Whatever strange spell she had been under shattered for a moment, the breath flowing back into her lungs in a gasp of indignation, while her hands came up to push on his chest. He didn’t move at all; her limited strength was no match for his stature, though she couldn’t deny that his muscled physique still felt rather good beneath her palms.
“I will never obey you,” she retorted, as she tried to push him again.
He didn’t try to grab her wrists and stop her; he just kept smirking as he let her wear herself out, that dark amusement shining in those intense eyes.
She probably should have been scared of him and the situation she was in, but something in his demeanor made her feel more fierce than afraid, as if he was provoking her to see how defiant she could be.
“Ye don’t really have a choice, lass,” he told her, as his thumb stilled on the apple of her cheek, his fingertips sliding into her hair. “Ye will obey me, or else...”
Anna’s eyes narrowed, her chin tilted up, her blood boiling in her veins. “Or else what? You will not harm me. You cannot get rid of me. You cannot scare me off.Youare the one who has no choice but to–”
All thoughts and words left her as his lips silenced her tirade: a kiss so fierce, so disarming, so intense she might have been knocked off her feet if not for the door at her back and his arm suddenly around her waist. Her eyes widened in shock as his mouth moved, urging her to kiss him back, but as he pressed in closer, his hand in her hair, she felt her eyelids flutter shut.
She sank into the moment she had never expected, her whole body burning with a need for this infuriating man. A feeling she couldn’t fight, even if she had wanted to.
And, for that instant, she didn’t.
CHAPTER 9
Tentatively, Anna followed Jeremy’s lead, meeting the press of his mouth with a kiss of her own. Slow at first, maybe a little clumsy, uncertain of herself and what to do. Her hands grasped the fabric of his shirt to anchor herself, while his arm pulled her closer in response, until there was nothing between them.
How can such a man exist? So tall, so powerful, so muscular, so… perfect in every way but his character.
It wasn’t an accidental brush of her body against his, but deliberate. Exquisite. The sharp contours of him, pressed against the softer shape of her, though she still didn’t dare to run her hand down his abdomen to see how far that deep line extended. Feeling the ridges of well-defined muscle was enough of a thrill for now, making her breath unsteady, each inhale a near-frantic gasp as she kissed him harder.
Jeremy responded in kind, his kisses rougher, hungrier, so fervent that she could feel her lips bruising and didn’t care in theslightest. It was almost madness, making her want to match him, kissing him with a frenzied abandon that couldn’t lead anywhere good—even if not in the ‘appropriate’ sense of the word.
What am I doing? What if Mr. Miller hears this? He might think I am under attack,she thought absently, the worry at being discovered in such a damning situation swiftly swept away by the glide of Jeremy’s hand over the swell of her backside. He squeezed that soft flesh, a stifled gasp catching in her throat.
He stole away her gasp with a deep kiss, his tongue flicking against hers in a… most peculiar fashion. Strange, but not at all unpleasant, sparking curiosity in her.
Anna let her tongue touch his in return, a smile curling her lips as she felt a pleasant shiver run through her. No, there wasn’t anything unpleasant about that at all.
As their ragged breathing filled the silence of the library, she could have kissed him all night, forgetting completely that she loathed him. Somehow, her anger had turned into a powerful heat that raced through her body, awakening her entire being from a slumber she hadn’t realized she was in, all that vehemence and outrage redirected toward... passion.
Every grasping tug on his shirt was a slap she hadn’t managed to deliver, every firm press of her mouth an insult she hadn’t dared to throw at him, and every gentle pull on his long, dark hair was a softer version of what her anger might have commanded, while the dance of their tongues resembled a battle, yet neitherseemed to seek victory. Instead, it was more like a truce, where both could find equal pleasure.
It soothed the rebellious beast within her, not fully tamed but running alongside a kindred spirit, both half-wild. Or perhaps it was his wildness that was awakening hers, following the brief domestication caused by her short-lived marriage.
Just then, Jeremy’s hand moved over the ridge of her hip and eased down her thigh. He grasped that soft flesh, her breath catching as his fingertips began to claw up the fabric of her skirts, slowly bunching it. She felt the hem brush her ankles, then her calves, grazing over the top of her knees, but as the material reached the more sensitive skin of her thigh, near where he held her with such possessive pressure, it was like a shock to her senses.
What are you doing? Think of your position! Your reputation! Your honor!her own voice roared louder in her head, snapping her out of her daze, as if she had been submerged in deep water and had just breached the surface. The moral equivalent of gasping in a lungful of air.
With all her strength, she grasped his hand and wrenched it away from her thigh. In the next moment, she punched him hard in the chest, her eyes narrowing as she quickly covered her mouth with her hand.
“What’s wrong, lass?” Jeremy asked, as he took a half-step backward, his fingertips withdrawing from her hair.
Anna’s chest rose and fell with the fervency of her horror, more at herself than at him. How could she have been so stupid as to fall for such a dangerous man’s charms? How could she have forgotten so quickly that he was there to take away everything she had created for herself? He was no thrilling fantasy; he was a threat to her very existence.
“Youare what is wrong,” she replied, her voice shaky. “If you ever touch me again, then I shall… I shall… I shall letallof the baby goats loose in your chambers. I shall gather toads and put them in your bed. I shall set moths free in your wardrobes. And I shall put newts in your bath! You will never have a moment’s peace, if you dare… presume to put your hands on me again.”
He swept his thumb slowly over his lower lip, as if to savor the memory of their kiss, not to wipe it away. The movement quirked his mouth into a smirk.
“If ye don’t want to be touched, to be kissed, topleaseme, then ye mustn’t tempt me.” He took hold of her hand and brought it to his lips, tracing the ghost of a kiss on her bare skin, for she didn’t wear gloves when she was reading. “Don’t pretend that was all me, lass.”
“It was!” she protested, the heat that had coursed through her veins now pooling in her face. She wished she had a fan; the room was too stifling all of a sudden. “I was… trying to defend myself, then you sought to bewilder me so I would forget. Well, I have not. You cannot get rid of me. You cannot scare me away with… what you just did, any more than you can scare me off with idle threats!”
“Idle threats?” he tutted under his breath, a stirring sound that, for reasons unknown, made her want to please him all over again. “I haven’t made any threats, lass. I am just telling ye what’s going to happen.”
