“Most definitely, tesoro. But your dilemma is your own fault. You’re so irresistible and I find myself unable to… resist.”
“Command your willpower, Mr. Merrick. Defeat this weakness.”
“I try, dear lady. I try.”
“I’ll bite you,” she said savagely, although she didn’t move.
“I’ll bite you too before I’m done.” His gaze sharpened upon her lips, making her heart hammer a panicked warning. “Eat you like a ripe peach, all juice and sweetness. And lick my lips afterward.”
She knew enough to recognize he meant sin. More than kissing, that was certain. For a rogue like him, kissing must be small beer indeed. “You’re… you’re frightening me, Mr. Merrick.”
Although fear was only part of what she felt. License had never lured her. She’d never imagined she’d give her body to a man. But something about Merrick charged her blood with inchoate longing, despite what she knew of him and what he intended for her.
“Seize your courage, Miss Forsythe.” He mocked her formality. Even she felt idiotic calling him Mr. Merrick when he was about to kiss her. Ruthlessness hardened his jaw. “No more preliminary skirmishes, Sidonie. Let’s start the games. To the victor the spoils.”
Chapter Five
Sidonie braced to revisit last night’s chaste kiss. There was the same inescapable intimacy. The same reluctant delight. The same suspense, as if revelation hovered just out of reach. That had been disturbing enough. But this was… more.
The kiss was an unmistakable invitation. To what? She was too inexperienced to know. What she did know was that the slightest signal of cooperation would bring her more trouble than she could handle. As she had last night, she remained unmoving under his lips, hoping lack of encouragement would deter him.
A futile hope.
He took his time so that she moved through resistance to overwhelming awareness of physical details. The sleek texture of his lips. The soft flexing of his hand on the back of her neck. The mad race of her heart. The heat pooling in the base of her belly. This unfamiliar, unwelcome sensation lured her to sink into the kiss. Disturbed, she edged away. Kismet whickered and shifted under her.
“Shh,” Merrick said softly.
“Are you talking to me or the horse?” She loathed the betraying huskiness in her voice.
He laughed softly. “What do you think?”
“I think you should stop.” Her hands tightened on the reins, although she was careful not to unsettle her mount again.
“Not yet,” he said mildly, even as the excitement glittering in his eyes set the blood rushing through her veins.
She gave a long-suffering sigh. “Get it over with, then.”
His eyes sparked with the humor that rapidly became irresistible, curse him. “No need to beg, tesoro.”
The grip on her neck tightened, although she’d immediately recognized the futility of running. She’d made promises to him and he still held Roberta’s vowels. Kissing her stretched the boundaries of their agreement, but she’d known he plotted blatant seduction when he offered the bargain.
His lips rubbed across hers, pursed to kiss the corners, returned to suck subtly at her lower lip. More dangerously alluring pleasure blasted her. She made a muffled sound of distress, raising one hand to his chest. To push him away or draw him closer? She couldn’t have said.
Her eyes fluttered shut and her senses flooded with Merrick. With his male scent, so alien yet so alluring. The emphatic beat of his heart under her palm. The firm warmth of his mouth.
When his tongue flickered out to touch where he’d kissed her, she started. What an odd thing to do. If he’d told her he meant to lick her, she would have been revolted. In practice, it was… intriguing. Another whimper escaped as her hand clutched at his loose shirt. The leashed power beneath the shirt should terrify her. Right now, that strength stirred curiosity rather than trepidation.
Already his kiss sapped common sense. She more than most women knew the cost of giving in to a man, especially a demanding, managing man. Witness her mother drifting like a ghost under her father’s domination. Witness Roberta’s helplessness against William. Sidonie didn’t fool herself that Merrick’s charm concealed anything but a will to be in charge.
She made an incoherent protest and tried to pull away, but his hold was implacable. Still he brushed his lips against hers. Pausing briefly here to taste more thoroughly. Lingering there. Without conscious volition, she pursed her lips. Just a hint of kissing him back. No more. Satisfaction rumbled deep in his throat. Her belly pitched as she realized even ceding so little, she ceded too much. Once more she tried to retreat, but it was too late. The hand at her nape flexed and brought her nearer. More heat. More gentleness. More kisses inviting her into the unknown.
By the time he raised his head, she trembled with fear, resentment, and unwilling sensual reaction. She sucked in her first breath in what felt like an hour and opened dazed eyes. He was so close, she had to lean back before his features came into focus. He watched her with an alertness that contradicted the kiss’s leisurely sweetness.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” She wished she sounded appalled rather than beguiled.
The breeze played with her untidy hair, wafted strands across her eyes. Beneath her, Kismet was still. Merrick’s bay nosed desultorily at some seaweed. A few feet away, waves crashed upon the beach. When Merrick kissed her, all she’d heard was her heart’s wild dance. She’d been deaf to everything else. Including dictates of self-preservation.
With one gloved finger, he traced an invisible line down her cheek. Last night he’d touched her naked breast like this. The memory spurred the outrage she should have summoned when he started kissing her.