Affair Of Risk Read Online Free PDF Page A

turned inward against her palms, and she felt a faint, stifled moan at the back of her throat.
    As if that were a signal for which he had been waiting, Case reached out with his other hand, curving it around her waist and pulling her slowly against him.
    "You have the most delightful scent," he rasped against her lips. "Clean, fresh, warm, sweet . . . like an island breeze. ..."
    She lifted her hands automatically, spreading her fingertips across the hardness of his shoulders. She felt the masculine solidity of his body, and luxuriated in it unthinkingly. She was almost thirty years old, and she had been kissed often enough during those years, but never quite like this, her mind whispered seductively, never with quite this tender, probing persuasiveness.
    Somewhere a faint warning bell was ringing, but for the moment Kendra told herself she could safely ignore it. Soon she would leave and never see this man or his casino again. Knowing that she would be safe enough shortly was a kind of incentive to enjoy this stolen hour with a man she would normally have never allowed into her world.
    But he hadn't broached her environment, she thought
    vaguely. It was she who had invaded his tonight. And the temptation to let the kiss linger for a little longer was overwhelming. "Kendra . . . ?"
    Her name was uttered in a deep, hoarse voice as his hand tightened around her slender waist. She heard the soft rustle of her red silk dress as his fingers found the shape of her.
    "Kendra, you intrigue me. Do you realize that?" he asked in a muffled groan.
    "I think I'd better be going," she managed hesitantly, knowing she should withdraw herself from this strange
    world.
    But he ignored the words, taking advantage of her parted lips to abruptly deepen the kiss. She felt the seductive assault of his tongue, and she trembled slightly. She knew the small movement communicated itself to him, because of the way he shifted his hold to mold her more completely against him.
    Without thinking about it Kendra lifted her hands to the darkness of his hair, her fingertips finding the band of the velvet patch before exploring further to bury themselves at the back of his neck'.
    "Ah," she breathed as the dangerous, warm languor stole over her, arousing something faint and exciting deep within her body.
    His hands slid down to the small of her back, pressing, urging, and kneading with growing arousal.
    "At least you're not going to remain a total mystery tonight," he growled as he reluctantly pulled back from her mouth and began a trail of tiny, glowing kisses along the line of her cheek, just below her eye. "But don't you realize that every question you answer only raises a thousand more?"
    "They're questions that don't need answering," she
    whispered, turning her lips against the sun-browned length of his throat.
    "I disagree, but we can argue about it later."
    His hands cupped her hips, arching her against his lower body, making her aware of the rising passion in him. It stirred a response in her, heightened the light-headed recklessness that was beginning to take hold. The warning bell still sounded, and still she ignored it.
    "I want you," he said with heavy bluntness, his male desire plain. "You must know that by now. Will you stay with me tonight, mystery woman?"
    In spite of herself Kendra sucked in her breath at the straightforward, uncompromising question.
    "No," she finally said softly, closing her eyes against the feel of his lips on the nape of her neck. "That's impossible."
    "Nothing is impossible."
    "What you ask is," she returned flatly, but making no move to pull away from his warmth and hardness. He was using his tongue and then his teeth on the ultrasensitive skin at the back of her neck as she pressed her face into his shoulder. The sensation was an exquisite little torment that made her cling to him with tiny claws.
    "Do you know that I wanted to ask you to spend the night the moment I looked up and saw you across the casino?" he murmured.