Free Silver Master by Jayne Castle

neck. She opened her lips just a little and gave him a taste of the sultry heat that awaited him.
    Kissing her was a little like going down into the catacombs and getting a dose of alien psi, only better. This high swept through him with the force of an oncoming summer storm. It was sexual and highly physical, but it was something more, something that caught him by surprise. There was a sense of mind-bending rightness about kissing Celinda. She was just what he’d been needing for longer than he could remember.
    She whispered something he did not quite catch against his mouth. Her fingers tightened in his hair. He could feel her soft breasts crushed against his chest.
    He felt his control start to slip. That hadn’t happened in longer than he could remember either. Instead of making him uneasy, he suddenly felt free in a way he hadn’t for years.
    The hunger inside him grew more intense. He dragged Celinda deeper into the vestibule and pushed her up against the stone wall, bracing her. She nibbled on his left earlobe. He almost climaxed then and there. He couldn’t believe she was using her teeth on him.
    He moved his hands downward on either side of her body, savoring the contours of breast, waist, and thigh. She did not try to stop him. In fact, he could feel one of her elegantly curved calves gliding up the side of his trousers. She shuddered a little in his arms.
    He found the hem of her dress and shoved it up to her waist. Then he gripped her buttocks and started to lift her off her feet so that she would have no choice but to wrap her legs around him and squeeze tightly just to hold on.
    She gasped and pulled her mouth away from his.
    “Wait,” she managed breathlessly. “Hold on a minute. I think things are getting a little out of control here.”
    He groaned. “Celinda—”
    “We should both cool down a bit,” she said, taking several deep breaths. “I mean, this isn’t even a real date, is it? More like a business dinner.”
    He came back to his senses with a disorienting jolt.
    What the hell was he doing? He’d only met her this afternoon, and he’d been about to take her up against a grimy wall. He’d never taken a woman against a wall in his life. He caught her face between his hands and rested his forehead against hers.
    “Don’t know how it is in your line,” he said, “but I gotta tell you my business dinners don’t usually end like this.”
    She gave him a tremulous smile. “Neither do mine.”
    He opened his mouth to apologize. The sound of footsteps stopped him cold. There were plenty of other people out on the streets of the Old Quarter enjoying the warm summer night, but until now he and Celinda had been alone in the tiny lane. He listened closely.
    “What’s wrong?” Celinda whispered, going very still.
    “Probably nothing.” He spoke directly into her ear.
    “Oh, jeez. First date I’ve been on in four months, and I’m going to get mugged, right?”
    Very gently he put his hand over her mouth to silence her. He turned her slightly so that he could watch the mouth of the lane from the cover of the shadowed vestibule.
    A figure stood silhouetted against the brighter lights of the main thoroughfare behind him. He was tall and spindly, a scarecrow of a man. The outline of a loose-fitting wind-breaker was visible. He had a cap pulled down low over his eyes.
    The figure hesitated a few seconds longer, as though seeking his quarry. After a while he moved warily forward, heading toward the Phantom.
    Davis put his mouth close to Celinda’s ear again.
    “Stay here.”
    He made it an order, not a suggestion. He could tell that she didn’t like it, but he was pretty sure she was too smart to sabotage him at this critical juncture by making a scene.
    He released her and moved quietly out of the doorway.
    The figure in the cap had reached the Phantom. He leaned down to peer through the window into the darkened interior.
    “Looking for something?” Davis asked behind him.
    The scarecrow