Free Dark Knight: A Loveswept Romance Classic by Donna Kauffman Page B

compromise.”
    “If it makes you feel better, sure. It’s a compromise.”
    “So, let me up and I’ll get the keys.”
    Understanding dawned immediately on his face. He flashed a grin that was downright wicked. Her pulse rate responded accordingly.
    “Ah, princess, you overestimate yourself. And you underestimate me.”
    “Believe what you want,” she said blithely, hiding her concern. What in the devil could he have planned? “But if you want those chains off, you’re going to have to let me go.”
    “Not necessarily.”
    Now it was her turn to be wary. Just who had laid the trap for whom? “What does that mean?”
    “Well, as I see it, we have two options.”
    “Two?”
    “Yep. One, we can crawl to wherever you stashed those keys together.”
    “Crawling might be a bit tricky with those chains. Of course, with your Magic Mel abilities, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. But you’ll still have to let me go to take them off.”
    “Who said
I
was going to unlock them?”
    A good point. “What’s the other option?”
    He bent his head. What little breath she had caught in her throat. He didn’t speak right away, letting themoment spin out as the tension—much of it frustratingly sexual—all but crackled between them, until she was convinced he could monitor her pulse rate and was waiting until it redlined.
    “Option two,” he murmured in her ear, “is that I make you tell me where they are.”
    “M-make me?” She damned herself for the edge her little stutter gave him. A man like him could turn an edge into a teetering cliff if she wasn’t careful.
    His lips brushed her neck. She gasped softly. “There are all kinds of … coercion.” His voice was dark and silky smooth. Her body tightened. “Pleasure can be far more constructive than pain. Temptation instead of force. In fact,” he added, teasing the shell of her ear, “I’m sort of hoping you hold out for a while.”
    “You sound quite sure of yourself.” She, on the other hand, sounded quite shaky. Dammit, this was just what he wanted.
It’s what
you
want
, her little voice whispered.
    He grazed his lips along the column of her neck. “Fairly confident.”
    She shuddered, the sensation entirely pleasurable.
Stop him
, she commanded herself. Her body had already mutinied. But winning usually meant using brains over brawn.
    Scottie shored up her resolve and turned her head toward him, bringing them nose-to-nose, almost mouth-to-mouth. “This plan could backfire on you.”
    “Willing to fight fire with fire, are you?”
    His eyes were incredibly deep and dark. As close as she was, she couldn’t distinguish between pupil and iris. They should have been cold, emotionless. They were anything but. They absorbed light, locked in heat. Inscrutableyet seductive, they mesmerized. She felt herself being pulled in, wondering what was behind those eyes of his. Dark secrets? Darker pleasures? Both?
    “A worthy adversary you’ll be, Scottie,” he said, allowing a soft burr to color his words. He held her gaze. There was no mocking light there now. What she saw was challenge. Who would be the first to make a move? And would they move away … or closer?
    Insanity. This was insanity. Even as she acknowledged the folly of the battle she’d somehow fallen into, she deliberately answered the challenge by letting her eyelids drift half shut and parting her lips slightly. Perhaps it was cowardly, wanting him to be the one to decide, especially when she knew what that decision was likely to be.
    But her heart was pounding, her skin was alive with a thousand skittering sensations, all pooling inside her, creating an aching hunger, demanding to be fed. He’d chosen his weapon well. Temptation. He was the only man who’d ever been able to wield that weapon over her. She wondered if perhaps this particular duel had been lost before it had even begun.
    His lips quirked as his gaze drifted lazily to her mouth. “You fight dirty.”
    Her mouth