Free Serpent in Paradise by Unknown Page A

decision. There was hard
    promise in every line of his body.
    "Is it, Jase?" she got out as he came to a halt a couple of feet away from
    her. "Is it really the wrong place and the wrong time?"
    He went to stand beside her at the railing, leaning back against it,
    sipping the rum. Then he set the glass down beside him and nodded. His
    eyes never left her face. "For you it is."
    "But not for you?" she whispered. A shiver went through her as she
    waited for the unbearable tension to burst. All she had to do was turn
    around and walk back into her room and close the window. Why couldn't
    she move?
    "Out here a man learns to make things right. Even if it's only for a night
    or two. And especially when he wants a woman as badly as I want you."
    Amy couldn't look away from his steady, gleaming gaze now. She felt
    completely trapped, mesmerized by forces she didn't even want to try to
    understand. "Do you…" She stopped and licked her lips nervously. "… do
    you really want me that badly? Or would any woman… ?"
    She never got a chance to finish the question. In her anxiety her right
    hand swept jerkily to the side and caught the edge of his rum glass, which
    was sitting on the railing.
    Jase put out his hand almost casually and caught the glass in midair.
    Only a few drops spilled. He set it on the railing again, a strange smile
    playing around the edge of his mouth as he watched her stricken
    expression.
    "Yes, I want you that badly, and no, not just any woman would do. Not
    tonight. Do I really make you so nervous?" He glanced briefly at the
    salvaged glass.
    "You make me very nervous," she confessed throatily.
    "We're equal then. Because you are playing havoc with my nervous
    system too!"
    Jase's mouth came down on hers with an unconcealed, almost
    desperate hunger.
    The impact of that male hunger was beyond anything Amy had ever
    experienced or ever expected from a man. Last night when Jase had kissed
    her, there had been a deliberate seductive quality, a tasting, teasing,
    testing quality. He had been trying to lure her and tempt her to come
    home with him.
    Tonight she was in his home, and the trap had closed shut around her.
    Tonight Jase was going to take by storm the feminine prey he had lured
    into reach. Amy had known, deep in the core of her body, what his
    intentions were the moment she heard his voice behind her on the
    veranda. She couldn't run then and she couldn't raise her defenses now.
    "Amy… !" Jase broke the contact for a split second to groan her name
    against her mouth, and then he was pressing her back against the rail,
    letting his body lean heavily into hers while he forced her lips apart with
    his own.
    Amy gasped as he invaded her mouth, her senses reeling. She was dimly
    aware of the hard line of the rail against the small of her back. The weight
    of his aroused body took away her breath and at the same time fed her
    passion.
    As his tongue surged between her teeth, seeking the moist warmth
    beyond, Jase slid his left foot between her legs, prying them apart just as
    his mouth had pried apart her lips. The champagne-colored silk of the
    French nightgown was whipped lightly around his khaki trousers by the
    midnight breeze.
    "Jase, oh, Jase, please ," Amy breathed achingly. "I don't… this isn't…
    oh, Jase !"
    He caught her face between his rough, urgent palms, holding her still as
    he rained a scorching line of kisses across her cheek and down her throat.
    "Hush, sweetheart. It's too late. It was probably too late the minute you
    walked into The Serpent."
    She sensed the unyielding truth of his words, her body shivering with
    reaction. Somehow it was all too overwhelming, too vast, too ordained, to
    even think of resisting. Amy was being swept up into the vortex of passion
    Jase was unleashing, and she couldn't get her bearings long enough to find
    reality.
    The large, strong hands cradling her face moved lower, slipping down to
    trace the curve of her shoulder. Jase was trembling with the hot