Free The Pleasure Master by Nina Bangs Page B

wiggling flower as he added wood to the fire. His brothers. He must pay them in kind for their challenge. He would find women for them who truly couldn’t be seduced, at least by men who knew so little about a woman’s pleasure.
    He paced away from the fire, then back.
    â€œI loooove you.”
    But he couldn’t concentrate on his brothers tonight, could only think of the woman who lay so close, could only imagine her heat surrounding him, welcoming him. He continued to pace.
    â€œI loooove you.”
    He pictured the moment she would look into his eyes and
know,
what he truly was, what they would share. His step quickened at the thought.
    â€œI loooove you.”
    Clenching his fists, he swung to face the wee yellow demon. “God’s teeth, will ye cease yer blathering about love!”
    And surprisingly, the flower was quiet.
    Breathing deeply, he turned to see if the woman had noticed his loss of control, but her loose-limbed stillness told him that she slept.
    Exhaling sharply, he crouched and stared into the heart of the flame. “I give ye tonight, Kathy of Hair. Rest well. For not even a score of strange minions will save ye from me.”
    â€œI loooove you.”

Chapter Five
    The sounds woke Kathy. From the muted clicks and scrapes, she guessed maintenance workers must be in her apartment hallway. They could at least wait until nine o’clock. And she must be getting the mother of all colds because it felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest. No wonder, after standing in the sleet last night waiting for . . .
    The elephant purred.
    She opened her eyes to meet Malin’s unblinking yellow stare, and the horror of yesterday came pouring back. She groaned.
    â€œYe dinna sound well, lass. Do ye have a pain?”
    â€œIt’s lying on me.” She turned her head enough to see Ian seated on a rug with pieces of something scattered around him.
    The sheer power she felt when she looked at himagain forced her to draw a deep breath. Malin growled at the sudden rise of her chest.
    Ian’s hair, a dark tangle of temptation, framed his face as he leaned over his work.
His hair.
Before she went back to New York, and she would go back, she had to run her fingers through those strands.
    She’d start with a shampoo, some conditioner, then snip off a few ends. . . .
    Kathy turned on her side, and Malin plopped off her stomach onto the fur. He ratcheted his growl up a notch. “Sorry, Your Nastiness.” She braved Malin’s wrath by offering him a brief head scratch, and his growl subsided to a grumbling complaint.
    â€œMalin has decided he likes ye.”
    â€œCould’ve fooled me.” And after she memorized the texture of Ian’s hair, she’d go home, because she had too many things to do.
    â€œâ€™Tis a great honor. Ye dinna want to be one whom Malin doesna like.”
    â€œBad things happen?”
    â€œAye.”
    Forget Malin. Kathy had some major issues to address. She could deal with the toilet situation, but there was something even more important. “Coffee? Tell me you have coffee in 1542.”
    â€œCoffee?”
    No. She couldn’t function as a rational human being without her two cups of coffee. Only one thing could help her cope with a world sans coffee. “Okay, I’ll settle for a piece of chocolate.”
    â€œWhat is chocolate?”
    Kathy stared at him. Impossible. She knew her history. When old Noah had loaded his ark, he’d taken two of every animal and a bag of Hershey Kisses. How to explain the wonder of chocolate to one who’d never tasted it? “Chocolate is . . . smooth, rich, and sweet. It makes a bad day good, and a rotten date okay. It’s . . . chocolate.”
    â€œThis chocolate sounds wondrous, but I havena any to give ye.”
    No coffee? No chocolate? She couldn’t stay here.
    â€œWhat’re you doing?” Okay, she’d keep a positive attitude today. This