Tender Feud

His gentle, intimate caress suddenly made Katrine profoundly conscious of Raith’s nearness, of his disconcerting gaze upon her. Abruptly she ceased her play and turned to stare at him. His breath had stilled; his eyes were blue and intense.

Her heart suddenly took up an erratic beat. She was far too aware of the heated look Raith was giving her, of the smooth expanse of bronzed skin that was close enough for her to touch if she wished to. She stared back at him, for once in her life feeling shy and vulnerable. She didn’t know how to deal with a man as virile and dangerous as he. Her lips parted in silent protest as his hand slowly came up, wrapping itself in a thick strand of her hair.

“Are…you going to…kiss me again?” She had to force the words out, her voice weak, her tone reedy.

“What do you think?”

How could she answer that when the hot sensations he was stirring in her made it so difficult for her to think? “Why…do you always…” Katrine replied breathlessly, “answer a question with a question?”

“Hush,” Raith murmured. “Don’t talk when I kiss you. Close your eyes, Katrine.”

She was powerless against the heated longing he aroused in her. Obediently her eyelids fluttered shut.

At her surrender, Raith made one final effort to reason with himself. His gaze skimmed her face. Her radiant skin had the luminescent quality of a priceless pearl.... Slowly he drew her closer, even as he silently cursed her for her desirability, and himself for his damnable weakness. More slowly still, he released her hair to slide his fingers around her neck, caressing the nape.

The gentleness of the gesture drew a soft, startled gasp from Katrine. His hand was warm, heavy, filled with power. She could feel his breath on her lips. And in the next moment she felt the incredible warmth of his mouth as it softly covered hers, the stunning hardness of his body as he enfolded her close to his chest. Her desire ignited in a single instant; she went all soft and trembling in his arms.

It was several heartbeats later that he slowly broke off the kiss. “Witch,” Raith breathed against her lips.

At the rasped word, Katrine tried unsuccessfully to get hold of her spinning thoughts. “You…you said I was a viper,” she protested weakly, with the last vestige of her sanity.

“No…I said you had a viper’s tongue. But I was wrong, oh so wrong. Give me your tongue, bonny Katie.”

His mouth came down on hers again, this time with more urgency, his tongue seeking and twining with hers while he drew her fully against his muscular body. Helplessly yielding, Katrine clung to him. The bare skin of his shoulders felt warm, hot beneath her clutching fingers. The hungry plundering of his mouth was making her burn with a feverish yearning. Oddly, she had the sensation of falling, and only realized it was because Raith was pressing her down when she found herself lying on the carpet of moss beside the burn, with Raith’s heavy frame half-covering her own slender one.

His mouth left her then, as he supported his weight on one elbow. Katrine’s startled eyes opened. Her irises had darkened, Raith noted, to the color of the moss beneath her head.

“Please…don’t stop,” she whispered.

His gaze took in the blazing riot of curls framing her flushed face, and desire flared through his senses. “No, certainly not,” he soothed as he looked down into eyes that were full of new sensations, wide and soft and hazy. She was unawakened, and the thought of being the man to waken her was a sweet agony in his loins.

Slowly, so as not to startle her, he pressed his fingers against her glistening lips in an intimate caress, before letting his hand move down the white column of her throat. Her bosom was modestly covered with a square of muslin, and when he had dispensed with the kerchief, he slowly drew down the stiffened fabric of her bodice to bare her lovely breasts. He caught his breath at the sight, his gaze devouring the exquisite shape of her exposed flesh. The rosy nipples were already peaking with desire.

Katrine could barely breathe; the ability had all but deserted her. She kept her eyes on Raith’s face. His skin was stretched taut over his hard cheekbones, and slightly flushed beneath his tan, while his eyes blazed with some indefinable light. When his thumb moved to stroke her nipple, she made a small strangled sound deep in her throat. And then he bent his head. She felt the soft brush of his breath before his mouth closed wet and forbidden over the cresting tip. Katrine shuddered. The sensation streaking through her body was so excruciatingly pleasurable that she wanted to scream. His tongue danced with tantalizing intimacy over and around her aching nipple. She was only vaguely aware that the soft whimpers she heard were actually coming from her.

“Raith…” she pleaded, blindly threading her fingers through his coal black hair, not even knowing what she was pleading for. But he appeared not to have heard. Instead he went on slowly, painstakingly, mercilessly continuing the tender torment…tasting, licking, laving first one throbbing peak, then the other, sending shafts of heat darting through her body.

Yet she could feel the responsive heat in his own aroused body, for he was pressing her down, slowly grinding the hardness of his masculinity against her with each sensual movement of his tongue. At length, though, his urgency increased and his lips tugged more hungrily at her. Katrine’s shoulders strained off the ground as she tried to get closer to his mouth, to his body, striving to find ease for the fierce, throbbing ache he was creating within her.

Obligingly, Raith slid his hand downward, caressing as he drew her skirts up, molding the slim shape of her leg, the smooth velvet skin. Touching her like that sent need licking through his veins. Slipping his hand beneath her opposite thigh and raising her knee, he angled his body so he could use his mouth to full advantage.

Almost worshipfully, Raith pressed his lips against her inner thigh, forcing himself to go slowly, realizing how shaky his control was.

His mouth moved upward, along her thigh, his slow fevered kisses drawing another trembling shudder from Katrine. Her quivering moan echoed in his thoughts, exciting him further, making him realize how near he was to the ecstasy her lovely body promised…making him aware of precisely what he was doing....

Suddenly he stilled, a muffled groan sounding in his throat.

He drew a labored breath.

Forcibly, with a low, whispered curse, Raith rested his forehead on the smooth skin of Katrine’s thigh. He had never intended to let it go this far; he could never have explained how it had happened. But he knew he couldn’t let it go further.

In agony, Raith rolled off her, onto his back, flinging a forearm over his eyes, shutting out the sight of Katrine, wishing he could shut out the sound of his rapid breathing as easily, wishing he had never laid eyes on her.

Katrine lay there, startled, not knowing what had happened to cause his sudden withdrawal, not knowing what had caused the pulsing void that seemed to cry for fulfillment, or what to do about it.

“Raith?” She gazed at him in bewilderment, but he wouldn’t look at her. “Raith,” she said shakily. “What is it?”

“You had better…go back to the house.”