Stormy Challenge by Stephanie James, Jayne Ann Krentz Page B

acutely aware of the manner in which Court's small store of patience seemed to be depleting itself. But what did she care if he lost his temper altogether? There was nothing he could do to her now!
    "You're telling yourself you're glad you found out the truth because you came very close to winding up in my bed last night, and there is every possibility you would have come even closer to doing so tonight. By the end of our week here together, you would have belonged to me completely and that frightens you, doesn't it?
    You've realized you might have fallen for a man who made you feel like a fool."
    "That's not true! You don't scare me in the least, Court Tremayne, but you do annoy the hell out of me! Kindly let me go!" Leya blazed, horrified at his perception. Her palms on his shoulders curled into fists as she struggled to escape his grasp.
    "Do you think I don't know how far gone you were last night?" he snarled, disregarding her futile efforts to free herself. "I didn't have to let you go back to your own room, Leya! With very little effort, I could have kept you with me until morning and we both know it. I was the fool last night because I was trying to play the gentleman. It seemed to be what you wanted, and I, like an idiot, wanted to please you. I took a risk and let you go, and look where it's landed us!" His very male indignation would have been humorous if Leya hadn't felt equally indignant.
    "How dare you act the injured party!" she nearly shrieked.
    "Because I'm feeling injured!"
    Before Leya fully comprehended his intent, Court had pinned her head in the crook of his arm, dragging her back against his shoulder and holding her immobile for his kiss. Even as her mouth opened in angry denial, he was crushing the resistance there with his own lips.
    Leya, whose recent memories of his kisses comprised images of tantalizing, haunting, teasing caresses that urged and beckoned, was stunned by the devastating domination Court now exerted so effortlessly. Instinctively, she tried to wrench her face away from the marauding punishment, but she couldn't move so much as an inch in his grasp.
    "No!" she shouted into his throat, her single word muffled in the warm heat there.
    Instantly, she was disciplined for her verbal rejection, Court's teeth closing painfully on her lip until she opened her teeth and allowed the invasion of his tongue. It found hers hiding in the dark cavern and forced it into a hot, savage duel that brought a moan from deep in her throat. Only when he seemed satisfied that he had subdued the defiance did he withdraw, his voice grating on her mouth.
    "There's no point in fighting me, little Leya. I'm staking my claim, putting my seal of ownership on you, and you're going to learn the limits of my chain!" His hand went possessively to her breast.
    The silvery green eyes flew open to glare into the molten brown ones so close to her own, Leya's flaming anger sparkling clearly. Too clearly, if she had but known it.
    There was far more than anger in the gems of green. There was a feverish brilliance reflecting the depth of her passionate outrage.
    "You egotistical, overbearing, arrogant creature! Take your hands off me this instant!
    And don't have the gall to talk to me as if I were some sort of pet or slave you can own!"
    He grinned with feral savagery, his fingers on her jacket splaying to cup the whole of the breast underneath. "But I am going to own you, honey. It's the only way with a woman like you. You have to be quite certain which one of us is in charge or you'll run me ragged. I'm much too lazy to let you do that to me!"
    With a quick movement he obviously hadn't expected, Leya jerked one arm free and swung it. Not in the typical, useless feminine slap, but in a short-arced, forceful punch to his ribs. The thickness of his sheepskin coat blunted the impact somewhat, but there was nevertheless a satisfying thud and she heard the sharp breath between his lips.
    "You little vixen!" He snagged the offending