Diana Palmer Collected 1-6: Soldier of Fortune / Tender Stranger / Enamored / Mystery Man / Rawhide and Lace / Unlikely Lover

“I’m sorry,” she choked out, hating the fact that she’d given her feelings away.

He didn’t say a word. He followed her, and when he caught up to her, he lifted her gently in his big arms and headed straight for the bedroom.

She had just enough sanity left to realize where they were going. She opened her mouth to protest, and his came down on it, open and moist and tenderly possessive.

“Jacob…” she whispered into his mouth.

He smiled against her trembling lips. “What?”

Her nails bit softly into his shoulders as he laid her down on the crisp white bedspread. “I can’t,” she whispered.

“Can’t what?” He sat down beside her and calmly removed his jacket, vest, and tie and then unbuttoned his shirt while she watched him, spellbound as the hard, heavy muscles came into view under that mat of crisp hair.

“I can’t have an affair with you,” she said.

He leaned over and began to unfasten the buttons on her blouse. “That’s nice.”

“Jacob, did you hear me? Will you stop that…!”

He ignored her protests and her frantic efforts to stop his fingers. “Stop what?”

“Undressing me!” she burst out with an hysterical laugh. “Jacob, I’m wearing nothing underneath, for heaven’s sake…!”

“So I see,” he murmured with a wicked smile, as he opened the blouse and revealed the pink and mauve rise of her breasts.

“Will you listen…” she began breathlessly.

“Shut up, darling.” He bent over her and put his open mouth against one breast, letting her feel the texture of his warm lips and his tongue before he moved closer and increased the ardent pressure.

She gasped and arched and then moaned sharply, a high-pitched sound that made him lift his head.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked. “I’m sorry, I thought I was being gentle.”

Her fists were clenched beside her head, and her eyes were wide with mingled fear and desire. “You know very well it didn’t hurt,” she whispered fiercely.

His eyes moved back down to her bareness and he smiled slowly, watching her breasts lift and fall with her quickened breathing. “Lovely, lovely creature,” he said under his breath. His fingers traced her rib cage and he held her eyes, watching the recklessness come into them, the deep passion.

Her breath was coming still quicker now, and the tracing of his fingers was driving her mad. She arched her head back into the pillow, lifting her body toward him in a slow, helpless movement.

“Want me to put my mouth there again and make it stop aching?” he whispered.

“Yes,” she moaned softly. “Please.”

She felt the whisper of his warm breath against her skin, felt his hands go under her to slide abrasively against her bare back. He lifted her, and his mouth moved with delicate precision from one taut breast to the other. His face nuzzled her, savored her softness.

Her fingers tangled in his thick, cool hair and worked at it like a cat kneading a blanket. Pleasure washed over her in waves, waves that lifted and twisted her body.

“Jacob,” she whispered as his mouth slid over hers and down to her ear, while his hands made magic on her upthrust breasts. “Jacob, teach me how to make you feel this way.”

“I already do,” he murmured at her ear. “Touching you like this, kissing you, makes me wild, didn’t you know?”

“Really?”

He lifted his head. “Really.” He rolled onto his back and eased her down over him, smiling lazily as he studied her rapt face, as his eyes wandered to where her breasts were crushed softly against his hard, hair-matted chest. His hands unfastened her hair and arranged it over her shoulders, his eyes heavy-lidded and steady as they wandered over her body.

She watched his face and moved. Just a little. Just enough to let him feel the texture of her body.

“Is that an invitation?” he asked quietly, watching her.

Her breath caught in her throat. Was it, indeed? She searched his hard face with awe and love in every line of her own. Her fingers twined in his thick hair, and she could feel his heartbeat under her.

His hands smoothed over her back. He shifted her body this time, softly rubbing her breasts against the mat of hair on his chest. He heard her catch her breath as she bent her forehead to rest it on his.

His hands shifted, so that his thumbs could tease the hard peaks of her breasts. “I ache with wanting you,” he said quietly. “Shall I let you feel how much?”

“You started it,” she reminded him, nuzzling her forehead against his. She moved suddenly, so that the whole soft length of her body pressed down over him, and she knew then that she wasn’t going to stop him.

“Hold me like this,” she whispered as she bent to put her mouth over his. “Hold me hard, Jacob.”

His big hands spread at the base of her spine, moving her in a sweet, tender rotation against his hips, and he moaned deeply.

“I won’t stop you this time,” she whispered over his mouth. “I won’t stop you, Jacob, I won’t…” Her hands slid between them, into the thick cloud of hair over his chest. “Jacob…!”

“Tell me…why,” he managed to say in a tortured voice.

“You know,” she breathed, crushing her mouth against his in a frenzy of hunger. Her body moved against him, she trembled with unleashed desire. And suddenly he rolled her over, covering her with his crushing weight, lifting her up to him while his mouth possessed hers absolutely. She felt the wild, demanding thrust of his tongue and met it with a wildness of her own, giving him everything he demanded of her.

“Tell me,” he insisted, lifting his head to let his wild eyes glitter down into her own. He shifted, grinding his hips into hers. “Tell me, Gabby!”

“I love you,” she said fiercely. Her voice was trembling, but she met his eyes unafraid. “I love you. I love you!”

He seemed to stop breathing. His body was rigid above her, but his eyes were alive, burning, blazing with emotion. His hands moved slowly up her body, over her breasts, to touch her face. His big body shuddered with the effort to control his passion.

“I’m going to die from this,” he told her with a faint, harsh smile. And all at once, he rolled away from her and lay on his stomach. He groaned once, as if he were hurting in unbearable ways. His body stiffened and he clenched the pillow so hard his fingers went white.

“Jacob?” she whispered, sitting up, frightened.

“Don’t touch me, baby,” he whispered back, his voice tormented.

She sat there watching him, a little nervous and uncertain. He’d forced that reckless admission from her, and then he’d stopped. Why? What did he want?

Slowly his body relaxed and he sighed wearily. “Oh, God, I never thought I’d be able to stop,” he murmured. “That was as close as I’ve ever come to losing control, except for that time at the finca.”

Her wide eyes studied the pale face he turned toward her. “That morning?” she murmured.

He laughed dryly. “That night,” he said. “Gabby, it wasn’t punishment, there at the last. It was loss of control. I very nearly took you.”

Her eyebrows went up. “But you let me think…!”