Touch the Wind by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online

mind.
    “What’s the matter with you?” He frowned, his hand circling her elbow to turn her around. “You’ve been wanting me to make love to you for weeks.”
    Sheila strained against his hold. “Nothing is the matter with me,” she protested.
    His gaze flicked to her arm, studying her attempt to twist away from his grip. “But you like for me to touch you,” he reminded her. “It excites you. Remember?”
    The face that Sheila had once considered handsome had somehow changed. She felt no excitement, no stimulation in his caress. She didn’t understand this change in her reaction any more than she understood this change in Brad.
    “Bridal nerves.” Sheila tried to laugh off her apprehensions. “Just be a little patient with me, Brad.”
    “Oh, no.” His mouth twisted in an unattractive line. “You aren’t going to play one of those numbers of ‘not tonight’ with me. You’ve been teasing me for too long now.”
    Roughly, he yanked her back into his arms. His hand curled over the rounded curve of her bottom to squeeze the soft flesh of her cheek. He forced her hips to mold against his male hardness, the thin material of her gown acting as a second skin. Revulsion rose in her throat, a nauseous lump that nearly gagged Sheila.
    “That’s what you really want, isn’t it?” Brad murmured thickly. “But you don’t think it’s ladylike to admit it, do you?”
    “It isn’t that,” Sheila insisted. She was completely aware of her passionate nature and remembered Brad’s previous ability to arouse it. Only this time he didn’t seem concerned about arousing her desire.
    The fragile strap of her gown slipped from her shoulder at the touch of his fingers. A side seam ripped as Brad pulled the lacy bodice downward to reveal the plump ripeness of her breasts. The one nearest to his hand he kneaded roughly while the loose-fitting gown fell to the floor around her feet.
    “Brad, you are hurting me.” Sheila protested the painful massaging of her breast.
    It stopped as an encircling arm flattened both of them against his chest, his curling hairs scraping her sensitive skin.
    He grabbed a handful of blonde hair, pulling at the tender roots until Sheila gasped. Her lips were still, an easy victim for his ravaging mouth. Brad took them, hotly and moistly, bruising their softness. Sheila was incapable of repulsing him as his tongue explored the inner reaches of her mouth. She forced herself not to resist him and managed a weak response to his ardent demands.
    Swinging Sheila off her feet into the cradle of his arms, Brad carried her to the bed and laid her on the turned-down covers. Her breath was coming in deep, uneven spurts. He loomed before her, staring at her naked length on the bed. Sheila lay motionless. Her eyes watched him undress, the message transmitted to her brain in a blur of unreality. It was a nightmare, something that was happening to someone else, not her. If she closed her eyes, maybe she would wake up and find the Brad she had thought she married instead of this indifferent stranger.
    Her lashes fluttered downward for a fraction of a second, snapping open when the bed sagged to take his weight. She swallowed the choked cry that rosein her throat as he settled his naked body on the bed beside her, a hand closing over the jutting roundness of her breast.
    Nipping briefly at a white shoulder, he buried his face in the curve of her neck. But he soon abandoned any attempts to tease and tantalize Sheila into desire. And her attempts to fake it were pitiful. Her arms were stretched spreadeagled above her head as he shifted his length on top of her.
    “Please,” she requested stiffly, refusing to beg, “be gentle with me.”
    He forced his way between her legs to mount her. “Relax, damn it,” he ordered tersely.
    At the searing stab of pain, Sheila started to cry out, but his mouth covered hers to smother the sound until she could hardly breathe. He took her like a rutting boar, rolling off when