Free Gideon, Robin - Desire of the Phantom [Ecstasy in the Old West] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Robin Gideon Page B

into Phantom’s consciousness, hitting him with a painful clarity.
    “You must never try to steal from the Darwells again,” he whispered. “If you need help—money, whatever—I’ll give it to you. But if you—”
    “I don’t want your charity,” Pamela said quickly, angrily. “I don’t need anything from you, or from anyone else.”
    From the livery stable below, a drunken male voice asked, “Charlie, did you hear that? I thought I heard a lady up in the hayloft.”
    There was a general commotion as the cardplayers ar gued the merits of checking out the possibility of a woman’s presence. Most thought it just a ploy to separate the players from the money on the table.
    Pamela and Phantom immediately moved closer together, each instinctively drawing a revolver. They waited, neither breathing, listening to the men arguing below them. It wasn’t until the card game resumed that Pamela breathed again.
    “I’m sorry,” she whispered into Phantom’s ear. “I didn’t mean to get so angry with you. In the past, the only time men have ever wanted to help me was if they…if they thought…”
    “If they thought they could get something sexual in return?”
    Pamela nodded and holstered her revolver. She didn’t know why she was telling him the truth. When she looked at him again, she thought of how strange it was she had become so accustomed to the mask he wore that now she hardly noticed it.
    “I want to help you, and I want to keep you safe,” Phantom whispered, his face inches from Pamela’s. “But I’ll never expect anything from you in return.”
    Pamela looked at his mouth and thought, I want his kisses.
    A sudden burst of drunken laughter from the card-play ing coachmen intruded on the moment, and Pamela closed her eyes, wishing the drunken men would miraculously disappear. In the moment her eyes closed, she felt Phantom’s lips, warm and pleasing, lightly touch her own.
    “I thought you wouldn’t expect anything from me,” Pamela whispered when the brief kiss ended.
    “I don’t. But you’re much too beautiful for me not to want you.”

Chapter Five

    He kissed her again, pressing his mouth more firmly against hers. This time, without hesitation, she gave herself over to the sensations his kisses drew from her. When he leaned into her, his powerful hands taking her by the shoulders to press her back into the hay, she did not resist, ignoring the little warning bell clanging in the back of her mind that she shouldn’t be doing this.
    “You are so exciting,” Phantom whispered between kisses. He caught Pamela’s lower lip between his teeth and bit gently, surprising her with both the act and the sensa tion it caused.
    Pamela tumbled backward, her back cushioned by the hay but separated from it by the silk cape. She parted her lips in invitation and quickly received Phantom’s probing tongue.
    She moaned, her tongue dancing against his, shocked at the force of the pleasure she derived from this new way of kissing. She wrapped her arms loosely around Phantom’s broad shoulders as she stretched out her long legs.
    The kiss lasted an eternity, and when it finally ended, Pamela turned her face away from Phantom, needing to catch her breath and see what shred of cooler judgment still remained to her. When she did so, she felt Phantom’s lips against her cheek then her neck. The wet warmth of his tongue and lips on her sensitive flesh sent a surge of excitement pulsing through her. Once again, she felt her clit beginning to itch, to tingle in appreciation of caresses elsewhere on her responsive body.
    I have to stop this insanity now, Pamela thought. I don’t even know who he is.
    She opened her eyes and saw, in the darkness, the dusty arched beams of the stable loft roof. She could hear the laughter and arguments of the coarse men so incredibly near. Phantom’s body pressed against hers while his lips worked their own special brand of seductive magic on her throat. Her nipples tightened,