softness with gentle, moist tugs before moving to her upper lip. When she softened beneath him, he touched his tongue to the delicate seam between them, urging her to open to him. To meet him with the same passion they’d shared once before. Stubborn minx that she was, she resisted. So he dragged his mouth from hers, tracking wet, raw kisses along the side of her neck until a haze of lust had him bending her backward within his arms.
God help him, he wanted to take her now, to spread her out before him on the virgin surface of his polished desk. He wanted to taste every glorious inch of her freckled skin, to chart the secrets of her intimate flesh until she came apart beneath his mouth and hands. Her body wanted it, too. She responded to him as he’d known she would, her fingers clinging helplessly to his shoulders, her thighs opening, welcoming, cradling his raging heat.
But then she was gone, his splayed hands gripping only air while a battering ram clamored for release between his legs. He lifted his head, staring at her with hooded eyes across the wide expanse of his desk. He felt drunk on Colette’s drugging softness, and his chest caught on a shallow inhale. He could still taste her. Still hear her soft pants of desire, swift and urgent against his ear.
“You want this as much as I do.”
“No,” she lied, her gaze skittering away from his while her flushed cheeks and breasts and thighs told the truth. “I don’t.”
His expression was intense as he walked around the desk and then held her against the back of one of his armchairs. His hands, pressed tight against the base of her spine, were steely against her softness, the iron muscles of his thighs pressing heated awareness along her flesh despite the layers of clothing between them.
Low against her pelvis, she felt the hot, insistent pressure of his arousal, undeniable in its masculine quest for satisfaction. “Stephen,” she gasped.
“Kiss me,” he growled, his hips grinding against hers while a treacherous dampness gathered between her legs. “Kiss me and I’ll consider a compromise.”
“I already did.” She closed her eyes, her own flesh joining in the challenge.
“No, sweet, I kissed you.”
She remained silent as she turned her head to the side.
“If you’re going to renege on your agreement, the least you can do is give me a decent parting kiss. A real kiss.” He nudged his hips forward again and her insides clenched in helpless, desperate need. “Kiss me,” he repeated in a rough voice, “and I’ll agree to renegotiate without complaint.”
“How do I know you aren’t lying?” she heard herself say. She swallowed, cleared her throat, and tried to eliminate the husky note of arousal that had claimed her voice.
His thighs hardened to iron and she could see his nostrils flare as his gaze plundered hers. “You don’t,” he said in a silky, dangerous hum.
“But I should just kiss you anyway?”
Stephen abandoned her hands to tilt her face up to his perusal. “Yes.”
“No,” she said, feigning resolve despite her rising desire.
He simply stared at her, his breath stalling as he leaned forward and the tips of her breasts brushed the tight, flexed muscles of his chest. “Scared of how you’ll respond?”
“Hardly.” Slowly, she bit her lower lip, while his eyelids drifted lower and her breasts grew heavy with weighted anticipation. She caught the scent of his skin, the warm combination of spice and salt she still smelled in her dreams.
“You’re bluffing.” he said with a degree of cockiness she should have hated, but didn’t. “Shall I show you how I know?”
Trying to corral her own raging attraction to him, she regarded him with as much haughty dismissal as possible. “We’re in your office.”
“Never stopped you before,” he reminded her.
She felt her face flush crimson. “In daylight. With your secretary just on the other side of that door.”
Rather than reply, he shifted his hands to the zipper that started between her shoulderblades and traveled the length of her spine. Her breath caught in her throat as he lowered its slider with startling dexterity and speed. The tips of his fingers barely skimmed her quivering flesh, moving with swift, efficient concentration as he exposed her back in less time than it took for her to draw a protesting breath. She lifted her hands to her chest, keeping the bodice from falling forward and exposing her black demi-bra. But that left her back unprotected, and he took advantage of