A Persistant Attraction by Silvia Violet Read Free Book Online Page A

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Chapter Four
    After a long, cold bath, Rhys went to bed achingly sober. The icy water had done little to cool the ardor Amanda had stirred, but he was determined he wouldn’t turn back to the bottle. He’d sent the men who’d accompanied him to watch her house. He would do what was required to keep her safe, but in order to watch her and play Farrington’s games, he needed all his faculties functioning.
    He knew what measures to take to protect Amanda, but what the hell was he going to do about what had happened outside her house? He couldn’t tell her he’d been the one to rescue her, and yet how could he not? She was too intelligent not to eventually put two and two together. When she did, he could expect nothing short of fireworks. In fact, he was shocked she hadn’t identified him when they kissed. Perhaps she’d simply not studied his body as thoroughly as he’d studied hers.
    How could he have known she would respond so ardently? She’d been an active party in the kiss they’d shared at Mark’s wedding, but she responded to it like an innocent young woman whose passion had hardly awakened. Her response last night had been more like that of a courtesan, one men would go into debt to spend a single night with.
    He did not doubt her innocence, but her reaction—God, the way she’d rubbed her body against his at just the right angle to make him throb painfully—had taken his breath.
    If that was her instinctive response to a “real” kiss, what would she be like after a few nights in his bed?
    He dropped his head into his hands. Now he needed another cold bath. In fact, a dunk into a frozen lake would be best.
    He had to find a way to get some sleep and then…what? The right thing was to attempt once again to call on her, apologize for his previous behavior. But he couldn’t

    very well apologize and then confess to being her rescuer, not after the liberties he’d taken. It would make his apology seem hollow at best. Perhaps he shouldn’t see her at all.
    “Coward,” he said with disgust.
    So he was a stinking coward. At least if he didn’t see her, he wouldn’t kiss her again.
    Besides, he needed more time to investigate the men who’d attacked her. The two who hadn’t run had died before he could question them, but he’d sent his accomplices to track down the others.
    One advantage of having worked for Farrington was a solid network of contacts that could be of great assistance to him now. If he used his experience at the agency to save Amanda, maybe some of the past years’ pain would be redeemed.

    *

    Warm hands slid along her shoulders, slipping under the silk of her nightgown and parting it easily. She gasped and opened her eyes, expecting to see the mysterious man who’d rescued her. Instead, Rhys’s intense blue eyes stared back at her. For some reason, she wasn’t surprised. Of their own accord, her hands reached up to twine in his coal-black curls. Her lips parted as his mouth descended toward them.
    The slick warmth of his tongue caressed the roof of her mouth. She realized that his full length was stretched across hers, bearing her down into the mattress. She should push him away and stop this madness, but she couldn’t. Her mind felt hazy, clouded by sleep and the need for something she couldn’t quite describe.
    Instead of trying to escape, she arched against him, moaning as his mouth moved to torment the skin of her throat. His teeth sank into her, nipping hard enough to cause slight pain before his tongue soothed her.
    Her hands slid from his hair to move across his back. She could have sworn a shirt had covered the hard muscles there just moments ago. Now his skin was naked to her touch.
    His hands cupped her breasts. When he pinched one of her nipples between his thumb and forefinger, she arched off the bed, stifling a scream. Never had she felt such

    intense sensation, but the feeling was immediately surpassed when he took her other nipple between his lips and