Heart of Ice by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

did, but obviously she couldn’t count on her best friend tonight.
    She felt the impact of his rough, warm hands—with a sense of fatalism. Her body jerked under the sensation as he deliberately began to slide the fabric away from her shoulders and down.
    “Isn’t this how you had it?” he breathed, bending. His chest rose and fell roughly, and she drowned in the warmth of his body.
    “Egan…” she began.
    “Don’t talk. Stand still.” His mouth smoothed over her shoulder, leaving a fiery wake. His fingers held her upper arms, digging in as his teeth nipped slowly, tenderly at the silken flesh.
    “Don’t,” she moaned, eyes closed, throat arching as if it invited him—begged him—to do what he pleased.
    “You want it,” he whispered huskily. “So do I. Desperately…!” She felt his tongue and the edge of his teeth as he moved over the warm expanse of her shoulders and her collarbone in a silence blazing with promise.
    His breath sounded oddly jerky as he drew her body against him. “You taste like the sweetest kind of candy,” he said under his breath, and his fingers were hurting, but she was too shaken to care. “Baby,” he whispered, his mouth growing urgent now as it found her throat, the underside of her chin. His hands moved up to catch in her hair, careless of its neat bun, as he bent her head back and lifted it toward his hard, parted lips. “Baby, you make me ache…!”
    His mouth was poised just above hers, and at thatmoment she’d have given him that and anything else he wanted. But before he could lower his head, the sound of a door being opened shattered the hot silence.
    “Oh, damn,” Egan ground out. His fingers bruised her, and his eyes were blazing as he pushed her away and turned as if he were blinded by his own passion—a frustrated passion like that which was making her tremble.
    “Marshal’s sick of the sea, but they won’t let him come home,” Ada sighed, oblivious to the wild undercurrents around her. “Why couldn’t I find myself a man instead of a sailor? Hi, Kati. Have a good time?”
    “Sure,” Kati said, smiling through a haze of unsatisfied longing. She glanced toward Egan and saw his eyes, and she flushed wildly. Her eyes went to his mouth and back up; and he muttered something terrible under his breath and slammed into his room without even the pretense of courtesy.
    “What’s the matter with him?” Ada asked softly.
    “Beats me,” her friend replied blandly. “Gosh, I’m tired. We went dancing and my feet are killing me!”
    “Well, I hope you don’t wear them out before Friday night,” Ada laughed. “Sleep well.”
    “I’ll do my best,” came the muttered reply, and she went into her room and almost collapsed. He hadn’t even kissed her, and she was trembling like a leaf.Heaven only knew what would happen if he ever really made a heavy pass. She couldn’t bear to think about it! She went to bed and lay awake half the night brooding, only to wake with a splitting headache the next morning.
    Egan brooded all day. He moved restlessly around the apartment, like a man aching for the outdoors. Even Kati felt vaguely sorry for him.
    “You’ll wear ruts in the carpet,” she murmured after lunch, while Ada was taking her turn at the dishes.
    He turned with his hands rammed deep in his pockets and stared at her. “If I do, I’ll buy you a new one.”
    “That wasn’t what I meant,” she said, trying hard to hold on to her temper. She searched his hard face, but she couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “You hate being indoors, don’t you?”
    “With a passion,” he agreed shortly. “I couldn’t live like this.”
    “New York is full of things to see,” she suggested. “There’s Central Park, and the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building—”
    “I’ve already seen them once,” he said. “And I’ve walked the streets. What I want, I’m not going to find out there.”
    She lifted her eyes and had them trapped.
    He moved closer