“You’re just trying to goad me because I won’t give in. Sounds like sour grapes to me.”
“I can wait, Kate. But can you?”
With that, he captured her lips and shot sensation through her body like lightning bolts, and all she could do was sit there and absorb the shock. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Whatever it was she had felt building between them hit her a hundred times over.
Her heart slammed into her throat, stayed there while his mouth continued to seduce. She should pull away, she thought hazily. Put distance between herself and this man who had started a war between need and doubt raging inside her.
But she couldn’t. Didn’t want to. The primal male taste of him was potent, like a dark, seductive dream.
“Jericho…” His name came hoarsely from her throat. “I…” In an open, mindless invitation, she parted her lips beneath his and surrendered.
Swearing, he fisted his hand in her hair, tipped her head back, and deepened the kiss. Desire shot like a bullet through her.
Her hands streaked up. She dug her fingers into his hard, muscled upper arms while her senses staggered with the thrill of his touch.
His mouth was a banquet, and she was desperate with hunger. She smelled the inviting scent of him, felt the strength in the arms that held her, heard the thunder of his heart against hers. Sudden, searing need for him edged at her throat.
That need frightened her. It reduced her to a quivering mass, made every logical thought leave her head, had her desperate to lie naked in his arms while they engaged in wild, raging lovemaking.
She pulled her head back, her lungs heaving, her breasts rising and falling against his chest.
“That was a challenge, wasn’t it?” Her breath shuddered from beneath her lips.
“Damn right,” he agreed, his voice raw.
A scant inch of charged air separated their lips while she tried to think past the ache that had settled inside her. Against hers, his body was strong and hard and tense, and all she wanted was to spend the rest of the morning in his arms.
“Time for you to go,” she said, even as a shudder of pure longing went through her. “I can hold out if you can.”
He smiled and she remembered that he loved competition. That smile cut through her, reminding her she was so very far out of her league where Jericho was concerned.
“And I am too adventurous.”
He slid his hands in one long, possessive stroke down the sides of her body. Then back up. Light from her lamps slanted across the strong planes of his face. Desire had turned his eyes the color of burnt umber.
“Prove it.”
She broke eye contact and slid off the desk, taking a step sideways, forcing him to drop his hands. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Even now, when her brain could barely function, she knew that this man had touched something deep inside her, something that no other man had touched. And the intensity of those emotions scared her to death. She wasn’t used to chaos, had never liked the jumble of emotions taking over. She used her intellect, but it seemed to be lacking in this case.
That knowledge shook her. She had to regain control. Her fingers clenched into fists as she stared up at him. He looked dangerous. Compelling, reckless. Dangerous.
And if the man himself wasn’t dangerous, what she felt for him when he kissed her surely was.
She couldn’t let herself fall for him. This wasn’t about emotion or long term. This was about a souvenir and who could hold out the longest. It was now also, surprisingly, about adventure.
“Tomorrow, Katie.”
After her door closed, she sagged against the desk. Dazed, she lifted a hand, touched her fingers to her lips, lips that felt hot and swollen and thoroughly kissed. It took every ounce of her self-control not to pull her door open, go pounding down the stairs and drag him back into her apartment.
CHAPTER5
Kate woke up before her alarm, before the sun had illuminated the horizon. In the still of the morning, as she lay in her bed, she thought about Jericho and his challenge.
She got out of bed feeling troubled and out of sorts. An hour doing yoga had always set her on a good path in the morning.
Kate walked into the spacious kitchen and picked up her diffuser, an electronic bowl with a lid that allowed aromatic oils to be heated, releasing their intoxicating smell into the air to relieve stress.