A Bad Enemy by Sara Craven Read Free Book Online

what you're doing down here?'
    'I—I couldn't sleep,' she said hurriedly. 'Worrying about Grandfather, I suppose.' She gestured towards the doorway behind her. 'I came down to get a book.'
    He looked past her into the shadowed room with its tier upon tier of booklined shelves, then back to her empty hands. He began to laugh.
    'But you couldn't find one. Or have you read them all before?'
    She glared at him. 'Only I decided I'd rather have some hot milk instead. I was just going to get it.'
    'Hot milk,' he said softly. 'How very girlish. May I recommend my own personal anodyne instead?'
    'Whisky, I suppose.' Lisle pulled a small, jeering face.
    'No,' he said. 'Not whisky.' And his eyes slid down her body from head to foot, assessing her in a slow deliberate sensual scrutiny, which left her oddly breathless and as vulnerable as if it had been his hands which had stripped her and left her naked beneath his hungry gaze.
    She said on a little gasp, 'You're disgusting!'
    'And you're a hypocrite,' he said derisively. 'You know what to expect when you flaunt yourself in front of a man with hardly a stitch on. And I'm not interested in your fables about books and hot milk either. There's a very good reason why we should both be roaming the house at two in the morning suffering from insomnia, and I'm sure I don't have to spell it out to you.'
    She swallowed. 'It isn't what you think…'
    'As I've already told you, I've stopped thinking.' Jake put the glass down on the huge carved chest which stood against the wall next to him. 'I suggest you do the same. Just let your feelings take over. We may not like each other, Lisle, but I'm ready to bet any money that we have a common meeting ground just the same.'
    He walked towards her, watching her, missing nothing, she thought desperately as she tried to steady her breathing, to control the hurry of her small breasts under the lace bodice of her nightdress.
    He touched her face, his thumb caressing the soft curve of her cheek, his fingers discovering the delicacy of her jawline.
    He said quietly, 'If it's any consolation, I never intended this to happen either.'
    He took her quite gently into his arms, not kissing her, just holding her against the hard, lean length of him, and deep within her a pang of desire began a crescendo into real pain.
    She was bewildered by it. It was too new to her experience, too sharp, and too urgent for her to know how to deal with it, although in some dim recess of her mind, something told her that she should pull away now while she still had some will to do so.
    She knew by the pressure of Jake's body against hers that he was deeply and hotly aroused, and in the past she had always found that faintly disturbing, even alarming. Evidence, she had thought, of passions and emotions which seemed to pass her by, and which she had no wish to share.
    Now, suddenly, it was exciting to know that she was wanted, and she evinced no kind of protest as his hands slid down her body to her slender hips, moulding her against him, because she knew that she wanted to be even closer still.
    His hands moved on her without haste, his fingers stroking her body through the thin nightdress, the silky material creating a sweet erotic friction against her skin.
    She was silent, eyes closed, within the circle of his arms, conscious only of this new sensual clamour in her blood, the uneven race of her pulse.
    A few hours before, the thought of his kiss had filled her with tension, but now, when his hand gently cupped her throat, tipping her head back slightly so that his mouth could find hers, she reached for him with blind eagerness, like a parched flower thirsting for rain. His lips were warm and incredibly sensuous, demanding and winning an equally passionate response from her. Her hands locked behind his dark head, she felt her, senses swim, her body melt in quivering eagerness.
    Still kissing her, Jake slid an arm beneath her knees, lifting her bodily off the floor, then carried her