Beneath the Secrets: Part One(16)

“I’m not getting undressed.”

He pushed off the wall and took a step toward her. Kara’s heart jackhammered and she held up a hand. “Don’t even think about it.”

“You do it or I’ll do it.”

“Forget it, Blake,” she said firmly. “You want to talk, then talk.”

“I talk better with you naked.”

“I don’t.”

“Too bad.”

They glared at one another, the air crackling with the tension between them, the distrust, the anger, and the desire. Kara swallowed hard. They were going to end up naked. She knew it. He knew it. Her mind raced. She wasn’t going to play a victim. That wasn’t who she’d created with this identity, nor was it who she’d been with him before now. It wasn’t even who she was as a person. No matter who he was or what he was, she couldn’t escape this moment in time with him, nor did she truly want to. Living in the moment was part of what she’d been trained to do. She wasn’t going to get emotionally attached, and letting herself enjoy this man physically might even save her life. It might be bad logic she’d question as sane later, but it worked for her now.

Her chin lifted. “You want me to get undressed, then you get undressed.”

His eyes darkened, narrowed, and something unreadable, dangerously hot and edgy, flickered in their depths. He stepped forward, taking a long stride toward her. Then another. Kara stood her ground, expecting him to stop in front of her, to touch her. Please yes. Now that she’d decided to do this, she was all about him touching her. But he didn’t stop right in front of her and he didn’t touch her.

He stepped to her side, his shoulder parallel to hers. “You don’t make the rules this time, Kara. I do.” He moved behind her, framing her body with his, but still he didn’t touch her. Anticipation burned through her. She wanted him to touch her.

His breath rasped along her neck and ear, a warm tease that slid along every nerve ending she owned with electric results. “So when I say get undressed, I mean get undressed.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You will.”

Kara tried to turn. His hands went to her hips, fingers pressing deliciously, possessive into her body. “Stay facing forward,” he ordered. “This way there’s no chance you can pull any slick moves like you did in Denver. I can see…everything.”

Everything. He made her want that and more. “And here I thought you weren’t the kind of man who was afraid of a woman. I guess I was wrong.”

“Don’t taunt the lion while you’re in his den, Kara. You might not like how he responds.”

Her sex clenched at the warning and she silently replied, or maybe I would like how he responds. Yes. Yes she thought she might like it quite a lot.

“Undress,” he ordered again.

“Make me,” she challenged, ready to hear his proverbial roar.





Chapter Six


The next thing Kara knew she was facing the wall, her palms against the hard surface, and Blake’s powerful legs were framing hers. His big hands skimmed up her waist, over her breasts, and his mouth settled near her ear. “Is this what you wanted? A reaction?” He unzipped her skirt. “Because you got one, baby.”

Kara swallowed against the dryness in her throat. “Yes. I wanted a reaction.” It was the truth. Knowing he wanted her, that he couldn’t resist, affected her, made her ache low in her belly.

“Why?” he demanded, sliding her skirt down her hips until it pooled at her feet, leaving her in her panties and thigh-highs. “Because you thought you’d make me let down my guard again?”

“Did it work?” Kara asked, swallowing hard as his finger traced the silk strand of her thong between her now bare cheeks.

“Like I said, fool me once, baby. Never again.” His hands went to her hips, his thick erection nuzzled to her backside.

“Who exactly are you trying to convince?” she challenged, sounding breathless. “Me? Or you?”

He made a low, rough sound and then his hand reached around her and caught the top of her blouse, ripping away all the buttons. “How’s that for convincing us both?”

Kara gasped and her nipples puckered into tight knots of need. “I have to wear that out of here.” Her voice was raspy, a barely there rough whisper she didn’t even recognize as her own. God. What was this man doing to her?

“You should have undressed on your own, then.” He pulled her blouse down her shoulders, and when she expected him to remove it, he used it to hold her wrists behind her back. “I told you,” he warned, his hot breath fanning her neck near her ear, “don’t taunt the lion in his own den.”

“It’s a hotel,” she reminded him defiantly. “It’s not your den.”

“You really do like to live dangerously, don’t you?” His voice was dark, edgy, and he twisted her shirt into some sort of knot that bound her wrists, binding her and putting her fully at his mercy. She should have objected, feeling fear or panic. Instead, heat flooded her body in a rush of adrenaline and desire. She’d never been tied up by a man, never allowed one that kind of control, and this was not the man to start giving it to. But her body defied her, her skin tingling, her sex tight and aching.