Free Read: “The Kiss”
“The Kiss” - Excerpted from Underground #1: TAMIA
copyright 1992 by Esther Mitchell
“I want to talk to you!”
He kept walking, as if he hadn’t heard her.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Tamia muttered under her breath, and surged after him. She finally caught up to him a short distance from the living quarters. She grabbed his arm and whirled him around to face her. “You have a lot of explaining to do!”
His icy glare, and the smoldering heat beneath it, made her feel as if he could strip her clothes away with his gaze alone.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you,” he said frostily, moving to yank his arm away.
Tamia glowered at him. “The hell you don’t! Why am I stuck here? I’m more use to the team if I’m out there, helping!”
“You,” Rick said tightly,” are better off learning to follow orders. I told you you’re confined to quarters, now do it.”
“God damn it, Rick!” She grabbed his arm again as he turned away, her own anger at boiling point. “I didn’t join this outfit to sit on my ass! Why are you doing this to me?”
“It’s safer for the team.” Even spoken quietly, those words stung. She was right; he thought she was a risk, because of what happened between them.
“Safer for you, you mean.” Tamia glared defiantly up at him. She wouldn’t be shut out like this. Not again. “It doesn’t change anything, dammit! What happened—”
She stopped with a sharply indrawn breath as his midnight gaze pierced her clear to her source, and set her nerve endings trembling. Dear God, she’d had no idea his eyes could get so blue!
“Between us, you mean? Tamia, my decision has nothing to do with what I want.”
Staring into those eyes, Tamia’s world tilted. She couldn’t remember what they were discussing. All she was aware of was the need to have his lips against hers, his hands on her.
“What you want?” She applauded herself for even that breathless query. “What do you want?”
“This, dammit.” Then his mouth was on hers with a hunger that defied sanity as he reached to meld her against himself, and she nearly wept with relief.
Tamia squeezed her eyes closed and pressed closer, aware of how fragile this moment was. She could feel the heat of his hands on her, of his body pressed against hers, and the barrier of their clothes frustrated her. Time hung, suspended, as she lost herself in the overpowering shelter of his arms. Never before had she felt so secure, or in so much danger, as she did now.
“Rick,” she breathed against his lips, her hands on his face as she pulled him more firmly to her. She never wanted this moment to end, if it meant an end to the delicious sparks that shot through her body.
“Dear God,” he muttered, pressing kisses over her face and neck, “it’s so hard to remember you’re a spy when you get this close.”
