Free The Dark Side of Desire by Julia James Page A

fingers at her nape strengthened. She felt with a susurration of shock that his other hand was shaping her breast, splaying across it, and it was ripening to his touch, her nipple cresting against his palm. It was the most incredible feeling she had ever felt. Her mouth was opening to his, and all she wanted in all the world was to have him kissher, to arch her body towards him and feel it fire with a pleasure so intense she gave a low, insensible moan in her throat.
    ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment since the first I set eyes on you …’
    His voice was low against her mouth. Husky, but with an intensity about it that penetrated through all the layers of her defences just as his touch, his possessing kiss, had penetrated.
    For a long, endless moment his eyes entwined with hers, and she was helpless, utterly helpless, to do anything but let her gaze sink into his, let the slow, heavy slug of her heart resonate with his. His eyes held hers, his mouth grazed hers, his palm cupped her breast …
    ‘Come back with me now—tonight—stay with me.’
    The low husk of sensual desire was still in his voice, but there was another note, too …
    Confidence. Assurance.
    Assumption
.
    And suddenly her body was no longer boneless, pliant in his clasp. She pulled back, pulled away. He reached for her again, as if to reclaim her, but Flavia stiffened. In an instant she was the way she had been all evening.
    And in the next instant she had reached for the door handle, acting instinctively, urgently. She had to get out!
Now!
    ‘Flavia!’
    She heard her name, but she was gone. Pushing open the car door, standing momentarily on the road, then in the next instant registering that the vehicle in the lane beside her was a taxi with its ‘For Hire’ light showing. She yanked open the passenger door and tumbled inside just as the driver, taken by surprise, started forward when the lights changed to green.
    ‘Regent’s Park!’ she bit out urgently, and collapsed back into the seat. Her heart was pounding, her head muzzy with shock. She closed her eyes.
    Dear God, what had she let happen? How
—how
had she let it happen? How had Leon Maranz gone from ignoring her and making phone calls to making love to her …?
    Kissing me like that—caressing me like that!
    She glanced down at her torso. Mortification swept over her—her nipples were still crested, aroused. Compelling, undeniable witness to just what she had done—what she had let him do …
    Her body seemed to be fizzing as if champagne were bubbling through it, as if it was still resonating from his kiss, his caress. It seared through her brain so she could still feel the impact of his touch.
    I got out just in time—just in time!
    It was a mantra that replayed itself for the rest of the night and was still there in the morning. Desperately she tried to find a reason for why Leon Maranz had been able to so precipitately sweep aside her defences the way he had—overwhelm her guard as effortlessly as if she had never raised it in the first place.
    He took me by surprise. I didn’t stand a chance!
    Yes, that was it—that was how it had happened! She’d been holding him at bay all evening—holding down her hopeless reaction to him, her disastrous attraction to him—and it had been so hard to do, so hard to keep fighting it the whole time, with him doing his best to get past her guard, to thaw her frigid defences against him. And then out of nowhere, just as she’d thought him finally distracted by his business calls, she’d stupidly let herself gaze at him, and then he’d sensed her momentary lapse, realised her weakness … and made his move.
    Swiftly, expertly, overwhelmingly …
    Sweeping away all her resistance. Overpowering her defences as if they were made of cotton wool.
    Hot, sensuous memory flooded through her synapses like a warm, seductive wave of sensation, as she replayed those moments in his arms, his mouth exploring hers, his palm shaping her breast