Free A Night With Consequences by Margaret Mayo Page B

another because she was seeing Blake in an entirely different light!
    Her feelings were running dangerously high. She felt an awareness that scared her rigid. She wanted to feel his arms around her, to feel the hard pulsing strength of him. Despite her misgivings, she wanted him to make love to her again. How could that be?
    ‘I am a little tired,’ she agreed. ‘This is all so new and so—’ She struggled to find the right words to say what was in her mind.
    ‘Exciting?’ he suggested, an eyebrow lifting, his body very still as he waited for her reply.
    He was right—but perhaps not in the way he thought. What would he say if he knew how intense her emotionswere? That she actually would welcome him holding her, maybe even kissing her, maybe even making love to her again? It was beyond sanity. She had never wanted a man even to touch her, and now she was craving it. One taste and she was hooked.
    She drew in a deep breath. ‘Different.’ It hardly described her feelings—or maybe it did. Maybe it was the exact word. Every cell in her body was different. No longer calm and in control. They were dancing all over the place, hot and hungry for this handsome man.
    It was strange that she was thinking of him now as more Italian. Had he truly changed or was it all in her mind? Was it this place?
    ‘You never expected to find yourself here?’ he questioned, his soft smile suggesting that he knew exactly how she was feeling. ‘It is a shame that you do not want to stay longer. But perhaps after a couple of days spent in this very beautiful part of Italy you will change your mind? You will allow me to—’
    Kara did not let him finish. ‘No! I
must
go home, Blake.’ Even saying the word
home
brought back the fears that awaited her there. She could not afford to let herself be distracted by him.
    Something had happened to her here in Italy—something she dared not think about…something that needed to be crushed. There was no room in her life for romance—or whatever name she cared to put on what was happening to her now. No room at all.
    ‘Kara—’
    Quite how it happened she was not sure, but the next second she was being held against the rock-hardness ofhis chest, her head pressed into his shoulder, one strong, warm hand stroking her hair.
    Blake could not bear to see Kara so agitated. He wanted to soothe away the fear he had seen in her eyes. Was it really because she was worried about leaving her mother, or did it go much deeper? Something to do with her father? Perhaps she had nightmares about him? Perhaps she was fearful that if she stayed too long she would give herself away in the middle of the night? Or was it being alone with him that she was afraid of?
    He continued to murmur her name and smooth her hair against her nape until he felt her tension easing. ‘No one is going to force you to stay against your will. Whenever you want to leave I will take you.’
    She lifted her face to his, and when he saw tears in her lovely blue eyes he could not help himself. All his good intentions failed. This was a wounded woman and he wanted to make her better. His hand slid round to cup her chin and at the same time his mouth came down on hers.
    What started as a gentle, reassuring kiss soon turned into something else. Into something fast and furious. Her lips parted on a sigh that suggested secret desire, and when he deepened the kiss, when he felt her response, when she kissed him back, he knew he could not resist.
    Together they went upstairs, their mouths still clinging, and in his room he began to slowly undress her. In actual fact he would have liked to rip her clothes off and make love to her straight away, but he knew that to do so might make her fearful of him. And he did not want that. She had been fearful of her father. Once in alifetime was enough to fear a person. He needed to be gentle.
    As each inch of flesh was exposed he feathered it with kisses—and listened to her quiet moans of ecstasy. She