Terms of Desire: Tempt Me Twice, Part One Read Free Page B

anymore?”
    “I do too do it when we’re alone!” I retorted sharply, before realizing that his outburst had startled me, hitting a little too close to home. Was he that frustrated as well?
    “Name one time in the last six months.” His voice was grim. I opened my mouth; c losed it again. He had a point.
    I had stopped approaching him, because I was no longer comfortable in our intimacy. I wanted him to be the aggressor, to know that he found me as hot now as he once had. I wanted him to make the decisions, to take control.
    I had always been jittery, my mind full. Though I loved my husband, and though he had at one time come closer to emptying my mind of that never ending stream of consciousness, he no longer did. We were so far out of our groove, had been for so long, that I wasn’t entirely sure that we would ever find our way back.
    I knew that I could continue to argue, could press the fact that the past didn’t matter, but the fact was that it did. Somewhere along the line we’d screwed up, we meaning me as well, and it was up to us, both of us, to fix it.
    If only I knew how. Probably it would have been helpful to probe at this point, to search for an answer or two. But both of us knew that it would inevitably lead to an argument, and figuring in the enclosed proximity, the stress of driving a car that could break down at any minute into the middle of nowhere, the fact that we couldn’t afford to fix the car, and the oppressive heat, heat, heat indicated that the argument wasn’t likely to be a productive one. Taking a deep breath, I tried to diffuse the situation.
    “It was really nice of that man to help us out,” I offered, reluctant to call Liam by name, lest that give away the secret that I clutched inside.
    “Yes .” Austin’s response was terse.
    “Pepper as a car repair. Who’d have thought?” The only reply that time was a grunt, and I pressed my lips together tightly. He was still angry, though he hadn’t told me why.
    Deep down, I knew that I deserved it. With a soft sigh, I leaned back again and tried to doze off.
    I couldn’t relax. Dammit, now I was pissed off and turned on, all at once. The combination made me queasy. Wishing for an aspirin and some ginger ale, I tilted my seat back and pressed my clammy forehead against the lukewarm glass of my window. And shut my eyes and begged the universe to let me sleep.
    As I drifted off on a fitful trip to dreamland, my thoughts were of Liam, of his hard body and intense eyes. Of Liam, and of what it would be like to be with him.
    ***
    “Callie.” The word whispered against my neck made me shiver. Shy, I turned my head away, but a finger under my chin tilted my face back, back until I had no choice but to look into his eyes.
    On some level, I knew that I was dreaming. Still what I saw in his eyes, the feral gleam that glinted deep in the velvety black, melted my very core. When those lips were placed on mine, and a rough tongue swept out to taste, I whimpered and my body began to hum, begging for something— it wasn’t sure what.
    His hands clasped my waist and sampled the warm flesh there before moving up to flick lightly over my breasts, the cherry tips of my tits naked under his questing fingers. When I hissed out a breath and moved against him restlessly, the hot hardness of his cock pressed into the softness of my belly; my mouth watered as I hungered for a taste.
    But first things first. Button by button I undid his shirt, revealing inch upon inch of flesh that I hoped tasted as good as it smelled. But shortly after I nuzzled my nose into the crisp hair that was dusted lightly over the dark coins of his nipples, had sampled only a preliminary nibble of his flesh, I felt his hands wrap around my wrists, binding them together with something that felt like soft rope.
    I gasped at the sensation of being restrained. As I did, he slid his shirt from his shoulders, allowing it to f all to the floor with a whisper. I nudged at him with my