Wife by Agreement

'Sometimes—sometimes I'm lonely,' she admitted breathily. 'But I'm used to it.' The impulse to turn her cheek into the palm of his hand proved too strong to resist. Rubbing her cheek against the slightly callused surface of his hand, she closed her eyes. What's wrong with me? she wondered. A plea of convenience was hardly the most wildly romantic form of seduction, and yet here she was literally panting for his touch.

She recognised that she was fast approaching the point where she wouldn't care what his motivations were. The prospect of reaching a point of mindless acceptance was not entirely an unpleasant one—it was definitely a hotly exciting one.

'This wasn't part of the deal.' She had to put up some sort of defence. It was scary to realise how much she hoped he'd dispose of her last feeble objections with his usual efficiency.

'It wasn't something we excluded. Circumstances change, situations alter... If you're going to fall in love, it might as well be with me.'

'I don't want to fall in love.' He couldn't know the irony of his words, or how much the humorous twist of his lips hurt. 'Has anyone ever told you you're a manipulative bastard?' she asked hoarsely.

'Do you realise that you'd never have said that to me a couple of weeks ago?' He didn't seem to be put out by her forcibly expressed condemnation.

'Probably not, but I might have thought it!'

'I bet you did. Why do you think you're doing it now?'

'Because we...you...we didn't talk then.'

'Or fight, or argue, or kiss,' he added triumphantly.

Meaning that something had altered. Was that something him or her?

'You knew exactly now attracted to you I was when we danced tonight. It wasn't something I could disguise.' He bent closer so the last words were murmured into her ear. 'You were excited,' he told her throatily. He took her face firmly between his hands. 'You liked it.'

'Yes, yes...' she admitted, her eyes glistening with emotional tears as she met the challenge of his stare. His face was so close she could see the fine lines that radiated from the corners of his eyes, see the gold tips on the end of his dark eyelashes, and see the faint silvery line of a scar just below his left eye.

'Our marriage has worked, hasn't it?' His thumb ran softly over the quivering outline of her slightly parted lips. 'Why shouldn't this?' He encountered no opposition when he gently pressed against her breastbone and sent her back against the soft pillows. Supported on his elbow, his long body settled beside her. 'Your hormones are raging, and don't bother denying it. I recognise the symptoms—probably because mine are rioting too,' he added drily.

Ethan with riotous hormones! The idea held a unique fascination for her. 'It makes things complicated.' The idea of placing her hand against the flat ridged muscles of his belly took root in her mind and swiftly became an obsessive thought.

'We're not losing anything, Hannah,' he soothed her huskily. 'If anything, we're gaining something new— something that will strengthen what we have. Complicated is when we start looking outside this house for fulfilment. And you will,' he said, reading the denial in her eyes.

The convenience factor reared its ugly head again, and it roused her sufficiently to fight against the inevitable. 'You make it sound as if I've no more choice than an animal on heat,' she protested, distressed by the mental parallel she drew.

'We all try and deny it, but primitive instincts are never very far from the surface, no matter how sophisticated we like to think ourselves. Don't underestimate a primal need.'

The rasp of his voice made her shudder. 'I can't imagine you losing control.' The idea sent ripples of delicious excitement through her body. 'You're so disciplined.'

If she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his hair-roughened chest, would that be enough to make him lose control? Or would it take more...' Eyes half closed, she caught her full lower lip between her even white teeth and looked with hungry curiosity at his face. The fantasy in her head intensified until nothing else existed.

'If you carry on looking at me like that you'll soon learn different,' he growled, his chest rising as he exhaled deeply. 'You do want this to happen, don't you?'

'Yes, yes...yes!' Her voice grew muffled as her face burrowed into his chest. An expression of fierce satisfaction flared on his taut face before his arms came automatically around her.

'That's as good a place to start as any.' A strong shudder ran through his body as the tip of her tongue touched the warm skin of his chest.

Feeling his shocked recoil, she stopped. 'Sorry,' she said, immediately raising her head. 'I'd been thinking about it and it just sort of...' She gazed at him guiltily. Her ignorance of the unwritten rules of sexual etiquette : was rather frustrating.