BEVERLY BARTON - Murdock's Last Stand

“I think so.” Okay, so once again she’d been wrong in assuming Murdock was just being an arrogant jackass.

“If that’s settled, then why don’t you—”

“What were you and Hugo laughing about?”

“Good God, woman! Do you have to know everything?”

“Humor me.”

Murdock raked his cupped hand across the faint stubble on his lower jaw. “Hugo made a comment about your long legs wrapping around me when I screwed you.”

Catherine gasped loudly.

“You asked. So I told you. Don’t go getting outraged and giving me hell for telling you what you demanded to know.”

“Are all your friends that crude?”

“Men are that crude, honey.”

“All men aren’t.”

“Oh, just men like me and my friends and your father, huh?”

“My husband would never have made an inappropriate remark about a woman, especially not in her presence.”

“Well, bully for your husband,” Murdock said. “But in Hugo’s defense, he didn’t realize you knew any Spanish. And he assumed you and I were lovers.”

“Which we are not!”

“Which we most definitely are not!”

They stood there face-to-face, staring each other down, like two Old West gunfighters preparing for a high-noon showdown. Catherine’s chest rose and fell dramatically with each labored breath she took. Everyone who knew her, knew Catherine had a temper. But as a general rule it took a great deal of aggravation to rile her. She had learned over the years to control all her emotions, and seldom allowed anyone or anything to irritate her to the extent Murdock did.

The pulse in Murdock’s neck swelled and throbbed. She could tell that he was as upset as she and trying just as hard not to explode. Usually, she was the person others feared, the one in charge, the one who had the power to make underlings shake in their boots. She certainly wasn’t accustomed to having some big, overbearing man running roughshod over her and making all the decisions.

“You bring out the very worst in me,” she told him. “And I don’t like it. However, there’s not much I can do about it, but endure your presence until we have my father safely out of Zaraza. Then I hope I never see you again as long as I live.”

“Believe me, nothing would suit me better. Your attitude isn’t conducive to winning friends and influencing people. And there’s no place in my world for uptight, snobby, prudish women who are out to emasculate every man they meet.”

“Conducive. My, my. What a big word for such a small mind.” Catherine flashed her adversary a wide, eat-dirt-and-die smile. “And if my aim was to emasculate men in general, I wouldn’t waste my time on you. But, I must admit, the thought of dropping a stick of dynamite into your pants and blowing your…your masculinity to smithereens, gives me immense pleasure.”

“Ouch, Cat, your claws are not only showing again, they’re scratching me.” His smile matched hers in sheer brilliance and outmatched hers in pure devilry. “And if you want to drop something into my pants, I have a much better idea.”

Gritting her teeth and huffing, Catherine closed her eyes to shut out the blazing red glare that blinded her. The man was insufferable! Was her father really anything like Murdock? If so, how could her sweet, genteel mother have endured being married to the oaf?

“In your dreams,” she said, under her breath, then opened her eyes and gasped when she realized that he had silently crossed the room and stood within an arm’s length of her.

“Don’t you know that the more you fight a man, the more determined he’ll be to conquer you? And, Cat, honey, you have a knack for verbal sparring that can really turn a man on.”

That was it! She’d had it with this big, smart-mouthed wise guy! With her hands balled into tight fists, she took that one step that separated them, then lifted her gaze to make direct eye-to-eye contact. That’s when she realized she’d made a mistake. A huge mistake. Murdock was looking at her as if she were the last drop of water in a sweltering, dry desert.

“What the hell,” he said as he reached out and jerked her into his arms. “We might as well get this over with.”

Catherine didn’t know what hit her! Murdock’s big arms tightened around her in an embrace that made escape impossible. In that one instant before his mouth closed over hers, a dozen different elements swept through her consciousness. The sexual glint in Murdock’s hazel eyes. The faint scar on his left cheek. The musky scent of his masculine body. The sound of his accelerated breathing. And the width of his massive shoulders.

With her mind overloaded by exciting, threatening sensations and her body betraying her by pressing against Murdock’s rock-hard frame, Catherine opened her mouth to object. But before she could utter a word, he speared his fingers into her hair and gripped the back of her head solidly in one huge hand. Immobilized by shock and a primitive awareness, she could do nothing more than whimper when he took her mouth in a overpowering kiss. The ravaging attack possessed a tantalizing tenderness that she hadn’t expected. And that hint of gentleness was her undoing. All thoughts of protest vanished as she eagerly responded with a fierceness that equaled his. Lost to rational thought, removed from logical action by the all too human instincts controlling her, Catherine reached up and clasped Murdock’s shoulders, clinging to him as he deepened the kiss.

He walked her backward, up against the wall, and all the while devoured her mouth greedily. She trembled with expectation when she felt the thick, swollen hardness of his sex pulsing against her belly. Her short, round nails bit into the cloth of his shirt, trying to draw him closer.

Their tongues plunged, swiped and sampled, participating in a prelude to actual mating. When he buried his face against her neck, his lips searing her flesh, his teeth nipping, she drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Shivers of desire rippled along her nerve endings when his hand covered one breast and kneaded softly.

He thrust himself hard against her mound. Shock waves of fear and longing flooded through her. She gasped audibly, but made no move to stop him.

“Do you want to take this farther?” Murdock asked, his voice ragged with arousal. “If we don’t stop now, I’m going to have you right here, up against the wall. Is that what you want?”

Yes. Sweet mercy, yes! That’s exactly what she wanted. She wanted him inside her. Pounding. Throbbing. Filling her completely. Loving her as she’d never been loved.

“This is insane!” She loosened her tight grip on his shoulders. “How—how could I have let this happen?” She had been on the verge of having sex with Murdock—a man she neither liked nor respected. Had she lost her mind?

“You didn’t let it happen, honey.” Murdock eased his body away from hers and took a step back, allowing her breathing room. “I could see this coming a mile off. It’s been there, between us, ever since we recognized each other at the airport in Atlanta yesterday.”

Catherine shook her head as if to dislodge irrational thoughts and better comprehend what he’d just said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

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