Free The Thawing of Mara by Janet Dailey Page B

groceries can wait until later."
    Resentment smoldered that he should suddenly begin using her given name and pretend a solicitous concern for her well-being. She flashed him an icy look as he filled the first cup with hot coffee.
    "I have no desire to have coffee with you!" The sharpness of her retort flung his invitation back in his face.
    The pot was set back on the counter as a heavy silence filled the air, charging the atmosphere. His steady blue gaze was on her, piercing the cool.
    "Is it that you have no desire to have coffee with me…or simply that you have no desire?" His question was a low, accusing challenge.
    Mara hesitated only an instant before answering coldly, "Both." She continued unpacking the bag her movements as brisk and rapid as she could make them without throwing things around.
    "You shouldn't say things like that." Sin's voice changed subtly, an undefinable quality entering its low pitch. "It challenges a man to prove you're a liar."
    "Which says something about the arrogance of men, doesn't it?" Mara countered with contempt.
    "Or the trait of a woman to be provocative," he suggested smoothly.
    "I wasn't lying when I said that." A loaf of bread was in her hand, and she paused before putting it away to turn and confront him. "And I wasn't trying to be provocative."
    "Weren't you?" Sin was closer to her than she had realized. She started to take a breath to make a scathing reply to his taunt when his hand touched her neck.
    His fingers began tracing the base of her throat, exploring its hollow, and all her muscles constricted. Mara could neither breathe in nor breathe out. Her heartbeat was erratic, speeding up, then slowing down as his fingertips lingered or moved over her sensitive skin. Her gaze was locked with his and she had the sensation of being drawn into the murky blue depths of his eyes.
    "I'll bet ice cream doesn't melt in your mouth," Sin declared in a soft, taunting voice that somehow managed to caress.
    The straight line of his mouth never varied. There wasn't a hint of a curve nor a smile. He seemed oddly detached, as if conducting some simple exercise that didn't require his concentration. His fingers began outlining the neckline of her madras blouse. At the point, they partially entered the shadowed valley of her breasts before encountering a button. Then they started their upward slant to the base of her throat.
    "It doesn't melt." Her voice was choked to a husky level by the confusion of her senses. "I have to chew it up like food."
    A crazy wild shaking started in her knees. No matter how she tried, she couldn't make it stop. Not as long as he was touching her, she realized. Initially she had submitted to the caress of his fingers to prove it didn't affect her. Now that she knew better, she had to bring this sudden intimacy to a close.
    Fighting the threatening sensation of weakness, Mara reached up and pushed his hand from her neck. Immediately she took a step away and turned her back to him. The grip of her fingers had made indentations in the fresh loaf of bread she held.
    "What's the matter?" Sin asked in a voice that said he knew.
    "Nothing's the matter." Mara opened a cupboard door to put the bread away. She seemed to lack coordination. Her movements were jerky and out of time. "I'm simply not interested in sex for the sake of sex."
    "Oh?" There was a curious, lazy lilt to the sound, a laid-back sort of quality. "When are you interested in sex?"
    Instead of attacking him, her remark had tripped herself. It was a question she couldn't answer and she knew she didn't dare try.
    "You've had too many celibate weekends recently," she told him. "Call Celene and have her visit you; then your ego can get fed on all her 'Sin, darlings.'"
    He tipped back his head, amused laughter rolling from his throat at her sniping words. "That becomes old quickly, but I never find things growing dull with you. Each time I think l have you trapped in a corner, you come charging at me from another