Storm Over the Lake by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online

soft, fluid line of her flushed cheek as he watched her in a static burning silence. “Doe eyes,” he murmured. “As lovely as a fawn. Soft and sweet and vulnerable. You’re trembling, little one, I can feel it. Do I make you hungry, Meredith? Do you want to taste me?” he whispered, his hard, chiseled mouth hovering half a breath over hers as she breathed in the musky, male scent of him, her heart shaking her with its pounding.
    â€œDevil…” she sobbed as his hard mouth teased hers, tormented it with a whisper-light pressure that was no pressure, setting fires in her blood’ “devil…straight out of hell!”
    â€œDo I make you burn, Persephone?” hemurmured against her parted, pleading lips. “Do I make you hungry?”
    â€œY…yes! Adrian…!” she choked.
    His teeth nipped lightly at her delicate upper lip, in a smoky, sensuous caress. Both his hands were buried in her thick, silky hair now, holding her face up to his.
    â€œWhat is it, honey?” he whispered, his mouth touching her closed eyelids, her cheeks, the corner of her lips with slow, brief kisses.
    â€œOh…please…” she breathed, tears misting her eyes at the hunger he was kindling, a hunger like nothing she’d ever experienced. Her nails dug into him through the soft fabric of his shirt, though she was barely aware of the contact.
    He laughed softly, deeply, “Do I make you that hungry, little cat?” he whispered. “Do you want to claw me?”
    â€œD…damn you!” she wept.
    His lips burned her in a brief, biting kiss. “Beg me for it,” he murmured gruffly.
    â€œI hate you!” she cried, her voice breaking, tears streaming down her cheeksas she looked up into his eyes with the agony of the damned in her wide, misty dark eyes.
    His hands tightened around her head, his gaze dark and quiet and shadowy. “Where’s all that majestic composure now, young Meredith?” he asked harshly. “By God, I told you I’d strip that veneer of sophistication away before I was through. Under it, you’re every inch a woman, aren’t you?”
    Tears rolled uncontrollably down her cheeks and she closed her eyes against the humiliation. His hands dropped to her shoulders and he gripped them painfully and shook her. “Stop it,” he said in glacial tones. “My God, what are you crying about?”
    She shuddered with the memory of her own voice pleading…“Will you let me go?” she whispered icily.
    â€œThat isn’t what you wanted a minute ago,” he reminded her cruelly as he released her and turned away to light a cigarette.
    She wrapped her arms around her shivering body and took a deep, shuddering breath. The tears were like tiny ice trails down her cheeks where the breeze hit them.
    â€œHail the suffering heroine,” he taunted. “Why pretend, Persephone? These virginal displays don’t affect me one way or the other, we both know that illusion of innocence doesn’t go any deeper than your integrity.”
    â€œYou don’t know anything about me, Mr. Devereaux,” she said with what dignity she could muster. “Not anything at all.”
    â€œI know you’re easily aroused,” he said.
    â€œThat isn’t hard for any man who’s experienced, is it?” she asked bitterly. “And you obviously are.”
    â€œCould he make you burn that easily?” he asked in a voice that cut like a whip.
    â€œHe?” she echoed.
    â€œYour lover! The man you’re supporting!” he threw at her.
    â€œI’m not supporting any man, and I’ve never had a lover in my life!” she all butscreamed at him. “Did you take lessons in cruelty, Mr. Devereaux, or does it come naturally to you? Why don’t you just cut me into little pieces and be done with it!”
    He took a draw from the cigarette he’d just lit and watched her narrowly.