Free Homecoming by Autumn Dawn Page A

was the man, some kind of gigolo? She started to wonder if the book on the table was a new book or an old favorite. Certainly he’d started his collection long before she’d entered the picture.
    Disturbed to see him as a sensual being, considering the restraint he’d shown
    around her most of the time, she backed off. Maybe she’d be better off going straight to bed after all.
    He was there, behind her. His gaze took in her expression and shifted to the shelves behind her. He raised a curious brow. “Something disturbs you?”
    Oh, he was bold. A surge of annoyance made her cross her arms. “Well, yeah. It’s a little disturbing to find I’ve been locked in with a skirt chaser.”
    “A skirt chaser?”
    She tipped her head at the books behind her. “Your bookshelf reads like National Pornographic .”
    He smiled. “You sound jealous.”
    “I’m not! I’m just wondering how many women are going to be running around here.” She was defensive and knew it, but she wasn’t jealous. Of course, that meant she was righteous instead, and that didn’t sound good, either.
    “One. You.” He drifted a step closer. “Are you curious what I learned from my books?”
    “No.” She tried to sound firm, but she was interested. Those kisses of his had been unusual, unlike any she’d had before. Her boyfriends had always been in a hurry; Jayems liked to linger. That kind of thing could get addictive. “You come off as some kind of cool dignitary, and here you are reading smut in the evenings!”
    He moved closer. “Is knowing how to please a woman a crime? Is wanting to?
    Should I take my pleasure and leave her none?”
    These were tricky questions, and it was getting hard to think. She was sure he was doing it on purpose. “That’s not the point! You’re some kind of playboy. Admit it!”
    “I’m not playing with you,” he said, closing the space between them. He put his arms around her, loose enough not to make her fight, but firm enough to make his point.
    One hand began to stroke her hip, distracting, enticing.
    She raised her arms to hold him off, but there was no strength in them. “Stop.”
    “Am I hurting you?”
    “No, but that shouldn’t matter when a woman says stop,” she said with an edge to her voice.
    “You’re right,” he whispered against her lips. He released her.
    Now that she was free, she didn’t know where to go. To her room? Her legs wouldn’t move.
    Smoke gathered in his eyes. “I have an idea … something I can teach you from my books. With this, I won’t even touch you.”
    Curiosity would be her undoing. Or was it him? “What?” she said warily.
    “The power of scent,” he said softly, drawing in a breath by her ear.
    She shivered.
    “Our senses are so much more than sight and sound and touch,” he murmured next to her neck, raising chill bumps with his breath. “Seduction is also the perfume of flowers in a woman’s hair, the warm scent of her skin, the soap she uses to cleanse her body.” He sank slowly to his knee while he talked, his eyes half closed as if in bliss. “I can smell the change in fabric from your shirt to your pants, the musk of the leather belt riding your waist, and more …” He knelt in front of her now and drew in a deep breath.
    Slowly, his eyes opened, and he looked up at her through his lashes. “I can even smell your desire.”
     
    Riveted, she stared at him. Sweat broke out on her skin, and he closed his eyes as if savoring the scent. Desire pulsed in her blood, made her fingertips itch to touch him.
    Oh, he was good … and that was his undoing.
    She stepped back, bumping her hip on the chair as she went. Scrambling around it, she eased toward her room, away from him. He didn’t move, just watched her back away from him.
    “I … I’m not one of your women,” she said, unable to look away.
    He just looked at her.
    “I’m not going to let you do this,” she whispered. She got another two paces.
    “My bed is that way,” he said