I’m not playing second fiddle to you and your sister-in-law!”
“Stop shouting,” he grumbled.
“I’ll shout if I like. And I want my bird back!”
“When he’s well, with my blessing,” he shot back.
Her lower lip trembled. She was near tears. With her fists clenched at her sides, she felt herself shaking with mingled rage and frustration. Here she was yelling things she didn’t mean but couldn’t help saying, and she didn’t know what to do about it. She’d never felt like this before, and she didn’t even understand what was wrong.
“I hate you!” she wailed.
He took his hands out of his pockets and moved close, cupping her head in his lean fingers, holding her firmly. “Do you, Elissa?” That’s what he’d wanted, wasn’t it? To protect her from himself? But as he gazed down into her wide, glistening eyes, he felt a wave of emotion crash over him, engulfing him in frustrated desire. He was only human, after all.
“In lieu of a cold shower...” he said under his breath, and he bent his head.
Elissa’s mouth felt bruised from the sheer force of his hard lips, and he didn’t spare her. His mouth lifted for an instant, only to come down again more intimately, his tongue pushing into her mouth, his fingers biting into her to tilt her head and give him better access to her lips.
She moaned, and he caught his breath. “Open your mouth,” he ground out, his hands at her throat, lifting, coaxing. “Oh, God, Elissa, open your mouth...”
She did, shuddering as he deepened the kiss. Her knees weakened and threatened to collapse, but the instant her body relaxed against the rigid strength of his, he seemed to come to his senses. His lips lifted slowly, delicately probing, brushing. He felt her breasts, so smooth and hard tipped, press against him, saw her expression soft with confused desire. Elissa. He blinked, his mind in limbo. He wanted her. His body ached to have hers, to press it into the soft sand beneath his, to feel her skin warm and welcoming under his hands...
Elissa... He cursed under his breath and stopped abruptly, feeling outraged at his lack of control. He hadn’t meant for this to happen. That damned Scotch! What was he doing? He went rigid and suddenly all but threw her away from him.
“Was that what you wanted?” he demanded, wanting to hurt, to make her pay for that lapse in his control. “Now you know, so go inside, little girl. You’ll have to get the rest of your experience with someone else. I don’t initiate virgins.”
She swallowed. He wasn’t making any sense at all; he was being totally erratic. His fists clenched, and she saw the shudder ripple through his powerful body. Too much to drink, her mind registered. Dangerous.
“Who asked you to?” she shot back. She hated him. She hated him! With shaking hands she opened the door, went inside and slammed it behind her, locking it, as well. Outside she heard a harsh muttered curse.
She collapsed against the wall with an unsteady sigh. She hadn’t expected that. As a matter of fact, about the last thing she’d expected after his outburst was for him to kiss her. He’d never kissed her before tonight. Come to think of it, they’d never argued before. She felt a lump in her throat as she realized that she’d just lost a good friend and she didn’t even understand why.
His footsteps died away, and all she heard was the gentle wind off the Caribbean. She touched her lips, feeling their swollen fullness with wonder. Her tongue touched them and tasted him.
It all seemed like a dream. For some reason King had stepped completely out of character, and for that matter, she had, too. But none of it made any sense. Surely if King were pining away for his sister-in-law, he wouldn’t be capable of that kind of passion with another woman. Or would he? She cursed her ignorance of men and their basic makeup.
Trying to sort things out, she concluded that if King needed to use her as a shield, he must have some kind of special feeling for Bess. The tender look in his eyes when he’d gazed at his sister-in-law had afforded Elissa a rare glimpse behind the mask of cool reserve King usually wore. Apparently, Bess had always been special to him, and now, maybe for the first time, he was confronting her in a new way—as a desirable woman, not just as a relative.