A Vow of Obligation (Marriage by Command 3)

As he leant do

wn to her she closed her arms round his neck and kissed him, needing the oblivion of passion to feel secure, trembling as the hot hardness of his muscular body connected with hers. He lowered his tousled dark head and kissed her breasts, teasing her straining nipples with his tongue and pulling on the oversensitive buds until her hips squirmed in frustration on the mattress. Only then did he touch her where she most needed to be touched. He explored the silken warmth between her thighs with deft fingers and then he subjected that tender flesh to his mouth. She was unprepared for that ultimate intimacy and she jerked away in shock and tried to withdraw from it, but he closed his hands on her hips and held her fast until sensation spread like wildfire at the heart of her and entrapped her as surely as a prison cell. She wanted more of that wild, intoxicating feeling, she couldn’t help wanting more; she was a slave to sensation. The hunger rose like a great white roar inside her, bypassing her every attempt to control it. Her body was shaking and the constricted knot at her core was notching tighter and tighter until the pleasure just rose in a huge overwhelming tide and engulfed her, leaving her shuddering and crying out in reaction.

‘Navarre …’ she whispered jaggedly.

‘You liked that, ma petite,’ he husked with all the satisfaction of a man who knew he had given a woman unimaginable pleasure.

Numbly she nodded, every reaction slowed down. It had never occurred to her that her body could feel anything that intensely and in the stunned aftermath of that climax she was only dimly aware that he was reaching for a condom, and then he was reaching for her again. Her body was pliant with obedience, already trained to expect pleasure from him, and as he pushed back her thighs and rose over her she quivered with the awareness of him hard and bold and alien at her tiny entrance, but there was a sense of trust as well.

‘You’re so tight,’ he groaned with pleasure as he sank into her tender channel with controlled care.

A startled sound somewhere between a gasp and a cry was wrenched from her as he broke through the fragile barrier of her inexperience. Her body flinched and he stilled in the act of possession, staring down at her with scorching green eyes fringed by black, recognising in that heightened instant of awareness that he was the only lover she had ever had. ‘You were telling me the truth …’

‘Women aren’t all liars,’ Tawny breathed, shuddering as he drove all the way home to the heart of her body.

Immersed in the molten heat of her, Navarre was fighting for control, leaning down to crush her mouth under his again and breathe in the luscious scent of her skin. She felt so good, she smelt even better. He shifted his lean hips and thrust, wanting to take it slow and easy but struggling against his explosive level of arousal with every second that passed. Tawny arched up into him with a whimper of encouragement and he sank deeper, harder and suddenly he couldn’t hold back any more against the elemental storm of need riding him. Holding her firmly, he eased back until he had almost withdrawn and then he thrust back into her with seductive force. The pleasure was building inside Tawny again in a wild surge of sensation that scooped her up and left her defenceless. His provocative rhythm heightened every feeling to an unbearable level and then all of a sudden it was as if a blinding white light exploded inside her, heat and hunger coalescing in a fierce fiery orgasm.

In the heady, dizzy aftermath she thought she might never move again, for her limbs felt weighted to the bed. She was incredibly grateful that she had chosen him as her lover, for he had made it extraordinary and she knew that was rare for a first experience. She hugged him tight, pressed her lips to a smooth brown shoulder, able to reason in only the most simplistic of ways, her brain on shutdown. He rolled back from her and headed for the bathroom.

It crossed her mind that barely a week earlier he had been a billionaire businessman and hotel guest to her. Now what was he? A very desirable lover who could also be absolutely infuriating and the guy who was paying her to fake being his fiancée. As cruel reality kicked in Tawny flinched from it, alarmed that she could have forgotten the financial nature of their agreement. It was a complication, but not one that couldn’t be handled with the right attitude on both sides, she reasoned frantically, determined to stay optimistic rather than lash herself with pointless regrets. What was done was done. He was her lover now.

Navarre reappeared from the bathroom and strolled back to the bed. She had fallen sound asleep, a tangle of rich red curls lying partially across her perfect profile, a hand tucked childishly below her cheek. That fast he wanted her again and the strength of that desire disturbed him. Desire was wonderful as long as it stayed within certain acceptable bounds. Uninhibited hunger that threatened his control was not his style at all, for it was more likely to add complications to a life he preferred to keep smooth and untrammelled, a soothing contrast to his troubled and changeable childhood years. At heart he would always be an unrepentant loner and he thought it unlikely that he would change, for everything from his birth to his challenging adolescence had conspired to make him what he was. He had seduced her, though, he knew he had, and taking her virginity had roused the strangest protective instinct inside him. Even so he was equally aware that he could not afford to forget that she was a thief whose loyalty was for sale to the highest bidder …

Tawny wakened while it was still dark, immediately conscious of the new tenderness between her thighs and the ache of unfamiliar muscles. Instantly memory flooded back and she slid quiet as a wraith from the bed, padding across the carpet to the bathroom. Although it was almost four in the morning she ran a warm bath and settled into the soothing water to hug her knees and regroup. She had slept with Navarre Cazier and it had been amazing.

