The Raider (Montgomery/Taggert 9)

“Why you—” she gasped, then hit him in the jaw with her right fist. She wasted no time rolling out from under him.

But he caught her ankle and pulled her back to him, pinning her beneath him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Me?” she gasped. “If you think I’m going to let you touch me you’re crazy. You—”

He kissed her.

“If you think I’m—”

He kissed her.

“I never planned—” she said more softly before he kissed her again.

“Jessie,” the Raider whispered against her lips. “You’re driving me crazy. I think about you all the time. I love you, don’t you know that? I’ve been in love with you for a long time and I’d make my declarations to you if I could. But I can’t go any longer without making love to you.”

“No, I—”

He kissed her again. “You have a choice. We make love tonight on the soft, cool sand or I rape you tonight on the sharp rocks.”

Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

He grinned at her. “I’ll love it either way. It’s your choice.”

“But…but that’s no choice at all.”

“Maybe I’ll start with one and end with the other. Although I’ve heard rape—especially on a virgin, if you are one—is painful. For a woman, that is. Some men, though, find that all that kicking and clawing and scratching spurs them on.”

“Of course I’m a virgin,” she snapped.

“I thought so,” he murmured as he moved his head down to her neck and began to nibble her skin. “Make up your mind yet?”

“A woman should only sleep with the man she’s to marry.” Her eyes were closed as his lips began moving down her body.

“Maybe you’ll marry me when I’m no longer the Raider.”

“And live where?”

He chuckled as he put his face between her breasts. He untied the laces with his teeth since his hands were holding hers above her head. “You’ll live wherever I am. Jessie, Jessie, how beautiful you are.” His tongue was running along the roundness of her breasts. “Have you decided yet?”

“Decided?” Her voice sounded far away. “Yes, I’ll live where you do.”

His tongue encircled her nipple. “Is it to be rape or lovemaking?”

She couldn’t concentrate. “The church says I must save myself.”

“Ah, then, consider yourself forced.” He released her hands. “Jessie, how much I love you.”

Jessica didn’t think anymore as his hands slid inside her underwear and deftly began to remove it. The night air on her skin was an added caress as he removed all her clothing. His hands seemed to be everywhere, running up and down her body, inside her thighs, on her calves. Then her feet were moving on his body, and she found her soft soles touching his bare legs. She could feel the hair on his legs and the coarseness of it felt wonderful, exciting and so different from her own body.

His hands cupped her breasts, kissed her body, his tongue moving down to her navel.

Jessica groaned as he moved on top of her.

When he first entered her, she felt the pain and began to fight him. He held her body and his still, and began to kiss her slowly and lingeringly until she relaxed under him. And when she relaxed, her legs began to open.

“Don’t fight me, Jessie, love me.” He nibbled her ear and when he entered her fully, there wasn’t as much pain. “I…Jessie, I need you.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I am here.”