Page 40 of Boxed In

Chapter 6

Olivia’s heart stopped—then started up again in double time. “What are you doing?”

“You first,” the man who held her in his grasp growled. She stared into his glittering eyes. Was it Luke or Zabastian? Or both? She didn’t know. She’d given up trying to figure out what to expect—and from whom.

When she remained silent, he said, “I told you, it’s safer if nobody knows where we are.”

“But I don’t think we can handle this on our own.”

“I am the one with the experience. I will be the judge of that.”

She knew who was speaking now, and she felt herself tremble in his arms. What was he going to do? Punish her? Kill her for disobedience? Like he’d killed that other woman.

Instead he lowered his mouth to hers. She tried to speak, and his lips captured the sound. At the same time, she forgot what she had intended to say.

Had she wanted to stop him or tell him she liked what he was doing?

She didn’t know which. But whatever the comment had been, it evaporated like water hitting hot rocks as his lips moved over hers, hungry, insistent, arousing.

She made another sound, and this time she knew it rose from her own need.

She had liked Luke Garner since he’d walked into the Peterbalm offices. And she wanted to find out what they might mean to each other.

She didn’t know if she even liked the man who clasped her body against his, but he rocked her to her core.

Fear and sexual excitement warred within her. Desire won. She knew she wanted him as she had never wanted anyone in her life.

The realization was shocking—an acknowledgment that she’d lost her good sense.

Or was she helpless to resist the combination of the two men? The one she knew and the one she wanted to know.

Her knees would no longer support her, and she had to cling to his broad shoulders to stay on her feet.

When he lifted his head to stare down into her face, the emotions she saw overwhelmed her.

“Your eyes are so blue,” he said, his voice gritty. “I have never seen eyes with that color before. They are beautiful. Like twin mountain lakes. I could drown in them.”

Poetry? From the warrior or from Luke?

She hardly knew this man. Not nearly long enough for this. At the same time, she felt like she had known him for a thousand years.

He stared into her face for heartbeats, then set the box down on the floor before lowering his head toward hers again. This time she raised up on tiptoes—meeting him halfway.

The contact was like a bolt of hidden power, sizzling along her nerve endings, swamping her senses. Heat from his large body seared her through the layers of their clothing.

Now that they were alone, with the time to explore each other, she discovered very quickly that this man knew how to kiss—with his lips, his tongue, and his teeth. He was masterful and sensual, overwhelming and then subtle by turns. Playful, then serious again.

She knew she was being kissed by a man who had devoted considerable time to studying the art. Had she been missing this all along with Luke Garner? Or was this the other man—the one who had tried to dominate her?

He wasn’t dominating now. He was giving and taking in equal measure, obviously pleased that she could play this game as well as he could.

She drank in the heady flavor of the man who held her so firmly in his arms, catching a primitive tang below the taste of the well-spiced meal they’d shared.

She clung to him while he angled his head, first one way and then the other, as though he were greedy to experience her every way he could—and greedy to take the kiss to new levels of sensuality.

But it wasn’t enough. Not for her. And apparently not for him, either. She felt one of his large hands slide down to her hips and work the hem of her blouse from the waistband of her slacks so that he could flatten his palm against her back and press her breasts against his chest.

His other hand slipped lower, cupping her bottom and pulling her lower body in against his erection.