Right Of Possession by Jayne Castle Read Free Book Online Page B

caused by seeing you again and having all the old memories brought back!" That wasn't altogether fair, she realized, but she needed some defense. The heat and strength of him were becoming much too enticing and she knew it but still couldn't find the will to pull away. A few more minutes, she told herself reassuringly, and then she, would disengage herself from the comforting embrace.
    "Does being here in my arms bring back all the memories, Reva?" he asked deliberately. "Do you remember what happened after you awoke from the nightmare that first time? How you huddled against me like this and I held you until your pulse had slowed and your breathing was normal and the fear had gone from your body?" His voice was strangely, comfortingly hypnotic, Reva thought dimly, realizing she was far more vulnerable now than she had been earlier. The aftereffects of the dream, the slightly otherworldly feeling provided by the moonlight, and the sheer impact of Josh's presence were a potent combination. She shivered again but this time it wasn't from fear.
    "Josh," she husked against his chest, turning her face
    into his shoulder, "I don't want to remember the rest. I've tried so hard to forget."
    "I can see that, honey, but it wasn't meant to be forgotten," he told her, his lips in her hair. "What we had four months ago was too special, too important."
    "No." But the single negative was almost a whimper and Reva was keenly aware of Josh's fingers lying alongside her breast. Her feet twisted in the sheets as she shifted slightly in a vague effort to free herself. But when his hands tightened she stopped trying and allowed herself to be held.
    "Yes," he corrected firmly, with total conviction, "and I'm going to prove it to you. I'm going to break through all these silly defenses you've spent your time putting up during the past few months and show you that the only thing that really counts is us. Together. Can't you see how you cry out for me when you're having bad dreams and see how you cuddle against me when I soothe you? Doesn't that tell you anything, honey?" His hands moved gently over her, but Reva was suddenly aware that there was no passion in them, only an offer of comfort. She settled instinctively closer even as she tried to marshal her arguments.
    "Josh, please don't make more out of this than it deserves." Automatically she raised her head to meet his eyes but when her chin came up, he bent his head and took her lips quite gently and inevitably.
    "I think your problem," he murmured against her mouth, "is that you've overintellectualized the whole matter. A woman like you should trust her emotions more." His lips moved slowly, invitingly, sensuously on hers.
    The hands which had held no threat of passion only a few seconds earler were stirring along her body in a differ-
    ent way. But Reva was trapped. She had relaxed too much, accepted the calming touch and let the soothing words wash over her when she should have been laughing off the dream and telling Josh to leave. Now it was quite suddenly too late and she knew it as surely as she had known in the restaurant that there was no chance Josh would fail to spot her in the crowd. Since she had first seen him that evening there had been an inner knowledge that it would eventually end like this.
    Without any further mental arguments or lectures, Reva stopped fighting both herself and Josh. It was so much easier to simply let him take over for a time. The need to feel his strength enveloping hers and know the hard leanness of his body once again was too much. She trembled beneath the touch of his hands and he felt it, responded to it.
    With a kind of wonder Reva touched the curling hair on his chest. Gingerly at first and then with increasing fascination and urgency she began toying with the dark crispness of it, searching out the male nipples and caressing them even as Josh found the tips of her breasts. Feeling as if she had temporarily suspended the rational portion of her mind,