A Kiss Remembered by Sandra Brown Page B

over hers. The kiss was brutal, his passion adding to his frustration.
    Holding her motionless with one hand, he slid the other down to trap her breast. His rotating palm coaxed the nipple into rapid response. Then fingers talented in the art of seduction finessed it into rigid proof of her building desire.
    “Please no,” she breathed into his mouth as his kiss gentled, “don’t touch me anymore.” His tongue glided along her lower lip, sliding over it to caress the soft interior just beyond.
    “Don’t deny us this, Shelley. After all this time, don’t take this away from us. Haven’t we paid enough dues for the privilege? I want to know all of you.”
    He began with her ear. It was explored thoroughly by a velvet-rough tongue that whimsically probed or teased. Her hand had unconsciously closed over his thigh. She squeezed the muscled flesh beneath his trousers mindlessly, gripping it harder when his touch raised the level of her excitement.
    Had Grant not already been driven with his need to possess her, the placement of her hand would have provided him with more than enough incentive. As it was, her unconscious caress only fanned the fires of his passion and made him more determined than ever to eliminate her fears and reluctance.
    His mouth sampled the smooth skin of her neck and chest, alternately nibbling with his teeth and stroking with his tongue. She felt herself welcoming the rising storm inside her. She wanted to be drawn into the tempest, into the maelstrom his caresses made of her universe.
    Impatient with her clothes, he kissed her through them. He pressed hot, moist kisses onto the lush curves of her breasts. When he reached her nipple, she gasped his name and wound his hair around her fingers.
    His tongue feathered the agitated peak, burning through the blue silk and the sheer veil of her brassiere. Her breath came in quick, shallow pants as his tongue nudged her breast more insistently, and she cried his name sharply when his mouth closed around the tip completely.
    He tugged on her gently. First one breast, then the other received his meticulous attention. He lifted his mouth free only long enough to speak her name in a loving chant.
    She welcomed him when his hand insinuated itself under her skirt and slip to stroke her thigh. The silky texture of her panty hose only heightened her sensitivity. she liquefied under his touch, moving in a way that encouraged his bold exploration.
    Aroused as they were, neither was prepared for the tumult of emotion that rocked them when his caressing hand reached the top of her thighs. He pressed his forehead against her breasts while her fingers remained enmeshed in his dark hair.
    He whispered endearments as his thumb erotically stroked the gently swelling mound and her thighs relaxed and parted. “Shelley, I’ve got to love you,” he said as he opened his hand to enclose her.
    This was the man she’d always wanted and here he was, offering her unbound passion. Why was she reluctant to accept it? Because this wasn’t a fairy tale. This was life. Things like this didn’t happen in the real world. No man, whom a woman loved and desired for years, came back into her life like a knight on a white charger. Nothing worked out that perfectly. Somewhere, at some time, a price had to be paid.
    It would be so easy to submit to his whispered words of love and her own blazing desire. She wanted him, thought she might very well die if she didn’t have him, but she couldn’t stake both their careers on one night’s pleasure. And that was all it might be.
    He was willing to gamble on an affair. After all, he could always walk away from it. When he was through with her, when he had broken her heart all over again, he could simply retreat. He’d be free and she’d be left to pick up the pieces of her life again.
    She didn’t really think Grant could be so callous. But then she hadn’t thought Daryl could be either. When it came right down to it, women were at the mercy