Shadowmaster. Susan Krinard

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      Chapter 4

      Sammael’s weight shifted as he drew back. “You would sell yourself, then,” he said roughly.

      “Isn’t that what you were hinting at all along?” she asked. “Isn’t it possible I want you, too?” She reached out blindly and touched his jaw. The muscles bunched under her fingertips. “Even if I can’t see your face right now, I seem to remember you’re not hard on the eyes.” Her fingers skated down his chest and ridged stomach and came to rest on his cock, straining against the confinement of his pants. “But you’re certainly hard in other ways.”

      Sammael didn’t so much as twitch. “You expect to manipulate me with sex. You must have a very low opinion of my intelligence.”

      With an effort, Phoenix kept herself from flinching. His body certainly wasn’t faking its interest, and yet he seemed almost offended by her offer. After putting the moves on her with his caresses and insinuating voice.

      Was this a game to him? Did he think he was manipulating her?

      She outlined his cock with the palm of her hand. “You seem to have a very ‘high’ opinion of my physical assets,” she said.

      “I can find women who have a better reason to share my bed.”

      “You said my life is yours. My life includes my body.”

      He slipped out of her grasp. “I don’t take advantage of powerless women.”

      “So you said.” She laughed. “Which is the true Boss, I wonder? The one who makes clear he wants a woman in his bed, or the gallant protector who treats a fugitive like a virgin princess?” She stretched, feeling her nipples aching under her thin bra. “I want you. There’s no reason not to mix business with pleasure.”

      “Do you make a habit of sleeping with men you don’t know, especially criminals?”

      “I’m a criminal now, too. As you pointed out.” She pressed against him again, wrapping her arms around his neck, straddling him so her thighs were clasped around his waist.

      Suddenly, he was kissing her, pushing his tongue inside her mouth and cupping her bottom as he ground into her.

      And she enjoyed it. This wasn’t some sacrifice she had to brace herself to endure. Heaven help her, these feelings of attraction—desire—hadn’t been imaginary. He was an Opir, and she was ready...eager...to have sex with him.

      She hated herself for it. She was too close to stepping over the line, forgetting that this was all part of the job—and the minute she did, all objectivity would be gone. It had happened before, and it had started the same way. With passionate, heedless sex.

      This wouldn’t be heedless. All she had to do was unzip his pants and her own, drag him back to the bed, pull him on top of her, inside her...

      It almost worked. She had his zipper down and his cock in her hand. He slipped his palms under her shirt to cup her breasts and kissed her again, spreading her thighs with his knees.

      An instant later his heat was gone, and she was alone again.

      “Your method needs refining,” he said. “You know you’re desirable, and you pretend to be willing. But no man or woman attains power in the Fringe without the ability to separate truth from lies.”

      “Was my body lying?” she asked, pulling her legs together as she sat up on the bed.

      “It was your test,” he said. “You wanted to see if I’d lied about taking advantage of you. I’m not playing along. You won’t buy my trust that way.”

      He was angry. Very angry. And there was contempt in his voice, as if he didn’t believe a woman had as much a right as any man to freely express her desires.

      That’s not why you’re here, she reminded herself. This is a job. Nothing more.

      “You have nothing to gain by this,” СКАЧАТЬ