Darkest Love Read Free

second time. This time it was her looking down on that poised body. She had felt what it could do. Rain was a man who held a lot inside him–his body had been built over years of releasing his aggression through sports. He was the sort of person who would burn up inside if he didn’t get it out.
    He smiled with such knowing sexiness that Annie’s heart fluttered. The muscle in his thigh changed shape, its hard planes rearranging, as he raised a knee. Annie had a wonderful suspicion that his loins were stirring too.
    â€œI need to fuck you,” he had hissed once, on top of her, with such aggression and need she gripped her own feet and came with an open-mouthed tremble. Starbursts filled her vision until it was white light, like the sky after an atomic bomb explosion.
    Do you need me now? Annie’s own voice spoke in her head. Rain was staring at her, wrists hanging over the arms of the chair, the planes of his gorgeous arms tanned and smooth above the winding bamboo. She knew what to expect from this man.
    He needs to fuck me. It doesn’t mean he wants ME.
    â€œSure, Rain. Let’s go for a swim.”
    * * * *
    Annie was hungry for it. She ached for a return to something she knew, for the shot of rage and pain that came along with sex with Rain Mistern.
    They walked side by side on the riverbank, examining the oxbow lakes. Annie stole any chance she could to examine his face too. The stream system was definitely interesting, and worth journalling about, but her eyes couldn’t stop darting up to Rain Mistern’s lips and strong jaw.
    Sex with him is going to destroy my career for good. If the slutty rep doesn’t finish me, this inability to focus will. Annie couldn’t control it–the emotions she had for this man were too strong. Desire and rage and hate and love mixed together in a dangerous blend.
    Sex with Rain Mistern—which she had been having on and off for two years now—was painful. And not just because Rain was one of those men who changed the moment it was over, cooling like a hot stone dropped in a swimming pool.
    â€œHe has…a sadistic streak,” she had explained to Lily, then cringed when a barrage of questions flooded in. People were way too interested in Rain, and any details of their trysts.
    Maybe that’s because he’s so gorgeous . His brows angled thoughtfully as he turned a rock over in his hands. Annie watched his lips murmuring as he examined the patterns in the sedimentary rock, and caught a few words: Clastic. Planar Splitting. Gondwana. Permian Period.
    â€œYou know what they say about people who move their lips when they think,” Annie teased.
    Rain looked back as if he was startled she was still there. “Oh,” he said after a moment. His grin was so hot, Annie’s cheeks flushed. “I think it’s people who move their lips when they read. They’re the dumb ones.”
    â€œAh yes. Correct, Mr. Mistern. You are even dumber, I suppose. You can’t even have a thought without moving that mouth.” He moved as if to throw the rock at her, giving her a great view of rippled triceps spreading like a wing, then tossed it in the air instead, catching the rock back in a tanned hand.
    â€œI’m taking this one back to New York,” he said.” The geologists will examine it. I’ll get someone to date it—the lines are really clear and curved.”
    He showed her, tracing a finger over the lines that bounded the sedimentary layers.
    â€œClear indeed,” Annie gulped. Their bodies were so close she could smell the salty male skin under his silt-drenched clothes. Power and a touch of viciousness seemed to ooze from Rain, who always held his body a little tense. He was constantly poised, constantly ready to strike or react or make a move. It was as if there was so much force and power within him he struggled to contain it. Annie knew a secret about his body: that he ripped his body