I nibbled at his lips, trailed their seam with my tongue, and he opened to me. I tensed just a little, expecting the usual invasion, but none came.
Patiently he waited, letting me kiss him, barely kissing me until it wasn't enough and I just had to taste.
Behind my closed eyelids, images burst free. Cool spring water running beneath a blazing summer sun. Snowflakes drifting through a silvery sky to land atop a field of purple wildflowers.
I wasn't a woman prone to pretty words or beautiful daydreams, yet kissing this man brought to mind all sorts of odd things.
Fire beneath the moon. A rainstorm hitting the pavement after a scorching August day. Steam rising up, drifting past my face.
I pulled away, staring at him wide-eyed, trembling. For the first time in months I wasn't afraid. The arousal had pushed away every shred of fear.
"I will never touch you unless you ask it of me. " I saw his lips moving, but his voice was like the wind swirling through my head. "Perhaps you must even beg. "
The thought of telling him what I wanted, of never having to fear his pushing me further than I could handle, was seductive. But -
"You can trust me, Claire. "
How did he continue to take the words right out of my mouth? Or maybe out of my head? I made a derisive sound.
"You don't think I'm trustworthy?"
I met his eyes. "I don't know you. "
"You could tie me up. " He leaned forward and I tensed, but all he did was rub his mouth along my forehead, his lips caressing the sensitive skin at my hairline. "Then I couldn't touch you, unless you set me free. "
I shuddered at the image, which was far too appealing. "Maybe later," I managed, and he laughed.
"I must go," Cartwright said, but he didn't. He stood with his back to the sliding glass door as I stood so close his chest nearly touched mine every time he filled his lungs with air.
"You'll only be here a week," I said.
"After your festival, we must head for another. In Pennsylvania. " His head tilted. "Why?"
"I may not be able to - " I took a breath, let it out. "In a week. "
"You think all I care about is sex?"
My eyebrows lifted. Well, yeah. He certainly couldn't care about me. We'd just met.
"You think I have a woman in every town?"
I winced at the echo of Grace's words. Well, eavesdroppers rarely heard good about themselves.
"You think I share my body with them, and
then I go away?" I inched back a few steps. "You don't know much about the Rom. We aren't supposed to consort with gadje except for business. "
"What's gadje?"
"Those who are not Rom. "
"Sounds like a custom from the fifteenth century. "
"An ancient custom, to be sure. But one we try to uphold. The outside world has never been kind to us. "
I recalled Mrs. Charlesdown accusing Sabina of stealing when the girl had done nothing at all.
"In the old days, people would leave unwanted children near our camp," he continued. "Then, when we took one, adopted him, made him one of us, we were accused of kidnapping. "