The Cutting Edge by Linda Howard

to simply press herself against him and cling until her flesh had melded with his, until they were no longer two separate beings but a part of each other, eternally linked in flesh and heart and mind. When she wasn’t with Brett, she felt…lonely, and she’d never been lonely before in her life. She’d been alone many times, and enjoyed her solitude as much as she enjoyed the company of friends, but now she felt oddly incomplete.
    When Brett came to her apartment that night, Tessa had only to look at him to know that he was angry. His anger wasn’t violent, but it was all the more potent for his control. Her spine felt chilled as she looked up into his narrowed eyes. “If you don’t want to break offwith Wallace, all you have to do is say so. I don’t like being lied to.”
    â€œI haven’t lied to you,” she replied steadily. “Sammy is a friend, nothing more. We work on the same floor; I’m forever running into him. I can’t hide under my desk to keep from seeing him.”
    There was something primitive in his expression as he looked down at her, and he touched her delicate jaw with hard, lean fingers, a light touch that nevertheless shocked her with its possessiveness. “Don’t ever lie to me,” he rasped; then he bent down and kissed her.
    It seemed as if it had been forever since she’d tasted him, felt his mouth move hungrily on hers, and she raised her hands to his shoulders to cling to him. Shaking slightly, reveling in the delight that crashed through her in response to his lightest touch, she kissed him with all the sweet fire she could give him. Finally, he raised his head, his eyes searing, and a faint film of perspiration had broken out on his forehead.
    The tension between them increased as the night grew older. Though she loved seafood, Tessa could do little more than pick at her lobster, because every nerve ending in her body was picking up the signals of his sensual arousal, and a hot, answering need coiled achingly inside her. He made her feel so female that it was as if she’d never before had any concept of her own femininity. With him, she was a primitive, and the intensity of her emotions frightened her, but at the same time she was lured by their power. The time for running away was past; perhaps it had been too late for her from the first moment she’d looked up into the blue beauty of his eyes.
    â€œSpend the day with me tomorrow,” he said abruptly, for the first time in his life putting his personal concerns ahead of business. There was a job to be done, but it paled in importance when compared to the urgency he felt to consolidate his relationship with Tessa. When he’d seen Sammy Wallace hovering over her desk that morning, he’d been seized by a cold rage that had made him want to choke the man. He’d never been possessive of a woman before, but women had come to him so easily and so early that he hadn’t valued them for anything other than physical pleasure. But Tessa hadn’t offered herself to him; she’d enticed him with her teasing smile and laughing eyes, then danced away from his touch. He was a man, and a hunter. He’d have her, and soon.
    â€œYes,” Tessa agreed, though it hadn’t been an invitation as much as a command. Her eyes wandered over his hard, rough face, and a tightness in her chest warned her that she’d forgotten to breathe again.
    He swore softly, the words a barely audible rasp. There was a soft, drowning look on her face that made his body tighten in need. “Let’s get out of here,” he rasped, surging to his feet and pulling her from her chair. She didn’t protest; she was silent as he paid the bill; then she leaned on him a little on their way out to the car.
    The night had turned cool, and Tessa lifted her flushed face to the fresh breeze. She felt heated, as if her internal furnace were burning away at top capacity, and she