Hot Touch by Deborah Smith Read Free Book Online

life. You don’t have to worry about me.”
    He made a derisive sound. She grabbed his face between her hands and pulled him to her. Caroline bit his lower lip and heard his muffled yelp of astonishment.
    He anchored one hand on her jaw and held her still while he jerked his mouth away from her attack. His chest moving swiftly, he stared down at her through hooded eyes. “Play with fire,
chérie,
” he said in a husky voice, “and you’ll get burned.”
    She gasped as his arm snaked around her and pulled her forward and up so that she was standing on tiptoe, her torso mashed intimately against his. With only her blue maillot and his thin tank top between them, she felt as though her soft breasts were in direct contact with his hard-packed chest.
    Caroline slid her fingers up his neck and wound them into his hair. “I’ll pull out so much hair that you’ll need a transplant.”
    His eyes glittered fiercely. “Are you pushing me away or pulling me closer?”
    Caroline made a garbled sound of frustration. She wasn’t certain at the moment.
    He angled one of his legs between hers with a suddenness that caught her off guard. It destroyed her balance so that one foot dangled above the ground. Shejerked on his hair reproachfully and tried not to wiggle atop his thigh.
    “Is this how you want to become friends?” she asked tersely. “Friends don’t humiliate each other.”
    “If we were friends you wouldn’t try to scare the hell out of me,” he retorted. “You wouldn’t put yourself in a stupid situation where you could get hurt.”
    Caroline felt a pang of guilt. There was no way he could have thought anything but the worst of her, under the circumstances. He was frightened for her sake. He cared.
    She was suddenly in serious danger of smiling widely, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug, and thereby confirming his suspicion that she was nuts.
    “I did a stupid thing. I’m honestly sorry,” she blurted out.
    He was so astonished by her apology that he just stared at her. “You’re driving me crazy,” he finally managed to say.
    “Good. Now let me go. I’d rather not spend the entire morning straddling your leg.”
    At that his eyes became devilish and his smooth Cajun patois deepened, making him sound wicked and exotic. “Your body, she knows how to start a friendship better than you do, yes? Why are you squeezing me with your thighs?”
    “I’m trying not to fall over!”
    His voice dropped lower. “Oh, I won’t let that happen, not before I do this.”
    He dipped his head, his eyes open and burning into hers as he started to kiss her. She was breathing so hard that she swayed in his powerful embrace. But she didn’t push him away.
    His mouth came down on hers, rough and hot. She moaned against the delicious assault and returned it.
    The furry thing that shoved against their legs wasn’t the least bit shy about intruding.
    “What the … well,
bonjour
!” Paul exclaimed.
    He drew back, frowning. Dazed, Caroline stared at him, her mouth open, her body still intimately astride his leg. Finally she followed his gaze downward. His arm loosened reluctantly. She hopped back, grasping the fence for support.
    “You interrupted me,” he told the newcomer, shaking his head in rebuke.
    “You saved me,” Caroline added drolly.
    Slowly she sank to her heels. She stared into steel-gray eyes and temporarily forgot what had just happened between her and Paul. Caroline knew that she’d never met an animal as noble as the one who stared back at her now. “Hello, Wolf,” she said politely.
    Wolf tilted his head to one side, listening to the psychic greeting she conveyed also. He looked from her to Paul and back again. Then he plopped a paw on her shoulder and yipped softly, displaying the Labrador retriever hidden under his wild exterior.
    “Well, I’ll be damned,” Paul muttered.
    “Probably,” Caroline assured him, but without true malice. She was caught up in Wolfs thoughts. The rush of