Free Fever by Kimberly Dean

she shivered at the river running down her back.
    “Yes!” he barked beneath her. His hips slammed up so hard, her knees left the bed. “That damned fever has finally broken.”
    Delia’s eyes flew open. The constant haze that had filled her head finally cleared. Her mind focused on his voice. His familiar, authoritative voice. Her gaze snapped to his face.
    “Mr. Lloyd!”
    Shock hit her, and she nearly fell off him.
    His eyebrows lifted in surprise, but understanding made his features turn hard.
    “Oh, no, you don’t,” he growled. He caught her in his arms and rolled until she was flat on her back beneath him.
    Delia’s breaths went short in her chest. Jackson Lloyd was in her bed. In her bed? He was in her , buried about as deep as he could go. They were connected as a man and woman, and it mortified her. She was screwing her boss—a man she could barely talk to on the best of days. When she thought of the things they’d done…              
    “Damn it. Don’t back away. You’re not going to do this to me. To us.”
    She couldn’t respond. Oh, God. What must he think of her?
    His face took on a ferocious cast.
    “Spread wider,” he demanded. His hands caught the insides of her thighs and pushed her legs outwards until she had no defenses left. She lay open and vulnerable to his intimate thrusts, and he drew them out to make sure she knew exactly what they were doing together.
    “Don’t look at me that way,” he said. “You knew it was me. Goddamnit. You knew it was me!”
    Words couldn’t escape her tight throat. Conflicting emotions rocked her. Had she known it was him? She’d known she was safe. She’d known she was wanted. That was as far as her clouded brain had gotten.
    “You thought I was Rob.”
    The skin at his cheekbones pulled tight. His teeth ground together as his head dropped in defeat. His hips, though, weren’t giving up.
    Delia didn’t know what to say. The look in his eyes had captured her. He was angry, but there was also hurt in those dark depths. Deep, cutting hurt. She lay still, accepting his thrusts, but remained uncertain as to what she should do.
    “No,” she said, finally finding her voice. “I didn’t think you were Rob.”
    He lodged deep inside her and stared at her face. The tension in the room skyrocketed. “Then what did you think?”
    She couldn’t get enough air into her lungs.
    Last night, she’d been confused. The fever had affected her thinking processes.
    But never once had she thought she was making love with Rob.
    “I wasn’t thinking at all,” she admitted in a tiny voice. She squirmed beneath him uncomfortably. “My head… I think I was delirious.”
    His hips rolled. “So I was convenient? It didn’t matter who I was as long as I kept the fire in your pussy banked?”
    She shrank back from his harsh words, but he had her pinned against the mattress. Nailed was a better description. He was hard, thick, and determined. If anything, he’d sunk into her even deeper.
    “No,” she said on a soft cry. Oh, God. He was nudging against her very cervix. Her head rolled on the pillow. “It wasn’t like that.”
    Any old stud wouldn’t have done. She hadn’t needed servicing . She’d needed him. Even now, knowing who he was, her body was still heating, straining to meet his.
    He caught her face in both hands and made her look at him. “Then why are you so surprised? Why are you so upset? Damn it, Delia. Is it really that hard for you to be with me?”
    “Yes!”
    Her dream lover was Jackson Lloyd! Before, her instincts had always told her to run whenever he’d gotten close… And she suddenly realized why. He’d been right. They’d been quietly circling each other for months. She’d flirted with Rob, but that had been because he was safe. Safe and harmless.
    Jackson was anything but.
    “You scare me,” she whispered.
    He snapped back as if she’d just hit him. The look on his face was stunned. Crestfallen. “I’d never