Free The Tycoon's Defiant Southern Belle by Elizabeth Lennox

here.”  Her chin jutted out defiantly
     as she dared him to deny her statement.
    He took her hands, not surprised when her arms easily unwound from her body.  Holding
     her fingers lightly in his larger hands, he pulled her close once again.  “Jade, I
     can’t claim to be a southerner, but nor can you.  So I won’t let you ignore me simply
     because I just moved here.  Besides, we’re neighbors.  Shouldn’t you be more neighborly?”
    She pulled back, shaking her head but he wouldn’t let her pull out of his arms completely. 
     “If I had my way, we never would have met.”
    He chuckled but hid his amusement by kissing her neck again.  He figured it had worked
     once to distract her so he could touch her, it would probably work again.  “Jasper
     would never have come home that night.  He was pretty content to stay where he was.”
    Jade sighed, her hands automatically moving up to his shoulders, bending her neck
     so he had better access.  “Jasper is a traitor,” she sighed.
    Angelo couldn’t argue that point because the cat personified finicky.  “He just needed
     some attention.  Just like you, isn’t that right, Jade?”  His hand stroked down her
     back and he smiled as she arched into his hand.  She was so responsive, it made him
     want her even more.  He wanted to see her go up in flames just like she did every
     time he kissed her.  “And you make the same noises sometimes,” he said, smiling at
     the memory.
    She took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to regain control of her senses but when
     he was touching her, it was very difficult.  “I don’t make any noises,” she said,
     trying to regain her dignity which was slipping fast with his arms around her.  “I’m
     quiet as a mouse.”
    Angelo stopped for a moment, listening to her soft, pretty voice purr as his hands
     slid along her skin underneath her shirt.  She probably didn’t even realize that he’d
     slipped them under the fabric, but he wasn’t going to stop.  Then he smiled and shook
     his head as he looked down into her heated, beautiful features.  “I’ve never heard
     a mouse make sounds like that,” he growled before his teeth latched onto her earlobe. 
     He knew she’d be furious with his comment and braced for it. 
    Had he really just said that?  She blinked, about to reprimand him for being so rude
     but then his teeth nibbled along the shell of her ear and she was lost, leaning against
     him as if she would melt down into the grass.  And it would have nothing to do with
     the heat that was slowly dissipating from the earth as the sun went down over the
     horizon and everything to do with the way he touched her, the way he used his whole
     body to make love to her right here on the side lawn of her friend’s house. 
    “Come home with me after the party, Jade,” Angelo coaxed.  “Forget about propriety
     and all the rules you’ve wrapped around your life.  Just live for the moment.”
    His words made sense, but they were wrong.  She couldn’t figure out why they were
     wrong with his hands touching her waist like that, moving higher.  But not high enough. 
     “Can’t do that,” she sighed and let her own hands move up his arms, touching his shoulders
     while her fingers dove into his soft, black hair. 
    “You can,” he argued softly and nibbled her collar bone.  “It’s only your mind telling
     you that you won’t.  Just finish the argument with your mind and give in to what we
     both want.  You need to stop being afraid.”
    She heard her name being called from a distance and that was enough to break the sensuous
     spell that Angelo continued to weave around the two of them whenever they were close. 
     Jade pulled back, taking a deep breath to try and pull herself together.  As she looked
     around, she realized that anyone could have come by and seen them in such a compromising
     position.  She smoothed down her flowered skirt, straightened her white blouse and