Tempestuous Eden by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online Page B

had imagined and more. The sensations he sent through her with his sensuously demanding mouth were driving her blissfully mad. Her body quivered against his hardness, her limbs turned to mercury. He gave her the proof of her womanhood with each parry of his tongue, each stroke of his hands, thrilling her to a wild, reckless abandon. Belatedly she realized that what she had needed all along was the right man, and that her emotions had been touched as well as her flesh.
    His fingers tangled into her hair, their touch strong and possessing. She wanted to stay where she was forever. His heat was permeating her body, seeming to fuse it to his own as his heady kiss burned her as no fire ever could.
    Too late, too late she realized she had offered the kiss, and taken, taken so thirstily and wondrously all the raw and masculine enticement he had to give.
    But having given away a piece of her heart in return, she could deny him nothing….
    His lips pulled away, but he drew her closely to him, holding her as they regained their breaths and the beating of their hearts slowly subsided.
    He was in control again. His mind had harnessed the desires of his body, but his body was busy viciously hating his mind.
    Hell, he was definitely quitting after this one.
    Blair slowly surfaced back to her senses as he held her. He was an unusual man, she decided wryly, because he could have had whatever he wished. Or did he sense her fear beneath the boiling excitement he created in her blood?
    His arms released her as his hands gently cupped her chin.
    “Good night, Blair,” he said softly.
    And turning, stuffed his hands into his pockets, clamped into fists of frustration as he walked past the dying fire toward his own tent, across from and almost separated from the compound.
    Blair watched him go with a catch in her throat, foolishly accepting the fact that she was falling a little in love with this man, who by his own admission had no room in his life for involvement.
    But it was so wonderful to feel. Even wonderful to love when that love could bring only pain.
    He had probably left her, knowing that he could offer her nothing permanent. She was sure, innately sure, that he had wanted her as desperately as she had wanted him.
    Still she wanted him, even for a night, even for an hour.
    Even though she still didn’t trust him as far as she could spit nails.
    Shaking, quivering, trembling, Blair ducked into her tent. Her hands remained unsteady as she undressed and slipped into a long cotton gown. She could still hear the erratic pounding of her heart as she lay in her bunk, staring at her green canvas ceiling.
    Craig had a way of beguiling her into trust. He was with the Hunger Crew now; she would be seeing him day in and day out.
    She wanted him, yes. But what scared her, what kept her trembling in the night, was the very real possibility that she just might get him.
    Craig Taylor returned to his tent, but whereas he should have been catching a few hours of sleep, he, like Blair, stared unseeing up at green canvas.
    He had never wanted a woman more in his life, and he was painfully aware that this time the wanting went far beyond the instant chemical attraction.
    Chemical … it was electrifying.
    A force like nothing he had ever come across.
    But that force was part of it, too, being beguiled, bewitched … whatever. It was the sea depth of her eyes, the silky softness of her voice, her casual pride, devotion, caring, intelligence …
    Whoa now, he warned himself, aware that he was shaking in the cool night breeze. Five days had passed. Five lousy days. How was he going to handle the time to come when in a night …
    No amount of training could have spared him the misery he felt that night, all the more devastating because it was the first time he had ever been caught in such a spell.
    A spell he refused to put a name to.
    The hours passed. And the appointed time came. Like a wraith, as sleek and silent as a cat in the night, Craig left the