Jade Tiger by Jenn Reese

then that could have melted the polar ice caps. It certainly sent the blood flowing through her body again, hot and fast. "But are you intimidating? A little. I guess I wasn't sure if you'd find the offer insulting."
    "Ah, I get it," said Shan. She could feel heat rising to her face, fueled now by an old, familiar anger. "Just because I can handle myself in a fight, I'm incapable of asking for, or accepting, help when I need it. What a convenient stereotype."
    Shan expected them to get into a knock-down, drag-out fight. Sure, she was flat on her back with a broken rib in the middle of the French Alps. That hardly mattered when a good argument was at stake. She was more than ready.
    But Ian, man of limitless surprises, shocked her yet again. He simply blinked at her twice and laughed.
    "You're completely right," he said. "That was a stupid thing to say, and I'm ashamed for even thinking it. You ready for your trip back to the house?"
    Shan stared at him and did some eye blinking of her own. "Let me get this straight," she said slowly. "You make an offhand comment, I call you on it, and you apologize?"
    "That about sums it up, yes," he said.
    "Unbelievable." Shan shook her head. "I'm stunned."
    "Good," Ian said. "That'll make it easier to pick you up."
    And with those words, he slipped one arm carefully under her back and the other under her knees. Shan wrapped her arms around him, only briefly distracted by the incredibly soft hair at the base of his neck.
    "Ready?" he whispered, his face just inches from hers. Shan nodded. Ian adjusted his balance and plucked Shan gently from her nest of snow. Then he was off, trudging carefully toward the house. Her ribs complained, but the pain quickly subsided into a bearable ache.
    "You need to eat more," Ian said. "You weigh less than a mummified dog."
    "Oh, how flattering," Shan replied.
    And then, because his chin was so damnably close, she leaned up and kissed it.

CHAPTER 6
     
    Shan's heart thudded in her throat, and she couldn't keep a huge grin from spreading across her face. It probably made her look like a homicidal maniac. But his skin had been so soft and warm. And the taste--she couldn't describe it, except that it left her wanting another kiss. Maybe even a nibble. Definitely a nibble. Ian stopped dead in his tracks.
    "Did you just kiss my chin?"
    His face was, for once, difficult to read. "Um, yes?" she said, "unless you'd like the answer to be no. In which case I'd be lying."
    Ian grinned. From this close, his teeth were as white as the snow surrounding them. "Yes will do just fine."
    His eyes fixed on hers with such intensity that Shan's entire body felt like it wanted to burst into flames. He brought his head closer to hers, and the scent of his skin filled her nose. Shan was suddenly aware of Ian's arms around her back and legs, keeping her close to his body, to his heartbeat.
    "We kung-fu women are notorious harlots," she whispered, her voice husky. The pupils of his eyes grew huge, like a cat's eyes at night.
    "Is that so?" Ian's gaze traveled from her eyes to her lips, lingered there for several breathless moments, and then traveled back to her eyes again.
    Shan squirmed even closer to his chest. "Absolutely," she breathed. "We've been kissing men's chins for centuries."
    Ian swallowed. She watched the movement of his Adam's apple and silently added his neck to the list of body parts she wanted to sample. "Just chins?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
    "Some of us are a little more adventurous." She breathed deep and lifted her mouth to his. He met her halfway.
    Shan shivered as their lips pressed together. So soft, so warm. Her heart pounded. Ian made a little noise, partway between a moan and a whimper. He pulled her closer. Shan sank into the heat. She hadn't expected this. She hadn't expected Ian's reaction or her own, not to a simple chaste kiss. Why did she suddenly feel like she was going to pass out?
    "Shan..." Ian whispered, his lips still on hers.
    Shan shifted