The Governess's Scandalous Marriage. Helen Dickson

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СКАЧАТЬ to her buttocks and pressed her to him, she became acutely conscious of her innocence. She was lost in a dreamy limbo where nothing mattered but the closeness of his body and the circling protection of his arms.

      Not for a moment did he break the kiss that was inciting her. His mouth was hungering, turning to a heated, crushing demand. What she had felt in the beginning became raw hunger, cindered beneath the white heat of their mutual desires. It was sudden, the awakened fires, the hungering lust, the bittersweet ache of passion such as Linnet could never have imagined.

      When he finally drew his mouth from hers an eternity later, Linnet reluctantly surfaced from the glorious Eden where he had sent her, her face suffused with languor and passion, her eyes luminous.

      ‘Well, well,’ he murmured, lightly touching her lips with his own. ‘I seem to have awakened a temptress. You’re the most direct, self-willed woman I have ever met, traits I admire in any woman, but you are also so damn lovely and desirable.’

      His words affected Linnet like a douche of cold water. Stepping back, she glared at him, trying to regain control of her rioting emotions. ‘You should not have done that... We—we shouldn’t...’

      * * *

      Struggling for control, finding it with effort, Christian swept a lock of dark hair from his brow. ‘Come now,’ he managed to say, smiling, though he himself was shaken by the moment. ‘It was only a kiss—an innocent kiss, nothing more sordid than that.’ But he was not convinced by his words. With her ripe young body, moist lips and large liquid bright eyes, he was led to think that he had never caressed any woman that had evoked his imagination as much as she did. The lingering impression of her lips on his, of their thighs pressed together, had done much to awaken a manly craving that had gone unappeased for some months.

      * * *

      ‘You call what you just did innocent?’ Linnet whispered, still trying to come to terms with what had just happened between them.

      Raising his hand, he traced a finger gently down the curve of her warm, flushed cheek. ‘It was a kiss—a kiss that could lead to other things—if you would let it.’

      Linnet looked at him with a renewed light in her eyes, under no illusion as to what he was asking of her. He was smiling now, a lazy, masculine, supremely confident smile, a gentle promise in his expression and the flickering depths of his eyes that drew her in. It held her spellbound for the longest moment as a plan began forming in her mind, a plan so shocking she hardly dared enlarge on it. It caused her heart to pound so hard she could scarcely breathe, for it was a plan no gently bred young lady would dare think of, let alone consider.

      She had been raised to believe that young ladies of quality must not abandon the restrictive codes of behaviour that governed their conduct without fear of censure, but with one stroke, this stranger had presented her with an answer to her problem. Despite having caught her in the act of what he mistakenly thought was stealing, he was obviously attracted by her. On a stroke of desperation all her fears and wretchedness, all the worries for the future, came hurtling back to her and she thought that maybe she could turn the situation to her advantage. By giving herself to him on her terms, perhaps she could retrieve the necklace, return it to its rightful place and exonerate Toby of any wrongdoing.

      The plan sent a chill down Linnet’s spine, but it did not shock her. The misery that Toby’s gambling had caused her over the past months had come to a culmination when this man had made his presence known to her and drained her of all feeling so there was hardly any emotion left in her. If her capacity to feel had been intact, everything inside her would have protested and rebelled against the plan forming in her mind. But with her feelings and emotions subdued by the anxiety of the situation her brother had created, Linnet’s thoughts were entirely practical. She was driven by desperation. She and Toby had been impoverished for a long time and she was determined they would not become beggars. If there was a way of saving herself and Toby from homelessness and starvation, then she would do everything in her power to do so. Afterwards, the shame would be something she alone would have to live with.

      ‘I am not afraid and I have a mind to test your generosity and exact my revenge—to recoup what I have just lost to you. If I were to lay down terms of my own, would you accept them for an evening of pleasure?’

      ‘Terms?’

      ‘An evening of pleasure in return for the necklace you have just taken from me?’

      He frowned. ‘And your terms are not open for negotiation?’

      ‘No. Take it or leave it,’ she said, her voice low and direct, her lovely eyes challenging.

      * * *

      He had to give her credit, Christian thought to himself, fighting down a rush of disgust. At least she was honest about what she wanted. And he had to respect her honesty and courage, if not her standards. Her decision to consider his offer was anything but respectable. He wondered how, in a matter of moments, he had gone from thinking of her as a thief, then as an opponent in a game of chance, to seriously considering inviting her to share an evening of pleasure.

      He had not had a serious relationship with a woman in a long time, nor had he wished to. All his romantic entanglements had not been permanent and were soon forgotten. As a youth when he had witnessed his father’s affairs and his mother’s heartbreak, he had spent years of evasion, trying to avoid affairs of the heart, ignoring the whispers and sighs of women eager to shackle him with matrimony. And he had succeeded, believing himself immune. Deep inside, what his father had done, his betrayal of his mother and the tragedy of her death still haunted him. He had deliberately put the memory away, not wanting to look too carefully, but now, when he looked at this young woman whose name he did not know, he found it rising to the fore. He had always diligently avoided becoming deeply involved with any woman in the romantic sense and it would be no different with this young woman, should she consent to his request.

      Christian still didn’t want that kind of relationship. But he had only recently returned from Egypt after an absence of almost a year and if he was to dispel his dark thoughts, how much easier he would find it with a lively young woman such as this with sweet young flesh as a diversion. Despite her illicit occupation, there was a forthright quality about her, a freshness with an intriguing hint of mischief in her lovely eyes that drew him like a moth to a flame.

      ‘I am tempted,’ he replied.

      * * *

      Feeling somewhat light-headed, and unaccustomedly bemused, held by his intense gaze, Linnet knew that if she was not careful she would fall under his spell. Sensual pleasure still spiralled through her and her body ached with a need she had never experienced before. If she were honest with herself, she would admit to feeling a measure of curiosity about what an evening of pleasure with this man held. Feeling slightly faint, shocked at the extremely unladylike drift of her imaginings, Linnet looked away. It was madness, she knew, but she didn’t want to leave him, to widen the distance between them. She looked at him once more, the sheer wickedness of the slow, lazy smile he gave her making her catch her breath. She was trapped by the dark eyes behind the mask that were searching her face intently, a question in their depths, a question she could not have answered even if he’d asked her. She was surprised when, seeming to come to a decision, a change came over him and he stepped away from her.

      ‘As much as I would like nothing more than to share an evening of pleasure with you, I regret I must decline. The necklace is important to me.’ Turning from her, he strode towards the door. ‘I advise you not to linger in this room and from this moment on take on a more suitable occupation for a young woman. ’Tis a dangerous profession you have chosen. You appear to be intelligent, СКАЧАТЬ