Reckless - By Anne Stuart Page 0,43

in a low, determined

For a moment he didn't move. And then he sat back, pulling her up and removing the entrapping fabric. Stripping away the torn shell of Lina's beautiful silk chemise.

He was still dressed, of course, his loose white shirt open, exposing his strong, smoothly-muscled chest. His breeches were unfastened as well, and she wondered if he'd lost interest. No. She refused to look—but sitting up like this she could still feel him hard against the dampness of her sex, and it wouldn't take much for him to finish.

She sank back on the bed. "You'll let me leave?" she asked, looking up at him.

He reached his hand out to touch her face, pushing the hair out of her eyes, and his fingers were gentle, a caress, as his smile deepened.

“Good God, no," he said, and he pushed into her, hard, one deep, fierce thrust that filled her.

She arched, trying to accommodate his powerful invasion, and her involuntary cry was of pain and satisfaction. No turning back—he'd finished it.

He held himself motionless over her, and she could feel the tension rippling through his hard body.

She didn't want to open her eyes, she wanted to savor this moment, this feeling, this possession that should have been something she hated. This possession that felt... completely wonderful.

Sanity was overrated, his cousin had said. She had to agree, because this was madness, and she wanted it. For a brief moment in time Adrian Rohan belonged to her, and nothing could ever take that away from his face.

Instead he looked dark, tortured, his blue eyes black in the shadows. His invasion of her body no longer hurt—she had grown grudgingly accustomed to it—but she wondered when he was going to remove it.

"Am I hurting you?" he asked, which surprised her. Why would he care about her comfort?

She searched for her most practical tone, but given the circumstances it eluded her. "It's all right,"

she said a little breathlessly. "You may remove it now."

She could feel his soft laugh inside her body-a most strange sensation. "I may? And why should I want to do that?"

She started up at him, perplexed. "Because you've done what you wanted. You had sex with me. It wasn't rape, I didn't fight you, so you needn't worry that I'll bring charges against you. As you pointed out, this was my own fault for coming here unprotected. But we're finished now, and if I'

not getting out until morning I'd like to sleep." She could be quite proud of her unemotional reaction to the whole confusing business. Later she could wail and cry when no one was around. For now it was done, over with, and she was deceptively calm. Time to move on with life.

"Oh, my precious angel," Adrian said in a silky, amused voice. "My sweet child, and by god you are a child when it comes to matters of carnality. I thought you had a clearer idea of what went on between men and women. Haven't you ever been in the country?"

“Well, I could hardly stand there and stare when the animals were breeding,” she managed in a cranky voice. "My parents would have been horrified. And Lina won't explain these things. Aren't you finished yet?"

"My dear Miss Spenser, we have only just begun.”

Before she could say a word he started to withdraw, and she let out her pent-up breath, only to have him push into her again, thick and hard. She cried out, but he simply repeated the motion, his narrow hips moving, pulling partway out and thrusting back in again.

"What are you doing?" she gasped as she clutched his shoulders, the white linen loose in her fingers.

"You want the pretty words, or the truth?" he whispered, leaning forward to brush his mouth against hers. "You're being tupped, shagged, screwed— made love to." Each phrase was punctuated with a thrust, and he was as breathless as she was. "In fact, Charlotte, you're being fucked. It's about this

—" he thrust hard "—and this." Another thrust and she could feel her nipples harden in the warm night air, feel the strange heat in the pit of her stomach begin to build and burn.

He slid his hands down her bare legs and pulled them up around his hips, and she could feel the soft cloth of his breeches against her thighs. He pulled her legs higher, and he was deeper, bigger than she'd expected, and she found her body reacting, her hips reaching up, wanting that unspeakable invasion, wanting more and not knowing