hand-to-hand combat - the kind of fighting that usually went down in bars.
Except when I had to fight drunks, they were slower and stupider than me. My intruder was none of the above.
On my initial strike to the face, he grabbed my wrist, twisted me around. I kicked backward, going for his knee. He did a fancy sidestep, twirled me like a dancer, and kissed me on the mouth.
The first taste and I knew. Cadotte. Who else?
My racing pulse slowed as he deepened the kiss. Had he been here all along, waiting for me to return?
Or had he climbed up the building again and slid inside?
I yanked my lips away. "What in hell are you doing here?"
He didn't answer. I couldn't see his face. Unnerved, I struggled to get free. He only pulled me tighter against him, where I discovered he was very glad I was home.
Though my body shouted for me to take him to the ground and climb on top, my heart still pounded with an excess of adrenaline, and my emotions were too tangled for me to be anything but angry.
"Let me go."
"No." He nuzzled my neck, scraped his teeth along a throbbing vein, licked my collarbone -
I stiffened, remembering the dream. "Right now, Ca-dotte!"
His laugh rubbed his chest against mine. My shirt was still open, my bra a mere wisp of lace. I bit my lip to keep from moaning out loud at the friction. How could I be angry, aroused, and frightened all at the same time?
"Don't make me hurt you."
"Why don't you go ahead and try?" he whispered.
Now how could I resist an offer like that?
Before he could think, I brought my knee up hard and fast. He twisted quicker than a cat, and all I hit was his thigh.
"Ah, ah, ah. If you did that, there'd be no fun later."
I shoved him away and he let me. For a tall, lanky geek with glasses, he had more muscle mass than I would have figured. But since I'd seen him naked, I should have known better.
I tried a flat-handed shot to his chest. He blocked that and did some fancy Oriental jump-kick that I was barely able to deflect.
"What the hell was that? Kung fu?"
"Tai chi. It's very good for you."
"I bet."
He became less and less the geeky egghead with every passing moment. So the professor knew martial arts? Time to get serious.
I couldn't see much beyond a shadow in the starless darkness that filled my apartment. But I caught no glint of glass on his face, so punched him in the nose.
Or at least I tried to. He grabbed my fist inches from his nostrils. How in hell did he do that?
"Say uncle," he murmured.
"Bite me."
I'd never been very good at giving in.
"Jessie, Jessie. You aren't going to win."
Why it annoyed me so much that he was besting me in a physical fight, I have no idea. He was a guy.
They were stronger. It was a medical fact, which had always pissed me off.
Maybe part of the reason I didn't want to give up and say uncle was because his macho-man muscling me around was the most arousing foreplay I'd ever experienced. So I hooked my ankle around his and took him down to the floor.
Chapter 21
I was supposed to land on top, where I could then crow victory and give in to my urges as a reward.
Instead I ended up on my back, Cadotte settled firmly between my thighs. I was winded; he wasn't even sweating.
"Tell me that you love me." I heard the laughter in his voice and I smiled, too.
"Kiss my - "
His mouth covered mine. My brain melted as my body ignited.
It had been so long since I'd had sex, and I had never had sex that began like this. I was so excited I could barely keep myself from arching and coming right now. But I was tired of getting off with my clothes on. I wanted him, all the way, so I gave up fighting.
He kissed me forever. In my experience, limited as it was, guys don't waste much time on kissing, especially when they know they're on the fast track to something more.
But Cadotte seemed to like kissing. Hell, if I was that good at something, I guess I would have liked to do it all the time, too.
He nibbled at my lips, tasted me with his tongue, framed my face with his long, sexy fingers, stroking my chin with his thumbs, caressing my