Heart of a Warrior by Theodora Lane Page A

be harder to make.
    They bowed again, went into their stances, and began circling each other.
    Two could play that game. She was going to wipe that damn cocky grin off his face. Like so many others, he’d underestimated what she’d do to win.
    Fiona pulled her tank top over her head and tossed it to the side. Nic startled. His mouth dropped open, and his eyes widened in surprise as they focused on her bare breasts.
    Fiona was on him before he could start drooling. She grabbed his hand, and using an aikido hold, she had him in her control. As she guided him across her body using only a firm grip on his thumb, Fiona knocked his legs out from under him, and he hit the mat on his stomach with a grunt. She landed on top of his back with his arm pinned behind him and pressed her naked breasts against his bare back.
    Looking into his face, one side pressed into the mat, she opened her mouth and slowly laved her tongue from his jaw up to his cheek. The stubble of his beard resisted the smooth motion of her slick tongue.
    She glided her hand over his skin, feeling his muscles. She had to stop herself before she did more to him.
    “That’s one.” She bit his ear. Then she sat up and smirked at him.
    Nic rolled over, not bothering to hide the bulging erection in his pants. Her nipples stood hard and pebbled, telling him she was aroused also.
    “Do we have to go to two?” Nic pulled her to him, flipped her onto her back, and rolled on top of her.
    “Shit, Nic, I didn’t want this to happen, but you just get me so hot and bothered.”
    He slid his hands up her stomach, discovered her breasts, and raked his thumbs over her hard points, sending pleasure streaking from them straight to her core. Her walls crumbled under his weight, that hungry look in his eyes, and the way his lips made her body react.
    “I can’t begin to tell you what you do to me, have done to me, from the first moment I saw you,” he growled. Massaging her breast, he pushed it upward toward his mouth. He made circles around her sensitive areola with the tip of his tongue.
    Wildfire spread through her, from her nipple outward. She’d never felt intensity like this before. The level of arousal was beyond what little she’d known the few times she’d experimented with sex. Kiss here. Feel this. Touch here. Feel that. Mostly, feel nothing.
    Experiments, that’s what those times had been. This was no lab experiment; she knew that much. This was the real thing. This she couldn’t look at clinically because her eyes were crossed.
    When Nic touched her, desire filled her, and every nerve in her body exploded.
    “I know it sounds stupid, but I’m really not this kind of girl.” Fiona tried to stop herself. The fall was inevitable. It would just be a matter of when and where. Too soon, her brain screamed, he only wants your body.
    “I want you, Fiona.” Nic confirmed her thoughts. He slid his lips to her other breast, and another crack in her wall appeared.
    But do you love me? Three stupid, little words and they meant everything to her, just to hear them from a man.
    Nic wasn’t that kind of guy. Definitely not the I-love-you, marry-me type. He was a loner. Used to having what he wanted, whom he wanted, when he wanted.
    Well, you can’t always get what you want. The tune played in her head, like some personal theme song. Maybe you can get something close. Just once? Trying to convince her brain that it was right to settle, she failed miserably.
    “Stop, Nic. I can’t do this. I’m so sorry.” She pushed him off. After crawling over to her tank top, she jerked it on inside out.
    Nic sat up. In an angry swipe, he ran his hand through his dark hair, brushing back the tousled locks that had fallen over his face.
    “Stop playing games with me, Fiona! You tell me you’re this big virgin. Then you come on as if you really want it. You get me all hard and aching, and then you leave me wanting!” He stood, glaring at her.
    “I’m sorry you don’t