Free Warrior's Embrace by Peggy Webb Page B

head and sticks out her chin,
Dad had better watch out.”
    “Yes, but you know Dad,” Bolton would say,
sticking up for his father. “You can’t tell by his face whether
he’s going to be a summer rain or a thunderstorm.”
    Though Bolton had inherited his mother’s blue
eyes and her love for photography, he was like his father in other
ways, as unreadable and endurable as the mountains and generally as
benign. But anybody who had ever tried to scale a mountain in the
midst of a storm knew that mountains can be dangerous.
    Bolton was still smiling when he opened the
door. Virginia didn’t yet know him well enough to be warned.
    “You need not be so pleased to see me,” she
said. “The purpose of this visit is not unbridled sex.”
    “Is that what you call it?”
    “Among other things.”
    “What other things?”
    He guided her to the chair with a hand on the
back of her neck. That small touch sent shivers all over Virginia,
that and merely being in the same room with him. The cottage was
small and cozy, the kind of place that invites intimacy. Bolton had
lit the gas logs and pulled the two overstuffed chairs close. His
notebook was open on the table beside one of the chairs, and his
boots were under the table.
    She glanced down at his feet. They were big
and substantial, a tall man’s feet, with a light sprinkling of dark
hair across the toes. Until she met him, she’d never known how sexy
a man’s feet could be. The sight of them made her want to drop to
her knees and take him in her mouth.
    This wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t do at all. She
shoved her hair back from her face and glared at him.
    “Don’t try to sidetrack me,” she snapped.
    “Would I do that?”
    “Yes. You’d do anything it takes to have your
way with me.”
    “And what way is that, Virginia?” Laughing,
he sat in the chair opposite her.
    “See. You’re doing it again. It’s a
deliberate ploy on your part.”
    “You read me too well. I’m going to have to
practice implacability.”
    “If you get any more implacable, you’ll have
to hand out maps and instruction books.” Though he was still
laughing, his face told her nothing. It was his eyes that gave her
pause. Such mysteries were hidden in them that she felt as if she
were drowning.
    “I don’t think I can trust you, Bolton Gray
Wolf.”
    “You delight me, Virginia.”
    “Oh, hush up. This is hard enough as it is,
without you looking like that.”
    “Like what?”
    “Don’t you ever look in the mirror? Your eyes
alone are enough to make saints turn in their crowns. And that
smile... don’t even get me started on your smile.”
    “I take it you like those things?”
    “Yes... I like them.”
    “That’s a great start. You like me and I like
you. We’re going to have a wonderful marriage, Virginia.”
    “See. There you go again.” She jumped up from
her chair and stalked around the room. She was in such a fizz, she
didn’t even notice that her belt had come loose and her robe was
flapping open.
    Bolton caught the edges of her robe and
maneuvered her to the front of his chair. Then he held her there,
robe parted, devouring her with his eyes.
    She didn’t struggle against him. She’d never
win in a contest of strength against a man the size of Bolton.
Furthermore, she didn’t want to win. She wanted to stand exactly
where she was, with her body and every one of her secrets
exposed.
    His eyes held hers, and she felt the quick,
hot rush of desire.
    “This is not fair,” she said.
    “All’s fair in love and war.”
    “Is this love or war?”
    “Both, I think...” He thoroughly kissed her.
“In that order,” he murmured.
    She wouldn’t argue with that,
couldn’t
argue with that. If her easy acquiescence made
her weak and selfish, she didn’t care. She had come to the cottage
to end the affair. There was no future for the two of them, but
they had the moment, and it was too precious to be thrown away.
    “Love me... please... tonight I don’t want