Samantha James (23 page)

Her taunts hit home. Guy swore softly under his breath. Never before had he taken his hand to a woman but she tried him sorely. An arrogant smile crept across his lips. "We shall see," was all he said. "We shall see."

The next instant his smile was gone. He crossed his arms over his tunic and arched a heavy brow. "Strip," he ordered curtly.

Kathryn gaped at him. She felt as if the ground were falling away beneath her feet. "You are mad," she gasped.

"Aye," he agreed coolly. "Mad with lust for you. Now strip, Kathryn, else I shall do it for you." His half-smile was frigidly brutal. "The choice is yours, milady."

The choice was hers? He offered no choice but submission! Oh, God, she should have known he would dare anything... he would do anything! Her composure badly shaken, her pride sorely bruised, she gave a strangled cry of ire and presented him with her back. Even as she berated herself for her weakness, her fingers fumbled clumsily with the sash at her waist.

His voice drifted to her. "I still await, Kathryn. And I grow ever more impatient."

Prolonging her fate though she knew she risked much, she scorned him silently. Bending slightly, she tugged at the garter below one knee and pulled off her hose. The other followed suit. She slowly pushed her gown from her shoulders where it fell to the floor. She did the same with her linen chemise, letting it drop in a heap about her ankles.

Eyes downcast, she was quiveringly aware of the earl's approach. In a hurried bid to retain some semblance of modesty, she sought to tug her hip-length hair across her shoulders. But she had scarce lifted her hands than she found them jammed back to her sides.

Kathryn stood mutely. The humiliation that gripped her was scalding. Eyes the color of storm clouds pored over her nakedness in a leisurely, deliberate examination, leaving no part of her untouched. Never before had she been so despairingly aware of her vulnerability as a woman. Her throat closed with the aching threat of tears. She willed them away, resolving that no man would ever see her cry, oh, most especially not this one!

The breath left Guy's lungs in a rush. The candlelight from the wall sconces flickered over her, bathing the whole of her in ivory and gold. He'd thought her beautiful before, but she was truly exquisite, slight but long of limb, slender but with enticingly full breasts, tipped with dusky-rose nipples. His blood began to heat, exciting him to a fine frenzy. It was all he could do not to pull her against him, tug those deliriously long legs around his waist and plunge hot and deep inside her then and there.

A lean hand clamped her bare shoulder. Kathryn had thought herself well steeled for his touch, but her entire body jerked. In all truth, her nerves were scraped raw. Oh, she knew why he did this! He longed only to assert his dominion over her! To squelch her rebellious pride and prove that his will would ever triumph over hers. He had never seemed more dangerous than he was at this moment. The thought of him possessing her body was terrifying. For the first time she regretted that he despised her so, for his desire was spawned of anger. He would channel all his pent-up fury into this single act. His pleasure, she thought wildly, would be gained from her pain.

She bit back an anguished sob. Panic gripped her mind. Her only thought was to escape this madman's vengeance. She spun about and lunged wildly for the door but he was too quick for her. His arms snaked out and caught her, pinning her back against him.

He laughed huskily. "You think to flee so late in the game? And where would you go undressed as you are? You'd surely give my knights an unexpected treat. Why, they'd be lined up clear beyond the outer walls to taste your bounteous charms. But alas, 'tis their loss and my gain, for I shall be the one to claim the honeyed treasure between your thighs this night."

"You braying jackass!" she raged in impotent fury, but her arms were useless, trapped against her body by the muscled forearm banding her waist. She twisted and kicked backward with her bare feet but the effort was futile. "You—you are crude!"

That iron-thewed arm tightened further. "Whatever," he muttered, and his voice had gone low and deep. "But I've waited a long time for this night and I'll not be cheated of it." He lifted her clear from the floor.

