Wild and Wonderful by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online Page B

succeeded in pushing her shawl off one shoulder. He bent his head to let his warm lips more intimately explore the rounded bone.
    "Your skin reminds me of the creamy smooth petal of a magnolia," Jett murmured against her skin, then slowly straightened.
    Reluctantly Glenna raised her lashes to look at him, wishing he hadn't stopped so soon. His unfathomable black gaze wandered over her upturned face in a caressing fashion, yet managed to convey the impression that she was a very special lady.
    "Why do I have the feeling that your father is setting me up for something?" It was a full moment before his casually worded question penetratedher sensually induced state of vulnerability.
    Shock ran through her as Glenna realized his timing had been deliberate. Even now, while she was stiffening in his arms, his hand continued to trace the curving arc of her shoulder and neck, a thumb drawing circles on her sensitive skin. Her lips parted in a wordless and angry protest at the accusation, but her voice was temporarily lost to her.
    But Jett didn't seem unduly perturbed that she failed to answer him. He continued to regard her with lazy alertness. "Your father is trying to hustle something. I haven't been able to decide whether it's his coal company…or if he's hustling you. If it's you, I might find it tempting."
    When his head began a downward motion, as if to kiss her again, Glenna lashed out with her hand, slapping his face in a flash of temper. Without pausing, she pivoted out of the loose hold of his arms to stand rigid, her back to him. She expected retaliation or pursuit.
    Instead Jett responded to her assault with an amused taunt. "What happened? Did I come too close to the truth?"
    "No!" Swinging her head around, she denied it too quickly and too vigorously. Instantly she realized that her anger had been born partly because Jett had so accurately seen through her father, and partly because he could think so clearly while holding her in his arms. She and her lightning-quick temper had overreacted. Bowing her head she took a calming breath.
    "I lost my temper." She grudgingly offered him an apology. "I'm sorry I slapped you."
    "In that case—" his voice was thick with restrained laughter as his hands reached out to turn her around and span her waist "—let's kiss and make up."
    Glenna flattened her hands against his chest to brace herself away from him, but he overpowered this resistance with little effort. His hands spread up her spine to shape her to his length, the slickness of her dress offering little protection from the searing impression made by his hard muscled body.
    Unable to elude his embrace, Glenna attempted verbal abuse to gain her release. "You are the most—"
    His soft throaty chuckle foretold the futility of that. "I've heard all the adjectives before."
    His hand cradled the back of her head to hold it still while his mouth covered her tightly compressed lips. Glenna was frustrated by the lack of brutality in his embrace. There was no punishment in his kiss, only a devouring kind of passion that ate away at her defenses. Neither was she bruised by his hands. It would have been so much easier for her to be repulsed by his embrace if he had been hurting her. Jett didn't need brute force to undermine her resistance.
    When Glenna reached the point where she could no longer remain stiff in his arms and let her body become pliant against his, Jett eased his mouth from her lips. "Shall I turn the other cheek so you can slap it?"
    She lowered her gaze from his sensually expert mouth to the white collar of his dress shirt, its paleness standing out sharply against the tan of his throat and the dark material of his suit. Her heartbeat was slow to return to its normal rate; so was her breathing.
    "If you knew my father, you wouldn't have made the insinuation that angered me into slapping you the first time." Her voice was low, its pitch still disturbed by his kisses. "My father never 'hustled' anyone in his