Paper Dolls Read Free

behind Clay’s strong and warm body curled around me, trapping me in his arms, but making me feel safe. I became aware of the strength in his forearms and his arms, the way that he used them to keep me against him and a very different emotion coursed through me, something hot and electric. I fought a shudder.
    I looked right, his face sitting just over my shoulder. There was a wicked glint in his eyes as they held my stare for one moment, then he looked out. I followed his gaze and found the water.
    Realisation struck me. “You wouldn’t dare.”
    He lowered his lips to my ear, the softness brushing against my lobe, causing my thighs to tremble. “Wouldn’t I?”
    He began to walk us forward. I struggled against him, a rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins, shaking off the gathered cobwebs and bubbling out into giggles. “Oh my God, Clay. I have no other clothes. My shoes. Everything will get wet.”
    “You had your chance to undress.” His deep voice, full of amusement, tickled down my neck making me shiver.
    He dragged me all the way to the lake’s edge onto a flat rock jutting out over the water. Through the surface was the rocky lake bed and several pale fish swimming about.
    He paused. I exhaled. He was just bluffing. Of course he was just bluffing. He wouldn’t really do it.
    He picked me up and my feet kicked out automatically. “No! Don’t!”
    With his laughter in my ear, I was tossed forward. I inhaled, squeezing everything shut, and waited for the water to swallow me up.
    He didn’t release me. My body jerked against his arms as he tugged me back and my legs pulled back in. He placed my trembling legs back on the rock and his arms loosened around me. It took me a second to realise that he had been bluffing.
    “You ass.” I turned and slapped his chest. It was like hitting granite. “I hate you.”
    He grabbed my wrists to stop me from hitting him again and pulled me towards him, this time face to face. One of his arms wrapped around me to trap me against him, my arms between us. My fingertips fluttered on his chest. His bare torso was so warm in contrast to the cool air that it sent shivers through me.
    “No you don’t,” he said. “You love me.” I could still see amusement in his eyes, but joining it now was a seriousness.
    I swallowed hard. “You arrogant ass. Keep telling yourself that.”
    “I will. Just until you figure it out.”
    He was too close and almost naked and his skin was too warm and he smelled too damn good, hints of cedar but it was tempered with a warm musk and some kind of spice. I couldn’t think of anything clever to say back. It wasn’t fair of him to do this to me. His brain seemed perfectly functional whenever I was near. Why couldn’t I have this same effect on him?
    My gaze moved across his face, deep-set blue eyes that always cut right through me like a white-hot blade, his lashes enviously thick and black, carved cheekbones, stubble that was constantly shading his jaw. Then finally to his mouth that was just a tad too wide and his top lip that pouted out just a touch farther than his bottom lip, the epitome of perfect imperfection and I wanted so badly to see whether they felt as good as they looked. I groaned before I could stop myself, then came a lash of embarrassment. What was wrong with me? I was groaning just looking at his mouth. God help me if he ever decided to kiss me.
    As if he heard me thinking the word kiss, his gaze dropped down to my mouth. I inhaled sharply as my lungs tightened, and my lips parted. Dammit. I knew what it must have looked like. A sign that I wanted him to kiss me.
    I didn’t.
    Not really.
    Male voices called out, ricocheting across the lake. “Woot. Kiss her! Go for it, mate!”
    Other hikers had seen us. Hikers who weren’t helping this awkward situation. I grew hot from my centre out to the edge of my skin.
    I pushed at Clay and he let go of me. I turned my head left and right trying to find the source of my