Temptation's Kiss by Sandra Brown Read Free Book Online

participate, yet holding a tight rein on every nerve in her body that cried out for her to join this orgy of sensations. It wasn't until his hand sinuously glided down her neck and throat to begin unhooking the buttons of her bodice that she realized she was precariously close to surrender.
    She dragged her mouth from under his. “No, Josh,” she said, trying to twist away from him, but only succeeding in educating herself to the strength of his arousal. The hard proof of it against her soft middle alarmed her. Or was it her thrilling reaction to it that panicked her? “No!”
    “Megan,” he uttered in a harsh whisper as he finally released the buttons and placed his palm on the lush curve of her breast, “there's a commandment against coveting your friend's wife, and I was guilty as sin of it while you were married. I've wanted you from the first night I saw you, held you, kissed you.”
    His lips found the soft indentation at the base of her throat and planted ardent kisses there. His hand grew bolder, caressing her in ways that stole her breath away and elicited ripples of sensation throughout her body, sensations she hadn't felt since the last time he had touched her this way.
    “I've given you time—time to heal, time to earn your own wings, time to prove yourself. But by God, my generosity just ran out.”
    His declaration, not to mention the fingertips slipping past the lacy border of her bra to test the degree of her own desire, both frightened and aroused her. Acting out of sheer animal instinct for self-preservation, she resisted him. Knowing that if she surrendered, she'd be irrevocably, eternally lost, she closed her heart to its own pleadings. Knowing she could never overcome him physically, she used her only weapon.
    “Am I to add rape to all the other indignities you've heaped on me?”
    His head snapped up as though someone had grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked it hard. His raspy breathing echoed loudly off the walls of the still house as he met her accusing gaze.
    If she had expected contrition, she couldn't have been more wrong. Angrily he brought her arms down and hauled her against him.
    “I want you, and I'll have you. There's no doubt in my mind, or in yours, of the final outcome. The sooner you come around, the better for both of us.”
    His scorching kiss was as much an assault on her senses as on her pride. Then, releasing her abruptly, he said a curt “Good night” and slammed the door behind him, leaving her alone in the entryway feeling utterly bereft.

Three
    O nly a moment after Megan entered her office the next morning, she was storming back through the door, confronting her secretary. “Where did those come from?” she demanded. Her pointing finger could leave no doubt what she was referring to. Arranged in a tall lead-crystal vase on her desk were two dozen roses interspersed with fern and baby's breath. That the roses were her favorite shade, a peachy pink color, made her unaccountably incensed.
    “The roses?” Arlene queried, obviously perplexed by Megan's vexation.
    “Yes, the roses.”
    “They were delivered.”
    “When?”
    “About ten minutes ago. There's a…uh…card.”
    Without another word, Megan closed her office door stridently behind her and marched toward her desk. The vase hadn't come from a florist. It had been bought elsewhere and taken to the florist to arrange the roses in. Crystal of that quality didn't come out of a flower shop.
    She jerked the card from the holder and ripped it open. The singular initial leaped off the card to mock her. It was in his own handwriting. He'd gone to a lot of trouble to have roses delivered to her this early in the morning. Had her kiss been that good? she thought scathingly. Was this payment for services rendered?
    Tempted to crush the card and toss it into the wastepaper basket, she laid it on her desk instead and stared at it as she took a seat in the leather chair. “Thank you for the evening. J.” The words