Oceanborne by Katherine Irons Read Free Book Online Page B

driving a fist into his Adam’s apple, followed by a sharp knee-thrust to his groin.
    But, to her surprise, when his fingers tightened on her arm, the message she received wasn’t violence, but something entirely different. Orion’s touch wasn’t that of an assailant, but of a familiar lover. Odder still, her reaction was a powerful flood of sexual arousal. And when he pulled her into his embrace and covered her mouth with his, she could have sworn she heard violins.
    She’d once gotten the best of a mugger on the Paris subway, and she’d been waylaid by two camp cooks on a site near the Aswan Dam. Both times, her self-defense skills were up to the task. She’d walked away unscathed, while the men who’d believed she was an easy target learned a lesson in manners. But this time, with this man, she found herself helpless in the face of his seduction.
    â€œElena.”
    Her name on his lips raised goose bumps on her arms as tension sparked between them, and the raw desire in his green eyes made her breath catch in her throat. Her heightened senses were assaulted on all sides. Not only did she hear the strains of a love song, but the air smelled of mountain waterfalls and tropical flowers.
    â€œElena.”
    She gasped, opened her mouth to protest, and tilted her face to receive his kiss.
    It was electric.
    She’d been kissed before. She’d been kissed by boys since she was nine years old, but she’d never felt the ground shift under her feet or had her insides melt to warm Jell-O. And she’d never felt heat flash through her veins or her bones feel as though they’d turned to liquid.
    Orion kissed her lips, her eyelids, and her throat. Giddily, she sagged against him, clasping his face between her hands, and kissing him back with equal abandon. The thought that he was a thief and a scoundrel flicked across her mind, but she was beyond caring. All that was important was touching him … having him touch her. Arms and legs entangled, they sank down, not onto the cold stone floor as she expected, but onto a luxurious bed of furs.
    I must be hallucinating , she thought, but undercurrents of delicious sensations overwhelmed her and shattered her resolve. Romantic images tumbled in her mind: apple orchards in bloom, moonlit beaches, Tuscan ruins, and a covered bridge she’d once walked over in Vermont.
    I must be losing my mind!
    Orion kissed her mouth again, and she melted against him. She parted her lips, taking him in, thrilling to the sensation of tongues caressing, of the taste of him. Vaguely, she was aware of him whispering sweet words in her ear, love words that thrilled her in a language that she’d never heard before. And although she didn’t understand a single fragment, tears of joy welled in her eyes.
    She nipped at the wide expanse of his muscular bare chest, tonguing his skin, savoring the salty-male taste of him, inhaling his scent. Her breath came in quick gasps, and she could feel an urgent tension building in the pit of her stomach. They didn’t speak. What she felt was too great for words.
    When Orion slipped a big hand under her tee and gently cupped her breast, she groaned with pleasure. And when he bent to kiss her nipple through the thin material, her cleft grew moist and throbbing. She yanked the top over her head, wanting to feel his mouth on her skin.
    This time, his caress was slow and teasing. His lips closed over her swollen nipple and his warm tongue laved and then suckled until her need became an exquisite agony. And all the while, he kept stroking her, tracing the curve of her back and buttocks, rubbing and caressing, bringing her to an intense state of need.
    His touch was at once tender and demanding, and she craved it as an addict craves the object of his addiction. She could feel her body responding, her breasts growing taut and sensitive, the heat rising in her core. This was madness. Sobbing with unfulfilled need, she