More than a Mistress

Oh, but such desire.

Travis's hands were in her hair, tipping her face up to his, holding her a willing prisoner as his mouth ravaged hers. It was a hard, possessive embrace, almost savage in its urgency. You belong to me, it said, to me and to no other man.

She knew it was an illusion. She didn't belong to him. She didn't want to; she had belonged to her father, then to her husband.

But Carl had never made her feel like this.

Travis whispered her name, sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. She moaned and wound her arms around his neck, lifted herself to him and shuddered with excitement when she felt the rigidity of his arousal hard against her belly.

His hands were under her blouse. She trembled as his callused fingertips rode her hot skin.

"Travis," she said, her voice broken and husky, "Travis..."

"My Princess," he said, and his hands swept up the soft underside of her breasts and cupped them.

Need roiled through her blood but she fought it back. Don't, she told herself, don't do this, Alexandra. Remember how you felt the last time, the terrible feeling of emptiness, the self-loathing...

Remember the feel of him within you, the blinding pleasure of his body in yours. Remember that moment when you tumbled off the edge of the earth and exploded in the heavens but most of all, most of all, remember how it felt afterward, lying in his arms, so at peace, so replete with happiness...

"Give yourself up to me," Travis whispered, against her throat. "Come with me, Alex, come with me and let me show you how it can be."

A hot, sweet wave of desire swept over her. Lost to it, she reached for him but his hand clamped down on hers.

"No," he said thickly. "Let me do this. Let me do it all."

She whimpered as he drew back, and the knowledge that she didn't want him to leave her was almost more than he could endure. He imagined having her now, pulling her down to the sandy beach in the darkness, rolling her under him, entering her on one long, hard thrust and riding her until she shattered in his arms.

It was how he'd taken her before, swiftly and with an elemental hunger. But it was not how he wanted to take her now, especially when the words she'd spoken with such terrible dispassion still echoed in his head.

Sex had been unsatisfying.

That was what she'd said, this woman who burned in his arms. Sex, with her husband, had been unsatisfying. He knew what it meant, that she had been a dutiful wife, that the son of a bitch who'd taken her to his bed had given nothing and taken everything.

Tonight, he would change that forever ...but not if he gave in to the animal instincts that drove him. It took all his strength to stop her from touching him but even more than he wanted Alex, he wanted to give her this night.

"No," he said. "Not here."

"Of course." She stepped back. "I'm sorry, Travis. You're right. I should never have..."

"Dammit," he said roughly, and hauled her into his arms again. He kissed her, over and,over, until she was clinging to him. "Don't ever apologize for wanting me. Don't you know how exciting that is, Princess? To know you feel the way I feel?" He took a deep breath, clasped her face gently in his hands and brushed his mouth over hers in a soft, lingering kiss. "I have a suite at the inn. It's where I planned on spending the night. Will you come there with me, and let me make love to you as if this were our first time?"

He waited for her answer, knowing that giving her time to think was a gamble'. He was asking her to admit her need for him instead of being swept away by it, but he didn't want her to come to him blinded by passion.

Not tonight. Tonight, he wanted to seduce her. Awaken her. And to know, after this, the only man she would remember would be him.

"Alex." He ran his thumb over her parted lips. "I want to make love to you. Tell me it's what you want, too." Her answer was in the soft surrender of her kiss.

His bedroom was high in the round turret of the handsome old inn.

The night's darkness held the room in close embrace, save for the ivory path laid across the bed by the moon. Travis shut the door and locked it. The turn of the lock seemed to echo through the silent room.

Alex shivered.

There'd been no time for thinking, or for fear, when she'd gone to bed with him that other time. Desire had made her a creature of instinct, not of logic.

This was different. Travis had given her a choice and she'd made it. It was her decision that had brought her here, to his bed.

What would he expect of her, and what could she give him? If she failed him, she would fail herself...

"I can't do this," she said, and spun toward the door, straight into Travis's waiting arms. "Travis. Travis, please. I can't."

She was trembling. What was she afraid of? Of him? Of herself? Of the passion he had unleashed in her, that last time? She sighed, and he felt the warmth of the exhalation against his throat.