Primal Force by D. D. Ayres Read Free Book Online Page A

on his biceps and then up at her face. His blinking slowed.
    â€œI don’t need your help.” His voice was as hard as the muscles under her touch. His gaze seemed to repel her by force of will.
    Determined not to lose him, she clamped her fingers tight on his arm. “I can see that you’re very capable in many ways, Mr. Battise. But this isn’t war. You don’t have to gut it out alone.”
    He didn’t answer but he didn’t pull away from her touch.
    Maybe she just needed to change the subject. “Look, if you don’t like Sam—”
    â€œI never said I didn’t like Sam.” He didn’t move yet he suddenly seemed closer. “I said I don’t want her.” The words came out as if each one were a whole sentence.
    â€œOkay. Tell me what you do want.”
    â€œWhat I want?” When his rough and ready gaze rose to tangle with hers, a surge of pure lust burst through Jori. Sexual heat radiated off him like waves from glowing coals. And his eyes. Direct, penetrating. Pure Alpha in search of every advantage against a perceived opponent. At the moment it was all aimed at her.
    Self-protection was telling her to run like a scared little rabbit. Not that there was anywhere to go. She was cornered between the file cabinet and his rather impressive body. Another part of her wanted to lean in to him, to touch and taste that heat. Yet the biggest part was urging her to bark back at the Alpha invading her space.
    She slapped a palm flat on his chest. “Back off, Mr. Battise. I’m not your enemy.”
    Something glinted in his gaze. “Then why do I feel in jeopardy whenever you’re around?”
    As if. There was too much male presence in his stance to make her feel safe enough to enjoy his brand of humor. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t thinking, fast, about her next move.
    She removed her hand. Her palm went cold from the loss of contact.
    â€œKnow what I think, Mr. Battise? You wouldn’t recognize what you needed if it was standing in front of you.”
    â€œYou want to know what I think?” He lifted a finger and touched her two inches below the hollow of her throat where the skin was exposed above the vee of her T-shirt. “I think you’re curious as hell about what we’d be like together.”
    Jori couldn’t lie. The raw heat surging through her was his doing. She was playing with fire. But, she reminded herself, there was only so much he would dare in a public place with a dozen people within the sound of her voice.
    She straightened up, suddenly aware that a file cabinet handle had been poking hard into her back. “No thanks. I’m busy.”
    â€œBoyfriend?” He said the word all snarky and dismissive of the imagined man.
    She shrugged, trying to see past his shoulder. “I’m just not interested.”
    â€œLiar.”
    He leaned in until his beard tickled her left cheek and his voice was a deep dry gush of male temptation in her ear. “Let’s get the hell out of here and go somewhere we can satisfy our … curiosity.”
    â€œNot going to happen.” She again put up a hand to push him away. Yet when she encountered the contours of hard warm muscle beneath his shirt, instead of shoving him away, her fingers curled reflexively into the fabric.
    One side of his beard hitched up in what could only be a smile. He leaned toward her, applying the pressure of his chest until her hand retreated and there was no space left between their bodies. His chest crushed her breasts.
    He was watching her, no doubt trying to determine just how far he could go before she screamed. “Don’t worry. I just want a taste of what I can’t have. Call it a consolation prize.”
    For about a tenth of a second Jori thought, What if someone sees us? Then she stopped thinking of anything else but the man locking lips with hers.
    Law just meant to touch his lips to hers, to brand