She didn’t want to get all introspective and female about what had happened between them, for common sense told her that such powerful physical attraction as theirs generally only led to one conclusion. She especially didn’t want to think about the feelings he was beginning to awaken inside her: the stab of intense satisfaction she had felt once she had registered that he was jealous of that banker’s interest in her, the sense of achievement when he listened to her and laughed, the walking-on-air sensation when he admired her appearance, her unreserved delight in discovering that unashamed passion of his, which was so at variance with his cool, unemotional façade.

She knew without being told that she was walking a dangerous line. She had abandoned her defences and taken the kind of risk she had never taken before. Yet wouldn’t she do it again given the chance to feel what he had made her feel? It wasn’t just physical either. It was more that astonishing sense of feeling insanely alive for the first time ever, that wondrous sense of connection to another human being. Still lost in her thoughts, Tawny patted herself dry with a fleecy towel. She decided that she wasn’t going to act the coward and bail on the experience just because it was unlikely to give her a happy ending. She was only twenty-three years old, she reminded herself doggedly, way too young to be worrying about needing a happy ending with a man. She tiptoed back to bed, eased below the cool sheets, and when a long masculine arm stretched out as though to retrieve her and tugged her close she went willingly into that embrace.

She loved the scent of his skin, clean and male laced with an evocative hint of designer cologne. She breathed in that already familiar scent as though it were an addictive drug, her fingers fanning out across his flat stomach as she shifted position. She adored being so close to him because she was very much aware that when he was awake he was not a physically or verbally demonstrative man likely to make her feel secure with displays of affection or appreciation. Her hand smoothed possessively down a hair-roughened thigh and he released a drowsy groan of approval.

In the darkness a cheeky smile curved her generous mouth when she discovered that even asleep he was aroused and ready for action. Wide awake now and unashamedly keen to experiment she became a little more daring and her fingertips carefully traced the steely length of his shaft. With a muffled sound of appreciation Navarre shifted position and began to carry out his own reconnaissance. She was stunned by how fast her body reacted to his sleepy caresses with her nipples stiffening into instant tingling life while heat and moisture surged between her legs. Muttering a driven French imprecation, he pinned her beneath him, his hands suddenly hard with urgency as he pushed between her slender thighs and drove hungrily into her yielding body again. Instinctively she arched up to him to ease the angle of his entrance and he ground his body deeper into hers with a guttural sound of pleasure. He moved slowly and provocatively in a strong sensual rhythm. Her lips parted as she breathed in urgent gasps, clinging to his broad shoulders as the glorious pressure began to build and build within her. She came apart in an explosive climax as his magnificent body shuddered to the same crest with her. A glorious tide of exquisite sensation cascaded through her spent body.

In an abrupt movement, Navarre freed himself of her hands and rolled away from her to switch on the lights. Blinded by the sudden illumination, Tawny blinked in bewilderment.

‘Merde alors! Was this a planned seduction?’ Navarre flung at her furiously, a powerfully intimidating figure against the pale bedding as she peered at him from narrowed eyes. ‘To be followed by a meticulously planned conception?’

Utterly bemused by that accusation, Tawny pushed herself up against the tumbled pillows with frantic hands. ‘What on earth are you talking about? Seduction, for heaven’s sake?’

‘We just had sex without a condom!’ Navarre fired at her in condemnation.

‘Oh … my … goodness,’ Tawny framed in sudden comprehension, her skin turning clammy in shock. ‘I didn’t think of that—’

‘Didn’t you? You woke me out of a sound sleep to make love to you. A lot of men would overlook precautions in the excitement of the moment!’

‘You can?

??t seriously think I deliberately tempted you into sex while you were half asleep in the hope that you would forget to use a condom?’ Tawny told him roundly, colour burnishing her cheeks.

‘Why wouldn’t I think that? I once caught a woman in the act of puncturing a condom in the hope of conceiving a child without my knowledge!’ Navarre ground out in contemptuous rebuttal. ‘Why should you be any different? Wealthy men are always targets for a fertile woman. When a man fathers a child by a woman he’s bound to support her and her offspring for a couple of decades!’

‘I feel sorry for you,’ Tawny breathed tightly, her small face stony with self-control. ‘It must be crippling to be as suspicious of other human beings as you are. Everybody is not out to con you or make money out of you, Navarre!’

‘I’ve already caught you thieving from me,’ Navarre reminded her icily. ‘So forgive me for not being impressed by your claim to be morally superior.’

In the wake of that exchange, Tawny had lost every scrap of her natural colour. She had not required that final lowering reminder of how she had attempted to make off with his laptop. Lying there naked with her body still damp and aching from his lovemaking, she felt like the worst kind of whore. He had to despise her to be so suspicious of her motives that even an act of lovemaking could be regarded as a potential attempt to rip him off. It was a brutal wake-up call to the reality that, while she had moved on from the humiliation of their first meeting, his opinion of her was still that of a calculating little thief without morals. Sleeping with her had not changed his outlook and what a fool she had been to believe otherwise. Had he really caught a woman damaging contraception in the hope of falling pregnant by him? She was appalled. No wonder he was such a cynic if that was the sort of woman he was accustomed to having in his bed.

‘We’ll discuss this tomorrow,’ Navarre breathed curtly as he doused the lights again.