“Take me with you.”
His eyes widened, then he slowly shook his head. “It’ll be better...for your sake...for both of us...it’s best that we separate.”
“Separate,” she echoed, feeling hollow.
“Until the land comes through.”
She swallowed. “Until we divorce.”
His lips curved into a humorless smile. “You know what, I’m almost glad I lost.” He tucked a loose tendril of her brown hair behind her ear, then looked straight into her eyes. “Save yourself, Josie. For your next husband. For a man who can deserve you. Who can love you,” he added softly.
Turning away, Kasimir started to walk towards the door.
“I intended to lose the race,” she blurted out.
She heard his intake of breath. He slowly turned to face her.
“Why?” he asked in a low voice.
She gulped. She had to be brave. To tell the truth. And do it now. Now, without thinking about the risk or cost. Now.
Josie crossed the tent to him. Standing up on her tiptoes, she put her hands on his shoulders and looked straight into his startled blue eyes. “Because I wanted you to seduce me,” she whispered.
And leaning forward, she kissed his lips.
* * *
So much for his brilliant intelligence. Kasimir had thought he was so smart, finding a loophole around his promise. Passing her in their race down the dune, he’d felt triumphant, his body tight, knowing he all but had her in his arms.
Then there was a scream, and she’d flown past him. She was such an accomplished snowboarder that she’d had no problem handling the textural differences between snow and sand. And she’d seen the source of the scream, the injured boy, half a second faster than he had. It was enough to make any man feel slow. Stupid and slow.
Which was exactly how Kasimir had felt pacing the tent of the boy’s family as his uncle, a doctor trained in Marrakech, worked on the boy’s ugly compound fracture with his limited instruments at hand. Kasimir had looked down at the sobbing boy, wishing he could do more than order a helicopter on his satellite phone, wishing they didn’t have to wait so long, and most of all, dreading the long, jarring journey the boy would face traveling to the hospital in Marrakech.
After Ahmed was loaded on the helicopter with a stretcher, Kasimir had evaded the tearful thanks of Ahmed’s family. Shoulders tight, he returned to the tent where Josie waited—not for his seduction, but for her freedom.
The whole afternoon, from start to finish, had left the acrid sourness of failure in his mouth.
And then—Kasimir had tasted the sweetness of Josie’s lips against his.
She’d reached her hands around his shoulders, lifting up on her tiptoes, and he’d just stared down at her in shock, telling himself he was completely misreading the situation. Josie, the inexperienced virgin, wouldn’t make the first move.
Why would she kiss him? He was a man who stood for nothing and no one. She was an angel who knew how to fly.
I intended to lose the race. Because I wanted you to seduce me.
He heard a soft sigh from the back of her throat. Saw her close her eyes. And she pressed her soft, trembling lips to his.
He didn’t immediately respond. He was too amazed. But when she grew shy, and started to draw away, a growl came from the back of his throat. Closing his eyes, he roughly pulled her back against his body and returned her kiss with force, with all the passion and longing he’d tried so hard not to feel. He let himself feel it—all of it—and desire overwhelmed him as it never had before.
Her lips parted as he deepened the kiss. She returned his embrace awkwardly, hungrily. And it was the best kiss of his life.
Outside the tent, he heard the rising wind flapping and rattling against the heavy waxed canvas. But he was lost in her. Her lips were so soft, her body so womanly, her soul so pure. As he ran his hands down her back, over her loose cotton shirt, he felt the press of her breasts against his muscled chest. Her brown hair now tumbled down her back in waves, tangling in his fingers.
It could have been hours or even days that he kissed her, standing with her in his arms, holding her body tightly against his own. He flicked her mouth lightly with his tongue, guiding her lips, teaching her to kiss. His tongue brushed against hers, luring her to explore further. With a sigh of pleasure, she leaned towards him, her arms tightening around his shoulders.
Josie. So reckless. So beautiful. She had such strange power. She made him want things he shouldn’t want.... Made him feel things he didn’t know he could still feel....
