The Call of the Desert by Abby Green Read Free Book Online Page A

moment we stood in front of each other in that room earlier the possibility of
this
has existed.”
    Bitterness rang in Julia’s voice. “Even when you pretended not to know me?”
    More lightning flashed outside, quickly followed by the roll of thunder. The unmistakable sound of torrential rain started to lash against the window.
    “Even then.”
    Nothing seemed to be throwing Kaden off. Had he somehow magically dimmed the lights in the room? Julia wondered frantically, feeling as though reality was slipping out of her grasp. The past was meshing into the present, and the future was fast becoming irrelevant.
    Julia tried again. “The possibility of this stopped existing twelve years ago in Burquat—or have you forgotten when you informed me our
affair
was past its sell-by date?” Bitterness laced her voice, but she couldn’t pretend it wasn’t there, much as she would have loved to feign insouciance. The rawness of that day was vivid.
    Kaden’s hands were steady. “I don’t wish to discuss the past, Julia. The past bears no relationship to this moment.”
    “How can you say that? The past is the reason I’m standing here now.”
    Kaden shook his head, eyes glowing with dark embers, effortlessly stoking Julia’s desire higher and higher, despite what her head might be saying.
    “I would have wanted you even if tonight was the first time we’d met.”
    His flattery did nothing for Julia’s ego. The evidence of how unmoved he was by the past broke something apart inside her. Of course it had no effect on him now. Because he felt nothing for her—just as he’d never really felt anything for her.
    Julia tensed as much as she could. She had to get out of there. Things were spiralling out of all control. “Well,the past might not be relevant to you, but it is to me, and I think this is a very bad idea.”
    Kaden’s eyes flashed, showing Julia a glimpse of the emotion that thickened the atmosphere between them, no matter how he might deny it. “
This
is desire, pure and simple. We’re two single consenting adults and I want you.”
    Julia looked up, helpless to pull away or articulate any kind of sane response. Which should be
no
. How was it possible that this desire hadn’t abated one bit? That if anything it felt stronger? There were so many layers of meaning here, and Kaden wanted to ignore all of that. As if they had never met before.
    He lifted a hand and slid it around the back of her neck, under the fall of her hair, and pulled her even closer. Huskily he said, “I didn’t expect this. I didn’t expect that if I ever saw you again I would feel this way. Perhaps this was meant to be … a chance encounter to burn ourselves free of this insatiable desire.”
    Insatiable desire
. That was exactly how it felt—how it had always felt between them. Moments after making love Julia had always been ashamed of how quickly she’d craved Kaden’s touch again, and only the fact that it had been mutual had stopped her shame from overwhelming her.
    As he said, he hadn’t expected to see her again. And she could well believe that he’d not expected to desire her again. But he did, and obviously resented it. Why wouldn’t he? He’d turned his back on her, and he’d bedded plenty of women far more beautiful than Julia since then. It must be galling to meet your first lover and realise you still wanted her. That made Julia feel acutely vulnerable. But it was too late.
    Kaden had pulled her even closer, and now her soft belly touched his hard-muscled form—far harder than she remembered—and his head was lowering to hers. She tried to stiffen, to register her rejection, but everything was blocked out when she felt the explosive touch of Kaden’s mouth to hers. Did it coincide with another clap of thunder outside or was that in her head?
    Her heart spasmed in her chest, as if given an electric shock, and as his mouth moved and fitted to hers like a missing jigsaw piece she fell down into a dark vortex of