The Millionaire Claims His Wife by Sandra Marton Page B

growled, “even at the end. You were just too proud to admit it.”
    â€œPoor Chase. Can’t your ego take the truth?”
    â€œI’ll show you ‘truth’!”
    â€œNo,” Annie said, but it was too late, Chase had already pulled her into his arms, and brought his mouth to hers.
    His kiss was filled with anger and Annie struggled against it, pounding her fists against his shoulders, trying desperately to tear her mouth from his.
    And then, deep within her, something seemed to let go.
    Maybe it was the stillness of the night, curling just outside the window. Maybe it was the unyielding tension of the endless day. Suddenly anger gave way to a far more dangerous emotion. Hunger. The hunger that had been between them in the past and that she’d believed dead.
    Chase felt it, too.
    â€œAnnie,” he whispered, against her mouth. His hands swept into her hair, lifting her face to his. With a sigh of surrender, her arms went around his neck, her lips parted beneath his, and she gave herself up to him and to the kiss.
    It was like a dance once learned and never forgotten. Their bodies shifted, moving against each other with an ease that came of passion long-ago shared. Their heads tilted, their lips met, their tongues sought and tasted. Annie clasped her hands behind Chase’s neck; he slid his slowly down her body, cupped her bottom and lifted her into him. She whimpered when she felt the hardness of him against her; he groaned when he felt her tilt her hips to his.
    For long moments, they were lost to everything but each other. Then, breathing hard, they stepped apart.
    Annie’s skin felt hot when Chase cupped her face in his hands and brushed a light kiss on her lips. He wanted to lift her into his arms and carry her into the darkness.
    â€œAnnie?” he whispered, and she smiled and clasped his wrists with her hands.
    â€œYes.” She sighed...
    Suddenly the kitchen blazed with light.
    â€œMom? Dad? What on earth are you doing?”
    Annie and Chase spun around. Dawn and Nick stood in the doorway, openmouthed with shock.

CHAPTER FOUR
    I T WAS, Annie thought, the question of the decade.
    What were they doing, she and her former husband?
    Her cheeks, already scarlet, grew even hotter.
    Making out as if they were a pair of oversexed kids, that was what. She and Chase had been wrapped around each other as if it were years and years ago, when he’d just brought her home from a date. In those days, not even an hour spent parked on that little knoll half an hour’s drive north of the city, steaming up the windows of Chase’s old Chevy, had been enough to keep them from wanting just one more kiss, one more caress.
    â€œMother?”
    Dawn was still staring at them both. She looked as if finding her parents kissing was only slightly less shocking than it would be if she’d found the kitchen populated with little green men saying, “Take me to your leader.”
    And, Annie thought grimly, it was all Chase’s fault
    He’d taken advantage of her distress, capitalized on her already-confused emotions. And for what possible reason?
    To shut her up.
    It was the same old ploy he’d used during the years that their marriage had been falling apart. She’d try to talk about what was wrong and Chase, who was perfectly happy with their marriage as it was, would say there was nothing to discuss. And if she persisted, he’d shut her up by taking her in his arms and starting to make love.
    It had worked, but only for a very little while, when she’d still been foolish enough to think those kisses meant he loved her. Eventually she’d figured out that they meant nothing of the sort. Chase was just silencing her, in the most direct way possible, using what had always worked best between them.
    Sex. Raw, basic, you-Jane, me-Tarzan sex.
    But sex, no matter how electric, just wasn’t enough when the rest of the relationship had gone wrong. It had