More Than Friends (The Warriors) by Laura Taylor Read Free Book Online

saw in her eyes revealing the true depth of her vulnerability. "I really need to feel safe, Brett."
    He stood and circled the foot of the bed, his thoughts in disarray as he joined her. Despite his concern that he was tempting fate, he stretched out atop the bedspread, crammed a few pillows behind his back before settling against the headboard, and then drew Leah into his arms.
    When she turned into him and rested her head against his bare shoulder, his heart stuttered to a stop. It eventually began to beat again, but at a hectic pace when he felt her slender fingers sink into the thick mat of dark hair that covered his chest and belly. He responded instantly to her closeness and her touch, his nerve endings igniting, his muscles tensing beneath her fingertips, and his sex straining for release.
    "Are we lovers, Brett?"
    Shock pummeled his senses like a fighter gone mad in the ring.
    Shifting in his arms, she peered up at him. "Are we?"
    He exhaled shakily. "No, Leah."
We haven’t been for a long time, but it isn’t because I don’t want you every second of every day.
    "Were we lovers at some point in the past?"
    He nodded.
    She sighed. "That must be why I feel as though we’ve been intimate. Why else would I feel so comfortable one minute and so aroused the next?" She freed herself from his encircling arm, shoved aside the covers, and knelt on the bed at his side. "Why else would I trust you so completely? Why do I want to make love with you every time you look at me or touch me? And why would I want you now if we aren’t lovers?" she asked, her voice rising in pitch with each subsequent question.
    He seized her by the waist, dragged her into his lap, and held her despite her initial struggle. Although still grappling with her bluntness, he said, "I’m glad you trust me." He thought yet again of all the reasons why she shouldn’t. The list was as long as his arm. "But I can’t answer all these questions. It’s not the right time. You need to remember your life on your own. When you do, we’ll talk if that’s what you still want. I promise."
    "Is that a polite way of telling me that I’ve just made a complete fool of myself? Damn it! You must think I’m demented." She sagged against him, arms sliding around his neck as she rested her forehead against his chin and sighed.
    He embraced her, the sound of her frustrated sigh and the tension he felt in her slender limbs spiking his guilt to new heights. "I don’t think you’re anything of the kind. You’ve been through a lot during the last twelve hours, so relax and give yourself a break, why don’t you?"
    She squirmed free of his encircling arms, eased backward, and wound up seated astride his hips. Brett shifted beneath her, but not quickly enough to conceal his body’s hunger for her.
    "You want me," she accused. "I can feel how much you want me." She trailed her hand down across his chest, her fingertips pausing millimeters from the half–open zipper of his jeans and the hard length of flesh that spoke of need long denied.
    She paused, drew in a shaky breath, and met his gaze. Those dark eyes of his reminded her of hot coals. She sank her fingers into the thatch of coarse dark hair at the base of his abdomen, her gaze remaining fixed on his strained facial features the entire time. He jerked beneath her gliding fingertips.
    "You… want… me," she said a second time.
    The muscles bunched in his jaw as he ground his back teeth together. After slowly counting to ten, he spoke. "You’re stating the obvious, but this isn’t the time or place, Leah." He shoved her hand aside when all he really wanted to do was flip her onto her back, plunge into her body, and succumb fully to the bliss he would find there.
    "That was stupid of me," she reluctantly admitted.
    "I’m trying to make allowances for you tonight, but pull another stunt like that and all bets are off."
    She absently rubbed her wrist, her gaze speculative as she studied him. "You seemed surprised