Only 05 - Autumn Lover

said in a soft, incensed voice, “you have less manners and intelligence than a mule. I am not like your wife was!”
    Hunter felt like laughing out loud. Here Elyssa was standing in front of him and insisting upon her innocence, yet she had come to his room in the middle of the night dressed in the kind of boudoir clothing that set fire to a man’s body.
    But then, she always dressed that way, setting fire to the men around her.
    “You’re something, Sassy,” Hunter said in a low voice. “Really something.”
    Wisely, Hunter didn’t say what that something was. He didn’t want her outrage to wake up every living person on the Ladder S.
    “You’ve got to believe me,” she whispered.
    “Why?”
    Elyssa blinked.
    “Because it’s important,” she said, frustrated.
    “Why?”
    “Dear God, are all men this dense or are you a special case?” Elyssa retorted in a low, seething voice.
    Hunter smiled slightly. It was intriguing to watch Elyssa maintain her innocence with a force that set her breasts to swaying seductively beneath her satin wrapper.
    “Hunter?”
    “I’m listening.”
    “You’re the most mulish man,” she whispered in exasperation. “Sometimes I feel like shaking you until your teeth rattle.”
    “Then why did you come to my bedroom in the middle of the night?” Hunter murmured.
    “Because either one of us could die tomorrow and I…”
    Elyssa’s voice died. She couldn’t say I love you to a man who was watching her with such wary, faintly predatory patience.
    Damn his wife , Elyssa thought bleakly. She ruined Hunter for anyone else .
    “Well?” Hunter asked.
    “I…”
    Elyssa made a small, helpless gesture with her hands and looked mutely at Hunter.
    “You want me,” he said in a low voice. “Any girl bold enough to come to a man’s room like this shouldn’t shy from the words.”
    “Hunter,” Elyssa whispered.
    “Say it.”
    She drew a shaky breath.
    “Say that you want me,” Hunter said.
    Elyssa opened her mouth. No words came out.
    Hunter took a single step. It brought him so close to Elyssa that he could feel the heat of her body radiating through the sleek wrapper.
    “It’s not a secret,” Hunter coaxed in a low voice.
    “Your eyes give you away every time you look at me.”
    “I…”
    Elyssa’s voice died. Hunter’s sheer closeness was overwhelming. She hadn’t felt like this since the night in the garden, when they had danced and kissed and more, much more.
    “Your eyes,” Hunter whispered, “tell me that you’re remembering what it felt like when I kissed your breasts and you moaned.”
    A faint shivering went through Elyssa, echo of the wild passion she had felt when his mouth caressed her.
    “You want to feel that way again,” Hunter whispered. “Don’t you?”
    Elyssa swallowed as heat bloomed softly in her body. The sweet, unexpected fire made her tremble.
    He’s right , she realized. I want to feel that way again .
    Shivering, Elyssa closed her eyes.
    “I…want you,” she whispered.
    “Was the truth so hard?”
    Hunter’s words were breathed against Elyssa’s forehead, the hollow of her check, the corner of her mouth.
    The tremor that went through Elyssa was felt by both of them. Hunter took a swift breath and allowed himself to remember what it was like to set fire to her with afew caresses. No woman had been like that for him.
    Ever.
    Her response haunted him.
    “Hunter,” Elyssa whispered, “would you kiss me? Hard. Very hard. The way it was in the garden.”
    The words dragged a low groan from Hunter. His arms went around Elyssa and his head bent down to her. When his mouth touched hers, he found it open, hungry. His tongue shot between her teeth as he gave her what she had asked for.
    Hard. Very hard.
    The mating of Elyssa’s tongue with Hunter’s was neither coy nor hesitant. She remembered what it was like to be caressed and consumed by his kiss. She had dreamed of it, longed for it, hungered for it with an intensity she was only now realizing.
    With a husky moan, Elyssa wrapped her arms around Hunter’s neck and lifted herself against him. She wanted to be close to him, even closer than she was.
    She had to be closer.
    Elyssa’s abandoned response and the feel of her satin covered breasts twisting against his chest made Hunter forget all the reasons he was a fool for even kissing her. The taste of her was like wine running in his blood, flooding him with hunger and fire.
    He wanted so much more than a hot kiss and