Heat Wave by Sara Orwig Read Free Book Online Page B

logic.
    While one strong arm held her about the waist, the fingertips of his other hand drifted across her neck, over her bare shoulder, down, down across the thin cotton covering her breast.
    She gasped and twisted. “Cole, leave me some peace! I don’t want this …”
    “You don’t want my mouth here?” His lips brushed the soft curve of her full breast. He held her still while his fingers trailed lower over her hip. Kiss for kiss, input matched output. She couldn’t stop. Throbbing sensation was sending the voltage to dangerous levels.
    His mouth, his hands, made her tingling body clamor for attention. Steadily, his wandering fingers and fiery kisses were overloading her system, obliterating every thought for survival. She had known from the start, from the first tempestuous kiss, that she was lost to him.
    It had been so long since she had been passionately loved. She was achingly vulnerable and she knew it, but the knowledge was useless. She felt ambushed, unable or unwilling to protest.
    He held her close, leaning over, bending her body under his. His long legs pressed against hers and she felt his maleness. One hand roamed up the curve of her spine, caressing, sliding down to the small of her back. His fingers moved slowly to the nape of her neck, massaging her lightly, starting a shower of fire.
    “Cole, I don’t know you. …” she agonized.
    “Hush, woman. This is magic, it’s fire meeting fire. We complete each other. …”
    Shifting her in his arms, he kissed her again. One of his hands brushed across her breast, caressing a taut peak. She arched her back instinctively at his touch and whimpered, the sound muffled by his mouth on hers.
    Cole, almost a stranger, became something else, someone needed, another part of herself. The breathtaking hunger he had awakened escalated to an urgency that made her writhe. His rough fingertips slipped beneath a thin strap, sliding it over her shoulder, pushing the green cotton down carefully, his gaze following the material.
    Closing her eyes, she tilted her head, her hair swinging lightly over her bare shoulders as his fingers slipped the other strap down with slow deliberation. The faintest rustle of material drifted over her trembling body as he pushed the sundress to her waist, baring her breasts to his appreciative gaze. His forefinger and thumb teased her hardened nipple, then his mouth sought her breast. His dark brown hair brushed against her, its softness tormenting while his tongue abolished her reluctance.
    The chemistry of attraction between them was volatile. Overpowered with desire, she felt weak in the knees. Never in her life had a man been able to arouse her so swiftly, so completely. He rained kisses over her tender, pale breasts, across her throat while his hands continued stroking her, caressing her back, the nape of her neck.
    All rational thought was gone. She was swept into a vortex of passion. Urgency racked her, intensifying to desperate longing. Her hips arched against him.
    “That’s it, Marilee,” Cole murmured. “Touch me, love me.”
    Sliding her hands over his strong back and powerful muscles, she traced his sharp shoulder blades, roving down to his narrow waist. “Cole …” she began.
    “Shh, honey. You’re a golden girl. You have a warm, golden body. With your beautiful red hair you’re like a goddess, a sorceress. So lovely, so desirable.”
    Each word was a stroke, smoothing away loneliness, erasing disappointment and fear, heightening an emotional need that was as strong as the physical. “Pure nonsense,” she managed to whisper, even as she clung to him. “You’re ridiculous. I’m a plain, ordinary schoolteacher.”
    He kissed her throat. “Something happens between us when we touch, you know that.” In the silvery moonlight his blue eyes held her spellbound while he whispered, “This is destiny. I’m never here at this time of year. How often have you crashed a balloon?”
    He didn’t wait for her to answer.