Dangerous Magic Read Free Page B

move over hers, seeking out the corners. When she would have turned her head aside, his teeth somehow caught her tender lower lip and closed on it with insolent, gentle promise.
    She stood very still, letting the force of his chastising passion spend itself, her eyes shut against the reality of what was happening. Later, she vowed silently, later she would teach this arrogant man a lesson he would never forget!
    She felt his hands move at last, releasing their grip on her arms and sliding around her waist. Elissa waited tensely, hoping for an opportunity to free herself, but even as she weighed the odds, she was being arched into the hard line of his thighs and her throat was becoming the focus of his determined mouth. She was aware of the intent in him in the most elemental way a woman can become aware of a man, and the knowledge was an added danger Elissa recognized only belatedly. It was only when the fundamental electricity in him began transferring itself to her through the contact points of hands and thigh and lips that she faced a new kind of fear.
    “No!” she breathed grimly, refusing to allow her new inner despair to show in her voice. “I won’t allow you to do this to me!” Could he know, she wondered desperately, just what he was beginning to do to her? How could her body react so traitorously to a man who promised nothing but insults and punishment! But it was beginning to react, and she had to stop the assault before her knees gave way completely.
    “Why don’t you allow me to kiss you, Elissa?” he mocked, dropping tiny, stinging caresses along her jaw and at the edge of her mouth. “Think of all I can do for you in exchange. And there’s no wife waiting in the background to make matters difficult this time,” he went on coaxingly.
    “You’ll have entire nights to practice your magic on me. Who knows how far you can go in this company?”
    With all her self-control, Elissa stifled the temptation to hurl all the verbal abuse she could think of back at him. At this dangerous juncture she must keep her priorities straight, and the most important thing was to get free of him. The second most vital matter was to set the stage for revenge, no matter how puny it might turn out to be. She would not let Wade Taggert treat her like this and get off scot-free!
    “I’m listening to you,” she muttered bitterly. “There’s not much else I can do until you stop playing out your little scene. But you have to admit I’
    ve got some readjusting to do. I hardly expected this when you summoned me to the office this afternoon.”
    He lifted his head at that remark, leaving one last rather fierce kiss on her mouth before he did so. The gray eyes gazed broodingly down at her upturned face, and she could see the deliberation in them. He was wondering if she’d begun to see matters his way.
    “You expected to be told you’d gotten the promotion, didn’t you?” he demanded musingly.
    “It was a logical assumption on my part,” she retorted, aware of the bruised feeling of her mouth. His embrace had been more in the nature of an attack, she thought fleetingly. As if Wade Taggert wanted it clear from the outset that he would be calling the shots between them.
    “There will be other promotions, other possibilities,” he told her with cool promise. His hands were still around her waist, and she could feel the strength in his fingers as they almost absently kneaded the lower curve of her back. It was a startlingly erotic sensation, she discovered to her horror, and one he wasn’t even going out of his way to perform.
    “Will there?” she questioned carefully, moving slightly and finding herself able to put a couple of inches between their bodies. She waited breathlessly for the next opportunity to push for her freedom. Deliberately she kept her wide, sea-colored eyes on his face, trying to project the uncertainty of a woman seriously considering exchanging lovers. She would allow him to think he was winning