Free Burned by Sarah Morgan Page B

drop and handed me a glass. His fingers brushed mine and I shivered.
    ‘What are we celebrating?’
    ‘Our first date.’ His eyes gleamed and I grinned and raised the glass.
    ‘Sounds good to me. So if this is our first date, you’d better tell me about yourself. Tell me about Thailand.’ I sipped and felt the bubbles fizz in my mouth.
    Hayley and I only ever drank champagne at Christmas, usually when someone else had brought it, and we usually managed to lose half the contents over the floor when we poured.
    It tasted delicious.
    ‘Thailand was both brutal and brilliant.’ He cracked eggs into a bowl and whisked them efficiently while I watched.
    He told me about his experiences training with the best and if anyone else had been talking, I would have been hanging on to every word because training in Thailand was a dream for me, but I was finding it impossible to concentrate. I tried focusing on his mouth but that didn’t work either, because all I could think of was how it felt when we kissed.
    I dragged my gaze from his mouth and watched him whisking the eggs. I didn’t think that could be erotic, but turned out I was wrong about that, too.
    There’s something about a man’s forearms I find really sexy, especially Hunter’s. They were strongly muscled and male. Dark hair dusted skin bronzed by his trip to the Far East. He was powerfully built and supremely fit, every inch of him hard and honed.
    As he reached for the salt, I saw the muscles in his shoulders flex. He must have felt me looking at him, because he glanced across and his gaze locked on mine.
    He stilled and I tried to look as if I’d been paying attention to every word but I hoped he hadn’t been in the middle of asking me a question, because I didn’t have a clue what he’d said.
    Slowly, he put the salt down.
    My heart was pounding like fists against a boxing bag.
    We both moved at the same time.
    I slid off the stool and he dropped the salt.
    We collided in the middle of the kitchen.
    I slammed him back and his shoulders crashed hard against the fridge as he ripped at my T-shirt, tearing it over my head.
    ‘Naked,’ he growled. ‘I need you naked.’
    I needed him naked, too, but I was beyond speaking.
    His mouth was hungry on mine. His fingers bit into my thighs as he pulled me against him. I could feel the hard, throbbing length of him and his hands were jammed in my hair.
    It was rough and crazy. We were locked together and my limbs felt as if they were melting. He lifted me and I wrapped my legs around him. He crossed the kitchen in a couple of strides and lowered me to the counter. My legs were still wrapped around him and I heard the raw rasp of his breathing as he struggled for control.
    He stood for a moment, his legs between mine, his hands on my thighs trapping me. Then he lifted his hand and stroked my damp hair back from my face, his fingers lingering on my cheek. For such a powerfully built man, he was incredibly gentle. That probably shouldn’t have surprised me, because martial arts is all about control and his control was absolute. And yes, that was sexy. There’s nothing as erotic as leashed power and Hunter was all about leashed power.
    I could tell he was fighting what he was feeling.
    His fingers lingered on my face and he tilted my chin so I was forced to look him in the eyes. My stomach swooped.
    I knew this was a turning point.
    I knew he’d paused because he wanted me to be sure. He wanted me to have a moment of calm in this stormy, crazy world we created together.
    Whether we carried on or not was my choice.
    And it was the easiest choice I’d ever made. This moment had been inevitable from the moment he’d walked back into my life.
    I lifted my hand and closed my fingers over his wrist, feeling strength and sinew. Then I turned my head and ran my tongue over his palm.
    I’ve no idea what signal he’d been waiting for, but clearly that was enough, because he lifted his other hand, cupped my face and lowered