Against the Rules by Linda Howard

doing?” she was finally able to choke as he removed his boots and socks, then stood to unfasten his belt.
    â€œUndressing,” he explained in a low rasp, his voice flat and inexorable. In further, unneeded explanation he said, “I’m sleeping here tonight.”
    That wasn’t what she had meant. She had been asking if he had lost his senses, but Cathryn felt as if all the breath had left her body. She was unable to make a protest, unable to order him to leave. After a long pause while he seemed to wait for her objection, one that didn’t come, he chuckled. “Or rather, I’m staying with you tonight, but I doubt we’ll be doing much sleeping.”
    An automatic refusal rose to her lips but remained unsaid; somehow the words wouldn’t come, halted by the hot life that flooded into her stunned body, by the wild slamming of her heart against her ribs. She sat up, her eyes locked on his moon-silvered body. She heard the sibilant whisper of a zipper sliding down; then he slid out of his jeans. His hard body was muscled, powerful, his masculinity a potent, visible threat...or was it a promise?
    The heat in Cathryn began to throb maddeningly and she held out a hand that beckoned even as she warned in a whisper. “Don’t come near me! I’ll scream!” But the lack of conviction in her words was evident even to herself. Oh, Lord, she wanted him so badly! As he had pointed out to her so often, she was a woman now and she no longer feared his sexual power, but rather wanted to cling to him and warm herself with his fire.
    He knew. He sat down on the bed beside her and cupped her cheek in his hard, callused palm. Even in the colorless moonlight she could feel the heat of his gaze as it wandered over her body. “Are you, Cat?” he asked, his voice so low that it was almost without sound. “Are you going to scream?”
    Her mouth was too dry to allow speech; she swallowed, yet still she was able to manage only a faint admission. “No.”
    He drew a deep, shuddering breath into his lungs and the hand on her face trembled. “God, sweetheart, if you’ve ever wanted to slap a man for what he was thinking of doing, now’s your chance,” he said roughly, his voice shaking with the force of his desire.
    The unsteadiness of his words told her how affected he was by her nearness and the quiet intimacy of her bedroom. That reassured her, gave her the courage to reach out and put her hand on his chest, feeling the rough curl of dark hair against her palm and the sleek warmth of his skin where the hair ended, the taut, tiny buds of his nipples. The sound that rumbled in his throat could have been a growl, but her heightened senses recognized it for what it was—a rough purr of pleasure.
    She leaned closer, seeking the delicious male scent of him. “Are you going to do everything you’re thinking about?” she asked, her voice shaking.
    He was sliding closer too, moving in to nuzzle his mouth against the base of her throat where the skin was throbbing with the pounding of her pulse, his lips feeling the frantic rhythm and increasing it with his touch. “I couldn’t,” he murmured, his mouth moving against that delicate spot. “I’d kill myself if I tried to live up to those particular fantasies.”
    Cathryn shuddered with the liquid desire that flooded her and she twined her arms around his shoulders, trembling with a need that she couldn’t deny even though she couldn’t understand it. This was a mistake, and she knew it, but for now the primitive joy she was drowning in was more than worth the price she would have to pay when sanity returned. She allowed him to stretch her out on the bed and take her in his arms, his nakedness scorching her flesh through the flimsy fabric of her gown. Her head tilted back in invitation and Rule laughed quietly, then gave her what she wanted, his mouth coming down and taking