Free Chain of Love by Anne Stuart

innocent as it
    had been. “I didn’t want to give you the chance to refuse.”
    “Yes, but did you have to force me to eat so much?” she groaned, holding her stomach in mock pain. “I agreed with you that the coffee ice
    cream was the best in the world.”
    “But how were we to know for certain unless we checked their other flavors?” he argued persuasively as the elevator doors opened with a soft
    swoosh.
    “But twenty-four flavors?” she questioned plaintively, determined to keep up a light banter until she got safely behind her locked apartment
    door. “I doubt I’ll eat for days.” They were already at the shiny, black-painted door, and it was with a feeling of deja vu that she held
    out her hand, remembering all too well her forced politeness in dismissing him the last time he saw her home. “Thanks for a lovely dinner,” she
    said stiffly. “I’d invite you in for a nightcap, but it’s far too late. There’s nothing I want to do but fall into bed.”
    He cocked an eyebrow at her last sentence and she felt her pale face flush a fiery red. “Still keeping me in my place, Cathy?” he inquired
    gently, ignoring her outstretched hand. With an easy shrug he turned. “Good night.” Seemingly with-out another thought he strode back toward
    the elevator, leaving Cathy staring after him with mixed emotions, foremost among them a perverse disappointment that he had given up so easily. As he
    waited for the elevator to return to the floor, he turned and leaned against the wall, hands in pockets, giving Cathy an absolutely devastating smile. And
    then he began to whistle.
    The elevator arrived; the door swished open beside him. Those searching hazel eyes looked at the elevator, and then back at Cathy’s motionless figure
    waiting by her door. Slowly he straightened up, and the panther look was back on him in full. He headed into the elevator, did a sudden about-face and
    turned back toward her, stalking her like the jungle beast he so resembled.
    Before she had time to react he had pulled her slender body against his, hard. Her hands were caught between them as she instinctively raised them to ward
    him off, trapped against his broad chest. “To hell with keeping my place,” he said succinctly, and lowered his mouth to hers, gently at first,
    as if not to frighten her. His arms were an iron band around her slight frame, allowing her room enough to move, but not to escape, as his lips nibbled at
    hers, slowly, sweetly, drawing from her a response she didn’t want to give. One hand slipped down her back to press her closer to him, to make her
    fully aware of the strength of his response to her, and the slight loosening of his embrace allowed her enough leverage to free her arms. She slid them up
    his chest, pushing against him for a futile, angry five seconds, and then, uttering a quiet moan somewhere in the back of her throat, she slid them around
    him, entwining her fingers in the long brown curls at the back of his neck.
    His lips left hers for a moment, trailing a line of slow, deliberate kisses across her pale cheeks to her ear. The tip of his tongue flicked out, tracing
    the delicate outlines of her ear, his strong white teeth capturing her lobe with gentle nips. “Open your mouth, Cathy,” he whispered as he
    moved back to recapture her lips. Closing her eyes, she obeyed, letting him regain possession of her mouth even more intimately than he had before. His
    tongue explored every inch of her warm, moist mouth, demanding and drawing from her a response that she had never given another man. Her heart was
    pounding, her breath coming in quick, shallow pants, and her entire body trembled from pent-up desire. She could feel the flat surface of the wall behind
    her while every square inch of his body seemed burned into her flesh, and still he kissed her, as if he could never get enough of her willing mouth.
    And then suddenly he moved away, out of her nerveless arms. Opening her passion-drugged eyes, she