In the Eye of the Storm (Storm and Silence 2)

‘What did you say, my dear, temporary love?’

‘I said I ot anyody’s!’

What I had been trying to fling into his face were the defiant words ‘I’m not anybody’s.’ But it’s difficult to fling words of defiance into someone’s face while that someone is attached to your face by biting down on your lower lip. Particularly if his gentle bite is sending tingles through your entire body, making your knees want to give way.

What the hell is the matter with you? Where is your self-respect? Stand up straight! Fight that bastard off! That’s what you want, right? Right?

Hm… maybe. But standing up straight seemed like such an exhausting thing to do right now. Besides, what could I do to fight him off, anyway?

You can give as good as you get! Bite him!

Slowly, my lips curved into a smile. All right. Let’s show him who’s in charge!

Snaking my arms up around his neck, I pulled him closer towards me. In an instant, he was on me again and was delving into my mouth, probing its depths. Trying to keep my knees from melting, I waited. I waited until he pushed his lower lip forward, gently massaging my upper lip with both of his.

Now!

My teeth came down.

‘Arrgh!’

My grin widened - for about one millisecond, before he picked me up off the floor like a doll and surged forwards. I had hardly time to think Bloody hell! What’s this? He’s supposed to let me go, not carry me to the… ! before he rushed through the door into the next room and flung me onto something soft and velvety.

‘Ouff!’

Feathers creaked under me. The chaise lounge! Why had he thrown me onto the chaise lounge?

‘I have a question for you.’ His voice came drifting out of the darkness, somehow seducing me no matter how cold and hard it was. No… because it was. ‘While you are here…’

I tried to drag a breath into my labouring lungs. I tried to see where he was, to scramble away. But the breath had been knocked out of me, it was pitch-black inside the room, and my limbs felt like putty.

‘While you are here, Mr Linton,’ came his voice out of the dark again, ‘what are you?’

This was bloody ridiculous! He had just kissed me on the mouth, and now he was calling me Mister? I opened my mouth to protest.

The creak of the feathers was all the warning I got. I never sensed him above me, so silently and smoothly did he move. Trapping both my arms at my sides, he claimed my mouth with his again, cutting off my protest - in more than one way. His kiss didn’t just keep me from rejecting him. It kept me from wanting to.

Dear God…

‘While you’re here,’ he whispered against my mouth, his smooth, ice-cold voice burrowing into me like a frozen spear until it found my heart, ‘what are you? Tell me!’

He released my mouth for just a moment. My eyes had gotten used to the dark by now, and I could see the faint outline of his face in the gloom. I could see his eyes, calling me, holding me more securely than his hands ever could.

The words escaped my mouth without thinking.

‘Yours! I’m yours!’

*~*~**~*~*

Just to make sure everyone who reads this knows: there were two beds in the suite. Two. And we used both of them that night. Separately.

I just wanted to get that out there before anyone got any ideas. My behaviour in the recent past might have been a tiny bit erratic. Some might even use the word ‘passionate’. But that was just the heat of Egypt affecting my delicate English nervous system. I was still a feminist! I thoroughly and totally despised men. Especially one particular specimen of the species!

Really? I heard a little voice every time during the next few days when our lips happened to touch, coincidentally. You don’t really act like you despise him.

Emphasis on ‘act’! I was acting a role. After all, he was paying me, at the moment, to pretend to be his loving wife. Nobody should be able to accuse me of not doing a thorough job!

Nice! The only problem with that argument is that whenever you are in company, i.e. whenever your acting skills are actually required, you behave like a vengeful harpy. It’s just when the two of you are completely and utterly alone that you-