Her heart began a hammering beat, but still she couldn’t move. This just wasn’t happening. She wasn’t watching Lucas’s brother undress.
His shirt fell to the bed, and then he sat down next to her to remove his moccasins. Sharisse leaped off the other side of the bed, taking Charley and the rest of the sheet with her. But it was the wrong side of the bed. The door was on the other side—where he was.
She stared at him, her eyes darkly violet. She had no idea how ludicrous she looked, clutching Charley to her breast with one hand and the sheet with the other. The sheet barely covered her, and the blue negligee only revealed what the sheet failed to hide.
Slade had not moved.
“If there’s some problem about you and me sharing this bed, you better spit it out now.”
Sharisse pointed a stiff finger at the door. “Get out!”
It was the wrong thing to say. She realized it immediately. He came around the bed toward her, his expression menacing, his near-nakedness even more so. She backed away until the wall stopped her.
“Why?”
He was so close that his broad shoulders blocked her view of the rest of the room. That one word, uttered so forcefully, echoed in her mind. She didn’t dare meet his eyes, and that left her staring at the smoothly corded muscles across his chest, which was just as frightening. She squeezed Charley tightly, so tightly that he squirmed to get out of her hand, and she had to let him go or risk dropping her sheet.
“I…I didn’t mean to…” She forced it out. “You had no right to come into my room.”
“This is my room, honey,” he said. “It’s the room I use whenever I pay Luke a visit.”
“Then you didn’t intentionally…”
She was staring at his lips, which turned up in a wolfish grin. “Honey, you were as much a surprise to me as I’m sure I was to you. A pleasant surprise, though, I admit.”
A finger touched her cheek, making her tremble. She couldn’t muster the courage to slap his hand away.
“I…I must ask you to leave, Mr. Holt.”
“You can ask me, but you’ll have to have a good reason.” He tilted her chin up, forcing her eyes to meet his. “I’d rather stay.”
“You can’t!” she gasped. She tried to slip past him, but he wouldn’t let her. “Please, Mr. Holt.”
“Perhaps you’d better tell me who you are,” he suggested.
“I’m your brother’s fiancée.”
“You can do better than that.”
“But it’s true!”
“Oh, I’m not doubting that, honey,” he replied huskily. “I just need a better reason than that to find myself someplace else to sleep.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“Why not?”
“He’s your brother!”
“And you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever come across,” he stated plainly. “So what has Luke’s being my brother got to do with what I feel right now?”
“I am going to marry him,” she said. Was there something wrong with Slade?
“You’re not married to him yet.” He shrugged.
His hand slipped behind her neck, exerting a gentle pressure that drew her forward. “No,” she whispered. “No. Please.” She could hardly breathe.
His mouth closed over hers, hot and demanding. Fear shivered down her backbone. A knee parted her legs and pressed against her groin, and she couldn’t stop him. An ardent shock followed that reverberated through her system, and she moaned despite herself.
