Breath of Scandal(151)

He touched her cheek with the back of his fingers and drew her head back around. "Side by side, Jade. I won't lie on top of you."

She moistened her lips. They tasted like Dillon-wonderfully like Dillon. "All right. Side by side." Nodding in agreement, he stepped away from her and began unbuttoning his shirt. "I'm not ready to take off my clothes yet," she said quickly.

"That's fine."

Apparently her choice didn't alter his. He peeled off his shirt and dropped it to the floor. He wasn't wearing a belt. The waistband of his old jeans was so bleached out, the threads were almost completely white. It curled outward, away from his body, creating a tantalizing gap between it and his flat, hair-spattered abdomen. Parting the mosquito netting, he dropped to the side of the bed and tugged off his boots one at a time, then removed his socks.

He stretched out on his back, his tanned skin looking



dark against the white sheets and mound of pillows. He extended his hand to her through the part in the netting. With trepidation, she lowered herself to his side. She slipped out of her sandals, but that was the only concession she made before closing the mosquito net.

Without his shirt, he seemed more threateningly male, and his raw masculinity began to overwhelm her. The dizzy euphoria that their kisses had created began to dissipate. The giddy sparks twinkled out one by one, like the embers from a dying firework. She felt the blackness of fear descending on her. Apparently Dillon sensed it, too.

He said softly, "I'm made out of the same tissue as you are, Jade. It's just shaped differently."

She glanced at his wide, hairy chest, the drastic dip that his abdomen took beneath his ribcage, the mystery of his navel, and the evident bulge in his crotch. "Quite."

With his index fingertip, he touched one comer of her anxious frown. "It's not that bad, is it?"

" It's not bad at all, " she repl ied huskily. " I Re the way you look. I have since I first saw you through the binoculars - "

He frowned with puzzlement. "Binoculars?" From the tip of his thumb to the tip of his little finger, he could almost span the width of her back. He rubbed his hand up and down her spine.

"Remember in L.A., when I recruited you, I told you I had been watching your work for several days. I watched you through binoculars from my hotel room across the street. Several times I thought you sensed me watching you. You seemed to look right at me." Her blue eyes found his and held. "You took my breath."

His hand stopped moving on her back and burned like a brand through the thin cloth of her blouse.

"I didn't know how to respond to the way you made me feel," she confessed in a throaty voice.

"What about now?"

"I still don't know how to respond." "Find out."



422



Sandra Bromm



Breath of Scandal



423

"How?" "Touch me. The promise still holds," he added. "I won't



touch back. Not if you don't want me to."

Warily she regarded his bare chest. "I would rather just kiss some more, if that's all right. "

His smile was only a little strained. "I can stand that, I think." He reached to pull her down to his level, but she bristled. His hands relaxed on her arms. "If we're going to kiss, we've got to get our mouths on the same level. Lie down, Jade."

After several tense moments, she stiffly lay down. He cupped her face between his hands and drew it toward his. Their mouths came together in another deep, wet kiss. It was soft, sensual, sexy. Provocatively, his tongue moved in and out of her mouth. Before long, the kiss wasn't enough. She wanted more.

it was easier to touch him when she wasn't looking him in the eye. Timidly, she laid her hand on his chest. He grunted with surprise and pleasure, but didn't release her mouth from his thorough kiss.

His skin was warm. His chest hair felt springy and alive against her palm. His nipple was raised and firm. She could feel it in the center of her hand. For several minutes she couldn't bring herself to move. But his kisses were potent, pulling from her all her anxiety and imbuing her with a restless curiosity and desire.

She moved her fingertips a fraction. More hard muscle. More hair. Her thumb glanced his nipple. He sucked in a quick breath and held it. Jade's hand froze where it was.

" I didn't mean to scare you, " he rasped Don't stop. "I didn't expect you to feel so-"

"So what, Jade?" "So ... nice. "

Laughing softly, he buried his face in her hair and hugged her close. He rolled her on top of him. The shift in positions was so sudden and unexpected that Jade didn't have time to prepare for the shock of lying between his thighs. Frozen, she stared down into his face.

"If you don't like it, we can change it," he said solemnly.

After analyzing it, she realized that she was experiencing arousal, not fear. It had been years since she had necked with Gary Parker. Because it had been so long since she had felt like this, she almost hadn't recognized it for what it was.

Yet the adolescent petting they had done couldn't compare to this. Gary had been a boy. Dillon was unquestionably a man and she was no longer a girl. She had been a woman for years, but Dillon was the first man to make her aware of her womanliness. It was a heady, exhilarating awakening.