The Garrisons: Cassie, Adam & Brooke: Stranded with the Tempting Stranger. Brenda Jackson

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СКАЧАТЬ of ways. Besides being stubborn, both were ambitious and driven to succeed. Apparently John had recognized that quality in the both of them and felt together they would do a good job by continuing the empire he’d created.

      “I’m waiting, Brandon.”

      He glanced over at Cassie and saw her frowning in irritation. “I want to apologize for assuming a lot of incorrect things about you, Cassie, and I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me.”

      Cassie wasn’t ready to say whether she would or would not forgive him. At the moment she was close to doing the latter. However, she was curious about something. “And just what did you assume about me?”

      Brandon inhaled before speaking. “Before answering that, I need to say that when you decided to be a force to reckon with by not responding to my firm’s letters or returning any more of Parker’s phone calls, it was decided that I should come and meet with you and make you the offer in person. It was also decided that I should first come and see if I could dig up any interesting information on you and your past, to use as ammunition to later force your hand if you continued your refusal to sell.”

      By the daggered look she was giving him, he knew she was surprised he had been so blatantly honest. He could also tell she hadn’t liked what he’d said. “You might be stubborn, Cassie, but I’m a man who likes winning. I’m an attorney who will fight for my clients, anyway that I can … as long as it’s legal. Garrison Incorporated is my top client and I had no intention of Parker not getting what he wanted. My allegiance was to him and not to you.”

      Cassie straightened in the chair and leaned forward. Her eyes were shooting fire. “Forget about what’s legal, Brandon. Did you consider what you planned to do unethical?” she snapped.

      He leaned forward, as well. “At the time, considering what I assumed about you, no, I didn’t think anything I had planned to do as being unethical. By your refusal to even discuss the issue of the controlling shares in a professional manner with Parker, I saw your actions as that of an inconsiderate, spoiled, willful, selfish and self-centered young woman. And to answer your earlier question, that’s what I assumed about you.”

      That did it. Cassie angrily crossed the room to stand in front of him. With her hands on her hips, she glared at him. “You didn’t even know me. How dare you make such judgments about me!”

      He stood to face off with her. “And that’s just it, Cassie. No one knew you and it was apparent you wanted to keep things that way, close yourself off from a family that really wants to get to know you. And if my initial opinion—sight unseen—of you sounds a bit harsh then all I have to say in my defense is that’s the picture you painted of yourself to everyone.”

      Cassie turned her head away from him, knowing part of what he said was true. She’d still been grieving her mother’s death when she’d gotten word of her father’s passing. He had been buried without her being there to say her last goodbye and a part of her resented that, and had resented them for letting it happen. But then the truth of the matter was that they hadn’t known about her, although she had known about them. They would not have known to contact her to tell her anything.

      “Imagine my surprise,” she heard Brandon say, “when I arrived here and met you. You were nothing like any of us figured you to be. It didn’t take long for me to discover that you didn’t have an inconsiderate, spoiled, willful, selfish or self-centered bone in your body. The woman I met, the woman I became extremely attracted to even before I knew her true identity that night on the beach, was a caring, giving, humane and unselfish person.”

      He took a step closer to her when Cassie turned her head and looked at him. “She was also strikingly beautiful, vivacious, sexy, desirable and passionate,” he said, lowering his voice to a deep, husky tone. “She was a woman who could cause my entire body to get heated just from looking at her, a woman who made feelings I’d never encountered before rush along my nerve endings every time I got close to her.”

      He leaned in closer. “And she’s the woman whose lips I longed to lock with mine whenever they came within inches of each other. Like they are now.”

      An involuntary moan of desire escaped as a sigh from Cassie’s lips. Brandon’s words had lit a hot torch inside of her and as she gazed into his eyes, she saw the heated look she had become familiar with. And she couldn’t help but take note that they were standing close, so close that the front of his body was pressed intimately against hers, and the warm hiss of his breath could be felt on her lips. Another thing she was aware of was the hardness of his erection that had settled firmly in the lower center of her body.

      She shuddered from the heat his body was emitting. Luscious heat she was actually feeling, almost drowning in. And then there was the manly scent of him that was sending a primal need escalating through her. It was a need she hadn’t known existed until she had met him and discovered that he had the ability to take her to a passionate level she hadn’t been elevated to before.

      She knew he was about to kiss her. She also knew he was stalling, giving her the opportunity to back up and deny what the two of them wanted. But that wasn’t what she wanted. Although they still had a lot more talking to do, a lot more things to get straight, she felt at that particular moment that they needed time out to take a much needed break from their stress.

      And indulge in a deliriously, mind-boggling kiss.

      When to her way of thinking he didn’t act quickly enough, she stuck out her tongue, and with a sultry caress, she traced the lining of his lips from corner to corner. She saw the surprise on his face and the darkening of his pupils just seconds before a deep guttural groan spilled forth from his throat. He reached out and wrapped his arms around her waist, and like a bird of prey, he swooped down and captured her lips with his.

      He had a way of devouring her mouth with the finesse of a gazelle and the hunger of a wolf, sending shivers all the way through her. And when he began mating with her tongue with a mastery that nearly brought her to her knees, she released a moan deep in her throat.

      He tasted of the wine he had drunk and had the scent of man and rain. And he was consuming her with such effectiveness that she could only stand there and purr. His kiss was turning her into one massive ball of desire and she felt a dampness form between her legs.

      He pulled his mouth free. His breathing was heavy when he said huskily, “If you don’t want what I’m about to give you, stop me now, Cassie. If you don’t, I doubt I’ll be able to stop myself later.”

      She had no desire to stop him. In fact she intended to help. To prove her point, she pulled his shirt from where it was tucked inside his jeans, before freeing the snap and easing down his zipper. And with a boldness she’d only discovered she had last night, she slipped her hand inside his jeans and felt her fingers grip the rigid hardness of him. She cupped him, fondled him and felt him actually grow larger in her hand.

      “I want to be inside of you, Cassie,” he whispered hotly in her ear. “I want to feel your heat clamp me tight, squeeze me and pull everything I have to give out of me. I want to make love to you until neither of us has any energy left. And then, when we regain our strength I want to do it all over again. I want to bury myself inside you so deep, neither of us will know at what point our bodies are connected.”

      His erotic words sent fire flaming through her body. The dampness between her legs threatened to drench her thighs. “Then do it, Brandon. Do me. Now.”

      As far as Brandon was concerned, her wish was his command and he eased her down on the Persian rug with him and quickly began removing their clothes. The logical part of his brain told him to slow СКАЧАТЬ