The next thing she knew she lay sprawled on the bed. His big body followed hers down. She lay stunned, unable to move for an instant, her breath slammed from her lungs by the weight of his body atop hers. Then she came alive, trying to jerk her arms and legs free. In desperation she sank her teeth into his shoulder. She heard a satisfying grunt of pain before he pulled back slightly, and then victory was but a fleeting memory. With a fierce oath he curled his foot around both her legs and dragged her arms beneath her, holding her wrists captive above her head. Kathryn soon discovered that the slightest movement made her body aware of the entire length of his, oh, especially the iron-hard length of his thighs—and what lay between them. Her struggles subsided, but she stiffened every muscle in her body against him until her arms went numb and her mind was spinning from lack of air. She turned her head aside with a half-sob.

Feeling her body go limp beneath him, Guy waited tensely, gauging her for further trickery. A pang of remorse shot through him as he loosened her wrists and raised himself slightly. He crouched above her, ripped off his leather jerkin, and flung it aside. His knee pressed between her slender thighs. Not once did he take his eyes from her as he stripped. She lay before him, spent, trembling, her eyes wide and dark. Not for the first time, Guy was struck by the air of innocence which clung to her. Some strange twisting emotion unfurled inside him, fazing his certainty. He could almost believe that she was frightened. She appeared defenseless and helpless. . . A niggling little voice in his mind taunted that he'd been well misled before by her trickery. Nor was she innocent in the ways of men, and the knowledge served to harden Guy's heart.

Of a certainty it did naught to cool his ardor.

"Kathryn." There was that in his tone which commanded she heed him. With pained reluctance, she moved her head and encountered the enigmatic attraction of his sheer masculine presence.

He loomed above her. Dark and strong. Fiercely compelling. Kathryn's heart began to pound. Naked, he was an awesome sight, more powerful than ever. His shoulders gleamed smooth and hard, like oiled walnut. A dense layer of dark curly hair matted the whole of his chest and abdomen. Swallowing, her gaze touched the corded swelling of his arms, then strayed helplessly downward... the rigid thickness of his manhood was starkly, daringly explicit. One terrified glimpse was enough to send her eyes flying back to his face. Oh, God, she thought. He would hurt her. Impale her like a fish on a hook and tear her asunder.

His lips twisted into something that bore little resemblance to a smile.

He stretched out beside her. Kathryn shrank away instinctively, but he would have none of it. His hands closed around the soft flesh of her upper arms; he dragged her against him. She gasped as her naked breasts encountered the furry roughness of his chest.

Their eyes locked. There was a taut silence as they stared at each other.

It was Kathryn who broke free from the hold of his gaze. "Damn you," she cried. "Just do it! Do what you will and be done with it!"

His head descended. All at once he was so close it was as if they shared the same breath. He nuzzled the delicate skin of her temple. "But there is so much that we would miss," he whispered, and she thought she felt him smile against her cheek. "And I'd not deprive you of your pleasure."

I'll feel no pleasure
, she longed to screech. Her eyes blazed. She opened her mouth to curse him at the same instant he sealed her lips with a binding kiss.

She fought him. Oh, she was well aware she could not overcome his physical strength. But she fought him in the only way she knew how. She emptied her mind and concentrated instead on Ashbury, recalling how dreadfully she missed Elizabeth, how she longed to walk along the cliffs with the sea wind whipping her skirts and hair.

With the pressure of his chest, he urged her onto her back. She lay stiffly as his fingers slid into the unbound glory of her hair. His tongue flicked across her lips, insistently seeking. With his thighs he urged hers knees apart. As best she could, she tried to clamp her legs together and barred him entrance.

He raised his head to stare at her. Though his features were dark and shadowed, the jutting clench of his jaw bespoke his displeasure. His fingers tightened on her scalp. "Yield to me, Kathryn." There was no softness in his voice, none at all. "Yield..."

"Never," she vowed. "You are crude. A vulgar oaf—" Her imprecation was smothered by the hot brand of his mouth on hers. But this time he did not seek, he demanded... ah, but with such seductive persuasion! With an ease that proclaimed the experience he had boasted of, he set about rousing forbidden fires. His mouth was wildly consuming, devouring and fierce, hard but not hurtful. He kissed her endlessly, deep, drugging kisses that seemed to go on forever and melted her resistance like tallow beneath a flame.

