Lover in the Rough by Elizabeth Lowell Read Free Book Online

wondering why you’re so attractive to me,” she said simply.
    His thick moustache shifted and gleamed in the office light as he smiled. “And you to me, chaton .”
    She stared into the green-silver depths of his eyes, then his black lashes swept down. He took her lips with a devastating blend of hunger and gentleness. She felt the comb holding her coiled hair loosen and slide away, giving his fingers free access to the silky warmth of her unbound hair. The tip of his tongue traced her mouth, teasing her until she sighed and opened her lips.
    He buried his fingers in her hair, his hands gentle but so strong that she could not turn her head aside. Half in protest, half in response, she put her hands on his upper arms. Hard, powerful, as inflexible as stone beneath her hands, his arms told her much about the hunger and strength and restraint of the man holding her. He could have crushed the breath out of her, forcing from her the kiss he so plainly wanted.
    But he didn’t. He held her as though she were infinitely fragile. He coaxed rather than demanded that she share his pleasure in being close to her. She had never been held like that, with absolute strength and safety.
    When she felt the velvet roughness of his tongue against her own, her hands tightened on his arms. Tentatively, then with greater assurance, she responded, touching the smoothness of his lips, the serrations of his teeth, the sweet warmth of his tongue, all the fascinating textures of his kiss. She felt his body shift and tighten as one hand clenched in her hair and the other moved down her back beneath the heavy silk of her hair, molding her body against his for a long moment.
    With tangible reluctance, Chance lifted his head. His arms shifted, cradling rather than caging.
    “I’m too hungry to be teased,” he said in a husky voice.
    “I wasn’t—” she began breathlessly.
    “I know. But I was. I thought I’d kiss you once, just to see if it was as good as I remembered.” His eyes followed the soft line of her lips. “It was better. So much better that I want more.” He bent swiftly, taking her mouth in a fierce, penetrating kiss that made her cling to him for balance. “And then I want much more. I want to take off your clothes and shred them into pieces so small they would never be able to cover you again. I want to kiss you and feel you change beneath my mouth until you can’t breathe for needing me. And then I want to cover you, all of you, with your hair like hot silk between my fingers.”
    Reba closed her eyes and trembled as a strange weakness claimed her, his words like fire inside her. She looked up at him with dazed cinnamon eyes, unsure of herself, almost afraid of him. “Chance—”
    He kissed her gently, soothing rather than overwhelming her. “But I’ve shocked you and Tim enough for one day,” he said, smiling down at her crookedly.
    The world returned to Reba in a rush. She realized that she had been standing in her office with the door wide open, passionately kissing a man she barely knew. Scarlet stained her cheekbones.
    “The door,” she said, trying to step away from Chance.
    “Tim closed it,” said Chance, tightening his arms, holding her close. “A discreet young man, your Tim.”
    “Not mine. Gina’s.”
    “A good thing, too,” said Chance, biting her lower lip in a slow, gentle caress that made her weak all over again. “I’d hate to have to take such a nice young man out in the desert and lose him.”
    Chance was smiling but his eyes were cold silver.
    “Tim’s like the brother I never had,” said Reba, holding onto Chance’s hard upper arms, wanting him to understand. “That’s all he is.” Then she heard her own words and was divided between confusion and irritation. Why should she have to explain her friendships to Chance Walker? No matter how intense the feelings he evoked in her, she had known him only a short time. “Not,” she added evenly, “that how I feel about Tim is any