Sizzle and Burn

fascinated by the easy competence of the way he moved.
    “Don’t you ever take that jacket off?” she asked.
    Good grief, where had that come from? If he removed the jacket he would be down to just his T-shirt and pants.
    He paused in mid-shuffle and gave her a considering look. After a moment he seemed to make up his mind about something. He put down the cards and peeled off the black leather jacket.
    She stared, transfixed, at the gun in his shoulder holster.
    “Oh.” She cleared her throat. “I see.”
    He picked up the cards and went back to dealing.
    Twenty minutes later she had won his twenty-dollar stake and another forty to boot. She realized she hadn’t been troubled by the freak’s voice since Zack had arrived at her door.
    “You’re right,” she said, delighted. “This is working. All I can think about is winning all of your money.”
    “You’re doing a pretty good job of that.”
    She laughed. “You noticed, did you?”
    “Good thing I put my room on my credit card.” He gave her a slow, dangerously knowing smile. “But in my own defense, I can tell you that my mind is not on blackjack tonight.”
    The unmistakable heat in the words caught her completely off guard. He was watching her with a searing, undisguised sexual intensity that seemed to have come out of nowhere. A moment before he had been playing a friendly game of cards. Now he looked as if he wanted to strip her naked and take her right there on the carpet. No man had ever looked at her with that kind of heat.
    Her initial suspicions had been correct. Zack had been very aware of the chemistry between them. He had been biding his time, letting her invite him into her space, putting her at ease. The blackjack game was a form of seduction. He’d used it to drive out the voice of the freak, leaving her open and vulnerable.
    That knowledge ought to make her very wary, she told herself. And it did, it surely did. But it also increased the level of excitement shimmering through her.
    “This is probably not a good idea,” she whispered.
    His smile got a little more dangerous. Invisible energy pulsed in the air around them.
    “Thought you were a gambler,” he said softly.
    Not when it comes to this kind of thing, she tried to say. But for some reason she could not get the words out of her mouth. Her heart was beating very quickly now. Things inside her were threatening to melt.
    Slowly, deliberately, he removed her glasses, reached up and put them on the table. Then he unfastened his holstered gun and set it aside.
    He leaned toward her, giving her plenty of opportunity to avoid him. She did not even try to retreat. He caught hold of her and hauled her gently across the short space that separated them, scattering the cards.
    Instead of informing him that she was not into one-night stands, she put her arms around his neck.
    His mouth came down on hers, heavy, demanding a response. Her body gave it to him. The smoldering fire that had been burning inside her since she opened the door to him roared into a full-blown conflagration. She had never experienced anything like it, had never realized she was capable of such a raging response.
    But what really made the blood run hot in her veins was the knowledge that Zack wanted her just as badly as she wanted him. Not like Bradley, she thought, elated. Zack wasn’t afraid of the voices. A glorious sense of triumph arced through her.
    She pressed herself closer, kissing Zack with all the pent-up energy of a woman who has never before been able to abandon herself completely to her own sensual nature. She was vaguely aware of his hands on the sash of her robe. The garment vanished.
    With a husky groan, Zack rolled onto his side, taking her with him. He reached up with one hand and dragged the spare blanket off the chest at the foot of the bed. He spread it out on the carpet with a quick snapping motion, as though he were throwing out a fishing net.
    The next thing she knew she was on her back on the blanket, looking up at Zack. He levered himself into a sitting position. She watched, utterly enthralled, as he pulled the black T-shirt over his head and tossed it aside.
    Firelight gleamed on his sleek shoulders. Filled with a profound sense of wonder and discovery, she reached out and touched the sinewy curve of his upper arm. He caught her hand in his and dropped a warm, damp kiss into her palm, making her fingers curl in reaction. Something curled deep inside her, too, something that ratcheted