Somewhere in the deepest, darkest recesses of her being, a stranger fluttered to life, a stranger she scarcely recognized as herself. A curling ribbon of sensation unfurled like the buds of a flower beneath a warm summer sun. It was but a kiss, she tried telling herself. But no longer did she merely endure the browsing glide of his tongue. She could feel her senses widening, expanding, opening to absorb the heat and essence of the man himself. With a low moan her arms crept around his neck. Helplessly she surrendered all that he sought, for she could summon no more strength to resist his will and her own traitorous need.

With a groan Guy crushed her to him. The sweet clinging of her mouth against his was almost more than he could bear. Her breasts burned like twin peaks of fire into his chest. He could feel the tender press of her thighs against the part of him that needed her most—he was so achingly full he thought he might explode. It was both heaven and hell to hold her thus and not give in to the need clamoring wildly in his veins, but all at once he did not want this passionate encounter to end so speedily.

He brought his hand to her breast, slowly rotating his palm around the swelling peak, cupping the cushioned fullness in his hands—Christ, her skin was like warm velvet. He had a sudden, consuming urge to taste such tempting fruit.

Kathryn's eyes flew open. The touch of his hand there sent a jolt of lightning streaking through her. She had not dreamed that he would touch her there... She emitted a startled gasp of bewildered shock when he abruptly lowered his head, his target her left breast. What madness was this, that he would suckle her like a babe... ?

Her fingers curled against the sleek flesh of his shoulders, but she did not stop him. His breath caressed her first, wafting across the aching tip like the first faint whispery wings of night. A quivering excitement shot through her. She was stunned to discover her breasts seemed to swell, her nipples tight and aching and tingly. By the time his mouth fully encompassed the straining peak, she was so acutely sensitized there she nearly cried out.

He laved her nipple to quivering erectness with the lashing stroke of his tongue, all the while taunting the other with his fingertips, circling and teasing it. The dual assault left her gasping. She inhaled sharply, the flood of sensations inside threatening to choke her.

A restless longing began building inside her, an acute yearning she did not fully understand. She forgot that he was her enemy. She forgot that she hated him. She told herself that she shuddered in loathing, but she knew that she trembled with a perilous excitement that far surpassed anything she had ever known.

He lured her into a realm from which there was no escape. His hands roamed at will—stroking, soothing, coaxing, and caressing. Kathryn did not stop him. To her horror, she found she did not want to. At times his hand was a fiery brand, claiming her for his own. Then suddenly his touch was tantalizing and tormenting, maddening and elusive, drifting like smoke and making her shiver inside and out. He seemed to know exactly where to touch—when to tease—it was as if he knew her own body better than she herself. . . She was no match against such an unfaltering, practiced lover. When his mouth recaptured hers, he drew from her an unbearably sweet response she was incapable of withholding.

Lean fingers traced a nerve-shattering path across the concave hollow between her hips. Then, as bold and brazen as he himself was, those daring fingers trespassed through the downy thatch below. Kathryn's heart slammed to a halt. Such intimacy was unbearable! She tried to close her thighs against his encroaching hand, but he would have none of it. Soft triumphant laughter rumbled against her lips. A lone finger dipped and swirled, intent on a mind-stealing rhythm that robbed her of breath. Waves of scorching heat coursed through her. The rampant thunder of her heart echoed in her ears. She began to tremble. Sweet Jesus, what was he doing to her?

Her fingers curled against the hard flesh of his shoulders. She uttered a choked plea. "Do not, milord. Oh, please—"

His head lifted. "I have a name, Kathryn." His voice sounded odd and strained. "Why do you never use it?" Oh, he knew why. It was but one more barrier that she threw up against him, yet another way to defy him. But until that moment Guy did not realize how he longed to hear it spring forth from those sweet lips. . . nay, not in anger, but in whispered passion. . . in the heat of slumberous desire.

Kathryn stared up at him, taken aback by the urgency she sensed in him. It seemed such a small thing... 'This would... please you?" In some far distant corner of her mind, she marveled that she could speak at all.