The dark current in his voice threatened to pull her under, into heated, unknown depths. She writhed in his tight grasp and the fluttering urge of desire caught her tight in a hot fist. “You’ve never noticed me at all, Jericho. Why do you think I wore the red dress?”
“You mean, you changed your look for me?” Damn, what a turn-on. “But what you don’t know is that I’ve fantasized about you from the moment I met you. You are sleeping, Kate, and I want to be the one to awaken you.”
Kate tried to speak, but her lungs heaved from the shock of his admission and his weight as he pressed her tighter to the wall.
“I thought it prudent to refrain from getting involved with a coworker,” Jericho said, “but it hasn’t been easy to keep my hands off you.”
A spurt of anger made her reckless. Kate found her voice and said softly, “Who said anything about involvement? I want hot, raw, out-of-control sex.”
Jericho jerked away from her body. The silence between them stretched out. She wasn’t going to move or speak. She was going to torture him. Watch him twist in the flames with that knowing look in his eyes.
Kate shivered at the way his eyes searched hers as if he could see right through her. All the way down to the sweet, restless ache that pulsed inside her, where the wild woman waited, naked and willing and wanton. The knowledge of her deepest, hidden secret was bare in his eyes. He knew perfectly well how much she wanted him. He’d always known.
But it was only dawning on her now, this minute, how much he wanted her.
That turnedheron. She tried to remember that this was supposed to be about teasing and begging, but she got lost in the swirl of his sinfully dark eyes.
Jericho gathered the mass of her hair into his hand and buried his face against the rippling strands.
She let out a startled cry as he seized her, hauling her up against the hard contours of his body.
His arms tightened around her, and he stared into her eyes. As fierce and intent as if he could read her mind.
His heat scorched her. His muscles firm and hot, burning her through the thin fabric of her dress. His breath was as rapid as her own.
Jericho made a harsh sound deep in his throat and his arms tightened around her with steely strength. It was as if he could read her purpose to only tease him relentlessly, to make him get down on his knees and beg her.
With a mocking slant to his mouth, he fused his lips to hers, a searing, devouring kiss, unlike anything she had ever known or imagined. She was dragged into it headlong, intoxicated by his voracious energy, the taste of him almost familiar, yet not. He smelled so good—soap and starch, and a unique smell of his own, warm, and enticing, like cinnamon. His jaw was rough; his sensual mouth coaxed hers open. Eager, bold, and delicious.
She wanted to writhe against him, to crawl inside his skin, to touch everything, to taste everything. He was so strong, bursting with fierce energy, and she ached with hunger for it. His thick shaft pressed against her, rock-hard, radiating heat.
It was the press of his flesh to hers that brought her shockingly to her own senses. No. This was too easy. She was committed and hurtling forward into the unknown, but it would be on her terms.
She pulled away from him and stepped back. She opened her mouth, praying that something coherent would come out. “What do you want, Jericho?”
“You.”
“Good. I’ve wanted you for months, but you already knew that.”
A muscle pulsed in his jaw and his eyes narrowed. A prickle of unease mixed into the shimmering, giddy alchemy of her excitement.
Danger.
She wanted to stroke the fine, elegant planes of his face, to soothe the pulsations of need and desire that emanated from him. The scarlet desire and gold of pleasure flashed across her in dazzling promise like dream images.
“Kate…”
She turned and walked away from him. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done, but she was determined to let him know that she wasn’t a pushover, that he couldn’t play her like a witness on the stand. This time she was going to call the shots.
She turned and gave him a coy look. “It’s your turn to wait.”
CHAPTER3
Kate was smiling as she hailed a cab. Getting into the vehicle when it stopped, she settled onto the back seat.
The look on his face had been priceless.
Kate pulled out her cell phone and dialed Lana, who answered on the first ring.