It was true, he thought, gazing into the dark, liquid depths of her eyes. He had never felt this craving to possess, to protect, this all-consuming fire in his blood that he felt with Sabrina.
His voice lowered to a murmur. “I want your love, sweet mouse. I want to be the man you need, the one you carry deep inside of you, here.”
When he touched her breast tenderly, she felt as if he had reached into her heart, and she couldn’t stand it. She tried to draw away, but he wouldn’t permit her escape.
His fingertips sculpted the high planes of her face…stroked the fullness of her hair. “You cannot deny the bond between us, love. I know you feel it…when I bury myself inside you, when I drive deep and take you with me to paradise. When you sheathe me in sweetness and welcome me home.” He bent to press his lips against hers, and every familiar gesture brought Sabrina fresh agonies of tenderness and need.
“I intend to convince you, Sabrina,” he whispered against her softness. “I mean to love you until dreams of me haunt your nights and torment your every waking hour. I will fire your blood as you do mine. I won’t relent until you wear my scent on your skin, my teeth marks on your silken thighs. Until my memory is branded on your heart and mind.”
You are already branded on my heart, she thought helplessly. She closed her eyes, shaking with love and pain that mingled into a tangled knot.
“Don’t…” she whispered as he bent and trailed velvet kisses along her throat. When he paused at the fragile hollow, tonguing the delicate pulse point, she tried to twist away. “Damn you…must you always resort to seduction to gain your ends?”
Niall suddenly went still, his caresses halting.
He drew a deep, shaky breath.
“No, you are right.” He pulled back, his eyes bright and burning. “I won’t use seduction to win you.”
Sabrina stared at him in startlement.
She watched warily as he bent to pull off his boots, then stood to remove his coat.
“What…are you doing?” she asked uneasily.
“Undressing. Don’t be alarmed, sweeting. I shan’t force my attentions on you. I simply mean to ease my weariness in sleep.” His mouth curled in a wry smile. “I’ve had little enough of it the past few days, owing to you.”
He shed his clothing but for his linen undershirt and put out the lamp, then joined Sabrina beneath the covers in the narrow bed. When he tried to gather her into his arms, though, she went rigid with resistance.
“I only want to hold you,” he murmured in the darkness.
“No,” she said unevenly.
When she turned away, giving him her back, Niall made no move to stop her. He’d made that mistake before. He had tried to bind Sabrina to him sexually, to conquer her with passion, but he needed to do it with love.
He could feel her tension as she lay there, waiting for him to resume his sensual assault on her defenses, but he crushed the temptation. He wanted to make love to her, urgently, but an enchantment of the flesh would no longer suffice for him. He wanted more than her body. He wanted her heart, freely given.
Niall shut his eyes, bedeviled by unaccustomed sensations of helplessness and inadequacy. He’d proven countless times that he could seduce a woman’s body, but her heart? He might find it impossible.
He didn’t know how to love a lass. He could make love in countless ways, but this heartrending, breathtaking, relentless emotion was completely foreign to him.
One thing was certain, however. He was determined to woo and win her. As his wife, Sabrina belonged to him by law, but he vowed to make her his own, in love as well as in name.
He wanted, needed, her heart. And he was willing to settle for nothing less.
Chapter
Seventeen
He woke to an empty bed. In the chill of dawn, Niall reached out to draw Sabrina to him—and encountered only rumpled sheets.
In moments he had risen and dressed and was startling sleepy-eyed maids and footmen as he searched the house from bottom to top.
He found her in the attic, in a small cubbyhole that served as a maid’s quarters, curled up on a pallet, fast asleep. A wealth of tenderness engulfed him as he gazed down at Sabrina’s pale face. There were shadows beneath her eyes, shadows he suspected he had put there.
Just then she stirred awake and caught sight of him. With a groan, she buried her face in the pillow. “Sweet heaven, can I have no peace?”
Niall sank down to sit beside her on the plank floor, which only made her stiffen.