Free Affair Of Risk by Jayne Castle Page B

when she had once before been at the mercy of a man. She wanted to scream, cry, plead. And in her terror, none of those was possible. She could only lie there, glaring her helpless hatred up at a stone-faced, cold man who now wanted only vengeance.
    "You little cheat!" he snarled. "What the hell were you
    trying to pull? Or do you go around doing this to men all the time?"
    In the utter shock of the moment, Kendra couldn't even manage to speak. She waited mutely for what would come next, summoning all the shattered remains of her poor strength in an effort not to cry. If she could deny him nothing else, she could deny him that satisfaction. Men like this wanted to see women broken and crying.
    "Answer me, damn you!" he blazed, his fingers digging into her arms as he held her immobile. "How many times have you done this sort of thing? How many men have fallen for it? Is that really what happened to Phelps this evening? My God! I was only joking earlier when I asked if you'd lured him into your room and then hit him on the head! But that's probably exactly what happened! What were you going to do? Roll him for his wallet?"
    "No!" The single word was torn from her in protest. She shut her eyes against the fury in him.
    "If it's money you want, you can damn well earn it! But don't think you're going to cheat me out of what you were promising a few minutes ago! I always get what I pay for!"
    She was shaking now as she realized there was no hope of reasoning with him. How could she have been so stupid? Why hadn't she even thought about the risks of failure? Why in heaven's name had she been so crazily self-confident? But Phelps had been so easy to deal with! Who would have guessed Case Garrett wouldn't be as simple to handle, especially with his energies directed only toward getting her into bed?
    But now that single-minded determination had taken on the aura of primitive male violence and revenge. The sophisticated passion he had been employing only a short time ago was gone, wiped out as if it had never existed.
    Kendra's teeth sank into her lower lip, drawing blood, and her nails curled savagely into her palms as she felt his hand on her dress. The peculiar, exotic sound made by silk
    when it is torn vibrated through the room as the fabric was ripped from her in a quick, fierce motion.
    She felt him hurl his few remaining garments into a corner without weakening the painful hold he had on her. An instant later they were both lying naked on the thick white carpet.
    With mounting anger and humiliation Kendra understood that Case wasn't even going to lift her onto the bed. He was going to take her there on the floor.
    CHAPTER FIVE
    Her only defense now lay in withdrawing into a far corner of her mind—a corner from which she could view the attack on her body as if it were happening to a limp and lifeless doll. Frantically she corralled her screaming, jabbering, witless senses and fought to pull them back under control; to hide them in that remote part of her brain.
    A part of her registered the success of the retreat by the rigidity of her body. She was aware of the hard, hair-roughened thigh along hers, and she knew of the strength in the sinewy arm across her vulnerable throat, but she forced her mind away from those facts.
    Case's hand moved down the length of her naked body, gliding harshly over the tips of her breasts, the small curve of her stomach, and down over her hips. There was no tenderness in his touch, only a fierce need to explore the territory he was going to conquer.
    "What's the matter with you?" he taunted hoarsely. "Open your eyes and look at me, dammit! You started this, and now you're going to find out what it's like to finish what you start! How many men would give their right arms to have you where I have you now? For how many men will I be the instrument of revenge? Answer me, damn you!"
    Hiding in that far corner of her mind, Kendra tried to focus on only the things she would do when it was all over. For