"Do you know how badly I want you?" he asked, his voice a hoarse rasp as he held her hips to draw her even closer, to push himself even deeper. "I want to bury myself completely inside you…"
Aurora arched her back, totally aroused. He was huge and hard and hot and filling her to bursting. Helplessly, she began to move, no longer maintaining the slightest measure of control. She rode him wildly, gasping, quaking against him, while her hips undulated in a mindless rhythm.
As her aching moans filled the air, though, his rough excitement grew to match her own frenzy. He arched up, driving into her. Aurora erupted, crying out with abandon as he forced jolt after tormenting jolt from her.
Her explosive heat shattered the last of his control. He whispered her name, fierce and low, and then let himself go, his body contracting in a wrenching, tearing release. When it was over, Nicholas sagged weakly back, while Aurora collapsed upon him, totally drained.
She lay there contented, bliss convulsing her senses. Nicholas had been right all along, she thought dazedly. She did have a hidden fire buried deep inside her. He had kindled it from the moment they had met.
She had not realized the depths of her need until now. Until knowing Nicholas, she had merely existed, pretending she could escape feeling a woman's desires, a woman's wants. And now she couldn't deny them. He filled her with a yearning so powerful, she ached.
A line from the journal floated into her mind: I belonged to him, a captive of his raw and untamed passion. That was how she felt about Nicholas. She was prisoner of his desire. Her physical need for him was like a sickness…
Aurora's contentment suddenly faded, while her throat tightened. Nicholas was doing everything in his power to bind her to him with chains of love, wooing her with his tenderness and his gentle-fierce lovemaking. He had made her a woman and now he was bent on capturing her heart.
Dear God, she didn't want to love him. Yet he was making it harder and harder to resist.
The constriction in her throat increased.
Before Nicholas, she had yearned for a passionless life. She had desperately wanted to avoid the pain of loving him and losing him.
Yet how could she wall herself off emotionally from him now, when he was so set on taking full possession of her heart? How could she withstand his vital force when he was so single-mindedly tearing away her defenses with his incredible passion?
How, she wondered desperately, could she quell her own relentless need and this painful, yearning ache inside her?
Their agreement to live only in the present held into their second week. During one of their morning rides in the forest, however, they ventured into a discussion that Aurora would have preferred to leave alone.
She had just set her mount at a huge log, an obstacle that even Nicholas was leery of. She cleared it with inches to spare but had him shaking his head in wonder at her bravado.
"Don't talk to me about the risks I take," he said dryly. "I would never be so suicidal as to hazard that fence riding sidesaddle."
She laughed, still feeling the exhilaration of her success, and patted her horse's neck fondly. "I don't believe you, Nicholas," she retorted as she resumed her place beside him. "From what I have seen, you aren't the least afraid of anything. You have no fear."
"Oh, no," Nicholas said with a twisting smile. "I have one very great fear."
"And what is that?"
"I'm afraid I will lose you."
Aurora fell silent, not wanting to tread such dangerous grounds. "You said we wouldn't speak of such things."
"Sorry," he said unrepentantly. "But you did ask. And we will have to broach the subject at some point before I leave for America."
Disquieted, she tried to raise her defensive walls. "Nicholas, our time together here has been… wonderful, but our relationship is merely pretense. Whatever feelings we share now are only temporary. They cannot last."
"I would like them to be permanent, Aurora."
She knew her dismay was written on her face, but then he made light of her alarm.
"Very well, I won't ask for your heart. Only your body."
His grin held such devil-may-care charm that she couldn't be certain he was even serious, yet unaccountably she felt a stab of pain at his nonchalance.
Aurora shook her head. "I am not the sort of woman you want for your life's mate."
"I vehemently dispute that, love. You're the perfect match for me. You have never had any trouble holding your own in our disputes or in any other arena. You are more than equal to any challenge I could throw at you."
A troubled frown darkened her brow. "Don't you understand, I do not want you to throw challenges at me. I am not like you, Nicholas. All you care about is danger and excitement and adventure. I'm not at all interested in such a wild life."