‘Why don’t you rest before dinner?’ the object of her thoughts suggested, walking into the bedroom from the sitting room. ‘I want to go and have a chat with Aunt Marian.’
And presumably she wasn’t wanted, Briony reflected bitterly.
She had a shower and lay down on the bed, having taken the precaution of locking the bedroom door. She only meant to rest for a few moments before dressing, enjoying the cool play of air against her skin, but somehow her eyes felt too heavily weighted to remain open, and it was so pleasant just to relax. She reached out for her robe, intending to pull it on, but was fast asleep before she even touched it.
A cold shaft of air across her back woke her, and in the dark shadows of the room it was several seconds before she remembered where she was.
She glanced at her watch in horror, unable to believe that she had slept so long. Kieron! Had he come looking for her and found the locked door? And Nicky! What on earth would Marian and Héloise think of her? She rolled over frowning as the curtains billowed in the breeze from the opened French windows. She could not recall unfastening them, and her heart pounded unevenly as a figure detached itself from the shadows on the terrace and strolled towards her.
‘So you’re awake at last.’
Kieron! She reached feverishly for her robe, but he twitched it out of reach, his eyes mocking as he drawled softly, ‘Oh no… you look much lovelier without. I thought the gods were indeed being generous when I came in here and found you lying so temptingly on my bed, like a sacrifice to Bacchus.’
‘But I locked the door.’
‘I know you did,’ deep amusement tinged his voice, ‘but you forgot about the patio, my lovely wife, and now, like Eve tempting Adam with the apple, you’ve aroused my appetite.’
She wriggled away from him, but he was too quick for her, his hands sliding over her skin to hold her waist while her heart beat so loudly she felt sure he must hear and correctly interpret its passionate demand.
‘I told Aunt Marian you wouldn’t want any dinner,’ he murmured softly. ‘Did you really not know that I would break down the door by sheer force once I’d glimpsed your delectable body? What a pity you’ve already had a shower.’
He laughed deep in his throat at her quivering reaction, stroking his fingers along her midriff and lowering himself on to the bed beside her. ‘So timid and shy! I could almost believe you still a virgin if it wasn’t for Nicky, and some particularly entrancing memories. Do you remember what you said to me then? How you pleaded so sweetly for me to possess your body, and how you cried with pleasure when I did?’
His hands were moving slowly upwards, moulding her breasts gently, moving lightly against her nipples.
‘You do remember, don’t you?’ he breathed against her ear, his voice honey-sweet and seductive.
Briony tried to push him away, her palms tingling with shock as they came into contact with the male warmth of him.
‘No!’ She didn’t know whether the word was a denial of his erotic words, or a denial of her own feelings, but Kieron seemed to be in no doubt. He rolled over, holding her clamped against him, his eyes hard as they searched her face.
‘No?’ he prompted softly. ‘Then I shall just have to remind you.… The surroundings were similar, in that we were lying together on a bed. But then you pleaded with me to let you feel me against you without the restriction of our clothes!’
‘No!’ Briony denied desperately. ‘I never said anything of the kind!’
‘Perhaps not in so many words, but your body told mine pretty clearly that that was what you wanted. I even seem to remember you helping me out of my shirt. Like this,’ he added huskily, sliding her hand against his chest where it tangled in the crisp dark hairs and clenched convulsively against him as he pulled his shirt free of his waistband and pulled her down against his naked warmth.
Her breasts swelled tautly with remembered warmth and Kieron groaned huskily deep in his throat. ‘You see, you haven’t forgotten at all,’ he growled against her ear. ‘You show me what comes next.’
For a brief moment she fantasised about doing just that, the palms of her hands sliding treacherously against Kieron’s skin, the impeding jeans making her fingers curl resentfully as they ignored the commands of her brain to stop their sensual exploration and devote their energies to repulsing his masterful invasion of her senses.
‘Still shy?’ he teased, pinning her underneath him and raising himself up on one elbow to study the fluid lines of her body. ‘I seem to remember much the same problem last time, although we eventually managed to overcome it. Undress me, Briony,’ he urged against her ear. ‘I love to feel you touching me.’
Her tongue flicked out to wet her dry lips, the betraying movement quickly stilled, but Kieron had seen it, and his hands cupped her face, and his own tongue lightly traced the outline of her mouth, his eyes gleaming in the darkness as she swallowed convulsively.
‘Want me, sweetheart?’
Briony shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. Her whole body was trembling uncontrollably.
‘Ah, that’s better,’ Kieron murmured. ‘Now we’re getting to the woman you’ve buried for so long. She wasn’t cold and frigid, was she, Briony?’
Warning signals flashed despairingly in her brain, but her body was ignoring them, too languorous and aroused to heed their import. Her hands slid down to the hardness of Kieron’s hips, tugging ineffectually at the cream cotton.
‘Mmm, I know,’ Kieron whispered, moving away slightly. ‘That better?’ he asked her seconds
later, taking her hands and spreading them against the flat tautness of his stomach, his faint laugh lost on an unsteady groan as her fingers stroked tremulously against him, causing him to shudder deeply and fasten his mouth on hers in aroused demand.
There was a throbbing ache deep down inside her, a need for fulfilment that obliterated anything else. Her body arched provocatively against Kieron’s, inciting him to subdue its subtle torment by inflicting his own revenge in the unhurried exploration of his mouth and hands. As though she had stepped from one world to another, leaving reality completely behind her, Briony responded passionately, her lips pressed feverishly against his skin, tasting its salty bitterness and feeling his gasped moan of pleasure. This time she was no uncertain novice having to be coaxed and taught, and her body remembered things her mind had long since refused to hold.