Free Sparring Partners by Leigh Morgan Page B

as his grip
eased allowing her to move a little more freely. "You were putting
grass stains on your clothing that you'll never get out."
    "Grass stains? You're worried about grass
stains? You ought to be worried about your blood staining my
clothes when I get free."
    He smiled at her again and gently brushed
the hair that had fallen across her eyes and mouth away from her
face. "I applaud your effort and look forward to the
challenge."
    She wished he'd stop touching her so gently.
She didn't like forceful men with gentle smiles and kind,
indescribable eyes.
    "Stone."
    "What?"
    "Your eyes. They're the color of stone after
the rain."
    "Thanks." He said.
    "It wasn't a compliment." But it had been.
Henry's eyes were lovely and they seemed to change the more she
studied them.
    "It wasn't?" He asked, eyes twinkling with
the knowledge that she was lying. He could see right through her
and that was a bigger sin than knocking her off her feet. Pleasure
shot through her when he laughed and gently ran the back of his
hand across her cheek again. She closed her eyes to block out the
effect his smile and those luminous eyes were having on her senses
so she could mentally squash every pleasure impulse she was feeling
and get on with a plan to turn him into a quivering mass of tissue
and bone.
    That was a mistake. Without his eyes to
distract her, Finn could feel every inch of him. The inches were
burning their way through the fabric covering her inner thigh were
growing as they throbbed against her. His lips at her ear and the
soft caress of his hair on her cheek effectively stopped all her
mental pleasure squashing. She was a woman unashamed of her healthy
appetite for sex. The fact that she wanted to writhe against him,
not push away, was beginning to over-ride her irritation with him
and her preference for artists with soft hands.
    He was so close she could smell his breath
as he whispered in her ear. Strawberry licorice and black tea,
not an unpleasant mix .
    "I should have smelled you coming." He said,
inhaling the scent of her homemade shampoo. "You smell like
cinnamon and nutmeg. Do you taste as good as you smell,
sweetheart?"
    His tongue flicked out, tracing the shell of
her ear. Finn couldn't control the shiver running through her or
the small groan that escaped her when he pulled her earlobe into
his mouth.
    He pushed away from her suddenly and she
felt the loss. Finn's eyes snapped open in time to see him lifting
his head like a hound scenting the air. "Damn. He's early."
    The apologetic look on his face had her
puzzled for a second, then she was on her feet and he was
straightening her shirt and pulling grass out of her hair, gently,
like a lover. Finn batted his hands away, which was easier to do on
her feet. He sighed heavily but didn't try to touch her again. His
hands fell to his sides as she glared at him and finished
straightened her own clothes.
    "Come on." He said holding out his hand.
"We'd better get over there before all hell breaks loose."
    Finn didn't know what he was talking about,
and then she heard them. Moving vans, contractor's vehicles and a
food service truck passed by them on their way to Potters
Woods.
    "What is going on?" Finn asked. He seemed to
know what was happening at her house and she didn't. If Finn didn't
have a reason to bloody him before, she sure did now. He seemed to
be part of a home invasion.
    He grabbed her upper arms and held her.
"This conversation is not over. When you calm down I'll be here to
answer your questions. Just don't come at me with a bat again or
we'll wind up in the same spot and no amount of traffic will get me
off you."
    Finn didn't want to test that threat just
yet. She didn't want him to think he rattled her either.
    "I am calm."
    He took her hand and pulled her toward the
big yellow house she shared with Reed, Charlie, Jesse and the never
ending series of animals who showed up at their door.
    "Trust me, you won't be for long."
    He was right.
     
     

CHAPTER