Lifting her into his arms, never ending their kiss, he carried her to the four-poster bed he’d shared with her in painful chastity for two nights. As he laid her back against the mattress, he looked down at her beautiful face.
“Tell me you don’t want me,” he said hoarsely. “Tell me to leave you be.”
He held his breath, as if waiting for a verdict of his life or death. She shook her head slightly. His heart twisted.
Then her full, pink lips lifted into a tender smile. Her brown eyes shimmered, glowing with desire, and she reached up for him, pulling him down against her in clear answer.
He felt her body beneath him, and knew he’d never again suffer the agony of sleeping beside her without being able to touch her. Because nothing on earth would stop him from taking her now.
Cupping her face, he kissed her passionately, stretching her back against the bed. His hands moved up and down her body until he finally reached beneath her cotton shirt. He felt her trembling hands stroke his bare chest beneath his own ripped shirt, torn into bandages on the dune. Her satin-soft fingertips ran along his flat belly and bare chest, and he gasped at the amazing sensation. He kissed down her throat, and his fingers were suddenly clumsy as he tried to unbutton her shirt, finally popping off the buttons in his desperation to feel the warmth of her skin against his own.
Yanking her shirt off her body, he threw it to the carpet and was mesmerized by full breasts barely contained within a lacy black bra. He sucked in his breath. Distracted, he didn’t notice her tugging on his T-shirt until suddenly it was pulled off over his head. He felt the exploratory touch of her fingertips over his flat nipples and down the light dusting of black hair that pointed like an arrow down his muscled body.
Josie. Was this really going to happen? His heart was in his throat as he looked down at her. Here, now?
Outside, the hot wind howled against the tent as he kissed her deeply, pushing her down beneath him, against the soft pillows. He cupped his hands over her bra, feeling the weight of her breasts beneath his hands. He pushed her legs apart with his knee, grinding himself slowly against her, with only fabric separating them. She trembled as he liberated one large breast completely from the bra, watching the rosy nipple pucker and harden beneath the warmth of his breath before he suckled her.
In a single movement, he unclasped the bra and tossed it aside. Leaning back over her, he felt her shiver as he slowly kissed down her neck. Pressing her full breasts together, he kissed the crevice between them, licking her skin.
He felt her fingers tangle in his dark hair as she gasped, clutching him to her. He kissed down to the soft curve of her belly, feeling her tremble, feeling the damp heat of her skin. He slowly pulled off her linen pants, lingering against her thighs and the secret hollow beneath her knees. He removed his cargo shorts. Wearing only his silk boxers, which at the moment were uncomfortably tight, he slid his hips between her legs. Instinctively, she swayed as he rocked himself against her, back and forth over her lacy black panties. He heard her intake of breath as her hands clutched his shoulders, holding him against her.
His lips lowered to suckle a full, pink nipple. He lightly squeezed her breast, pushing her nipple more deeply into his mouth. He heard her soft muffled gasp as he ran his tongue in a swirling motion, nibbling and sucking, as his hand toyed with the other nipple. And all the while, he was slowly grinding himself against her, with only the thin separation of silk between them.
Her hands suddenly gripped his hair. “Stop.”
Kasimir sucked in his breath as he pulled back. His body ached as he held himself in check, looking down at her. It would kill him, but if she wanted him to stop....
Josie reached up, running her hands down his bare chest, to the edge of his silk boxers. She looked up, her cheeks red, her eyes bright. “I want to see you. To touch you.”
He exhaled.
“Yes.”
With tantalizing slowness, she ran her hands along the edge of the waistband, and then—and then—he held his breath as she reached beneath the silk. She stroked the hardness of his shaft, running her fingers along the ridges and tip.
He heard a low hoarse gasp, and realized it was his own. Her eyes were huge as they met his. And then...
She suddenly smiled.
It was a smug, feminine smile, full of infinite mystery and pride—as if she’d realized the depths of power she held over him, as she held him completely in her hands.
She pulled down the silk, revealing his body completely to her gaze. She ran her hand over him, exploring. His breathing became ragged. He closed his eyes. Her slightest touch made him wild. He felt as though he could explode at any moment...