Man of the Hour Read Online Free Page B

rose and fell roughly and he moved a hand into the thick hair knotted at her nape and grasped it suddenly. He held her head firmly while he started to bend toward her.
    “Steve…” she protested uncertainly.
    “One kiss,” he whispered back gruffly. “Is that so much to ask?”
    “We shouldn’t,” she whispered at his lips.
    “I know…” His hard mouth brushed over hers slowly, suggestively. His powerful body went very still and his free hand moved to her throat, stroking it tenderly. His thumb tugged at the lower lip that held stubbornly to its mate and broke the taut line.
    Her hands pressed at his shirtfront, fascinated by warm, hard muscle and a heavy heartbeat. She couldn’t quite manage to push him away.
    “Mary Margaret,” he breathed jerkily, and then he took her mouth.
    “Oh, glory…!” she moaned, shivering. It was a jolt like diving into ice water. It burned through her body and through her veins and made her go rigid with helpless pleasure. He was far more expert than he’d been even four years ago. His tongue gently probed its way into the warm darkness of her mouth and she gasped at the darting, hungry pressure of its invasion. He tasted of smoke and mint, and his mouth was rough, as if he’d gone hungry for kisses.
    While she was gathering up willpower to resist him, he reached down and lifted her in his hard arms, crushing her into the wall of his chest while his devouring kisses made her oblivious to everything except desire. At the center of the world was Steve and his hunger, and she was suddenly, shockingly, doing her very best to satisfy it, to satisfy him, with her arms clinging helplessly around his neck.
    He lifted his mouth to draw in a ragged breath, and she hung there with swollen lips, wide-eyed, breathing like a distance runner.
    “If you don’t stop,” she whispered unsteadily, “I’ll tear your clothes off and ravish you right here on the carpet!”
    Despite his staggering hunger, the humor broke through, as it always had with her, only with her. There had never beenanother woman who could make him laugh, could make him feel so alive.
    “Oh, God, why can’t you shut up for five minutes?” he managed through reluctant laughter.
    “Self-defense,” she said, laughing, too, her own voice breathless with traces of passion. “Oh, Steve, can you kiss!” she moaned.
    He shook his head, defeated. He let her slide down his body to the floor, close enough to feel what had happened to him.
    “Sorry,” she murmured impishly.
    “Only with you, honey,” he said heavily, the endearment coming easily when he never used them. He held her arms firmly for a minute before he let her go with a rueful smile and turned away to light another cigarette. “Odd, that reaction. I need a little time with most women. It was never that way with you.”
    She hadn’t thought about it in four years. Now she had to, and he was right. The minute he’d touched her, he’d been capable. She’d convinced herself that he never wanted her, but her memory hadn’t dimmed enough to forget the size and power of him in arousal. She’d been a little afraid of him the first time it had happened, in fact, although he’d assured her that they were compatible in every way, especially in that one. She didn’t like remembering how intimate they’d been, because it was still painful to remember how it had all ended. Looking back, it seemed impossible that he could have gone to Daphne after they argued, unless…
    She stiffened as she remembered how desperately he’d wanted her. Had he been so desperate that he’d needed to spend his desire with someone else?
    “Steve,” she began.
    He glanced at her. “What?”
    “What you said, earlier. Was it difficult for you,” she said slowly. “Holding back?”
    “Yes.” His face changed. “Apparently that didn’t occur to you four years ago,” he said sarcastically.
    “A lot of things didn’t occur to me four years ago,” she said. She felt a dawning