The Inconvenient Bride by Anne McAllister Read Free Book Online Page B

move. Then something changed. A gleam came into her eyes, a gleam he remembered once before. The corners of her mouth turned up in a smile that set his heart to pounding. And quite deliberatelySierra reached out and snagged his tie from where he’d tossed it on the chair.
    She ran it through her fingers as she stepped forward to meet him. And his heart slammed against his chest as she whispered, “How nice of you to remember I had a use for this.”
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    They should have gone to his place.
    They wouldn’t have to smash together on her hard narrow futon. At Dominic’s they could no doubt wallow in sybaritic luxury in Dominic’s bed.
    But she hadn’t been able to do it. Not then.
    So she consoled herself that even if they had they wouldn’t have noticed.
    Once it was clear that neither of them had got the other out of their system during that one night in a Kansas motel—it didn’t matter where they were.
    The awareness, the attraction, the chemistry— everything! —between them simply sizzled!
    Something about Dominic brought out parts of Sierra she’d never even guessed were there. Something about his power made her want to challenge him. Something about his starchy conservative demeanor she wanted to muss. And his control—his iron-clad control!—she just couldn’t rest until she made it snap.
    And she’d made it snap!
    She’d moved in on him like a tigress stalking her prey. Circling, smiling, watching him from beneath lowered lids, Sierra had moved closer, turned, stepped and backed him into the futon. Then she’d looped the tie around his nape and slid it back and forth. Silk and skin. Hot damp skin.
    She saw him take a quick sharp breath.
    She smiled. She gave the tie a tug and drew him toward her, so close she could almost feel his heart pounding against his chest, so close the heat of her breath ruffled the hair thatcurled there. She touched one flat male nipple with her tongue.
    Dominic bit off an exclamation. Then he hauled her hard against him and he was much too close to see.
    Her hands pressed against the hot smooth flesh of his back as she lifted her mouth, hungry for his.
    Sierra was no stranger to kisses. Since she’d turned thirteen she’d had boyfriends, steadies, casual dates, one after another, men-in-her-life galore. And they’d kissed her—if not one and all, then certainly most.
    But she’d never been kissed like this.
    There had never been such hunger, such passion, such sheer intensity in any man’s mouth on hers. Only Dominic’s.
    Before that fateful night in Kansas, Sierra had thought that whatever it was that had been sizzling between her and Dominic since they’d met was nothing more than that—an insubstantial, unreal, ephemeral something—like steam.
    Just so much hot air.
    She’d been wrong. Big time. One kiss and she’d been knocked off her feet—and she’d knocked Dominic off his.
    One fierce hungry kiss, almost before they’d got the door closed behind them and had tumbled onto the hard motel bed. They’d practically ripped each other’s clothes off in their haste to come together. The kissing, the touching, the stroking, the loving had been hot and fierce.
    And their hunger for each other hadn’t slacked even after they’d climaxed.
    They’d lain in each other’s arms, then rolled apart. But within moments they had come together again. They’d touched and taunted, caressed and teased, and kissed and kissed and kissed the whole night long.
    In some unspoken agreement, as if they were determined to get enough of each other, to become sated, to be able to happily turn away in the morning and leave each other behind, they had made love again and again.
    Once on the plane to New York the next morning, he infirst class and she in economy, they had gone their separate ways, determined to forget.
    And they had—but not for