Velvet Embrace

"Hush, chérie," he murmured soothingly. "I won't hurt you." He lay completely still, moving only his lips as he whispered gentle, meaningless words in her ear. When she quieted, he began to press light kisses against her throat, nuzzling her soft, fragrant skin.

It was a long moment before Brie realized she felt no pain. When Dominic raised his head, brushing a tousled curl back from her face, she opened her fear-darkened eyes. His gentleness bewildered her, but as she met Dominic's triumphant gaze, she suddenly understood what he had intended. He had meant to make her cower in fright. He had meant to reduce her to a quivering mass of jelly.

Immediately Brie's fear dissolved, to be replaced by a heated fury that flashed in her eyes. She glared up at him, her breasts rising and falling with rage. "What are you waiting for?" she demanded, her voice shaking.

"Ah, the fire is back," he taunted, his own voice husky with desire.

"Damn you to hell, Dominic! Why don't you get it over with and be done?"

"My, aren't you an impatient one?" Shifting his weight slightly, Dominic very deliberately, very slowly, began to stroke her body with his hand. "I am waiting, my little wildcat, for you to say you want me."

She stared in shock. His punishment, his revenge, was not complete. Dominic meant to humiliate her further by making her admit her desire.

"Never!" Brie cried, starting to struggle again. But her words of protest were cut off as he covered her mouth with his own.

Ignoring her struggles, he parted her lips with an ease that shamed her. His thrusting tongue probed the depths of her resistance—insistent, demanding—while his fingers continued the slow, insolent exploration of her body.

Brie held herself rigid, willing herself not to respond, but she could feel every muscle, every nerve ending in her body growing taut with desire. And when Dominic began to stroke her breasts, lingering over each nipple until it throbbed, she realized her body was responding to his arousing caresses, despite all her efforts.

Brie quivered with mortification, knowing it was only a matter of time before she gave in to him. Already his passionate kisses were drugging her senses, conquering her will. . . .

His lips left hers then, moving lower, playing a sensuous melody on her skin, pausing to torment the tips of her breasts. Brie shivered as the stubble on hi« jaw rasped against the sensitive flesh. When his mouth closed over a hardened nipple, she couldn't prevent a gasp of pleasure. She let her head fall back, no longer wanting to stop him. She could feel his roaming hand caressing her thighs, and when he urged them apart, his fingers stroking and exploring, she opened to him in surrender. She no longer cared about her vanquished pride. She was aware of nothing but her intense need for Dominic, of the hot ache in her body that only he could ease.

Only vaguely did she realize when Dominic shifted his position to kneel between her parted legs. He lowered his head once more, pressing featherlight kisses over her smooth abdomen and lower, at the junction of her thighs. Brie jumped in shock when his lips began to nuzzle the soft curls that hid her womanhood, but Dominic's hands gripped her hips, raising her off the bed and forcing her to remain still. His tongue claimed her then, turning what had been mindless fear into mindless pleasure.

His tongue lapped and swirled and stoked and teased, delving into her, making Brie writhe and gasp for breath. Her fingers tangled in the dark waves of his hair, demanding a release from the exquisite torment. But Dominic taunted her to the brink of ecstasy—only to leave her dangling there helplessly.

When he lifted his head to stare down at her flushed face, his eyes were almost black with the force of his emotions. "Say it, my passionate beauty," Dominic demanded. "Say you want me."

"Yes," Brie moaned, her voice hoarse with desire. "Oh, yes! Please, Dominic . . . please. . . ."

He gave a triumphant, gutteral laugh before he took her, plunging into her, swiftly, forcefully. Brie gasped at his deep penetration, but in only a moment she was sobbing with pleasure. His loins were hard and thrusting, filling her, making her forget everything but her own mounting passion.

He drove into her with savage force, needing to control, to possess, to conquer, but Brie wanted his possession. She clasped him fiercely to her, digging her fingers into the flexing, iron-hewed muscles of his shoulders. When he gave a final explosive thrust, she arched against him, yielding him the final vict

ory as he swiftly brought her to a shattering climax. Dominic's own release came at the same instant. His body shuddered convulsively as he held himself, shaking, inside her.

When it was over, when their breaths no longer came in ragged gasps, Dominic slowly rolled off her. Brie shivered as the night air caressed her sweat-dampened skin, but she didn't move. She merely lay there with her eyes closed, not wanting to face the significance of what had happened.

He had conquered her completely. Dominic had skillfully sharpened her desire to a razor's edge, until she had pleaded for him to take her. He had bent her to his will, demonstrating his contempt by making her beg for his touch.

Feeling hot tears sting her eyes, Brie turned away, clutching her arms to her stomach in a gesture of protectiveness, as if she could ease the pain that sliced through her heart.

Dominic lay beside her, listening to her muted sobs and staring at the ceiling. He was completely sober now—and he felt like a complete cad. But he should have been pleased, he reminded himself savagely. He had succeeded in doing precisely what he had intended. He had wanted to frighten Brie, had wanted to hurt her as well as hold her and make her cry out with passion. But proving his mastery over her body hadn't made him feel any better. And he was still no closer to resolving this damnable situation. He still didn't know if he could trust her.

Swearing in self-disgust, Dominic turned his head to look at her. She was curled on her side, her back to him, but he could see her shoulders shaking. Involuntarily, he reached out a hand to comfort her—but he drew it back almost instantly, knowing if he took her in his arms, he would never be able to crush the tenderness he had begun to feel for her.

He had tried to deny its existence entirely. God knows, he had tried. Sometime during the long evening, while he was purposefully drinking himself into oblivion, he had even hit upon the madly insane idea that he could exorcise the hold Brie had over him by taking her body again.

But it hadn't worked, Dominic thought grimly, realizing his desire for her hadn't diminished in the least. The hell of it was that it hadn't worked.

Chapter Fifteen

When Brie was awakened early the next morning by an insistent tapping at the door, Dominic's side of the bed was empty. She sat up slowly, staring down at the pillow where his dark head had lain. Dominic was gone.

But perhaps it was for the best, Brie reflected, trying to ignore the feeling of desolation that filled her. She could not have faced him this morning.

Remembering what had happened, she winced. Dominic had made love to her in the most degrading a manner possible, simply to prove that she meant nothing to him. He had delighted in humiliating her, in forcing her submission. What a fool she had been, letting herself believe that he could love her! Perhaps, given time, he might have come to care for her, but now she stood no chance. He thought her family a pack of murderers, herself included, and his suspicions had crushed any love he might have felt for her. He hated her and that was the end of it. She would go home to Greenwood and never see him again, and in time, forget him—if she could.