Stormy Challenge Read Online Free PDF Page B

own!" she flung back, her self-control returning in a fierce rush as the full precariousness of her situation hit her.
    "No," he agreed, his mouth quirking upward. "You dragged me right along with you."
    "Don't blame me for any wrong ideas you've gotten!" she declared regally, crossing her arms in front of herself and glaring at him. "All I started were a few kisses in the sitting room downstairs ..."
    "Don't you think it's time you finished what you started?" he interrupted, stepping close and curling his hand around the nape of her neck.
    "There seems to be some question here of just who was seducing whom!" she stormed, feeling abused.
    "Yes, but I was hoping you wouldn't realize it until tomorrow morning," he complained sadly.
    "You admit you planned everything that happened? Letting me think you were going to behave like a gentleman and then allowing me to ... to ..." Words failed her.
    "To seduce yourself and me, too? Well, yes. It seemed a simple enough plan." He shrugged.
    Leya stared at him, thoroughly amused and thoroughly annoyed by the rueful expression on Court's hard features. She bit her lip and then shook her head in exasperation and sudden affection.

    "Oh, Court, you idiot," she murmured softly. "I can't possibly go to bed with a man I've only known two days! After this vacation is over, we'll both be going our separate ways. I couldn't bear a casual little affair like that, don't you see? If that's really all you want or need, it would be best if we part friends tonight..." Her voice trailed off beneath his glittering gaze. His mouth twisted in self-mockery.
    "Do you really believe that?" he whispered, the fingers behind her neck tightening.
    "Do you really believe all I'm after with you is a vacation fling?" He gave her the slightest of shakes.
    "But, Court, what else can there be?" she exclaimed unhappily.
    "As much as we want there to be, Leya," he said simply. "And speaking for myself, I want a great deal!"
    "Oh, Court!"
    "When you look at me like that," he muttered, "I have to believe you want there to be a great deal between us, too!"
    Leya sucked in her breath, her eyes shining brighter than the gem at her throat. In the face of the emotions flaring between them, she could find nothing intelligible to say.
    It was too soon to hope and too late not to do exactly that. In desperation, she resorted to a bit of poor humor.
    "Court, this is all so sudden," she whispered on a gurgle of laughter.
    A slow smile crossed his hard face, reaching his eyes, and he tugged her close against him, letting her bury her heated face in his jacket. For a long moment, he held her that way, saying nothing at all, and she was content.
    Eventually he released her, setting her a foot away and retaining a firm clasp on her shoulders while he gazed perceptively down into her questioning face.
    "But no more games, Leya. We're both too old for that sort of thing!" he said tersely, and she winced at the forcefulness in him. He meant it.
    "Men seem to think anything that doesn't end in bed is a game!" she accused, making the same point, she realized, for the second time that evening.
    "It is," he avowed at once.
    "That's not true, Court!"
    "It is for us," he said gently.
    "I won't be rushed," she stated proudly, lifting her chin in automatic defiance.
    "But that's exactly what I want to do," he retorted, his fingers digging almost painfully into her shoulders. "Rush you off your feet and into bed where I can make very, very sure of you."
    She stepped back, out from underneath his hands, and eyed him with a mixture of speculation and longing. "You," she declared on a muffled groan, "need a good lesson in the evils of possessiveness!"
    "I can't help the way I am." He refused to look apologetic. Instead, his tortoiseshell eyes seemed to be eating her.
    She hesitated, feeling the undeniable pull on her senses and the equally undeniable instinct to flee while she still could. She knew she was in danger of falling in love with this man she