Love Songs Read Online Free Page B

lure of his male-strong lips. While a small, private voice within asked if she was the crazy one for what she was about to do, that more husky public voice accepted. “You’ve got yourself a bet.”
    As though squaring off for a wrestling bout, Alex dropped his arms to his sides. Beaming indulgently down on her, he waited. Alanna’s hands found their way to his shoulders, then around to his back, exploring his strength as she brought her lips tentatively to his. With a mixture of curiosity and growing boldness she pressed sensuously against him—then caught her breath and pulled back in reaction to both the heady jolt of excitement that coursed through her veins and the opening of the elevator door.
    Mercifully, there was no one on the other side to witness her momentary loss as she grappled for the poise that had been suddenly shattered. “Oops,” she gasped. “It looks like … we’ve been … thwarted.…”
    “Saved by the bell is more like it,” he countered with a knowingly wicked smile. “Come on.” A strong arm about her shoulder pulled her from the elevator.
    “Where…?” Numbly, she kept pace; she literally had no choice. They moved a few yards to the fire door, then through it, to the stairwell. “Alex, what are you doing?”
    “I don’t think I can stand the suspense. You have a point to prove, I believe.” He moved her gently against the wall, satisfactorily placing the breadth of his back as a shield against any unwanted intrusion. “Now,” he cleared his throat, “that kiss…?”
    “But … I did kiss you.”
    “Ah-ah. That was no kiss,” he teased, his tone seductive in itself. “That was a taste … a peck. Now I want the real thing. The bet wasn’t for a half-kiss; it was for a whole-kiss.”
    Alanna was caught up in more than one game, for to their verbal sparring had been added the factor of raw physical need. Tingles deep within her attested to it. “There’s a difference?” she floundered, buying time, hiding her growing turmoil in mock innocence. If that had been a half-kiss, she mused with alarm, she’d never have a chance in the world of winning the bet. This man had a touch, no doubt about it. She’d never been so affected before. Even now, as her hesitant gaze met his, she felt the draw. In her knees. Her chest. The deepest nooks and crannies of her body. All seemed suddenly aroused.
    Alex moved closer, a long forefinger stroking her cheek, “Oh, there’s a difference, owl-eyes,” he murmured, seemingly entranced by her lips. “Let me demonstrate.”
    If only she had pulled away then, before his demonstration, she might have saved herself. But she was mesmerized, held immobile by his hands, drugged by the manly scent that encompassed him as surely as his aura of command, and lost in, yes, a web of sheer desire.
    Alanna Evans was not an inexperienced woman. Yet Alex’s touch was new, his kiss exciting, his nearness an intoxicant she had never before known. Now, as his lips gently sampled hers, slanting tentatively across them, coaxing them apart with subtle promises, she had no wish to resist. Rather, her nascent response was an invitation to a depth of passion she could only imagine. A shudder ran through her at the touch of his tongue exploring the curve of her lips and the softness within. If her knees grew weak, it was of no import. For his arms circled her, drawing her from the wall and against the long, hard-muscled support of his body.
    The moment was isolated in eternity in Alanna’s wheeling mind. She felt overwhelmingly alive and fresh, electrically charged, drawn from dormancy to heaven. Her arms stole beneath his to his back, her hands reveling in the corded strength there.
    Then her pulse hammered loudly as he leaned back. His smoky gray eyes studied her indolently, savoring the flush on her cheeks. “Now it’s your turn,” he whispered, a deeply crooned challenge. Holding his face just so far from hers, he demanded that she take the