To Love a Man by Karen Robards Page B

so strong, so very male, with his corded muscles and look of limitless strength, that Lisa was suddenly more aware of herself as a woman than she had ever been before in her life. And at the moment, his body was telling her in a way that was impossible to mistake that he wanted her. . . .
    “Come here, Lisa.” The words were quiet. Sam’s eyes glittered brightly blue as she looked up to meet them. Lisa swallowed, realizing with some distant part of her brain as she did so that her throat was beginning to ache quite badly. Then she took an instinctive step backward.
    “You know you want to.” There was a wealth of meaning in Sam’s voice. Lisa mutely shook her head, backing another few paces. Her eyes never left his face. At her movement, his black-shadowed jaw clenched, and his mouth, beneath its faint smile, grew hard. Those blue eyes, as they watched her, seemed to freeze over.
    “If you put me to the trouble of fetching you, you’ll regret it.” The threat was silky smooth, but it was unmistakably a threat. The smile had faded. Lisa felt the rhythm of her heartbeat increase as she faced the unwelcome fact that he could indeed make her regret it. With a sensation too complex to define, she realized that she was completely at his mercy.
    “Look, this is silly. Either way, it’s not going to prove a thing,” she said jerkily, hoping to distract him from his purpose. She was very much afraid that if he touched her, she wouldn’t be able to resist. . . .
    “I said come here!” There was no question that he meant it, and meant her to obey. Still, Lisa tried once more.
    “If you would . . .”
    “Come here, damn you!”
    Lisa looked at him mutinously. His blue eyes were as cold and glittery as glaciers. A muscle twitched warningly in his jaw. She realized that she had pushed him as far as he would be pushed; to defy him further could be hazardous.
    “Oh, all right,” she muttered ungraciously. Her head was high as she moved toward him. She didn’t stop until she was close enough so that he could reach out and touch her.
    “Now, would you please . . .” Listen to reason was what she meant to say. She found herself addressing her words to the pulse beating with heavy insistence at the base of his brown throat, because she was suddenly, ridiculously unable to look either higher or lower. Ruthlessly he cut her off.
    “Drop the blanket.”
    This brought Lisa’s eyes up to his in a hurry. To her dismay, she saw that they were frozen, a diamond-hard layer of ice lit at the backs by a leaping blue fire.
    “N-no.” Lisa, taken aback, uttered the negative instinctively. Then, as his eyes narrowed, she realized that she would have done better to be a shade more diplomatic in her reply. Still, she could not, would not, do as he said. It was time that she called a halt to this nonsense. He must be made to understand that she was not some little nobody whom he could order about and treat as he willed. Her green eyes met his bravely as she planned what she would say to make her position clear to him. Her hands clutched the blanket for dear life.
    “Drop the blanket!”
    The command cracked gunshot sharp. Startled, Lisa jumped about a foot in the air. Her hands nervelessly released their death grip on the blanket. It crumpled into an untidy heap at her feet. Stunned speechless by her unplanned capitulation, Lisa gaped down at her body. Her eyes then flew to Sam’s face. She was made scaldingly aware of her nakedness and the effect it was having on the man studying her by the sudden flare of undisguised lust in the eyes that ran comprehensively over her. As Sam’s gaze roamed with devastating thoroughness over every exposed inch of her skin, Lisa felt hot color creep into her cheeks. It was stupid and childish to feel so embarrassed, she knew. After all, the man had, by whatever quirk of fate, been her lover once already, and earlier this afternoon he had certainly seen all of her that there was to see. But she