The Wedding Night They Never Had

CHAPTER EIGHT

HERKISSWASunpracticed. Unskilled.

She kissed him like a girl might kiss her very first crush. With desperation and earnestness, closed mouth and frozen, even while her body vibrated with energy.

And he...

He felt a molten flame melting in his stomach that was unlike anything he could remember experiencing.

Her breasts were firm and lush, pressed against the hardness of his chest, and his hand found its way down to the rounded curve of her ass, squeezing tight as she continued to kiss him.

“Open for me,” he growled, angling his head and pushing his tongue between her lips.

She gasped, but the gasp accomplished his command. Turned shock into obedience. And he took advantage of it.

A whimpering cry rose up in her throat as he slid his tongue slowly against hers, teaching her the deep, slick rhythm that could exist at the center of a kiss.

Even if she had not already told him she was an innocent, he would know.

There was no disguising it. She had been angry when she’d thrown herself at him, but the anger had evaporated. Replaced by wonder, curiosity and arousal that she did not have the skills to hide.

But there was something about that. About the genuine nature of her reaction that made it impossible for him to resist.

And if he should, he could not remember why.

Really? This woman, this sad, desperate woman, who has been kept captive all these years, and you can’t think of a single reason why you shouldn’t be kissing her right now?

Control.

The word penetrated his lust-fueled haze. And for the first time in longer than he could remember he felt ashamed.

Ashamed of what he had done, ashamed of what he had been about to do, and the novelty of that was almost greater than that of the arousal he felt over the kiss.

Guilt. Guilt and uncontrollable lust. He couldn’t remember when he had felt either thing.

It was a heady cocktail, and one that did nothing to dampen the desire that he felt.

He wanted to luxuriate in that shame.

Because there was something about it that made him feel...human.

It had been a very long time since he had felt human.

“Enough,” he said, setting her back away from him.

“Why?” she asked, her eyes wide, her breathing fast and hard. “Why is it enough? It seems as if it is very clearly not enough.”

“Annick,” he said. “This was a dancing lesson, nothing more.”

“I don’t want just dancing. Show me this.”

“No,” he said, his voice hard, rough. A stranger’s voice.

He was choked on his need for her, and he felt nearly dizzy with it. She was...

She was practically glowing, like a magical creature the likes of which he did not believe really existed.

But then, anyone who could make him feel... anything on par with what he did now was... Something he had not expected.