Free Cinderella's Big Sky Groom by Christine Rimmer Page B

tented the fabric of his slacks—and she knew her biology, even lacking as she was in firsthand experience. She could see very clearly that her proposal had interested him.
    He let out another low sound, this one more like a groan than anything else, and he muttered, “I should have had sense enough to keep my damn jacket on.”
    She looked into his face again—and her cool pose fell away. “I mean this,” she said honestly. “I do want this. So much. And I give you my word, I won’t ask you for anything more. After tonight, if we meet on the street, I promise to smile politely, say hello…and walk on by.”
    His eyes bored into her. “Walk on by?”
    â€œYes. Do you believe me?”
    â€œHell.” It was all Ross could think of to say. He did believe her. And he should have been content. It was only everything he wanted, wasn’t it? One night with her—and nothing more? Their little secret that neither would ever be so foolish as to share with anyone else.
    She said very seriously, “I hope you believe me. Because I’m telling the truth.”
    A silence fell. A weighty one. She looked at him and he looked at her. The air seemed almost too thick for breathing.
    Finally she asked in a thready voice, “Is this the part where I have to start begging?”
    There was less than a foot between their bodies. He eliminated that distance, reaching for her as she reached for him.
    He pulled her close, muttered into her hair, “Are you sure?”
    She nodded against his shoulder, all doubts banished by the mere feel of his body pressed to hers, by the way his arms held her, contradicting utterly what he’d told her he wanted—one night and no more. Those arms really felt as if they’d never let her go.
    â€œI’m sure,” she whispered, not letting herself think of the lies she would have to tell, or of who she was: Jewel Hollis Taylor’s dependable stepdaughter who would never, ever do such a shocking, wild thing.
    Tonight. For this one night. She was someone else. Tonight, dependable Lynn Taylor didn’t exist.
    Tonight she was Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty. Ugly duckling turned swan.
    And more.
    Tonight she was…the lady in red.
    She was the woman she’d seen in the mirror at the Whitehorn Salon. The woman who took her chances when they came along. The woman who dared to livedangerously. The woman who boldly said what she wanted and then went after it.
    Tonight, just for this one night, a fairy-tale princess had nothing on her.

Chapter Six
    H e kissed her, right there in the front hall, pressing her up against the closet door. At first tenderly, gently, as if he feared hurting her.
    And then she felt his tongue, questing for entry, at the seam of her closed lips. Slowly, only a little reluctantly, she opened for him. His tongue slipped inside.
    Oh, my!
    She could hardly believe it. A man’s tongue, Ross Garrison’s tongue, was inside her mouth.
    And she…why, she liked it. It felt…slick and rough at the same time. And it was stroking her, caressing her, tasting faintly of brandy, of coffee and chocolate….
    She opened her mouth a little more. And she moaned.
    An answering sound, very male and very hungry,came from deep in his chest. She could feel that sound. It made her shiver, made her breasts ache with a pleasant heaviness as it rumbled right through them, seeming to find its way straight to her heart.
    His hand was sliding down to the small of her back, tucking her tightly into him. He…he was rubbing himself against her. Down there, she felt so warm. Like something solid held to flame and turning slowly liquid.
    Omigoodness. Nothing in her life had ever felt quite like this. She’d read more than a few lush and lovely romances, curled up in her easy chair with a nice cup of tea. And sometimes, in the juicy parts, she’d let herself imagine that those passionate love scenes were