Blogger Bundle Volume VIII: SBTB's Harlequins That Hooked You Read online

  “Yes, sir.”

  She drove behind him to a two-story, half-timbered motel on the frozen lake. At this time of year there were few people traveling this way who needed a place to stay, but one wing was open, and they were assured that the dining room served dinner until seven. If they wanted to risk frostbite, they could rent skates and go out on the lake, or they could go tobogganing on a hill two miles up the road. Dare thanked the desk clerk for the information and picked up his overnight bag and Andrea’s.

  “Do you feel like ice-skating, Captain?” he asked as he and Andrea rode the elevator to the second floor.

  “No, sir, not especially.”

  “Tobogganing?”

  “No, sir. It’s too damn cold.”

  The corners of his blue eyes creased as he smiled down at her. “Indoor sports?”

  She smiled back. “The best kind.”

  “Nooky?”

  Andrea threw her head back and laughed. “Absolutely.”

  Dare had splurged on a two-room suite, and in the sitting room there was a fireplace with gas logs. He bent to light it while Andrea shucked her outer gear. When the flame was adjusted to his satisfaction, he straightened and turned to face her.

  “Come here, woman,” he said roughly, then grinned as she laughed and flew into his arms. Lifting her from her feet, he whirled her in circles. Whatever her reservations, she’d clearly left them behind for now. He was grateful for that, very grateful.

  Her nose was still cold from the outdoors when he bent his head to kiss her, but her mouth was warm, so very warm and moist, making him think of those secret places he longed to explore. Later there would be time to take things slow, but right now he felt like a man who’d been starving all his life.

  Setting Andrea on her feet, he took one of her hands and pressed it to his swollen manhood. Then, never taking his eyes from hers, he reached for her sweater and began to pull it up.

  “Do you know what I’m going to do to you, Andrea?”

  Her eyelids fluttered, and a secret smile came to her lips as she raised her arms over her head. “Tell me,” she suggested. “In detail.”

  A choked laugh escaped him as he tugged the sweater over her head. As soon as Andrea freed her hands form the sleeves of her sweater, she reached for him. Her fingers released the snap of his jeans and tugged his zipper down. Bending to place his mouth near her ear, he told her in titillating detail just what he had in mind.

  He heard her swiftly drawn breath, heard her smothered moan, felt her tremble beneath his hands as he whispered his intentions and unfastened her bra. The bra went the way of her sweater, somewhere across the room, and his hands went to the fastening of her jeans as he bent lower and took the tip of her breast into his mouth.

  “Dare!” She gasped his name and hooked her fingers into the waistband of his pants, yanking downward. She was as impatient as he was now. Electric currents tingled along her nerves, and she felt herself melting, growing liquid and weak. She moaned with disappointment when he tore his mouth from her breast so that he could pull her jeans the rest of the way off. There was a horrible moment of delay while he dealt with her boots, and then she was free of all the restrictions of her clothes.

  Before he could prevent it, she fell to her knees before him and reached for his pants to finish what she’d started. He went to work on the buttons of his shirt, but his fingers fumbled and then froze in utter amazement as Andrea pressed her face into his groin. Tremors like an earthquake shook him, and he tried to hold perfectly still for fear a single movement might cause her to pull back.

  Andrea nuzzled him slowly, inhaling deeply of his male scent. His hair was so thick there, she thought, and so crisp against her cheek, a sharp contrast to skin as unexpectedly smooth as satin. Then slowly, daringly, she licked him delicately with the tip of her tongue.

  That put paid to the last of Dare’s self-control. Dropping to his own knees, he eased Andrea swiftly onto her back, and then he was on her and in her, taking her with a driving rhythm as primitive and basic as his hunger for this woman.

  Andrea slept deeply and soundly, so deeply and soundly that she didn’t wake when Dare lifted her from the sitting room carpet and carried her to the king-size bed in the next room. When he drew the blankets up over her, she sighed and turned onto her side, but her eyes never opened. Dare stood over her for a while, smiling faintly. Clearly she hadn’t slept any better this week than he had.

  He felt a little embarrassed by the rough, quick way he’d taken her. Hell, he’d come back to himself to discover that he still wore his shirt, and that his jeans were twisted around his ankles, caught on his boots. There was something indecent in that, especially for a man who’d always tried to be a considerate lover. Talk about jumping a woman’s bones!

  It was just after four, and beyond the windows, daylight was rapidly fading. Soon the northern night would blanket the world. Outside, the wind was kicking up again, and though the windows were double-paned, he could swear he felt a cold draft. Leaving Andrea, he went to close the insulated curtains in both rooms.

  He wanted to lie down beside her, but mindful of the fact that the dining room would close at seven, he couldn’t risk it. If he closed his eyes, he would be apt to sleep for hours. A long week of sleepless nights and this morning’s events virtually guaranteed it. Knowing Andrea’s appetite, he couldn’t imagine her making it until tomorrow morning without a meal, especially not with the activities he had in mind for later.

  A frown came to his brow as he thought about what had happened and the suspicions Andrea had shared with him at lunch. He’d managed to put her on hold, but in fact, the more he thought about it, the more he thought she might just be right about what was going on. But why would somebody be out to get him? He was no saint, but he couldn’t remember ever having done anything to make anyone that angry. If somebody really did have that big a grudge against him, they must be a little unhinged.

  The thing was, he didn’t want to think that whoever had punctured his hydraulic lines had meant to kill him. Scare the devil out of him, yes, but kill him, no. Killing him would have involved no more effort—less, in fact—than making those small, careful holes. A person with access to plastique didn’t have to make tiny punctures in hydraulic lines.

  Or maybe, like most people, he was just unable to believe that someone had genuinely tried to kill him. Because, if he were to be honest with himself, he had survived only by the skin of his teeth. And when he thought about those endless minutes in the dive as he battled to gain control, it was almost possible to believe that someone had meant him to suffer that excruciating awareness of his impending fate. Whoever had made those little holes would probably be disappointed to know that during those interminable minutes, Dare had been too busy and too full of adrenaline to feel any fear.

  Rubbing his eyes wearily, he decided he’d better call room service and have them send up something that would keep for a few hours. He had the feeling that he was going to sleep whether he wanted to or not, so he might as well do it comfortably, at Andrea’s side, rather than in uncomfortable snatches sitting up on the couch and fighting it.

  Forty minutes later, stripped to the buff, he crawled under the covers beside her. In her sleep she turned into his arms, resting her head on his chest, twining her legs with his. Contented, he let himself sleep at last.

  Andrea awoke hours later to a dark room, but she knew instantly where she was. Only once before in her life had she wakened with arms around her, and with Dare’s arms around her it didn’t seem to matter where on the planet she was.

  They were tucked together like spoons, one of his arms beneath her head, one resting heavily on her waist. She could hear his deep, steady breathing above her head, and against her back she could feel the springy hair of his chest and groin. It would be nice, she thought dreamily, if they could stay like this forever.

  The memory of their earlier lovemaking was vivid in her mind, and she indulged herself in the luxury of a mental rep