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Wanting more, she arched closer and felt the uncomfortable bunching of her blouse. Desperate to rid herself of it and give him free access, Cat pulled at the blouse. A button slipped loose from its stitched hole and the other popped off. As she shed the blouse, his deft fingers dealt with the front closing of her lacy brassiere. Even before she shrugged it off, his hand was on her breast, his thumb rubbing over her nipple.
Another groan rose in her throat as sensation built upon sensation. And there was more to come. But this time she wouldn’t be left aching and unsatisfied. The knowledge increased the need to touch him, a need that quickly grew into an urgency to feel the warmth of his skin beneath her hands. She tugged at his shirt, needing to eliminate the barrier it posed. The pearl snaps gave, one after the other popping apart, and her hands spread over his leanly muscled chest, discovering the incredible heat of his skin and the patch of dark curly hair that tickled her palms with its softness.
When she pressed closer, needing to feel the sensation of skin against skin, a corner of his belt buckle jabbed her stomach. Without conscious direction, her hands moved to do away with this new, irritating obstacle and felt the sudden, inward contraction of his stomach muscles, instantly followed by the quick seizing of her hands.
“Slow down,” he muttered against her cheek, his breathing as raw and ragged as her own. “We’re rushing this, and there’s no need. We have plenty of time.”
The cursed phrase screamed through her, but all Cat managed to utter was a single, strangled, “No.” She pushed back from him, shaking her head.
He caught her chin in his hand and tipped it up, forcing her to look at him. Desire was a hot, dark glow in his eyes. It snatched at her breath and sent evocative shivers through her.
“You are a wild one, Maggie the Cat,” he murmured idly. “But if we keep this up, it’ll be over before it’s begun. I don’t want that. Do you?”
What he seemed to be suggesting sounded infinitely more satisfying. The possibility made her answer soft and breathy. “No.”
“All right, then.” Approval and something else glittered in his eyes—a something else that dazzled and sent her pulse skittering all over the place.
For the briefest of seconds, Cat questioned what she was doing. She didn’t know this man; he was a complete stranger. But her reasons were selfish, she knew; she hadn’t felt so alive in months, and she was afraid she never would again. In the back of her mind, Cat was certain this was the way it would have felt with Repp.
“We have all night,” he told her. “Let’s not hurry one minute of it.”
“No,” she agreed on a whisper.
The thought was a new one. In the past she had always used heat and an unrelenting pressure in an effort to drive Repp beyond the limits of his control. But this—this had breathtaking possibilities.
“So, tell me…” He released her chin and let the flat of his fingers glide over the delicate curve of her cheek before skimming the line of her jaw, following it almost to her lips. “Do you want me to undress you?”
SEVEN
Her legs went weak at the thought of his hands easing her jeans off her hips, of his fingers sliding down her lacy bikini briefs. As heady as that thought was, she knew she would be driven wild with frustration before all her clothes wound up on the floor.
“I’ll do it myself.” She was too familiar with frustration to voluntarily subject herself to more of it.
“My loss.” His warm smile was quick and crooked.
His hands fell away, and he stepped around her to the bed. With one fluid swing of his arm, he threw the bedcovers back, then turned to her and glanced at the l
amp. “Off or on?”
Standing there completely topless, her jeans unsnapped and half-unzipped, Cat had no idea why she hesitated over her answer. A darkened room would allow her to pretend she was making love to Repp when the truth was something different. Something she would have to face eventually.
“On,” she said and wondered how soon she would regret that.
A flicker of surprise showed in his eyes. Then he moved away from the lamp, shrugging out of his shirt and hanging it on the corner of the straight-backed chair. Cat walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it to pull off her boots. She undressed by rote, her mind blank, registering no thought or feeling. It was only when she laid aside the last of her clothes that Cat became aware of her nudity and conscious of his gaze on her. She turned to meet it, her head lifting fractionally, the tilt of it wary and vaguely defensive.
He stood, as naked as she, a heat in his eyes that made the air-conditioned room feel unbelievably warm. Her glance wandered over his lean, hard body with an unconscious boldness. There wasn’t an ounce of spare flesh anywhere on him. There was only bronze skin stretched tautly across a complex roping of muscle and sinew. He was stunning to look at, all male and fully aroused.
Suddenly uneasy, Cat shot her glance back to his face and saw that he was watching her. The steady regard of his eyes unnerved her a little. It must have showed in her face.
“It isn’t too late to change your mind,” he said.
Instantly reassured by his remark, Cat allowed a small smile to curve her mouth, fully aware that with most men, it would have been too late the instant she invited them in the room.
“I guess I am my father’s daughter. Once he sets his foot on a path, he never swerves from it.”
“He’s an unusual man.” He moved toward her.
“He is.” Cat tried to picture this man facing her father, curious to see how he would measure up to the Calder standard. But it was an image she couldn’t summon to mind. Not that it mattered. The two men would never meet.
