It was too soon, but he didn't give a damn. He kissed her, gently at first. A soft brush of the lips that made his chest tighten so sharply, it almost burned. God, she was sweet. An innocent lamb to his wolf.
He never thought someone like her could be his.
He might need her to reclaim his land, but there was no denying that he wanted her for himself.
The knowledge angered him. He knew better than to complicate retribution and vengeance with personal desire. It would only lead to trouble.
He lifted his head and looked deep into her eyes, seeing the surprise and passion shimmering in the crystalline depths. He gave her every opportunity to tell him to stop. To push him away. To refuse his kiss. To tell him he was wrong.
But instead she melted against him, twining her hands around his neck in silent surrender.
This time he did not hold back. The passion, the hunger, the lust, could no longer be held in check.
She was his—even if she didn't know it yet.
Lizzie's heart thumped hard in her chest. The brush of his lips over hers had ignited the ember smoldering inside her.
She could taste him on her lips, the hint of spiciness that made her mouth water with anticipation.
His eyes bored into hers, giving her no doubt as to what he intended. The sharp rays of sunlight cast his handsome features in hard angles. His black hair glistened like a raven's wing. He looked dark and dangerous and very, very hungry.
For me.
A thrill shivered through her, not in coldness, but in warmth … delicious warmth. A shimmery, tingly sea of sensation that threatened to drown her good intentions. She knew better. Knew better than to confuse lust with something more. But it felt like more. So much more. Strong and true and real.
His mouth lowered.
Her pulse jumped, and she froze like a deer caught in sight of the hunter—paralyzed not with fear, but with wanting. A wanting unlike anything that had come before. A wanting that made what had happened with John feel like child's play.
The force of it, the intensity with which desire came over her, took her by surprise.
It was like nothing she'd experienced before. This man was far more dangerous than John Montgomery, and look at what had happened with him.
She should stop him. She knew what he was going to do. Knew how dangerous playing with fire could be. But she was weak. Too weak to resist the strange pull that came over her, the heaviness, the bonelessness that made her body soften and flush with heat.
Desire was intoxicating. It simply felt too good.
She sank against him, her breasts crushed against the powerful wall of his chest. Safe, secure, and, for the moment, desired.
Was it so bad to want to feel like this? To crave the closeness? To know that she was a woman a man could want?
What if Patrick was the man she'd been waiting for?
She gasped, feeling the warmth of his breath sweep over her skin. His mouth was achingly close, but he was giving her time. Too much time. She didn't want to think, she wanted to feel. To take the moment of pleasure that he offered without thought of the consequences.
Desire warred with cold, hard reality. It was wrong. An impossible situation. A guardsman was not the right man for her. Her cousin and brothers would expect her to marry a chief, a laird, a man who would help foster the preeminence of clan Campbell—even an Englishman would be preferable. What good could possibly come of it? It would only make her yearn for something she could not have.
But her body wasn't listening. Her hands twined around his neck in silent invitation to take what he wanted. To give in to this fire that had been burning between them from the first.
Just for a moment,she vowed.Just one kiss.Ever since that day in her cousin's bedchamber, she could think of little else. The teasing brush of his lips had only made her hungrier to taste him fully. She would do her duty, but she had to know what it felt like to have his mouth on hers, to taste his passion—this man who made her knees weak simply from looking at him. From the first, this rough, dark warrior had intrigued her. She would simply appease her curiosity, that was all.
His mouth covered hers, and for an instant everything stilled. Every nerve ending that had been set on edge in anticipation exploded in a rush of pure pleasure. All that mattered was the exquisite feel of his velvety soft mouth on hers, of dissolving into warmth and heat. Of his firm lips possessing her. Of their breath melding together. Of the connection forged in passion and desire.
God, it was even better than she'd imagined.
Her body ached for him to touch her. Ached in ways it never had before. Lizzie felt the world spin under her feet, drowning in a sea of pleasure.
Her mouth opened against him, and he groaned. Sinking into her with an intensity that told her she was not the only one affected by this kiss. His fingers plunged through her hair to curl around the back of her neck, bringing her mouth more fully against his, as if he would devour her slowly and thoroughly. Very, very thoroughly.
