“Katya?”
“You can’t come in here.”
“I am in here.”
“Then leave now, before I—”
“You talk too much, little one. You even talk to yourself. Must you always be defensive and on guard? What are you afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid,” she insisted weakly. “There are proper ways of doing things, and your coming in here uninvited is not one of them.”
“Would you have invited me in?”
“No.”
“Then you see why I didn’t knock.”
He was toying with her, taking advantage of her dilemma, and she didn’t know what to do about it. There was no dignity in standing in nothing but a towel. Some brave front she was presenting. How could she rail at him when she couldn’t even turn around and face him down?
Shewasafraid. He was directly behind her. She could feel his breath on her head. His scent surrounded her. To look at him would be her undoing.
“I want you to leave, Alexandrov.” She was amazed that she sounded so calm, when her whole nervous system was racing toward panic. “I will join you in a few minutes, after I—”
“I want to stay.”
He said the words so simply, yet they said it all. She couldn’t make him leave if he wouldn’t, and they both knew it. Her nervousness exploded in unreasonable rancor as she finally turned to face him.
“Why?”
“A foolish question, Katya.”
“The devil it is! Why me? And whynow?I’ve just been drenched in the rain. I look like a drowned rat. How can you possibly…why would you—”
Dimitri chuckled at her difficulty. “Always you pick everything apart with your hows and whys. You want the truth, little one? I sat at my desk and I imagined you removing those wet clothes, and it was as if you did it in front of me, the image was so clear. You see, my memory of you is as tantalizing as the real thing. I can close my eyes and see you again framed in green satin—”
“Stop it!”
“But you wanted to know why I could want you now, didn’t you?”
The touch of his hands just then kept Katherine from replying. In fact her thoughts became so thoroughly jumbled that she gave them up. His touch was whisper-soft, moving slowly over the bare skin of her shoulders until finally his hands circled the slender column of her neck.
With his fingers at her nape, his thumbs stretched up under her chin to tilt her head up to him. “I shouldn’t have undressed you in my mind.” His lips brushed her temple, then her cheek. “But I couldn’t help it. And now I need you, Katya. I need you,” he whispered passionately, just before his mouth captured hers.
Katherine’s fears were realized, but she did not, could not resist his kiss. Like honey, sweet, sweet wine, he tasted so good, made her feel so deliciously wicked.…But the consequences, Katherine. You have to resist. Use your imagination, as he did. Pretend it’s Lord Seldon holding you in his arms.
She tried, but her body knew the difference and begged her to reconsider. Why must she resist? Why? At that moment, she couldn’t remember the reason, didn’t really want to.
Just a few minutes to savor him, Katherine. What harm can a few minutes do?
The moment she fitted her slim body to his, Dimitri gave his passion free rein. Triumph soared in his blood, heightened his senses as never before, because success had never seemed so important before.
He had been right. Katherine was susceptible only to a direct assault on her senses. But he wasn’t forgetting what had happened that morning. He didn’t dare pause even for breath, didn’t dare give her a moment’s respite, or she would throw up her shield of indifference again, and this golden opportunity would be lost.
But what she was doing to him… Sweet Christ, he was not going to be able to proceed slowly. It was all he could do not to crush her with the power of his desire. Her small hands moved frantically over his back, into his hair, gripping, urging. Her tongue was dueling with his, not hesitantly, but with bold aggression. He could not be mistaken. She was as eager as he. But he still wasn’t taking any risks.
Without breaking the kiss, Dimitri opened his eyes to find the direction of her bed. He should have taken note of it when he first came in, but he had been too enraptured by the sight of her in nothing but a loosely draped towel to notice anything else. But now, as he looked about her room and found no bed, his eyes flew back to what he had disdained to accept at first glance. A hammock!
It was like a splash of cold water. Doomed for lack of a bed? Inconceivable. There was the rug. It was thick and—no! He couldn’t take her on the floor. Not this time. This time had to be perfect to give him ammunition to use for persuasion the next time.
