of the morning. And Egan still hadn’t come home. He was with that blonde, kissing her with that wide, cruel mouth that had tormented hers so sweetly….
Something woke her. She didn’t know what. But she felt the light on her eyelids and the coolness of air on her skin, and her dark, drowsy eyes opened slowly.
He was standing beside the bed, wearing nothing but a pair of slacks, with his broad chest sensuously bare and a cup of black coffee in one hand. And he was looking at her in a way that brought her instantly alert and wary; his glittering silver eyes were on fire.
She frowned slightly as she realized that he wasn’t looking at her face. Her eyes shifted, and she noticed to her embarrassment that the loose gown had shifted in the night, leaving one perfect breast pink and bare.
Her hand went to jerk the bodice back up.
“No, Kati,” he said in a husky undertone, and his eyes went back up to hers. “No. Let it happen.”
He moved close, setting the coffee on the table. He dropped smoothly down beside her, and she hated the sudden weakness and hunger of her body as she stared up at him. Her hair was spread out onthe pillow like a ragged halo of red and gold, her cheeks rosy with sleep, her eyes sultry. And he looked just as disheveled, just as attractive to her, with his hair tousled, his muscular arms and chest bare and tanned.
His hands went under her head, both of them, and he eased down so that his chest rested on her partially bare one.
She gasped at the unfamiliar sensation of skin on skin, and her eyes dilated under the piercing scrutiny of his.
“I’m going to kiss you until you can’t stand up,” he said roughly, bending. “My God, I want your mouth…!”
He took it, with a hard, hungry pressure that frightened her. Her slender hands lifted quickly to his shoulders and started to push—until they discovered the rough silkiness of his skin, the power in his bunched muscles. She ran her hands slowly down his arms, feeling the tension of the hard muscles, and back up again, to the hard bone of his shoulders.
Meanwhile, his mouth was slowing, gentling. He lifted it so that it was poised just over hers, and he looked at her for a long moment.
“You don’t like it hard, do you?” he asked in a gruff undertone. “I do. Hard and hot and deep. But I’ll make the effort, at least.”
He bent again, coaxing her lips. It was an education in sensual blackmail. She lay tense under the crush of his torso, feeling each brief, soft contact like a brand.Her lips parted because she couldn’t stop them, her breath was coming in short gasps and her heartbeat was shaking her. She hadn’t known that women felt like this, despite the novels that bore her name. All her research had come from books, from films and television and bits and pieces of gossip. But what Egan was teaching her bore no resemblance to any of that. He was making her catch fire, and she was moving and reacting in ways that embarrassed her.
“That’s more like it, baby,” he breathed. “Much, much more like it. Now,” he whispered, letting his hands slide down the long, bare line of her back, “now, if you want my mouth, come up and get it.”
Blind, aching, she arched up and caught his hard mouth with hers, kissing him with enough enthusiasm to make up for her lack of experience at this kind of impassioned caress.
She felt his tongue go into her mouth, and she moaned sharply at the intimacy.
He lifted his dark head as if the sound had shocked him, and looked down at her rigid, anguished features. His free hand tugged slowly at the other strap of her gown and his eyes followed its movement.
“Do you want me, Kati?” he asked quietly. “Shall I get up and lock the door?”
Her mind cleared instantly with the words as she stared up into his blazing eyes. He was asking her a straightforward question, and the answer would have been an unqualified
yes
. But he was offering a quick, temporary merging of bodies that would shame
David LaRochelle
Walter Wangerin Jr.
James Axler
Yann Martel
Ian Irvine
Cory Putman Oakes
Ted Krever
Marcus Johnson
T.A. Foster
Lee Goldberg