a night fraught with desire and the sudden awakening of her own sensuality. Out of that morass of emotions Anthony had woven bonds she might never be able to break. Dany didn’t even know if she wanted to break them. Her mind was whirling with such a jumble of thoughts and confusion, it only increased the sensation of panic.
Anthony wanted her, and what Anthony wanted, Anthony took. She’d seen that as an inevitable course of events through all her years with him. But Anthony hadn’t taken last night. His restraint had been steel-hard even as she’d felt him tremble with desire against her. And that streak of hardness in him was the element that had frightened her the most. She was defenseless against it because she herself would never be able to be hard with Anthony. She would always melt at the first sign of tenderness from him. He’d spoken words of almost obsessive passion, but did Anthony really know how to love? She couldn’t know that because she knew so little of the enigmathat was Anthony Malik. It could be very dangerous to release the love she’d stored up for years on the chance he’d respond with equal openness. There was nothing open and free about Anthony, and she might well tear her heart out trying to wrest a response from him that he might never be able to give. No, she must go very slowly and not allow him to arouse her as he’d done last night.
She felt a surge of heat flow through her, and her breasts tautened to sudden ripeness as a memory of last night suddenly came back to her. She’d awakened in the middle of the night to feel Anthony’s hands running up and down her body in gentle exploration before cupping her breasts, squeezing with rhythmic force that had caused a burning sensation to tingle between her thighs and made her breath leave her lungs. She could feel his chest move against her back with the force of his labored breathing.
“Anthony?” His name was a mere whisper. She could hardly force a sound past the tightness of her throat.
“Lord, I’m sorry, sweetheart.” His voice was low and strained, and she could feel the heat ofhim like a burning brand against her skin. “I didn’t mean to wake you. So much for my strength of will.” His lips were buried in her hair. “You’re so soft. I had to have my hands on you.”
“It’s all right,” she said faintly, unconsciously pressing back against him in an undulating movement. Why was he apologizing? she wondered dazedly. Didn’t he know he was only giving her what she wanted? What she’d always wanted from him? “I like it.” She’d always found it difficult talking to Anthony, but in this heated darkness it was easy to confess even the most intimate secrets. “I want you to touch me.” Her breath was coming in little gasps.
“I know you do.” There was a touch of grimness in his voice. “And if I weren’t such a bastard, I’d have let you sleep through the night and not brought you down to share the same hell I’m in.”
“Haven’t you slept at all?”
His chuckle had a thread of pain in it. “Not very likely when I’m being burned alive.” His hands closed around her breasts with a sudden force. “And now you’re hurting too. I could feelthe aching in you before you fell asleep. I didn’t mean to do that to you. Believe me, Dany.”
“I believe you,” she said. There was a note of desperate sincerity in his voice that made it impossible to do anything else. “It doesn’t matter, just make love to me. That will make everything all right.”
“You’re wrong. That would screw everything up royally,” he said bitterly. “Do you think I wouldn’t be inside you right now if I wasn’t sure of that?” He exhaled in a sigh that was more of a shudder. “But none of this is your fault. You shouldn’t be the one to pay.” His fingers were plucking teasingly at her nipples, causing rivers of fire to run to the center of her womanhood. “You
won’t
be the one to pay.” His cheek pushed
Frankie Blue
john thompson
Alaina Stanford
Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright
C.W. Gortner
Helena Newbury
Jessica Jarman
Shanna Clayton
Barbara Elsborg
James Howard Kunstler