Under the Tycoon's Protection by Anna DePalo Read Free Book Online Page B

jumping into bed together.
    He wrapped his arms around her, lifted her off her feet, and tilted his head back so her mouth was on top of his and she was pressed against him.
    She made a sound and started to push away from him, but he tightened his arms around her and took her mouth again and again in a series of increasingly hot kisses that had his blood pounding through his veins.
    Finally, when the urge to undress her and take her right there in the entryway started to overwhelm his common sense, he took two strides and had her up against the wall. He lowered her slowly, letting her slide down against him, from her breasts yielding against his chest to her thigh sliding against his arousal.
    When her feet had reached the floor, he let her break their kiss.
    She blinked and took deep breaths that seemed to mirror his own.
    â€œWant to go another round, petunia?” His voicesounded husky with arousal to his own ears. “I dare you.”
    He watched as her brows snapped together and her eyes flashed. It was worth the price of admission to spark her ire, he thought. She’d light into him now all right, but he’d gotten her to convert her outrage into sexual energy twice now, and both times he’d been putty in her hands.
    â€œI don’t need another round, Rafferty.” Her lashes lowered and her hand came up to stroke his arousal. She looked back up at him, her lips curving seductively. “I have all the proof I need that—how did you put it?—you can resist me.”
    He sucked in a breath. In an instant, he had her pressed up against the wall again, hands over her head and wrists cuffed by one of his hands.
    She wiggled against him, her seductive smile still in place, and he muttered a curse.
    â€œWhat’s that, Connor? I didn’t hear you.”
    He narrowed his eyes. They were playing a dangerous game: both of them refusing to back away from calling the other’s bluff. Yet, he was far from being the type to back away from a challenge. “Careful, princess. You might want to think twice about issuing a challenge like that when you’ve literally got your back to the wall,” he growled. “Do you want to deny again you enjoyed our lip-locks? Because, if you do, I’ll have to try to prove you wrong again. ”
    To her credit, her bravado didn’t desert her. She tossed her head, silky strands of dark hair sliding against them both as she tried to clear her face. “I suppose this counts as seduction to a caveman like you.”
    He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with his free hand. But then, instead of drawing his hand away, he gave in to temptation and slowly caressed the delicate line of her jaw, letting his thumb rub over the puffy softness of her lower lip.
    She held herself still, her gaze locked on his, not yielding, but not lashing him with her sharp tongue either.
    He moved his hand downward, stroking the side of her neck and then trailing the tip of his index finger down along the V-shaped neckline of her top and lower, over the roundness of her breast.
    With his fingertip, he traced the shape of her breast, moving over its jutting peak.
    Allison moaned.
    â€œWatch me,” he breathed. He cupped her breast then—noting she was just large enough to fill the palm of his hand—and began to knead her softness.
    Her eyes were fixed on his hand, the quickness of her breath the only sign she wasn’t immune to his caress.
    His pulse came hard and heavy. “It wouldn’t take much for us to hit the sack together, petunia.”
    She looked up at him, her eyes dilated and dark with arousal.
    â€œâ€™Course,” he added wryly, “your brothers would probably pound me into pulp if we did. And I wouldn’t blame them.”
    â€œIt wouldn’t be any of their business,” she said, the breathless quality of her voice belying the toughness of her words.
    He found it interesting she didn’t immediately deny