Rolling With the Punches by Samantha Westlake Read Free Book Online Page A

from moving. His grip wasn't tight, but it was as solid as if the whole man was made from iron. I wasn't going to be headed anywhere.
    After realizing that I would be free when and only when Rhodes released me, I instead tried to figure out where we were headed. We had left the center of the arena, and I had felt the bump as we had climbed up the steps towards the exits. I felt Rhodes bend forward a little, dipping his head to clear a doorway, and saw that we had left the open space and were once again in a corridor.
    A couple more turns, and I suddenly felt hands sliding up my legs to shift me around. With the skirt of my sundress now somewhere around my waist, however, those hands were sliding right up along my bare thighs! And they were very warm and intimate. Even though I wanted nothing more than to be set down and released, I felt my breath quicken at that touch.
    Higher and higher those hands crept, as I began to slide backwards, down off of this shoulder that had become my perch. Up along the sides of my thighs, up to my hips, where they very briefly dug into my buttocks. Eventually, as I slid down and once again found myself the right way up, those hands were on my waist once again - but this time, they had pushed my dress up almost completely, and were pressed deeply into my bare skin just above the bones of my hips.
    I had closed my eyes as I had slid over that broad shoulder, and was still holding them shut. For this reason, the press of hot lips against my own caught me totally off guard.
    Well, almost totally off guard. Perhaps a little corner of my mind had been hoping for this, and was now doing cartwheels inside my imagination. But only a very small part of my mind. Of that I was sure. I definitely wasn't overwhelmed with giddiness right now.
    Oh, who am I kidding? It was amazing.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
    For a good few seconds, I kept my eyes screwed tightly shut as a pair of broad, powerful, very sexy lips merged with mine. I felt a hot tongue come pressing into my mouth, seeking new territory to explore, and I willingly granted it free reign and access. In exchange, I decided to make my own foray into the other mouth, and was very pleased with what my expedition discovered there.
    Finally, however, as my need for fresh air grew more intense than my libido's cries to never let this kiss end, I broke away. Finally, I let my eyes open once again.
    The first thing that I confirmed was that Cecil Rhodes was the man currently holding my burning body pressed against his. This was very quickly revealed to be correct. The man was staring back at me with a naked hunger evident in his eyes. I could feel an echo of that inside me, an ancient and wordless cry urging me to rip the clothes from this victorious fighter's battered body and let him pin me down and dominate me.
    But not quite yet, I told myself. Just hold on one second longer, dammit!
    I looked around, and saw that Rhodes had carried me back to his dressing room, the same room where I had stumbled upon him accidentally a couple hours previously (wow, had it really only been such a short time? I was turning into quite a bit of a whore, wasn't I? My desire shushed me, assuring me that it was super rare for a man this hot to fall into my lap, and besides, after my breakup, I really needed this, so just let it happen).
    Finally, I noted that there weren't any other people, such as that little bossy manager man, in the room with us, and that the door was shut.
    Perfect.
    This time, I think Rhodes was the one caught off guard as I lunged forward, my lips hungrily questing out for his. But he didn't show it, his grip on me tightening to literally scoop me up off my feet as though I was weightless. I felt my legs leave the ground with a thrill.
    My hands crawled over the man's broad back as we made out, feeling those big muscles shifting just below the surface of his skin. As my fingers walked their way downward, I hit one spot and felt the man suddenly jerk a