The Most Expensive Lie of All by Michelle Conder Read Free Book Online Page A

clamped together and she pushed against him, but that only brought her body more fully up against his as her hands slipped over his shoulders. She stilled, as if the added contact affected her as much as it affected him, and with a deep groan he ran his tongue across the seam of her lips. He felt a shiver run through her and then she shoved harder to dislodge him. He told himself he wasn’t doing his plan any favours by forcing himself on her, but the plan paled into insignificance when compared to the feel of her warm and wriggling in his arms. He wanted her to surrender to him. To admit that the chemistry that had exploded through him like a haze of bloodlust as soon as he had seen her again wasn’t just one-sided.
    But some inner instinct warned him that this wasn’t the way to get her to acquiesce, and years of experience in gentling horses rushed through him. He marshalled some of that strength and patience now and gentled her. Sucking at her lips, nipping, soothing her with his tongue. She made a tiny whimper in the back of her throat and he felt a sense of primal victory as she tentatively opened her mouth under his, aligning her body so that her soft curves were no longer resisting his hardness but melting against him until he could feel every sweet, feminine inch of her.
    With a low growl of approval he gentled his hold on her and angled her head so that he could take her mouth more fully. When her lips opened wider and her arms urged him closer he couldn’t stop himself from plundering her, couldn’t resist drawing her tongue out so that she could taste him in return.
    An unexpected sense of completeness settled over him—a sense of finding something he’d been searching for his whole life—and he didn’t want the kiss to end. He didn’t want this maddening arousal to end.
    If he’d had any idea that it would be like this again he wasn’t sure that he would have started it. But now that he had he didn’t want to stop. Ever. She tasted so sweet. So silky. So good .
    He made a sound low in his throat when she circled her pelvis against his in an age-old request and he couldn’t think after that. Could only grab her hips and smooth his hands over her firm backside to mould her against him. ‘Yes,’ he whispered roughly against her mouth. ‘Kiss me, chiquita . Give me everything.’
    And she did. Without reservation. Her mouth devouring his as if she too had dreamed of this over and over and over. As if she too couldn’t live without—
    ‘Ow!’
    Her sharp cry of pain echoed his deeper one as something pushed the back of his head and bumped his forehead into hers. He pulled back and glared over his shoulder to where the horse he had just agreed to purchase snorted in disgust.
    Aspen blinked dazedly, rubbing at her head. Then the stunned look on her face cleared and he knew their impromptu little make out session had well and truly finished.
    ‘You bastard.’
    She raised her arm and slapped his face. The sound echoed in the cavernous stall and he worked his jaw as heat bloomed where her palm had connected.
    About to tell her that she had a good arm, he was shocked to see that she had turned white and looked as if she might pass out.
    ‘Aspen?’
    She looked at him as if he had hit her . ‘Now look what you made me do!’ she cried.
    Well, wasn’t that typical of her—to blame him?
    ‘I didn’t make you do anything. You hit me. And if I’m not mistaken all because you enjoyed my kisses just a little too much.’
    ‘Oh!’
    She pushed against him with all her might and he was only too glad to step away from her.
    ‘I’ve already turned down one slimy rat today and now I’m turning down another.’ Her glare alone could have buried him. ‘Now, get off my property before I have every man available throw you off.’
    ‘I’m flattered you think it would take that many.’
    ‘Oh, I bet you are.’ Every inch of her trembled with feminine outrage. ‘But I’m not prepared to take chances with