Flirting With Intent by Kelly Hunter Page B

speaks.’
    ‘Well, if reasoned argument isn’t working for you, I dare say I could always try kissingyou better. Provided of course that you tell me where it hurts.’
    ‘My shoulder,’ he murmured, his eyes dark and guarded, and she kissed his shoulder and he took a shuddering breath.
    ‘My chest,’ he said next and she kissed him above his heart and then she took his nipple in her mouth and Damon loosened his hold on her hand and the next thing she knew his hand was in her hair, the better to hold her against him.
    ‘My side.’ Little more than a rumble, but she heard him and she kissed him there, as he started to stiffen against her once more, ten minutes to resurrection be damned.
    ‘Where else?’ she whispered.
    ‘You know where.’
    ‘Say it.’
    But he didn’t say a word.
    ‘Why, Damon West,’ she said with a grin and slid her mouth another inch or two down his stupendous body. ‘I do believe you’re repressed. Who knew?’
    ‘I am not repr—’ he began warningly, and then she licked and made a meal out of him and he sucked in his breath and shut the hell up.
    ‘Something on your mind?’ she murmuredlong moments later. ‘Because you’d tell me if there was, right?’ ‘Right,’ he rasped.
    ‘Liar.’ She found the base of him and kissed him there and set her hand to him and he caught her hair up in his hands and strained within her grasp. ‘This, by the way, is
my
concession to you and I do hope you like it. Feel free to distract me whenever you’ve had enough.’ Damon groaned. Ruby licked.
    ‘Is my hand too tight?’ She slid it slowly up and down the generous length of him. ‘Mouth too warm?’ She slid that up and down the length of him too and interpreted his guttural groan as a no. ‘Because you’d tell me, right?’
    ‘Right.’
    He let her pleasure him, for a time. And then he lifted her into his arms and slid inside her and Ruby could have cried at how right it felt to make love with this particular man, lose herself in him even.
    But she didn’t cry and she didn’t say a word about how easily he could shatter her defences. Nor did she mention the decidedly inconvenient and somewhat frighteningfact that she’d never felt this way with anyone before.
    Ruby Maguire knew how to keep secrets too.

CHAPTER SIX
    T HE aftermath of love-making wasn’t always easy, conceded Damon. There could be awkwardness and boundaries to re-establish. Control to find. Leave to be taken, provided clothes could be found. So far, Damon had managed to find his clothes. Ruby hadn’t even managed that, but then, she didn’t have family waiting and wondering where the hell she was.
    ‘What time is it?’ she said.
    ‘Four.’
    ‘That late?’ She sat up abruptly, every inch the dishevelled wanton, and the corners of Damon’s mouth kicked in response.
    ‘I’m taking that as a compliment.’
    ‘And so you should.’ Ruby slipped from the bed and found her dress, no awkwardness in her whatsoever and it helped ease his. ‘Your powers of distraction are truly—’
    Ruby laid a hand over her heart ‘—
truly
stupendous.’
    Damon smiled at her words and turned away and headed for the en-suite. There’d been a hell of a lot more than distraction going on here this afternoon, but if Ruby wasn’t inclined to point it out then he certainly wasn’t going to. Ruby—it seemed—had bypassed awkwardness and moved straight to the setting of boundaries. Which was fine by him.
    No promises and no regrets. They could do this. And then Ruby came into the bathroom with her dress on and leaned back against the bench as he splashed his face with water and took the hand towel she offered him.
    ‘I need to get going soon,’ he said, and wondered at his sudden reluctance to move.
    ‘Want a lift?’ And when he studied the towel instead of answering, ‘I can drop you at the door?’ He moved away from the basin and Ruby took his place, took one look in the mirror and gasped and then grabbed for her