Twisted Arrangement by Mora Early Page B

line. “Just. . . . This isn’t about money. Please, don’t ever think that.” She raised her eyes to his. He was struck again by that odd feeling of acquaintance at her quiet tone and the somewhat prickly look in her eyes. He frowned, trying to catch it, but she lowered her lashes over her eyes, and it faded too quickly for him to grasp.
     
    “I believe you,” he said. His instincts told him there was something more to her fierce reaction, but she hadn’t even told him her name. He was unlikely to get a personal confession from her. “I didn’t mean to ruin our dance. Please, let me make it up to you.”
     
    He had meant with another dance, but she curled her fingers around his lapels, biting her lower lip. “Not here.”
     
    “What?” Despite their heretofore passionate flirtation, he was startled by her words. Especially after her volatile response to his last comment. He glanced around, momentarily unsure how to reply. She decided for him by spinning away and disappearing into the crowd. Josh found he couldn’t resist following her.
     
    It was his ball. He really should be mingling and schmoozing, pressing the flesh and encouraging people to open their checkbooks. But his mystery woman was far too intriguing to let escape. So he strode after her, nodding and shaking hands with the people who greeted him, but not stopping. He murmured a few words about a catering emergency and slipped out of the ballroom.
     
    She was waiting for him by the door, just off to the side, with her back to him. Josh momentarily fought the urge to drop to his knees and press his mouth to the groove of her spine. She turned her head, looking back over her shoulder at him. Her earrings swung back and forth with the motion, brushing the bare skin of her shoulders. Josh suddenly wished he were a painter or photographer, maybe a sculptor, so he could in some way capture the vision of beauty and desire she embodied it in just that moment.
     
    Madame Butterfly completed her turn toward him, extending her hand. He took it, and she drew him into the hall leading toward the billiard room. And his bedroom. Did she know?
     
    “No one’s come this way since I came out of the ballroom. We can have some privacy.” Her mouth ticked up at one corner. Josh’s heart pounded. He wanted to grab her, throw her over his shoulder and carry her to his bedroom. She conjured something very primal in him.
     
    As soon as she had him in the dimmer shadow of the hallway, she pulled him against her and slid her arms back up around his neck. Her fingers twisted in his hair as she tugged his mouth toward hers. “Kiss me, Joshua.”
     
    He knew the hallway wasn’t completely deserted. They were only a few feet from the ballroom. They could be discovered at any moment. But he wasn’t about to argue with the lady. Josh wrapped his arms around her back, pressing her slight body into his, and angled his head. He brushed his mouth back and forth over her lips once, twice, three times, teasing her, before he covered her mouth with his own. She gasped, lips parting. Josh groaned, unable to keep his tongue from tracing the entrance to the moist cavern of her mouth.
     
    Her own tongue emerged to tease his, coaxing him into her mouth, where they rubbed sensuously together. She tasted of white wine and thyme honey, sweet and heady. Her teeth nipped at his lower lip, sucking it into her mouth briefly. Josh growled, walking her backward until he felt the cool wood of his bedroom door. He pinned her against it, returning to her mouth to plunder it further. The kiss was explosive, hotter than anything he’d ever experienced. Nuclear levels of desire detonated inside him.
     
    She clung to him, her breath soft on his cheek, her mask rasping slightly against his jaw.  He’d have that off her soon enough, he vowed. The dress too, if he was lucky. He tried to picture the long, lithe body beneath the ruby silk and was instantly and almost painfully hard. His left hand