A negotiated surrender by Jayne Castle Page B

touched her last night. Wanted to possess her…
    But he did nothing of the kind. His hands tightened slightly on her shoulders and she felt his breath quicken as he nuzzled the sensitive skin behind her ear, but he made no move to give way to the instincts which must have been driving him.
    "Slade?" Her voice was a tiny, questioning whisper of sound as her fingers rose to the first button of his yellow shirt.
    "Don't you understand, Calla?" he rasped in an agonized masculine need. "I want you to claim me for your lover tonight. I want you to possess me as surely as I will be possessing you. I want you to learn what possession really means between a man and a woman; that it has nothing to do with the neurotic, self-centered emotion you knew in your ex-husband!"

CHAPTER SIX
    Calla stared up into the amber eyes and desperately asked herself how things could have come to such a point. What in the world was the matter with her? Where was her painfully acquired discipline and self-control? And above all, why was it this man !
    "What's the matter, sweetheart?" Slade murmured on the merest thread of humor. "Are you changing your mind about what you want tonight? Does that wary look in those oceans you call eyes mean you're not going to pick me up and carry me off to bed after all?"
    "Oh, Slade, you big idiot!" she gasped, surrendering to the laughter that welled up in response to the image he'd created. "I doubt if I could get you down the hall even if I were to try dragging you by the heels!"
    "Sure you could. People carry people off to bed all the time. I have it on the best authority."
    "Uh-huh. But the way I hear it, it's the man who carries the woman off in his arms!" she retorted with a mocking little grin. It was astonishing, she thought light-headedly, how unafraid she was. The banter seemed to increase her small store of confidence even further. She would never have teased Drew like this…
    "Well, I suppose I could volunteer to assist in my own seduction," Slade opined thoughtfully. "But it does seem a bit unfair somehow."
    "You can relax! I have no intention of seducing you and even less of carrying you off to bed."
    "No?" He gave her a regretful look. "Then would you please tease me some more?"
    "Tease you!"

    "Umm. I know a man isn't supposed to like being sexually teased, but when it's all he can get from his woman…"
    He bent his head once more, his eyes hooded and enticing as he resumed the slow, languorous kiss that seemed to do nothing so much as invite her response.
    Calla felt herself slip back under the spell much more quickly this time, her fingers straying to the button she hadn't quite undone earlier.
    As soon as the fastening parted, her hand slid down to the next and the next as if it had a mind of its own.
    Her fingertips ran lightly through the rough, curling hair of his chest, glorying in the primitive thrill.
    She heard his muttered plea for more of her touch and then somehow she had forced her way past the restraining influence of his grip on her shoulders to snuggle against his chest and run her arms around his waist inside the open shirt. His muscled back was taut and strong and fairly demanded the kneading of her nails.
    "Oh, my God, Calla!" Slade muttered huskily.
    She nestled in the crook of his arm, her lips nibbling now at his throat and the curve of his shoulder. The tingling warmth that had come alive in her body was spreading, radiating out to the farthest reaches, and creating a longing drive that was different from anything she had ever known. She recognized the pulse of desire and knew at once it went beyond anything she had ever had with Drew…
    Slade was using his fingers lightly, teasingly on the back of her neck, sending more of the shocking little shivers down her spine. She felt his lips take the place of his fingers and knew his hand had gone at last to the zipper of the turquoise and white dress.
    Once again she waited, expectant, and, yes, eager. Once again his hand didn't