Shameless (The Contemporary Collection) by Jennifer Blake Read Free Book Online Page A

decision was made; that was the way it worked. Before she could make a sound, before she even began to guess what he intended, he locked his arms around her in a death grip, one of many he had learned too well. He wasn't hurting her, but she could not move without causing herself pain. Nor, given her lesser strength and lack of knowledge, could she possibly break free.
    In those fleeting seconds as he settled his hold into place, he felt the unaccustomed thrust of doubt. His motives for this demonstration, he suspected, were far from noble. To feel the soft delicacy of her body pressed against him again — to know that she was inescapably in his power, however briefly — for these things any excuse would do.
    He shifted slightly to place his fingers on the tender curve of her neck behind and below her ear. His voice no more than a whisper, he said, “Do you realize that I could kill you in seconds, without a sound, by applying pressure just here?”
    “I don't doubt it at all,” she said, the words astringent.
    “Do you understand that I could do anything at all to you, and there is no way on God's green earth you could stop me.”
    The pupils of her eyes dilated, and her breasts rose against him with the depth of the breath she took. She searched his face for a brief instant before she released the air in her lungs. She said, “I can see how it might be possible.”
    “Then you realize why I can't stay?”
    She stared up at him with irritation seeping into her face, collecting in her eyes. “I realize that if you don't turn me loose this minute, I'm going to kick you where it hurts, just like I did Keith.”
    He grinned; he couldn't help it. And he had meant to be so menacing. The only way she could manage to hurt him was if he let her, but that wasn't what tickled his sense of humor. It was her spirit, her sheer, uncaring defiance.
    If there was a woman who could survive whatever vicious instinct he might have, whatever brutal act he might inadvertently commit against her, it was possible she was the one.
    Possible, yes, but not likely.



   3
     
    THEY ATE THEIR STEAK AND SALAD IN virtual silence. Cammie, all too well aware that Reid had neither agreed to her proposal nor completely refused it, was reluctant to say anything that might swing his decision the wrong way.
    She glanced up once, to find his gaze resting on a spot a foot or so below her chin. The belt of the robe she wore had slipped, she discovered, letting the neckline fall open, exposing the pale curves of her breasts.
    She should have changed clothes, she thought; she would have been more comfortable. It had seemed awkward and rather coy, however, after wearing the robe in front of Reid at the Fort.
    In a gesture as casual as she could make it, she reached under the napkin on her lap to draw the edges of the robe tighter, closing the gap. When she looked at Reid again, he was giving his steak his undivided attention, and the tops of his ears were pink.
    Her attention was caught by his hands as he sliced off a bite of meat. She had noticed them earlier. They were big and square, but well-shaped. The fingers were long and marked by small white scars. There was precision and controlled strength in the way he used them. She wondered what it would be like to feel them upon her, inside her.
    She drew a sharp, sudden breath and was not surprised to feel heat rising through the lower part of her body. Reaching for the glass of burgundy she had poured to go with the meal, she took a hasty swallow.
    She must be losing her mind, having a mental breakdown; there was no other explanation for the things she had done this evening, beginning with firing her pistol at Keith. It wasn't like her, it wasn't like her at all.
    It would be easy to say her husband had driven her to it, but she wasn't sure she could accept that excuse. It was as if she had stepped over some invisible boundary within herself and now, somehow, was speaking and behaving with primitive