LITMIR.BIZ

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tell you…” he tried again.

      She aimed a kick at his shin that almost connected.

      He sidestepped, overbalancing her so that she fell heavily against him. She felt good in his arms, warm, delicate and sweetly scented. His breath caught at the feel of her soft skin under his hands where the dress was low-cut in back.

      “Harley will… be missing me!” she choked.

      “Damn Harley,” he murmured huskily and the words went into her mouth as he bent and took it hungrily.

      His arms swallowed her, warm under the dark evening suit, where her hands rested just at his rib cage. His mouth was ardent, insistent, on her parted lips.

      He forced them apart, nipping the upper one with his teeth while his hands explored the softness of her skin. He was getting drunk on her perfume. He felt himself going taut as he registered the hunger he was feeling to get her even closer. It wasn’t enough….

      His hands went to her hips and jerked them hard into the thrust of his big body, so that she could feel how aroused he was.

      She stiffened and then tried to twist away, frantic at the weakness he was making her feel. He couldn’t do this. She couldn’t let him do it. He was only making a point, showing her that she couldn’t resist him. He didn’t even like her anymore. He’d brought her best friend to the most talked-about event in town!

      “You… let me go!” she sobbed, tearing her mouth from his. “I hate you, Leo Hart!”

      He was barely able to breathe, much less think, but he wasn’t letting go. His eyes glittered down at her. “You don’t hate me,” he denied. “You want me. You tremble every time I get within a foot of you. It’s so noticeable a blind man couldn’t mistake it.” He pulled her close, watching her face as her thighs touched his. “A woman’s passion arouses a man’s,” he whispered roughly. “You made me want you.”

      “You said I made you sick,” she replied, her voice choking on the word.

      “You do.” His lips touched her ear. “When a man is this aroused, and can’t satisfy the hunger, it makes him sick,” he said huskily, with faint insolence. He dragged her hips against his roughly. “Feel that? You’ve got me so hot I can’t even think…!” Leo broke off abruptly as Janie stomped on his foot.

      “Does that help?” she asked while he was hobbling on the foot her spiked heel hadn’t gone into.

      She moved back from him, shaking with desire and anger, while he cursed roundly and without inhibition.

      “That’s what you get for making nasty remarks to women!” she said furiously. “You don’t want me! You said so! You want Marilee. That’s why you’re taking her around with you. Remember me? I’m that gossiping pest who runs after you everywhere. Except that I’ll never do it again, you can bet your life on that! I wouldn’t have you on ice cream!”

      He stood uneasily on both feet, glaring at her. “Sure you would,” he said with a venomous smile. His eyes glittered like a diamondback uncoiling. “Just now, I could have had you in the rosebushes. You’d have done anything I wanted.”

      He was right. That was what hurt the most. She pushed back her disheveled hair with a trembling hand. “Not anymore,” she said, feeling sick. “Not when I know what you really think of me.”

      “Harley brought you,” he said coldly. “He’s a boy playing at being a man.”

      “He’s closer to my age than you are, Mr. Hart!” she shot back.

      His face hardened and he took a quick step toward her.

      “That’s what you’ve said from the start,” she reminded him, near tears. “I’m just a kid, you said. I’m just a kid with a crush, just your business associate’s pesky daughter.”

      He’d said that. He must have been out of his mind. Looking at her now, with that painful maturity in her face, he couldn’t believe he’d said any such thing. She was all woman. And she was with Harley. Damn Harley!

      “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Dad that you tried to seduce me on the patio with your new girlfriend standing right inside the room,” she assured him. “But if you ever touch me again, I’ll cripple you, so help me God!”

      She whirled and jerked open the patio door, slamming it behind her as she moved through the crowd toward the buffet table.

      Leo stood alone in the cold darkness with a sore foot, wondering why he hadn’t kept his mouth shut. If a bad situation could get worse, it just had.

      Chapter Four

      Janie and Harley were back on the dance floor by the time Leo made his way inside, favoring his sore foot.

      Marilee was standing at the buffet table, looking as miserable as he felt.

      “Harley just gave me hell,” she murmured tightly as he joined her. “He said I was lower than a snake’s belly, and it would serve me right if Janie never spoke to me again.” She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Do you think your brother would mind dropping us off now? He could come right back…”

      “I’ll ask him,” Leo said, sounding absolutely fed up.

      He found Cag talking to Corrigan and Rey at the buffet table. Their wives were in another circle, talking to each other.

      “Could you run Marilee home now and drop me off on the way back?” he asked Cag in a subdued tone.

      Corrigan gaped at him. “You’ve never left a dance until the band packed up.”

      Leo sighed. “There’s a first time for everything.”

      The women joined them. Cag tugged Tess close. “I have to run Leo and Marilee home.”

      Tess’s eyebrows went up. “Now? Why so early?”

      Leo glared. His brothers cleared their throats.

      “Never mind,” Cag said quickly. “I won’t be a minute…” “Rey and I would be glad to do it…” Meredith volunteered, with a nod from her husband.

      “No need,” Dorie said with a smile, cuddling close to her husband. “Corrigan can run Leo and Marilee home and come right back. Can’t you, sweetheart?” she added.

      “Sure I can,” he agreed, lost in her pretty eyes.

      “But you two don’t usually leave until the band does, either,” Leo pointed out. “You’ll miss most of the rest of the dance if you drive us.”

      Corrigan pursed his lips. “Oh, we’ve done our dancing for the night. Haven’t we, sweetheart?” he prompted.

      Dorie’s eyes twinkled. She nodded. “Indeed we have! I’ll just catch up on talk until he comes back. We can have the last dance together. Don’t give it a thought, Leo.”

      Leo was feeling the liquor more with every passing minute, but he was feeling all sorts of undercurrents. The women looked positively gleeful. His brothers were exchanging strange looks.

      Corrigan looked past Leo to Cag and Rey. “You can all come by our house after the dance,” he promised.

      “What for?” Leo wanted to know, frowning suspiciously. Corrigan hesitated and Cag scowled.

      Rey cleared his throat. “Bull problems,” he said finally, with a straight face. “Corrigan’s advising me.”

      “He’s advising me, too,” Cag said with a grin. “He’s advising both of us.”

      All three of them looked guilty as hell. “I know more about bulls than Corrigan does,” Leo pointed out. “Why don’t you ask me?”

      “Because you’re in a hurry to go home,” Corrigan improvised. “Let’s go.”

      Leo went to get Marilee. She said a subdued, hurried goodbye

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