Consumed by Fire by Anne Stuart

attractive to him. She was far from his normal type, with her flyaway hair and stubborn mouth. He’d fucked women for business and for pleasure, and he was sure he could come up with a good justification to take this one to bed. He just wasn’t sure why he wanted to.
    Maybe it was because he might have to kill her, and he didn’t want to do it until he was sure it was necessary. It was hard for a woman to hide anything when she was enjoying the best sex of her life, which he intended to give her. If she had to die, then at least she’d die happy, not even knowing what happened to her. If he decided she could live, then there was no way he was going to let Claudia’s strong hands and perfect marksmanship get anywhere near her.
    The only problem being, Claudia didn’t take no for an answer.
    “What are you doing here?” He could hear a faint tremor in Evangeline’s voice. Christ, she couldn’t be a virgin, could she? No, he would have picked up on that much uncertainty. She just wasn’t used to hookups, to casual encounters, to instant attraction, to accepting sex as just one more appetite to be assuaged. She was a romantic, he realized. And he was hardheaded and practical, no handsome prince to seduce her.
    He said nothing. If she backed into her room he would follow her, if she came out he would take her. Her life might hang in the balance of that small decision.
    She stepped forward into the deserted hallway, closing the door behind her. “I was going to take a shower,” she said, still with that trace of nervousness. “It’s really too late for a walk. Besides, I spent most of the day on my feet.”
    “I can take care of that,” he said softly. The bathing room was next to her room, and no one else would be sharing it. He crossed the hallway, slowly, deliberately, and she didn’t retreat, even though he could sense that half of her wanted to. Her arms were full of her clothes when he caught her shoulders in his hard hands. Slender shoulders, delicate. He leaned down and pressed his mouth against the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent. In the distance he could hear the first jarring notes of the carabinieri ’s Klaxon, and he slid his hands up her neck, covering her ears with his palms as he moved his head and kissed her.

Chapter Three
    His mouth on hers was a shock. It was no tentative kiss, no preliminary exploration. The mouth that covered hers was open, carnal, wet, and for a moment she was too startled to do anything but stand there clutching her clothes to her breast like an idiot. He was cupping her face in his beautiful hands, blocking out everything but his mouth, his body up against hers, and then he lifted his head, his deep brown eyes glittering in the darkness. “You want this,” he said, no longer sounding lazy. It wasn’t a question, and she couldn’t nod if she wanted to, not with him holding her head still for his kisses, so she had to be brave.
    “Yes,” she said, too caught up in the mesmerizing feel of his body against hers to be shocked at herself. “I want this.”
    His slow smile was brief, and then he covered her mouth again, pushing her up against the wall, and she kissed him back. She could hear the heavy rain begin, and in the distance a police siren, and then nothing mattered as he pushed open the door to the bathing room and angled her inside.
    “This isn’t my . . .” she began, puzzled, but he hushed her, pulling the towels and the nightgown from her arm and tossing them in the corner.
    The shared bath for the third-floor guests was one large wet room, covered with marble tiles, and Silvio had proudly shown her the new overhead rainshower, as well as the many spray options now available in the most recent upgrade. She didn’t pay any attention. The sounds of the sirens were growing louder, and she vaguely wondered what had happened, until James pushed her against the wall, both of them fully clothed, and turned on the spray overhead, drenching them,