Jess Michaels by Taboo Page A

glimpse of the man she had once known. When she could read Nathan’s emotions and, for the first time, they didn’t only consist of lust and hatred. There was sadness there. Regret.
    She realized she was moving toward him, although she hadn’t meant to do so. He stiffened as she reached up and traced his lips with a finger, then his jaw. But he didn’t resist when she lifted to her tiptoes and gently pressed her lips to his.
    They kissed for what could have been an hour or it mighthave only been a moment, Cassandra wasn’t certain. Time lost all meaning when she was in Nathan’s arms, it always had. These kisses weren’t the angry demands he had issued before, and they weren’t lusty promises, even though the taste of him did arouse her.
    No, these kisses were gentle, soft explorations. The reunion they hadn’t allowed for, even though their bodies had joined. The remembrance of a past that had been filled with so much love and laughter before it was cut short.
    She melted against his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck, and clinging as their lips brushed and teased, tasted and retreated with a sweetness that almost brought tears to her eyes.
    But then Nathan stiffened. She felt him push her away with his spirit and his heart just a fraction of a moment before he extracted himself from her arms physically.
    “Don’t try to manipulate me,” he said, his breath short and rough with fresh anger. “I am immune to you now.”
    Cassandra stared at him, her own anger and frustration overtaking reason and restraint. “If you are so immune, why are you here? Why are you blackmailing me for something as intimate as sex if you truly cannot stand the sight of me?”
    Nathan folded his arms and glared at her, but didn’t gift her with the courtesy of a response.
    She threw up her hands as she crossed the room to the chest beside her bed. “What is it that you want, Nathan? What do you have to gain?” She pulled a drawer away from the chest and dumped it unceremoniously on her bed. Toysand restraints scattered across her coverlet. “Are these what you want to see?”
    He stared at her as she made her way to the armoire and pulled it wide open, yanking down a few of her more revealing undergarments.
    “These?” She turned on him and held them up before she tossed them in his direction. “Here they are. And I am yours, that is the bargain we made.” She unfastened the dainty buttons along the front of her gown and let the silky fabric fall away. “So do what you will.”
    Nathan frowned, as if her surrender was less pleasing to him than he thought it would be, but then he shook the reaction away and stalked toward her bed. He grasped up her restraints, a prettier, more elaborate version of the ones she had been making downstairs. Without preamble, he swept the remaining toys away, leaving them to clatter on the floor and fall to the table beside the bed.
    “Take off the chemise,” he ordered as he moved toward her.
    She did as she had been told, but not in the way she had been told to do it. Unlike his barked order that implied swift, efficient action, she took her time removing the last swish of fabric that separated him from total access.
    Little by little, she glided the thin strap down one shoulder, never revealing more than a little bit of skin. Then she moved to the opposite side, gliding it away just as slowly and deliberately.
    When the straps had been removed, only the full curve of her breasts held the chemise in place. Nathan had stoppedmoving and was staring at her, his eyes glazed with heated interest. She couldn’t help but smile as she tugged ever so gently on the fabric covering her breasts. It slipped a fraction of an inch, revealing more of the swell, but not quite everything.
    Nathan caught his breath as the fabric moved even lower, just enough that the top half of her areolas were revealed.
    “Enough, Cassandra,” he murmured, his voice rough with desire. “Take it off.”
    Again, she