Counselor Undone Read Free Page A

around her. “Be mine tonight, Juliet. Let me give you your first
pleasure of the New Year.”
    * * *
    Juliet managed only a whimper in response to the gladiator’s
entreaty. Her voice completely abandoned her. His nibbling lips returned to her
neck. His warm hand fondling her breast, coupled with his well-endowed shaft
riding above the throbbing apex of her thighs, built an erotic pressure deep
inside her center and hinted ecstasy lingered only a small pelvic alignment
away.
    A battle raged inside her. The level-headed intellectual in
her kept telling her to nix this behavior before this stranger bashed her in
the head, did horrific things to her, and dumped her body in some toxic ditch,
making her a tragedy worthy of an episode of Criminal Minds . The
passionate woman in her, the one she’d buried beneath a deluge of
disillusionment and cured with a heavy dose of compulsive career focus, started
fighting her way free of the self-imposed fourteen-month cell of abstinence.
    She pushed his hip, trying to put space between their
thighs. “Please,” she tossed the impassioned plea at him, not really sure what
she was asking.
    Was she asking him to stop? Yes.
    Was she asking him not to stop? Yes.
    She’d never understood the notion of mixed signals. She’d
always thought it a simple matter of you did or you didn’t—you wanted to
or you didn’t want to. How self-righteously ignorant she’d been. Heaven help
her. Everything about this man turned her on, and she didn’t even know his
name.
    His hand dropped from her breast. “Tell me, Juliet, are you
as wet for me as I am hard for you?”
    His hand reached under the folds of her costume, and she
squirmed. A deep flush spread over her body. She was wet. She blocked
his hand with her leg, trying to shield the evidence of her arousal and stave
off the orgasm that surely would occur if he touched her.
    He squeezed his hand between her legs and cupped her
intimately. He lifted triumphant eyes to hers. “Why would you want to hide this
from me?” he murmured gruffly.
    “I can’t . . . ,” she started, but didn’t finish. Her train
of thought vanished with the glide of his fingers over the damp satin triangle
of her thong. A sound squeezed from her throat she didn’t recognize, having
never before vocalized this particular note of tortured bliss.
    “Don’t deny me, Juliet. You’re the best part of this whole
miserable New Year’s Eve for me.”
    Despite herself, the urge to rock her pelvis against his
fingers grew strong. She bordered on emotional overload. She couldn’t reconcile
the pleasure she felt from his touch with the horror rising inside her for her
uncharacteristically loose behavior. That this man’s kiss, his words, his
illicitly placed fingers, could give her the most stimulating sexual encounter
of her life both puzzled and overwhelmed her.
    Her feminine walls started to pulse and tremble, but she couldn’t
allow him to continue. She slid her hand between them, inadvertently brushing
the back of her hand against his erection. His sharp intake of breath rattled
her already shredded composure.
    She wrapped her hand firmly around his broad wrist and closed
her eyes to steady herself. When she thought she’d conquered her emotions, she
opened her eyes and peered into his watchful gaze. “We have to stop.” She
squeezed his wrist. “ I have to stop. Please, let go.”
    A few seconds passed before he moved, letting his hand drop.
A question built behind his eyes before he finally whispered, “Who are you?”
    She hesitated a moment, contemplating her response. She
could tell by his expression he’d finally realized she wasn’t the woman he’d
come looking for. Did it bother him? He seemed simply curious not angry.
Nevertheless, innate self-preservation made her glance around for an escape
route.
    The gladiator placed a hand firmly on her waist to hold her
in place. “Tell me your name. Your real name. I have to see you again.”
    Her mind raced.