Bride Of His Choice. Emma Darcy
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СКАЧАТЬ he’d delivered. Or perhaps it was the culminating effect of all of them. “You had someone spying on me?”

      “No, not spying. Just checking that you were coping on your own, not in trouble, not in need of help. There was absolutely no interference in your life, Leigh, nor in whatever you chose to do.”

      “Why did you do it?” she cried, still appalled at having been so comprehensively watched over.

      It came again, that brief flash of something deep and dark and dangerous behind the crisp blue of his eyes. “Because I cared. And no one else did.” Even his voice carried a note of ferocity, suggestive of feelings he hadn’t quite kept under control.

      Leigh tried to focus on it but Richard distracted her by moving closer, lifting a hand and touching her cheek, soft fingertips grazing her skin, raising electric tingles. “Think, Leigh,” he commanded, the powerful impact of his eyes increased by the knowledge he had of her. “You came, looking for some portion of justice…”

      That was true.

      “Marry me…and you’ll have what your mother sacrificed you for…what your sisters covet. You’ll have all that Lawrence denied you and more. What greater justice than to take what you were born for…”

      Her head whirled with his words, all of them striking such painful places.

      “I hand you the keys to the whole Durant empire, everything Lawrence acquired in his ruthless drive for power…”

      To the exile, the spoils, she thought wildly.

      “…and no one will scorn you again, Leigh, or treat you in a contemptible manner. As my wife, you will be my queen, in every sense.”

      As long as I give you a son.

      There was always a price for the pot of gold.

      “I want you as my queen, Leigh.”

      The low throb of his voice was like a drumbeat on her heart.

      “Only you can satisfy me. Only you. We’re two of a kind, Leigh. You and I.”

      And that mesmerising message blazed from his eyes as he moved closer, an arm sliding around her waist, taking possession, the hand on her face suddenly cupping her chin, holding it tilted, and she knew he was going to kiss her, knew he meant to seduce her to his will, but somehow she didn’t want to stop him.

      Her entire being was quivering with anticipation.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      LEIGH held her breath at the first brush of his mouth on hers, the contact so tantalisingly gentle, it took all her concentration to absorb each shift of pleasurable sensation. It wasn’t a taking kiss. She would have fought it if he’d tried to blitz her with dominant strength. The relief of this controlled exploration allowed her to relax and let the urge to know flow freely.

      She had blocked him out all these years, coupling him with Lawrence Durant, yet today she had been forcefully reminded that her hatred of Richard had been fed from the fierce wish for him to act differently. To her teenage mind he’d had the strength to fight her father, to stand up for her, to be her champion, and he hadn’t done it. Not how she’d wanted it done, not enough to satisfy the bitter churning of needs inside her.

      Could he give her satisfaction now?

      Would he?

      The feathery caresses teased her into responding, and no sooner had her lips softened and parted than the light pressures changed to a deeper searching, and she felt moving through her a great swell of yearning for the promise of everything…everything she’d ever wanted and could ever want.

      Had the normal flow of such feelings been somehow locked up around Richard Seymour? Was this strange shifting inside herself the release of barriers that had been subconciously focused on needs he should have fulfilled?

      Her mind and body were in such a whirl of inner chaos, she wasn’t aware of lifting her arms. The instinct to press closer, to hold on to this moment of reckoning, to see it through as far as it went, swept her hands around his neck. His embrace instantly tightened, moulding her body to the hard length of his, and his mouth engaged hers in a far more passionate intimacy, stirring a sensual storm that spread like wildfire.

      The heat of it banished the cold emptiness of being unloved and unwanted and ignited a hunger that craved everything she had missed out on. She revelled in the hungry ravishing of her mouth, exulted in every bit of the physical contact, the squashing of her breasts across the muscular breadth of his chest, the exciting pressure of his arousal, the straining of rock-hard thighs against hers. He did want her. It felt as though he was reaching out to her with every fibre of his being and the thrill of it was too enthralling to stop.

      It was he who broke off the all-consuming flow of desire, suddenly throwing his head back, dragging in air, breathing so hard his chest heaved, bringing a rush of sensitivity to her breasts and stirring an intense frustration at the abrupt halt to what he’d started. She stared at him in confusion, seeing the tension on his face, not understanding anything except he’d stopped kissing her.

      He moved the hand he’d curled around her head, touching her sensitised lips, tracing them with his fingers. Her daze cleared enough for her to see the glitter of triumphant satisfaction in his eyes as he spoke.

      “It feels right, doesn’t it, Leigh? The time has come for us.”

      Control, she thought. He wants to control this to suit him. Just as Lawrence Durant would. Never again would she submit to that. Never! The sweet, warm chaos he’d wrought inside her welded into a savage bolt of rebellion.

      He’d run everything his way, following her out here, feeding her information, capitalizing on the chemistry between them. Well, she wouldn’t let him control this. He wasn’t going to mastermind when and how she got to satisfy herself about him.

      All these years of spying on her, knowing where she was but not coming to her, waiting for her to come to him, thinking he could manipulate what he wanted of her, pressing buttons he had the power to press…oh, no! It was her turn to press the button!

      “If it feels so right to you, Richard, what’s wrong with now?” she challenged.

      “You want now?”

      The flare of raw desire in his eyes shot a turbulent mix of fear and elation through Leigh. What was she inviting, goading from him? The challenge had been a vengeful impulse. She hadn’t stopped to think of the ultimate end of what she was laying on him, and he didn’t wait for a reply.

      He scooped her with him as he stepped to the door of the summer-house, opened it, and whirled her inside. By the time Leigh’s feet steadied on the floor, the door was closed and she was pressed against it, and his mouth was delivering another rush of warm pleasure that felt very right, so right she held his head to hers, wanting his kissing to continue, kissing him back in a fierce need to fill herself with the warmth he generated, to keep the cold out.

      Tautly muscled thighs lent supportive strength to hers as his hands roamed over her body, their touch hot and excitingly lustful as they felt her curves, reaching around the width of her hips to stroke the round slopes of her bottom, clutching them to press her closer to the source of his heat, the hard thrust of it liquefying her stomach, and he kissed her with all the СКАЧАТЬ