Assassin's Kiss by Kate Monroe Read Free Book Online Page A

more!”
    Esther did not answer him with words. She simply turned her back on him, and then to his stunned elation seated herself in the waiting chair.
     

CHAPTER 5
     
     
    Esther’s breath came in shallow gasps even before the assassin came to stand behind her, his low groan of approval speaking volumes as his hands snaked around to cup her breasts from behind. It was no use. However hard she fought, this had been inevitable since she first saw him. She could tell herself that her only hope of leaving here was to give him what he wanted – but in truth, she wanted just this as badly as he did.
    She threw her head back as his hands roamed all over her breasts, stroking and coaxing her painfully heightened arousal to a dizzying peak. A throaty moan rose from the back of her throat, and he lowered his head towards hers as he captured each nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
    Esther stared down at the deeply erotic sight of him touching her so intimately, powerless to resist the compulsion to arch into his hands when his mouth grazed her throat before drifting higher towards her ear, pushing her sleep-tousled hair aside to speak to her. “I mean it,” he said hoarsely. “I fully intend to tie you to this chair and have my way with you, Esther.”
    This was her last chance to turn back, to tell him to stop – but she had never needed anyone more than she needed him now. “Then why have you not yet done so, sir?”
    But instead of following through upon his tantalising threat, to her searing frustration the assassin pulled back to slowly circle around the chair and come to face her once more. “You are an enigma, sweetheart,” he said slowly. “But I see it now, I think.”
    Her skin was on fire everywhere he had touched it. Barely able to even think clearly now with her mingled frustration and arousal raging through her veins, she yearned to reach out and pull him back towards her, but she still did not dare – and it seemed he finally understood.
    Leaning in closer, he touched her face with the back of his hand and let his thumb brush across the bow of her lips, holding her gaze all the while as her lips instinctively parted beneath his touch. With no more than a ghost of a smile, he knelt down before her so she had no choice but to look directly into his eyes. “Esther?” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.
    Esther could not even speak to answer him, but they did not need words. Aflame with anticipation, she let her head roll to the side as the assassin quietly spoke again.
     “Esther, I see now that you both want and need me to order you into my arms. If I do, you can pretend to yourself you did not want this anywhere near as much as I know you do. Tell me, am I right?”
    He was, unerringly so. Though it should have terrified her to realise how transparent her innermost thoughts were to him when her life rested upon the web of secrecy she had built up over the years, she let him take the kiss she offered up in lieu of a spoken answer. He cupped her face between his hands as their lips met, this kiss the polar opposite of the frenzied one he had stolen from her just a few minutes before. This time he seemed content to let the kiss develop slowly, tenderly coaxing the truth from her lips as they moulded to his every command. Her eyes drifted closed and she let the moment surround her, driving away anything that was not him. The assassin and his kiss were all she knew, and when he gently pulled away again she did not even try to conceal the lust that drove her so fiercely and inescapably into his arms.
    He gazed at her for a few moments longer before he slowly nodded his head, a slow-burning smile pulling back the corners of his lips as he toyed with a lock of her hair. “I shall take that as a yes, sweetheart. So, shall I tell you what else I have realised about you?”
    Her answer was written all over her face.
    His smile widened. “You belong to me, sweetheart.”
    Esther swallowed hard,