“Definitely.” His voice was laced with such arrogance she didn’t know if she wanted to grit her teeth in irritation or laugh at the subtle challenge she knew he was deliberately laying in front of her.
“And what is it you’re playing for?” She stopped directly in front of him, staring up at him, determined to stay as cool and amused as he appeared.
She could feel the subtle undercurrents though, the tension rising between them as her br**sts became more sensitive, her ni**les harder. She could feel him, his very presence, sinking into her. It was a strange, oddly comforting feeling, and all the more terrifying for it.
His lips tilted self-mockingly as his eyes gleamed with rueful laughter.
“Whatever the hell I can get,” he growled as he reached out for her, his expression changing abruptly from amused arousal to hard, driving lust.
Before she could do more than gasp his name, he was pulling her through the connecting door and into his bedroom. She had a quick impression of heavy, dark wood furniture, reflected in the dim light from the bedside table before he picked her up and tossed her on the thick mattress of the bed.
Kimberly came to her knees quickly, her eyes narrowing as she watched him unbutton the dark blue cotton shirt he wore. His deeply tanned fingers worked at the buttons quickly, freeing the cloth before shrugging it from his muscular shoulders.
She had no intentions of fighting him. No desire to delay the promise she could see glittering in his dark gray eyes. Her lips opened then, her tongue peeking out to dampen the curves as his hands went to the belt of his jeans.
“Am I about to be ravished?” she asked him huskily while her heart raced out of control.
His lips quirked in a sideways smile that had melted her heart for a year. Did he know, she wondered, what that smile did to her?
It warmed her heart, heated her arousal and made her feel like the most beautiful woman ever created. A smile she considered hers alone, simply because she had never seen him smile in such a way with anyone else.
“Ravished, ravaged, eaten alive,” he growled. “You have no idea, Kimberly, just how eager I am to possess that sweet little tush of yours.”
His words shouldn’t have sent heat striking forcefully into her womb, but that was exactly what they did.
Then her breath caught in her throat as he loosened his jeans and began to push them from his lean hips, revealing the full extent of his arousal. His c**k was fully erect, engorged with his need for her. She watched, entranced, as the fingers of one hand encircled it, stroked slowly as he kicked the jeans away and advanced on the bed.
“Take the robe off.” His voice was deep, dark. A forbidden vein of emotion throbbed beneath it, making her throat tighten in response.
Her fingers fumbled at the belt for a second before the loose knot came free, allowing the edges to fall apart until they draped enticingly over the swollen curves of her br**sts.
Her ni**les ached, burned for relief. The weight of the gold rings that pierced them was more pronounced, an erotic little pain that reminded her of the rasp of his teeth against the sensitive points.
“Take it off,” he ordered again, watching her from beneath lowered lids.
“You take it off.” She was breathing so harshly she could barely say the words.
That smile. It flashed again, slightly crooked, a bit boyish.
He was having fun. That knowledge was nearly as strong as the arousal. He was having fun with her. Had anyone ever had fun with her? She was sure they must have, but she had never felt the knowledge that they were like she did now.
“A dare.” He appeared to approve. “I think I can handle that, Kimber…” He caught her ankles, pulling her to the edge of the bed with a quick movement. “But can you?”
She expected another of the hard, hungry kisses he destroyed her mind with. Expected him to consume her. Instead, he destroyed her.
He rested his forehead against hers, staring into her eyes, allowing her to see the shifting color, the unchecked emotion, the essence of him as his hands moved to her shoulders and began to slowly, gently ease the silk from her.
“Jared…” Chills of pleasure raced over her body, making her shiver at what she saw, at what she felt.
She blinked back tears, and yet didn’t understand why they welled in her eyes, why she felt shaken to the very core of her being.
“Your eyes are darkening, baby,” he whispered roughly. “I can see the heat rising within you; see the need growing to a fever pitch. Do you know what that does to me? How hard it makes me to know I can turn those pretty green eyes almost black with hunger?”
The silk slid over her hands as she lifted her arms, pooling about her hips as she raised her hands to his face. Her fingers touched his lips. Trembled. They were warm, not moist or slick but like heated velvet against her fingertips.
She whimpered, her lips parting with a soundless cry as his eyes darkened in turn. Stormy. Like the turbulent center of a storm she feared she would never survive.
She shuddered then as his hands moved as well, cupping the swollen weight of her br**sts, his fingers rasping over the hard ni**les and sending flares of white-hot heat spearing to the depths of her pu**y.