The Married Mistress by Kate Walker Read Free Book Online Page B

sight, the feel, thetaste of him for six long months. And now she was presented with a feast that only a fool would resist.
    Or was it just forbidden fruit like the tree in the Garden of Eden?
    But she couldn’t hold back all the same.
    Slowly she reached out, still keeping her eyes closed. The moment that her fingertips made contact with hot, smooth skin it had the same startling, fizzing effect as making contact with a live electric current. She almost snatched them back, but then her eyes flew open, looking straight into the deep, opaque gaze of the man in front of her.
    ‘Go on,’ he encouraged huskily, his tone pure enticement. ‘You know it’s what we both want.’
    Her throat was agonisingly dry; her lips felt as if they were cracking, they were so parched. She slicked her tongue over them in an attempt to ease the situation and saw from the faint flicker in the jet-dark stare that he was aware of the small betraying movement. But his gaze never faltered for a moment, holding her mesmerised so that she felt she had no will of her own, but was only capable of following his command.
    ‘Touch me…’
    ‘Yes…’
    His will was hers anyway, she told herself, shrugging off the tiny pinpricks of doubt. What he wanted was what she wanted.
    ‘Oh, yes…’
    It came out on a long, slow sigh as her fingers trailed down the taut muscle cording his throat and along the hard, straight line of his shoulder. She watched his reaction intently, saw the tiny, involuntary jerk that he was unable to control, and a small, satisfied smile curved her lips.
    ‘I’ll touch—but only if you promise to do the same.’
    Damon made a rough, raw sound deep in his throat as her hands drifted lower.
    ‘You can be sure of that, lady,’ he muttered hoarsely. ‘Depend on it.’
    He gave her free rein to wander where she would, standing still and unflinching under her caress. He swallowed hard when her teasing touch circled first one small, dark male nipple, then the other, making them tighten, harden instantly, his jaw clenching hard against a gasp of response. But a second later he had himself back under control again, though the pulse that beat at the base of his neck and his uneven, ragged breathing betrayed the amount of effort he was having to exert in order to remain that way.
    ‘You’re very—strong…’ Sarah murmured, deliberately edging the last word with an emphasis that made its double meaning plain. ‘Have you been working out?’
    ‘Some.’
    It rasped from a throat so raw that he sounded as if he hadn’t used his voice in weeks.
    He had had to do something to distract his mind from the fact that she had walked out on him with not even a backward glance, without a word of warning. He had come back from a business trip to find a bed that had been empty so long that the sheets were thoroughly chilled, and a note that was even colder, icy as the Arctic. The punishing physical routine he had set himself in the gym had helped to drain the burning energy from his body, leaving him drenched in sweat and limp with fatigue. It had filled hours in the day, but it had done little to ease the hungry longing that clawed at him in the night, keeping him wide awake and in restless torment from his thoughts and his memories.
    It was in the darkness that images of her luscious body would come back to haunt him, hardening him in an instant, and refusing to ease the erotic hold they had on him. In the silence of the night he could almost feel her there beside him, hear the soft sound of her breathing. He could recall with agonising accuracy the warmth of her skin, the softscent of her body, the tiny, wildly arousing murmurs she had made in her sleep as she shifted, stretching with a sensuousness that grabbed at his loins and twisted cruelly. No matter how he had shifted and adjusted his position on the luxurious bed, he had been unable to get comfortable, the hope of sleep just an unattainable fantasy.
    ‘I—needed the