Thorn's Challenge - Brenda Jackson [1]
Any further words died on her lips when she saw that the man she had bumped into was Thorn Westmoreland. He seemed as surprised to see her as she was to see him.
“Thorn.”
“Tara.”
He returned her greeting in an irritated tone as his intense dark eyes held her gaze. She frowned, wondering what he was upset about. He hadn’t been looking where he was going any more than she had, so the blame wasn’t all hers. But she decided to be cordial for once where he was concerned. “I apologize for not looking where I was going.”
When he didn’t say anything, but frowned and narrowed his eyes at her, Tara decided not to wait for a response that undoubtedly wasn’t coming. She made a move to pass him, and it was then that she noticed he had not removed his hand from her arm. She looked down at his hand and then back at him.
“Thanks for keeping me from falling, Thorn, but you can let go of me now.”
Instead of releasing her, his hold tightened and then he muttered something deep in his throat, which to Tara’s ears sounded pretty much like, “I doubt if I can.” Then, suddenly, without any warning, he leaned down and captured her lips with his.
The first thought that came to Tara’s mind was that she had to resist him. But a second thought quickly followed; she should go ahead and get him out of her system since he had been there from the day they’d met. Shamefully she admitted that the attraction she’d felt for him was stronger than any she’d ever felt for a man, and that included Derrick Hayes, the man she had planned to marry.
The third thought that whipped through her mind was that Thorn Westmoreland definitely knew how to kiss. The touch of his tongue to hers sent a jolt through her so intense, her midsection suddenly felt like a flaming torch. Emotions, powerful and overwhelming, shot through her, and she whimpered softly as he deepened the kiss with bold strokes of his tongue, seizing any sound she made, effectively and efficiently staking a claim on her mouth.
A claim she didn’t want him to make, but one he was making anyway.
He used his hands to cup her bottom boldly and instinctively she moved closer to him, coming into contact with his straining arousal. When she placed her arms around his neck, he arched his back, lifted her off the floor and brought her more snugly to him, hip-to-hip, thigh-to-thigh, and breast-to-breast. His taste, tinged with the slight hint of champagne, went right to her head, and a dizzy rush of need she couldn’t explain sent blood rushing through all parts of her.
When he finally released her mouth and placed her back down on solid ground, they were both breathless. He didn’t let go of her. He continued to hold her in his arms, nibbling on her neck, her chin and her lips before recapturing her mouth with his for another bone-melting kiss.
He sucked on her tongue tenderly, passionately, slowly, as though he had all the time in the world to drive her mad with desire. It was a madness that flooded her insides and made her moan out a pleasure she had never experienced before. Potent desire, stimulating pleasure, radiated from his hands, his tongue and the hard body pressed to hers. When he finally broke off the kiss, she slumped weakly against his chest thinking that in all her twenty-seven years, she had never been kissed like that.
She slowly regained her senses as she felt him remove his hands from her. She slid her hands from his shoulders and looked up into his eyes, seeing anger radiating there. He apparently was mad at himself for having kissed her, and even madder with her for letting him. Without saying a word he turned and walked off. He didn’t look back. When he was no longer in sight she breathed deeply, still feeling the heat from his kiss.
Tara nervously moistened her lips as she tried to regain control of her senses. She felt it was fairly safe to assume, after a kiss like that, that Thorn was now out of her system. In any case, she was determined more than ever to continue to avoid him like the plague.
Two years ago she had learned a hard lesson; love, the happily-ever-after