Bound by Love (Russian Connection 2)

“I will not have peace until I have rid myself of this hellish craving.” He caught her lips in a fierce, punishing kiss. “I want you out of my thoughts.”

“This hardly seems the best means…” she began, only to choke on the words as he grasped the bodice of her shift and ripped it in two. “Why the devil did you do that?”

“I will buy you another.” He groaned as he struggled to yank off his cravat, a flush of color staining his cheeks. “Christ, I will buy you an entire wardrobe. Just kiss me.”

Against all sense and reason, Leonida did.

LEONIDA HAD NEVER BEEN STRUCK by lightning, but she was fairly certain she now knew how it must feel.

Quivering from the restrained fury of Stefan’s lovemaking, Leonida sucked in a deep breath as the heavy male body rolled to lie beside her on the mattress, shocks of pleasure still jolting through her lower body.

Good lord…

Unlike the gentleness that marked their first night together, Stefan had unleashed the full power of his desire, taking her with a thunderous hunger that left her drowning in sensations.

Sucking in a deep breath, she turned her head, meeting Stefan’s brilliant blue gaze.

Just for a moment the entire world skidded to a halt. The cramped room with its shabby furnishings, the chatter of birds that echoed through the open window that overlooked the back garden, the churning concern at having been caught before she could reach St. Petersburg, all faded away.

A sweet, poignant emotion clenched at her heart.

An emotion that sent a chill of dread down her spine.

No. She was not stupid enough to fall in love with this man.

For God’s sake, he considered her a thief and a liar. And then there was his threat to haul her back to England as his prisoner.

Thankfully oblivious to her shocking thoughts, Stefan folded his arms behind his head and regarded her with a faintly smug smile.

“A most delightful interlude, my dove.”

“Interlude?” With a sudden surge she was off the bed and, ignoring her tattered shift, she yanked on the hideous gown. She did not know why she was hurt by his words. So far as Stefan was concerned she was just another woman in a no doubt long line that he had skillfully seduced. Then again, perhaps she should be grateful, she told herself severely, fumbling to retie the numerous ribbons. If she were not already desperate to escape from him, she certainly was now. “I have taken complete leave of my senses,” she muttered beneath her breath, shoving her feet into the slippers that had fallen from her feet during the…interlude. “Sophy was right.”

“Right about what?” he demanded.

She deliberately kept her gaze adverted from his naked body sprawled across the rumpled sheets. “I should have brought a pistol.”

He chuckled softly. “It would take more than a pistol to keep me out of your bed.”

Arrogant bastard. She wrapped her arms around her waist. “Will you please just go away?”

“Neither of us are going anywhere, Leonida. Not until you have told me why you came to Meadowland and precisely what you have stolen from me.”

“I have told you I cannot.”

She heard a rustle and peeking out of the corner of her eye, she watched as he slid from t

he bed and tugged on his breeches.

“Ah yes, the dire threat to your mother.”

“It is not amusing.” Whirling to face him, Leonida sent him a frustrated frown. “And the threat is not only to my mother.”

“Are you saying that you are in danger?”

“Me and anyone who…”

His brows lifted. “Who?”