robe tightly around her waist, Reva stood at the foot of the unfolded couch and stared at the strange man from her past as he lay sleeping in the pale darkness. Tonight he seemed less restless, one part of her mind noted. He hadn't kicked off the covers as he had the previous night.
She stood silently, taking the deep breaths she'd promised herself and finding the sight of his dark head against the pillow as calming as she had known instinctively it
would be. Gradually the incipient terror receded from her limbs, leaving her feeling weak and curiously vulnerable. She knew she was longing now for more than the sight of Josh. She wanted to know the heat of his body and the sense of protection she had experienced before in his arms. How could she deny it?
He was all wrong for her, she knew that. He was hard and capable of violence. She was certain that the civilizing veneer was as thin on him as it was on Xavier. But during the past couple of days she had seen a side of him she wouldn't have suspected existed. It wasn't a weak or soft side, in spite of his illness. It was more that, like her cat, Josh was capable of taking pleasure in the gentler side of life when it was available. The comparison made Reva smile and almost unconsciously she stepped a little closer, rounding the foot of the bed to stand beside him.
She couldn't seem to take her eyes off him tonight now that she was so close. She should never have left the bedroom to seek his presence, regardless of the calming effect it was having on her nerves. But even as she told herself that, Reva found herself sitting carefully down beside him as she had done last night, putting out a hand to touch his forehead. She told herself she was only testing for signs of fever, but she didn't remove her hand when she found none.
Only a few more minutes, Reva promised herself, that's all she would allow. Then she would go back to her own room. If he stirred or woke how would she ever explain herself? But he did neither. He made no threatening or alarming moves at all and Reva found herself wanting to edge closer. The fear caused by her nightmare was almost completely dissipated. There was nothing holding her close to Josh except her desire to be there. With a small, accepting sigh, Reva admitted as much to herself.
Soon this man would be gone once more from her life, she thought with a strange pang. And it would be all for the best. He was completely wrong for her. His career lay thousands of miles away in Texas and even if that weren't a factor, she needed someone like Bruce who was sophisticated and sympathetic to her goals and ambitions. Reva had no doubt at all that if Josh had truly wanted to marry her he would have expected her to give up everything for him. He was that sort of man. Possessive and ultimately always in command. It was ingrained in his nature. Then she thought of how he liked Mozart and mysteries and once again she smiled a little. A strange mixture in a male. But there were a lot of enigmatic factors in Josh Corbett. Not least of which was this pull he had on her senses.
A pull that tonight, at least, she no longer wanted to deny. With a sharply indrawn breath at her own daring and a last nod to common sense, Reva gently tugged back the quilt and slipped into bed beside Josh.
There was still no movement from Josh's lean, silent body as Reva's toe came into contact with his leg. He was lying sprawled on his stomach, his head turned away from her and his arms flung outward. Hesitantly, not wanting to admit but unable to deny the pleasure it gave her, Reva put her hand on his back and stroked lightly down to his waist. Her fingers trailed over the contours of his muscles and down to the lean hardness of the edge of his hip. Memories of how she had lost herself in his embrace that last night in the jungle and how she had almost begged for his love on his first night in her apartment returned with a sensual rush, blotting out the last remnants of rational
Mons Kallentoft
Elise de Sallier
Sharon Hamilton
R.J. Ross
Stella Wilkinson
Jody Wenner
Celeste Bradley
Hannah Harrington
Sarra Cannon
Sherrilyn Kenyon