Stormbound Read Online Free Page A

I’m in a male-dominated career. I have to prove myself.”
    “When deep down, you want to be taken.”
    Levi had been so intent on Narah that he’d again forgotten about Briant’s presence until he spoke. Not letting up his hold, he looked over at his friend. He couldn’t say whether he wanted Briant here or for this to be between Narah and himself.
    “That’s the truth, isn’t it?” Briant pressed. “You’re self-confident and determined. You’ve always been like that, yet part of you needs a take-charge man, especially in the bedroom. Deep down, you want what you aren’t getting.”
    She’d started shivering before Briant finished. Her eyes glistened. “What makes you think you know so damn much about me?”
    Briant started to shrug, only to smile. “Give her to me.”
    Was this really happening? Levi pondered while he did as the taller man commanded. Settling his hands over her shoulders, Briant held Narah before him. In the world they’d left behind, she’d be fighting like an alley cat. Instead, her arms hung loosely. Breathing fast, she watched him.
    Maybe Levi imagined it, but weren’t Briant’s hands less than steady as he reached for her sweatshirt hem? He started to lift it.
    “Any questions?” Briant asked.
    She licked her lips, and her fingers twitched. “No.”
    “What about objections?”
    Would she call a halt to the insanity? End what he needed as he’d never needed anything? Instead, she glanced at the window where Mother Nature’s fury tore at the wilderness. “No. None.”
    A less than practiced move later, Briant had hauled the old sweatshirt off her and tossed it over his shoulder. Levi wasn’t seeing this. No way was Briant running a hand between Narah’s legs and pressing his fingers against her crotch. Nor was she sinking down a little and closing her legs. But she was. “Oh God,” she mouthed.
    “She’s wet,” Briant said. “And hot.”
    Damn it, he’d been 100 percent wrong to think he could stand off to the side. Something that might turn into a growl if he didn’t clamp down on it rolled through Levi as he yanked Briant’s hand away and slid his own into the sweet space. Oh shit yes, her jeans’ crotch was damp, all right.
    Suddenly angry, he withdrew. “What are you?” he demanded. “Some kind of damn tease?”
    “Tease?” She glared. “You think I’m all hot and bothered so I can—so I can what?”
    He didn’t know, didn’t know anything except he was no longer the man he’d been that morning. Grabbing her soft bare shoulders, he began propelling her backward. She stumbled, and he helped her regain her balance only to push again. “I was raised to respect women. I’d never, ever treat a woman like a whore.”
    She stopped with a jolt. He tried to get her moving again only to realize they’d reached a wall. There was nowhere to go—and no stopping what was boiling up inside him.
    He forced his knee between her legs. “I opened doors, said please and thank-you, sent flowers and chocolate, courted my wife. That’s it, I goddamn courted her, but it wasn’t enough. She whored herself to some bastard.”
    “Levi, careful.”
    Briant could go to hell. Levi wasn’t anywhere near blowing up.
    Was he?
    “Are you like she was?” he demanded of the level-eyed woman staring at him. “Laughing because a man’s walking around with a hard-on but you aren’t ready to put out?”
    “Is that what you think?”
    He could take anger or even fear on her part. He didn’t know how to handle her compassion. Dizzy, he ran his knuckles over the side of her neck.
    “You aren’t talking to me,” she said. “A lot of stuff has been piling up inside you for too long. Today”—she looked confused—“for whatever reason, it’s all coming out.”
    “Maybe.”
    “No maybe to it.” Mimicking what he’d just done, she rubbed her knuckles against his neck with so much pressure, he wasn’t sure whether her intention was to caress or punish. “Finish what