"Wh-What are you doing?"
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'Touching you."
The last remnant of her smile faded. She was left staring down at him through huge, unblinking eyes, her front teeth clamped nervously against her full lower lip. "I don't want you to touch me."
He gave her a slow, mocking smile. "You should have thought of that before you started this."
"Maybe I didn't think it through well enough." She pulled back, tried to get away.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Do what?"
He let his gaze slide slowly from her face, down the soft swell of her barely-covered breasts to the vee between her legs. "Wiggle."
She froze. Her naked thighs tensed atop his. "Let me go," she whispered.
"I don't think so." He looked up. "You kissed me. I think I deserve the same opportunity."
His hands slid down the slick, wet softness of her arms. The necklace glowed with an eerie lavender light against her flesh, accentuated the paleness of her skin. He touched it, wondering at its magic, then brushed one finger across the tiny blue-tinged hollow at the base of her throat.
Her nervousness was a living, breathing force between them, a tangible presence as real as the water and sandalwood scent of her skin or the heat of her legs against his.
He kept his gaze fastened on her face, her eyes. His fingers, roughened by years in the saddle, trailed a teasing pattern atop hers. He felt the silky-soft flesh, the puffy, raised lines of her veins.
She shivered, made a quiet, gasping sound at his touch, but didn't draw away.
Finally he released her gaze. Glancing down, he
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plucked up her left hand, turned it over, and rested it in his, studying it. Her pale, pliant fingers lay open to him like the petals of a single, perfect rose. He trailed a fingertip along one of the creased lines in the soft center of her palm. Her flesh twitched beneath his touch, her fingers instinctively curled inward; he felt their velvet pads against his little finger.
"Are you finished looking at my hand?"
He glanced up, saw the anger in her eyes, and felt a smile start. "Your hand? Yeah, I guess I'm through."
She yanked her hand from his and shoved it behind her back, then tried to scoot off him.
He tightened his hold and held her in place. "You started this," he said in a quiet voice. "I'm going to finish it."
"I didn't start this"
He caught her gaze and held it. One eyebrow arched slowly upward. "Are you that innocent?"
She sighed. "I was never innocent. What do you want from me, Killian?"
"A kiss."
She gave him a skeptical look. "That's it? Just one kiss?"
"One real kiss. Not that half-ass nun's peck you gave me last time."
"I don't want to kiss you."
He smiled up at her, moving his hands slowly up her arms. She blinked, swallowed convulsively.