“You’re wrong.”
“I’m not.” The button he was flicking slid through the fastening loop. His hand drifted lower and began the same casual manipulation. “Your heart is beating hard. I can feel it with the heel of my hand.” His other hand had moved between their bodies and was tugging on the belt of her robe. When he released it his fingers splayed wide across her abdomen. “Your skin is warm,” he said. “It’s almost as if you’re not wearing this nightgown. If I were to touch your breasts right now they would swell in my palms and the nipples would stiffen. It wouldn’t be because you’re cold, Lydia. We both know that. It would be because you like it when I touch you there. You like my hands on your breasts, my fingers teasing. You like it when I put my mouth there and suck.”
She gasped. His hands had not moved. He was still only touching her throat and her stomach and yet it was as if he were doing the very things he described. She could feel her breasts swelling and her nipples hardening. The thought of his mouth there created a tug inside her that went from her breasts to her thighs. His words were powerful, the ache immediate and intolerable. Closing her eyes did not help; the vision was clearer.
Nathan undid another button and went resolutely to the next. “Your skin is so sweet, Lydia. Warm and silky. The fragrance is elusive, perhaps it’s not even there, but I always think of flowers, of lilac and lavender and tropical orchids. I think you like it when I taste your skin, when I touch my mouth to your bare shoulder or raise the flesh of your neck with my teeth. My tongue on your breast, Lydia. What about that?”
His voice was a husky whisper and his words lay across her like a silken net. The entrapment was seductive and appealing. Inside she was liquid. Her knees threatened to give way. Another fastener was undone and this time Nathan’s fingers slipped past the lace piping and brushed her skin. She could barely draw a breath.
“Open your mouth, Lydia.” He bent his head toward her and she could taste his words on her lips. “Let me kiss you the way you want to be kissed.”
Lydia’s entire body trembled violently and then was still. “No.” She dragged her eyes away from Nathan’s, breaking the spell, and eluded his hands as he made to grab her. Putting the rocker between them, Lydia knotted her belt again. Her palms were perspiring. She pretended to smooth her robe to wipe away the evidence of panic. “Leave me alone, Nathan. I don’t want you to touch me at all. Go to Tess if you need a woman. She’d be happy to oblige you.”
Nathan’s brows arched. “Tess? You’re mistaking me for Brig. She’s never been in my bed.”
“She’d have you though.”
“Probably.” He hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his trousers. “But she’s not the woman I want. She’s not my wife. You are.”
Lydia simply stared at him.
“Do you know that I spent most of my time in the bush thinking of you?” he asked. “I regretted that I had to leave so quickly after we arrived, and yes, you were right that I left to give you and Irish time alone together. At least you were partially right. I also left because I’d hoped that bloody nonsense about absence making the heart grow fonder was true. I see now that it isn’t. But if you didn’t miss me here”—he pointed to his temple—“or here”—he touched his heart—“I think you did miss me here.”
Lydia squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see where he pointed but knowing just the same.
“If I ever entertained any doubts, your response a few minutes ago put them to rest.”
Peeking at him through the thick fan of her lashes, Lydia saw his hands had returned to his pockets. She glared at him. “I don’t care what you saw a few minutes ago,” she said, “or what youthoughtyou saw, but I don’t want you, Nathan Hunter. Do you understand? I don’t want you!”
Nathan kicked aside the rocker. It tipped on its side and thudded heavily to the floor. Lydia flinched, startled, and her eyes darted toward the door.
“No one’s going to interfere,” he told her. “Irish can’t come up here and Molly and Tess wouldn’t dare. Don’t think of bolting, Lydia. We’re going to settle what’s between us once and for all.”
“Fine.” She folded her arms in front of her, under her breasts, and thrust out her chin. Her stance dared him to touch her.
Nathan accepted the challenge. If she had been a man he might have hit her, but he knew she was bracing for the touch of another kind. He did not disappoint. Closing the distance between them, Nathan’s hand snaked around her neck and after an initial, futile resistance on Lydia’s part he brought her face to within a hairsbreadth of his own.
“Can you really say you don’t want me?” he asked.
Lydia averted her eyes. His breath was warm and sweet on her face. “I don’t want you.”
“We’ll see, Liddy.” His lips brushed the closed and mutinous line of her mouth. “We’ll see.”
Nathan slid one arm around her stiff back and another under her knees. He picked her up. She did nothing to stop him; neither did she place her arms around his neck to help him. Her slight body was deadweight in his arms. Dropping Lydia on the bed, Nathan followed her down and lay beside her. She didn’t struggle, but remained still and quiet. Though she gave no indication that she intended to fight, Nathan trapped Lydia’s legs beneath one of his own. He propped himself on one elbow and stared at her while she stared at the ceiling.
“You’ve set me quite a task, Liddy,” he said softly. His fingertips played with the wisps of silky hair at her temple. “You’d do better to give in now gracefully than have compliance dragged from you almost against your will. Pleasure will be yours either way, but one will leave you with the bitter aftertaste of guilt. It doesn’t have to be like that.”
“You could admit that I know what I want and leave me alone,” she said. “You could allow me to choose freely how I give my body.”
“And to whom?” he asked. “Not as long as you’re my wife, Liddy. You belong to me.”
He recalled his approach to the house, his thinking then that he wanted to take her fast and hard, and how it had changed again. His desire for her was the same, his need just as deep as it had been, but Lydia, whether she understood it or not, controlled the tempo of his loving.
He wanted to be inside her, wanted to be sheathed by her, but he needed to hear her admit it was what she wanted too.
He bent his head and nuzzled her neck, nibbling her skin with his warm, dry lips. The tip of his tongue traced the outline of her ear. His teeth tugged on her lobe. He knew precisely where to touch to wring a response from her and what he engaged in was not foreplay, but an assault.
Nathan’s lips touched the corner of Lydia’s mouth. His nose brushed her cheek. He kissed her chin, the underside of her jaw, and the crinkle just between her brows. Her lids closed as his mouth drew near her eyes and he kissed them gently in turn, in no hurry to force her response quickly.
