Wild Men of Alaska Collection - By Helmer, Tiffinie Page 0,121

could have been inserted.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said. “I have nothing more concealed on me. You’ve taken it all.”

His eyes met hers, and he swallowed at the anger and dread reflected there. “You’ve forced my hand, Katja,” he returned softly.

She looked away. Her skin flushed, turning a rosy hue, and goose bumps appeared under his fingers. Inwardly he groaned as her nipples tightened to buds. Buds he wanted to lick and suckle.

He had to keep this quick, impersonal, clinical, for the both of them.

His hands traveled over her shoulders, around her neck, and under her hair. Even believing that nothing could be planted in her hair, he fanned the strands over his pillow, the red vibrant color like flames against the icy white of his pillowcase. Her eyes shuttered closed as his fingers gently traced where her neck met her spine, and he took a moment of her not watching him to scrutinize her expression. Eyes shut and lips parted, her breathing became shallow as the tips of his fingers tenderly trailed forward from her neck and around the delicate shell of her ears. He spent a lot of time there remembering how sensitive her ears were.

Some things hadn’t changed.

Her pulse quickened at her throat, and it was all he could do not to cover the area with his mouth and lick his way down—

He couldn’t think this way.

Over her collarbone and down the sides of her ribs, his hands continued as he tried to shut down his physical responses to finally touching her again. Two years had been a long time to go without. Kate had been a hell of woman to try and get out of his system. After a few lack-luster attempts with other women, he’d done some serious soul-searching, and realized how much Kate had meant to him. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t spent a lot of time together in the classical sense of getting to know one another. Sometimes a man just knew.

Heart recognized heart.

He ventured closer to the sides of her breasts, wanting to cup them, caress them, nibble them. But there was nothing to search that his eyes couldn’t see, and she wasn’t packing anything around these beautiful breasts anymore. There was nothing tapped or strapped, or pierced to mar the perfection of the aureoles with their tight dusky peaks.

He started to shake.

His hands splayed across her stomach. She sucked in her breath, and he flicked a glance back to her face. Her eyes were wide, her lips swollen from being nervously bitten. He locked his gaze with hers, as his hands caressed over her belly down to the sides of her hips.

What he wouldn’t give to grab those hips and thrust his body deep into hers. She recognized the need that had to be reflected in his eyes, for the shock of it had her trembling under him.

He didn’t hold anything back. He let all his frustration, his want, his love for her show through, praying that she’d somehow understand and be able to forgive him for what he was about to do next.

Kate hated him.

Hated what he was doing to her, what he made her feel. How could she want him until she shivered with it? Part of her rejoiced in being tied up, the choice he was taking from her. Finally she’d be with him again, experience the ecstasy only he’d been able to call forth from her body.

For the last two years she’d been consumed with him. Vengeance had been her religion. She understood the need for retaliation. This yearning, she did not. She felt betrayed by her own body. If anything, Sergei tying her up and strip-searching her should fuel her hatred and need to kill him. But all she could think about was his touch, how he’d felt between her legs, deep within her body, and how long until he would be inside her again.

His hands clasped her hips, and she couldn’t help the slight arch of them. Oh hell, what was she doing? She couldn’t enjoy this. What kind of woman did that make her?

An animalistic sound from deep within him reverberated throughout the room causing her blood to burn in her center and melt toward where she wanted him most. Instead of his hands searching her depths, he cupped them under her buttocks, his fingers clenching around them, his eyes closing for a moment, before he splayed his hands up her back. Searching for any abnormalities on her skin that she