Calder Promise (Calder Saga 8)

“That isn’t all I’m after. It never was all.” He lowered her wrist and bent it behind her, forcing her against his body. Laura remained stiff and unyielding, shutting her mind to the warm heat radiating from him. “Don’t you know you are the answer to any man’s prayer? And when I found out you were wealthy, too, I thought you were the answer to my prayer. That after the pain and grief of these last months, the fates were finally going to smile on me.”

“Next, I suppose, you’ll be claiming you’re in love with me.” Her expression was full of scorn, but there was a big, empty ache in her chest.

“I don’t know what love is. Do you?” The look in his eyes was serious enough that it gave her a moment’s doubt. “I only know that I can’t seem to be around you without wanting to touch you and hold you, and feel the heat of your body against mine.”

“That’s lust.” Laura refused to attach any importance to it.

“Maybe, but it’s something I would feel whether you had money or not.” When he released her wrist, his hands moved up her arms in a rubbing caress that kept her close to him without force. “You feel it, too.”

“A skilled lover knows how to evoke a response in a woman.”

“Is that how you reason away what you’re feeling?” Sebastian countered.

Laura had a glimpse of something tender and slightly mocking in his look before his mouth came down and claimed her lips in a kiss that was warmly persuasive. If only she weren’t hurting so much, if only she could hold on to that righteous anger, she might have been able to hold on to her shield of indifference. But Sebastian had deflected too much of her anger, planted too many seeds of doubt, and she hurt too much. At the moment, more than anything else, Laura wanted to forget—and his arms promised that.

The moment she moved against him in response, the flames leaped and need took hold. It pushed, turning Laura into the aggressor, craving the salty taste of his skin and aching to feel his muscled flesh beneath her hands.

Clothes became an irritating barrier that were quickly discarded. When he sank to the ground beside her, her hands reached to pull his hard, male body to her. Sebastian was slow to react to their pull.

Laura saw he was about to say something and ordered tightly, “Don’t talk. Not now.”

It was action she wanted, not words. And he gave it to her, his hands and lips seemingly intent on memorizing every inch of her, pushing her to the fever-pitch of need. Then came that exquisite moment when he entered her and two bodies moved as one, hips thrusting, pressure building. Release came in a series of straining shudders that left them both trembling and limp.

For a wordless second they lay on the ground, still partially tangled together. Laura felt the slight chill of the morning air against her bare skin. With its touch came the coldness of reason. She rolled away from Sebastian and reached for her clothes.

“Where do you get the strength to move?” he wondered huskily. “You’ve stolen all of mine.”

“Don’t talk,” Laura said again, and went about putting on her clothes.

“What do you mean?” He sat upright, his gaze boring into her.

“Exactly what I said.” She tucked her shirt inside the waistband of her breeches and zipped them up.

“We have to talk now.”

She didn’t have to look to know he was frowning. “No, we don’t.” Laura pulled on one boot and reached for the other. “Everything’s been said.”

“Laura . . .”

She felt the brush of his hand on her arm and quickly stood up, made a half-turn to look down on him. “I can’t trust your words any more than I can trust my feelings.” She had never allowed emotions to rule her, and she wasn’t about to start now.

“You aren’t making any sense—” Sebastian began.

“Then let me say it more clearly.” Laura was relieved to find her voice was steady and calm. “That was good-bye.”

She saw the disbelief that clouded his face. At the same instant, her finely tuned senses caught the drum of muffled hoofbeats. She turned.

“Dammit, Laura, you—”

“I think you’d better get dressed,” she cut in. “It looks like Helen and Boone are riding this way.”

While Sebastian muttered a few choice words under his breath and grabbed for his clothes, Laura set about fixing her mussed hair, removing the confining band and bow, finger-combing it into smoothness, and wrapping it once more at her nape with the band.

As Laura refastened her bow in place, Sebastian was struggling with his last boot. He managed to stamp his foot into it mere seconds before Helen and Boone rode up. Greeting them with a cheery wave, Laura walked forward to meet them.

“Marvelous morning for a ride, isn’t it?” Her breezy tone had Sebastian clamping his mouth shut in irritation, convinced that nothing ever rattled that woman. She either had nerves of steel or no feelings at all. He didn’t believe the latter, so he chose the former.

“We’ve been looking for you,” Boone stated, and Sebastian felt the rake of the man’s gaze as he moved to Laura’s side.