Free What the Earl Desires by Aliyah Burke Page B

was for a kiss. You got that.” For the life of her she wanted him to stay. Longed for him to lift her in strong arms and carry her to the bed. Undress her and…
    He continued to approach until there was no space between them. “I will leave for now, Najja, for we both know what is about to happen if I stay. But we have a lot to figure out between us. I want that intimate kiss, more than you could possibly know.” Colin lowered his head and brushed his lips along hers, tenderly. “Good night, luv.”
    She found herself alone and with shaking legs, sank to the thick blue and brown rug and dropped her head into quavering hands. By the gods, what had she done? This was not the way for her to act. She was here to do a job, nothing more.
    At least the deal is sealed and I know Jo will be in good hands when I leave. Still trembling, she got to her feet and made her way to the bed where Colin Faulkner had shattered the bubble she’d erected around her heart and crawled in. His scent still present and she didn’t wish to acknowledge that it made her feel all the more comfortable having it in her nose as she drifted off to sleep.
    She woke early unsure if she truly felt rested or not. Seated on her trunk at the end of her bed she barely looked up from where she strapped on her sais when the door opened and Jo stuck her head in.
    “Morning, Najja.”
    “Morning, Jo. I am almost ready.”
    She didn’t try to hide the weapons, Jo knew she carried them with her all the time. As well as her other weapons. Tying the final rawhide strip, she glanced up to see her friend watching her with a mischievous sparkle in her brilliant blue eyes. Immediately she became suspicious.
    “What?”
    “Nothing.”
    Narrowing her gaze, she slid the sai home and placed her booted feet upon the floor. “Since when do you lie to me?”
    “When do you lie to me?” Najja frowned confused by Jo’s question. “I have done no such thing.”
    Jo crossed her arms drawing the purple muslin tighter. “Then tell me,” she demanded with annoyingly smug satisfaction, “why I saw Colin sneak out of your room last night, looking all kinds of satisfied.”
    Drat.
    Colin woke up with his shaft as hard if not harder than it had been when he had finally made it into bed. He couldn’t get the memory of his kiss with Najja out of his mind. She’d tasted even better than he imagined she would. Her lips were soft and pliant beneath his and her response…
    He groaned in defeat, wrapping his hand around his engorged length. The intoxicating aroma that covered her skin. The fire in her response to him. Hell, he’d never been so close to responding to raw lust as he had at that very moment with Najja. How he’d managed to walk away and leave her alone there…well, it was anyone’s guess because he sure as hell didn’t know how it had been accomplished.
    Even now, alone in his huge bed, fingers tight around his cock, all he could call forth was Najja’s image. Pumping his fist up and down, he expelled an earthy lament and increased the speed of his strokes. To him it was Najja who gripped him so firmly. Najja whose hair trailed along his skin. Enticing him. Tantalizing him. Arousing him to the point of…
    It rose from the soles of his feet to engulf him in a wave of mind numbing pleasure. He shuddered from the force of his release and melted back against the mattress, limbs weak and shaking, body dotted with beads of sweat. Still, he craved the real woman, not his mental image of her.
    “Good morning, sir.”
    His gaze jerked to the open door and glared at his valet. How long had the man been there? Had he seen him…
    “What Berry?” he snapped embarrassed. “How long have you been there?”
    Blue eyes barely blinked. “Just arrived. Did you ring for me?”
    It amazed him how easily Berry had gone from being a medic in the Navy to his valet. There were times things were as they had been but there were times, like now, when he would have never known this