Summer Kisses

She could hardly breathe. ‘Flora? Who’s she? Oh, I remember—she’s the woman I left her locked in her cottage when I stole her identity. I need to go and let her out.’

He gave a slow smile and his head lowered towards hers. ‘Too late, sweetheart.’ He paused, his mouth tantalisingly close to hers, ‘You are most definitely Flora. A whole new Flora. A standing-naked-in-my-kitchen Flora.’

‘In my underwear…’

His lips brushed hers, a deliberately erotic hint of things to come. He gave a low, appreciative murmur. ‘You taste good. Whatever happens in the next few hours, don’t dig your fingernails into my shoulders. If this is a dream, I don’t want to be woken up.’

Her entire body was throbbing but still the nerves fluttered in her stomach. He was so sure and confident, whereas she… ‘I made you coffee.’

‘I don’t want it.’ His mouth slid down her neck and lingered at the base of her throat, his tongue tasting her skin. ‘I want you, sweetheart.’

Her pulse was thundering and she tilted her head back with a gasp. ‘Conner…’

‘You came here to seduce me…’ His lips moved slowly along her shoulder. ‘You want to know what sort of lover I am.’

As she felt his hands slide confidently down her back, she gave a shiver. ‘I thought you didn’t find me attractive.’

‘I always found you attractive. But you were always off limits as far as I was concerned. Despite what everyone thought of me, that was the one line I was never prepared to cross.’

‘But you’re crossing it now.’

‘No. You’re crossing it.’ He lifted his head and looked down at her, his ice-blue eyes compelling. ‘This was your decision, Flora. You made it by coming here.’

He was giving her the chance to change her mind. But she didn’t want to do that. ‘Yes.’

‘So…’ His hand slid slowly down her back and cupped her bottom. ‘You came here to seduce me.’

She couldn’t breathe. ‘Yes.’

He gave a slow smile. ‘Carry on, angel. I’m all yours.’

Was that it? Was that all the help he was going to give her? For a moment her courage faltered but then she looked at his gorgeous naked body and couldn’t help herself. She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his chest, while her fingers trailed slowly across the hard muscle of his abdomen and lower still until they brushed against the top of the towel that was all that was between her and his straining manhood.

‘All right, commercial break,’ he said roughly, scooping her up into his arms as if she weighed nothing, ‘If you carry on like that, this whole event is going to be very short-lived. You need to slow things down, angel. Make me beg.’

Beg?

She had no idea how to make a man beg. Flora clamped her mouth shut, judging it wise not to confess as much at this point. The problem with playing the seductress was that you were expected to follow through.

He carried her up a flight of stairs to the bedroom. Dusk was falling but there was enough light for her to see open fields and the jagged ruins of Glenmore Castle.

‘It’s a wonderful view,’ she breathed, and he gave a lazy, confident smile as he deposited her in the centre of the bed.

‘The only view you’re going to be looking at has me in it.’ He delivered a lingering kiss to her mouth and then lay down beside her and r

olled onto his back, arrogantly sure of himself, his gaze direct.

And she understood. He wanted active, not passive. He was giving her the chance to change her mind but she had no intention of doing that.

She wanted this. She wanted him. And this time she wasn’t going to blow it. The whole of Glenmore could sing and dance outside his bedroom window and it wouldn’t make any difference.

Aware that he was waiting for her to make the first move, she reached out a hand and stroked his shoulder, shivering slightly as she felt smooth skin and powerful male muscle.

He lay still, his eyelids lowered, watching and waiting, and suddenly she felt desperately nervous and impossibly excited.

‘You can stop whenever you want,’ he murmured, but he sounded less cool and composed than usual and the edgy quality to his voice gave her courage.

‘I’m not stopping. You have an amazing body,’ she said huskily, and her eyes slid shyly to his and her insides tumbled and warmed. He was so outrageously sexy that it was hard not to stare and even harder not to touch. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, feeling the roughness of male stubble under her lips. Then she ran a finger over his nose, exploring the bump. ‘How did you break it? Were you fighting?’