“So much a child, but so much a man,” Kerry murmured as she watched him cross the patio.
“And intuitive,” Linc said.
“About the horses?”
“About me.” She turned her head and stared up at him. “He was right about my hurting you. Only his timing was off.”
Her eyes fell away from his piercing stare. “Let’s not talk about it. Please.”
“I’ve got to talk about it.” He spoke softly, even though it was unlikely anyone would hear them over the antics of Peter Pan and Captain Hook. “Are you in pain?”
“I told you earlier, no.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
“We’ve already established that, too. You wouldn’t
have believed me.”
“Maybe not this morning, but—”
“When? When, Linc? Think back. At what point during our friendship would you have believed me? When would have been a good time to casually drop that into the conversation?” She expelled a long breath. “Besides, what difference does it make? It had to happen sooner or later.”
“But not so—”
When he broke off without finishing, she looked at him inquiringly. “Not so what?”
“Roughly.”
For a moment they stared at each other. She was the first to look away. “Oh, that, well...”
“Did I hurt you, Kerry?”
“No.”
Physically her discomfort had been minimal. Emotionally, it had been fatal. He had taken her out of anger. It hadn’t been an act of love, or even of sexual pleasure, but one of vengeance. Her body hadn’t been bruised, but her heart had been trampled. He had dealt her emotions a crippling blow, but she would be damned before she let him know that.
She tilted her head to its haughtiest angle. “That’s what you want to hear, isn’t it? Hurting me would have taken some of the gilt off your trophy.”
“What do you mean by that?” he asked, lowering his brows dangerously.
“Your sole purpose was to make me admit my attraction to you. You set out to make me beg, remember? Well, I did. You got what you wanted, didn’t you?”
“No, goddammit.”
He moved nearer. His face was dark with anger. She could feel his body heat and, madly, felt cheated for not having felt his naked flesh next to her own. She had shared with him the most intimate act between a man and woman, but she still didn’t know the pleasure of her smooth skin rubbing against his hair-smattered body or the delightful friction that caused.
And, damn him, I still want to know, her mind cried.
“I wanted to bring you down a notch, but I would never have hurt you. I had no idea when I... I wanted to stop as soon as I...felt...” His eyes coasted down to her mouth. “But once I got inside you, I couldn’t stop.”
Another of those long stares followed while each remembered the feel of his body snugly embedded in hers. Linc wanted to pull her into his arms again, but knew he couldn’t. So he released his frustration by lashing out at her.
“You gotta admit that you’re a little old to be having your first lover.”
“It was never convenient. My mother died when I was sixteen. After that, I acted as my father’s hostess. Boyfriends rarely fit into the embassy’s social schedule. And in the last few years...”
“You were busy keeping your old man out of jail.”