never forgotten it.
 
And her body. Her body was as he remembered so well, slender, with smallish breasts that fit his hand … were made for them. Her legs were as shapely as ever and he knew the feel of them wrapped around his hips, clinging to him in an intimate lovers’ knot.
 
The hair, though. He stared with immense regret at the short, chic hairdo of full bangs and tapered nape. He had once wrapped her long honey-brown tresses around his hands, touching them continually, loving them, loving the look of earth goddess they had given her.
 
Now she had a sophisticated overlay to her, especially in the expensive taupe suit with its long jacket and the kidskin heels she wore. Her jewelry, big gold X’s at ears, throat, and wrist, which should have been clunky and weren’t, only added to her stylish look. This was an altogether different Kate from the one he’d known so well in their young marriage. He wondered what had shaped her, changed her. And he wondered how much he had contributed. What had happened in the end …
 
“I didn’t know you worked here,” she said in a low voice. The slight tremor in her tone gave away her own agitation. Clearly, she hadn’t expected to meet him—and hadn’t wanted to.
 
“My name’s out on the signpost,” he replied. “I’m a partner.”
 
The look of chagrin on her face told its own story. She was wishing she’d looked.
 
“What happened to med school?” she asked finally. “The human one.”
 
“Too expensive.” It was a good excuse.
 
“Gee,” Dr. Barron began awkwardly. “If this is a reunion with Ms. Perry, I guess I’ll just leave you two—”
 
“No,” Mitch interrupted, then clamped his jaw over the outburst that threatened to erupt. Perry! She’d taken back her maiden name. She didn’t even want to acknowledge their marriage. Pain rolled through him like a tidal wave. She couldn’t even be Kate Jones.