body betrayed her. She moaned and pressed close against him, her mouth twisting under his, provoking, pleading, begging for more.
She felt him move, felt the ground suddenly under her back and the weight and warmth of his body melting down into hers. She felt his long leg parting both of hers as his hips moved down between them.
“Dear…God!” he bit off reverently as he felt the pleasure wash over him.
His hands were under her shirt, under her bra. He felt the softness of her small, firm breasts with their hard tips first against his fingers, and then, as he pushed the shirt up out of his way, under his mouth.
He suckled her, hard, feeling her arch under him and cry out. He thought he was hurting her in his ardor and started to lift his head, but her hands pulled, pleaded, dragged his mouth back down.
She tasted like honey. He was drowning in need. He pressed against her in a slow, sensuous rhythm that grew more insistent by the minute. His hand lifted her hips, pulled them against the hardness of him.
He worked feverishly at the buttons of his shirt and opened it so that he could feel her breasts under the crush of his bare chest. His mouth invaded hers. He was desperate to have her. He couldn’t bear to stop, not now!
Neither could she. It was the most passionate interlude of her young life. She wasn’t able to protest. She wanted to know him, as a man, as a lover. She wanted to feel him deep inside her, feel him taking her, possessing her. She wanted…a child…!
She hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud until he suddenly dragged himself away from her, rolled over in an agonized state of denial and groaned as if all the devils in purgatory were pummeling him.
She lay shocked, gasping, as she realized how far they’d gone. She jackknifed, quickly righting her clothing, shivering with denied pleasure. She got to her feet, shaking, and looked away while she fought to get her breath. She was horrified at her own lack of control. It had been so close!
She swallowed, hard, and then swallowed again. She couldn’t force herself to look at him, although she heard him get to his feet, heard his own rasping breath as he worked to regain the control he’d lost.
After a minute, she heard a rough curse break from his throat as he looked at her stiff back.
“So that’s your game, is it?” he asked coldly. “You’d like a child, would you? I don’t suppose you’re taking any sort of preventative. You seduce the boss, there’s a child and you’re set for life. That how it works?”
She turned, shocked. She stared at him with stark embarrassment and averted her eyes. She was flushed and sick at heart. “I…wasn’t thinking at all.”
“Obviously you were,” he said coldly. He smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile. “Good try. But I’m no novice with your sex, and I’m no easy mark.”
“It wasn’t like that.” She faltered, flushing even more.
He gave her a long and very insulting look. “Sure.” He picked up his hat from where he’d tossed it, dusted it off, slanted it over his eyes and went to find his horse, which had wandered off to eat green grass. He mounted and turned the horse. He stared at her, but she didn’t look at him, or answer him. She went to get back on her own mount and rode away without another word.
She was going to have to leave. She knew it certainly. Mallory had made his opinion of her quite clear. What was unclear was why he’d suddenly started kissing her like that. She hadn’t asked for it. Or had she? Her obvious attraction to him was going to be disastrous. He was already suspicious of her, thanks to his girlfriend. She’d blurted out that embarrassing comment and now he was surely going to think she was some gold digger.
Her subconscious must be working overtime, she decided, because she had no conscious thought of starting a family. But to have a child, with a man like Mallory, who was so masculine and attractive…
And bullheaded and suspicious-minded and unkind, she added hotly to herself. Of course she wanted a child from a man like that!
Actually, in her young life, she’d never known passion or such hunger; she’d never thought of marrying and having children. She’d thought herself in love with the persistent accountant until she found out his true motives for courting her. But now