Scent of Darkness by Christina Dodd Read Free Book Online Page B

her mouth.
    She was confused. He felt human, but when she opened her eyes, she expected to see a wolf.
    She saw Jasha. Jasha, with his intense gold eyes, his generous mouth, and a new red mark on his cheek.
    He knelt over the top of her, this man who smiled and asked, "Who sent you?"
    "What?" What did he mean? She didn't know, she didn't understand.
    "Who sent you?" Jasha's voice was smooth, warm, but with an edge that ripped through her like straight brandy. "Why did you follow me here?"
    "I.came.. . . I came because the international deal will fall through unless you sign the papers. I brought them. They're in my briefcase. In the house." My God. His eyes were so gold, so intent. And his gaze wandered. . . . She looked down at herself.
    She was splattered with mud, soaked to the skin. Her silk gown was ruined, and the stark white bodice showed everything—the shape of her breasts, the color of her nipples, that she was cold . . . and aroused. The black wraparound skirt was plastered to her thighs, and as she watched, Jasha placed his hand on her knee and slowly slid it up her thigh.
    Her breath caught.
    She was still afraid. Terrified. How could she not be? But mixed with that unfamiliar emotion was another, newer emotion—-she was aroused. She was needy. She was ready.
    How, when the lightning flashed overhead, and rain splattered on her face, could she want a man— a monster—like Jasha?
    Yet she did.
    Ann was a creature of instinct. Or perhaps of madness. She didn't know. She knew only that when he pressed his palm against her flat belly, she wanted his hand to move lower.
    "Refresh my memory." Jasha sniffed her hair where it grew away from her forehead. "Where does the international deal originate?"
    "The Ukraine."
    "Of course." He laughed huskily. "The Ukraine. You're innocent. Of course you are. Like the devil. Like the illegal hunter. like my own mother."
    She didn't understand what he was talking about, whom he was talking about. "I didn't come to hurt you. How can you think I would hurt you when I ... ?"
    "Love me? Do you love me, little Ann?"
    "No!"
    "Yes, you do."
    "You don't know that." He didn't. Did he?
    "Of course I do. I know you better than you know yourself. I'm a beast, remember? I have instincts that no mere man can match."
    He was mocking her—wasn't he? He didn't really have instincts, did he? Not those kind. Not the kind that would help him see into her soul.
    "Do you still love me now that you've seen what I am?"
    "I don't love you." Did she still love him? She didn't know. She knew only that his touch changed her from a frightened girl to a ready woman, that regardless of her fear and her exhaustion, her unwilling body wanted him. Now. "Are you going to kill me?"
    "Kill you?" His golden eyes narrowed. The pupils shifted, and for a second, his eyes flared with red. "Yes. I'm going to kill you—over and over and over again."
    It was a threat her mind couldn't comprehend . . . but her body knew perfectly well what he meant.
    She grabbed his wrists and twisted, trying to move him aside.
    Dumb. He outweighed her by eighty well-muscled pounds. She couldn't budge him. But she couldn't bear to kick him, either. Even now, she couldn't hurt Jasha.
    "What are you thinking, Ann? Are you thinking that I could tear your throat out?" His hand slid inside the band of her minuscule panties. His finger slid between her folds, found her clitoris, and stroked with a leisurely, almost imperceptible touch.
    But the only person who'd ever touched her there was . . . herself, and each motion bit at her nerves like the strike of a snake. She forgot who she had been—she had no past, no future—and became the person who lived now, and only now.
    "Are you thinking of the cold earth against your back and the rain splattering your face?" He was crooning as if she were a wild bird he lured to its destruction.
    Each one of her senses widened, embracing the scent of the earth, the cold rain, the wilderness around them . . .