Star Witness - By Mallory Kane Page 0,50

soon enough if the roof was damaged.

Then, as quickly as it had started, the roaring stopped. The lightning was no longer continuous and the thunder seemed farther away.

Dani didn’t relax a bit. Now that things had calmed down, he could feel her trembling.

“Listen,” he said. “I think the worst is over.” He took his hand away from the back of her head and touched her chin. “Look at me, Dani.”

Slowly, haltingly, she raised her head. “I—I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“For what? For being scared? I was scared too.”

She shuddered. “Not like me.” She sighed. “My father died more than twenty years ago and I’m still acting like a child.”

After a long time, she lifted her head. Harte looked down at her. “You okay?” he whispered, giving her a little smile.

She nodded, then dropped her gaze to his mouth. “Harte—?”

He looked at her parted lips, her soft whiskey-colored eyes.

“Dani,” he said, “I don’t think—”

“Don’t think,” Dani whispered, and brushed his lips with hers. She meant that admonition for herself as well as him. He’d held her and sheltered her. He’d protected her from the storm.

Sighing, she kissed him again. This time she touched his mouth with the tip of her tongue.

She wasn’t thinking about what would happen once they were safe. Right now she wanted him with an ache that had been growing ever since he’d kissed her that first time.

He didn’t move a muscle.

She withdrew and turned away, pressing her knuckles against her teeth. A short unamused laugh escaped her throat. “Sorry,” she said tightly. “It takes me a while, but eventually I get the picture.”

He closed his eyes and shook his head.

She cleared her throat. “I apologize. I guarantee it won’t happen ag—”

He pulled her back to him. His mouth came down on hers hard, his tongue parting her lips.

Dani gasped as he deepened the kiss. The ache inside her turned to a tingling thrill that surged through her like a lightning bolt.

He moaned deep in his throat and lifted her onto his lap. The only thing between them was two layers of thin cotton.

“Still think I don’t want you?” Harte muttered against her lips as he pushed his fingers through her damp hair and kissed her again, more fiercely than before. “Don’t ever make that mistake again.”

Any doubt she might have had disappeared into a silver haze of desire. His arousal pressed insistently against her, stirring her blood to a fever pitch as he slid his hands under the T-shirt and pushed it up. She raised her arms so he could pull it over her head.

His hands moved on her skin, trailing sparks like a wizard everywhere they touched. Her waist, her rib cage, the soft skin beneath her breasts. Finally, with exquisite slowness, he trailed his fingertips over the swell of her breasts until she arched, pressing them into his hands.

He skimmed his thumbs across her nipples. They puckered immediately and throbbed, they were so sensitive.

His kisses were sweet and erotic at the same time. One instant his tongue sparred with hers in a sensual dance that almost sent her over the edge. The next, he withdrew, only to return and plant light, unbearably sweet butterfly kisses onto every square millimeter of her mouth, cheeks and eyelids.

Just as she thought she couldn’t feel any more turned on, he bent his head and took a nipple into his mouth. He teased it with his tongue, then grazed it lightly with his teeth. A tight, choked scream erupted from her throat. Every touch sent electric shocks across her nerve endings from her fingers to her toes to her very core. He licked the tiny nub until it was wet, then lightly blew on it until Dani thought she would scream with pleasure. Then he turned to lavish the same attention on the other breast.

“Harte,” she rasped. “I can’t stand any more—” Her words were cut short by his rumble of soft laughter.

“You’re going to have to,” he said. He ran his palm down her body to the drawstring of the scrub pants. He untied it, then slid the material down over her hips and past her knees. She kicked them off, leaving her completely naked.

She didn’t care. She twisted until she straddled him, then leaned down and gave him back the kisses he’d given her. Putting her hands on his bare chest, she used her fingertips on his nipples, teasing them to instant arousal and drawing a pained moan from his throat.

“Do you like that?” she asked as she teased