Free Battle Prize by Stephanie James Page A

nightcap with me when we reach my place."
    Rani's fingers tightened on the wheel. "Sorry, Gage. I don't switch gears that fast. The evening's gone sour and that's that."
    "You're wrong," he told her with quiet emphasis. "The portion of the evening that took place on the battlefield has come to an inconclusive ending, I'll grant you, but what happens next is off the battlefield, remember?"
    "Trust a man to think the two arenas can be separated!"
    "You gave me your word, Rani. Whatever happens between the two of us on a personal level has nothing to do with the business side of things."
    "Having failed to achieve your main goal this evening, you're now going to try for your secondary one?" Rani turned the car into his drive, fully intending to let Gage out and be on her way. She was annoyed with him for having made a battle out of dinner, and she was even more irritated to learn he now expected to seduce her!
    He reached out with a sudden, swift movement and removed the keys from the ignition as she switched off the engine, pocketing them before she could do more than exclaim angrily. "Come in and have a drink, Rani. Please." "
    Give me back those keys!"
    "I'm not going to let you drive off in this mood. There are things I want to say to you—"
    "You can't stop me! Now give me back those keys!" She held out her palm imperiously, not at all certain she could outbluff him but knowing she had to try.
    "Are you going to turn this side of things into a battle, too?" he asked with exasperation. His eyes gleamed at her in the darkness, and there was a tension in the way he sprawled in his seat. A tension that signaled danger.
    "And if I am?" she dared, rising recklessly to his challenge.
    "If you are, then you'd better be prepared to take the consequences. This is one battle I can win tonight!"
    "Don't be so damn sure of yourself!" Her voice was husky with the depths of a provocative defiance she couldn't quite explain, even to herself. It had something to do with the fact that she didn't want the evening to end with bitterness between them—didn't want it to end that way but was unable to gracefully make the transition he wanted from her. She was caught in a trap from which she wasn't sure how to extricate herself.
    Gage uncoiled with the speed of a pouncing cat, clasping her shoulders in two strong hands before she realized his intention. "It's not that I'm so damn sure of myself," he growled, hauling her toward him until she collapsed against his chest in a helpless tangle of arms and legs. "It's just that I'm so damn desperate!"
    Cradling her forcibly against him as he leaned back into the confining corner between seat and door, Gage anchored her head with fingers laced into the loose knot of her hair. "I've been looking forward to this part of the evening all afternoon. You're not going to ruin things for me now!"
    Rani tried to frame a protest, but before she could do so her mouth was suddenly captive to his and a surging excitement roared through her veins. Gage seemed intent on stamping his seal of possession on her lips, not requiring a response yet, merely surrender. Merely! Rani was instantly dazed at the impact of his kiss.
    It burned into her senses as he slowly, deliberately, deepened the heated, damp contact. His mouth slid firmly across hers, softening it, quelling the signs of defiance, forcing an obedient retreat. That goal accomplished, he began to probe into the territory beyond, urging her lips apart with a thrusting strength that literally took away Rani's breath .
    "Oh!" The moan was uttered deep in her throat, but he heard it and read it for what it was, an admission of growing response that she could not contain.
    Her fingertips moved like small daggers, moving over the black jacket that enveloped his shoulders and up into the midnight of his hair. She heard his groan of mounting passion and felt his body hardening under hers.
    "My God, woman! Can you feel what you're doing to me?" he breathed into her