Read Online Falling Stars by Loretta Chase - Free Book Online

I’m going to kiss you now,” he said. “I suppose you think you’re irresistible.”
    “I suppose you think you are,” she said.
    “I must be. You couldn’t keep away.”
    “I did not drag you into a dark hallway.”
    “I didn’t drag you.”
    “You said you wanted to talk.”
    “Must you always have the last word?” he asked impatiently. “Will you not give one inch?”
    After a moment’s consideration, she let out a sigh. “Very well,” she said. “Kiss me if you must. You might as well get it out of your system.”
    “Very well,” he said. “If you insist.”
    Still holding her hand, he bent toward her. Her head tilted back ever so slightly, ever so reluctantly. Her fingers tightened on his and that small pressure vibrated through him... a pulsing current, irresistible.
    He bent closer. A breath away from her lips he paused, his heart hammering. He remembered vividly the aching loss, the grief and rage... weeks, months of it. But he also remembered the sweetness and tender yielding of the kisses he had stolen long ago.
    His lips touched hers and there was a shock, sharp and sweet at once, and softness, too, so familiar... and the piercing ache of yearning. It was the yearning that made his arms slip round her to gather her close, and kiss her long and deeply... as he’d never dared to do all those years ago.
    But it was different now. Christina was no longer a naive young girl, easily frightened by desire. Her mouth parted to his coaxing tongue and she melted against him, answering his erotic summons with a woman’s tender passion.
    She was as warm in his arms as homecoming, warm as love and belonging. Yet this was no safe hearth, either, he speedily discovered, for her warmth fueled his need, and the fire built swiftly.
    Her firm breasts pressed against the wool of his coat, but it wasn’t enough. His hands moved over her back, pressing her nearer, but still not close enough, for this was gloves on silk, and he wanted flesh on flesh. His hands moved to the base of her spine, to the sweet curve of her hips. She was near enough to be aware of his aching arousal. He wanted her closer still, wanted to crush her to him, but that would only make matters worse. He was already losing control.
    He released her mouth. He meant to release her altogether, but the instant she began to pull away, his hands fastened on her waist.
    “You can’t go back now,” he said thickly. “You’re all... mussed.” Delectably mussed. Her neat coiffure was tumbling undone, her gown was tantalizingly rumpled, and her breath was coming in quick gasps. He thought about how much more tousled and heated he might make her, and his own breathing grew more labored. He tugged her closer. She stiffened, resisting.
    “Don’t tease, Christina,” he said. “I only want another kiss.”
    “No,” she said. “I gave you the inch you wanted, and you took ten miles. Then you have the audacity to tell me I’m mussed—as though I did it myself— on purpose to vex you, I suppose.”
    “I plead guilty to the charge of mussing,” he said. “But you did cooperate.”
    “You seem to have a certain skill in eliciting cooperation,” she said. “But then, you had it ten years ago. Evidently, my powers of resistance remain some years behind your powers of persuasion.”
    “You never even tried to resist, then or now,” he said, bridling. “On the contrary, you deliberately sought me out, both times, and led me on.”
    “Very well, I led you on,” she said. “You’re a helpless victim of my irresistible wiles once again, though you’re a successful, powerful man of four- and-thirty. And because I don’t care to be seduced on your brother’s back stairs—just as I didn’t care to run off with you and be ruined—I’m a heartless tease.” She glanced down at his hands. “Perhaps it’s time I released you from my wicked clutches.”
    For one furious instant, he wanted to hurl her aside, out of his sight, out of his