was infested by little mice during the night.”
She reached down to tug at the cover, muttering in frustration when he refused to release his hold.
“For God’s sake, are you trying to give me heart failure?”
“Heart failure is the least of your worries,” he drawled, not bothering to resist temptation as he slid into the silken sheets behind her reclined form and gathered her trembling body to spoon intimately against his. “I did warn you what would happen if you stayed beneath my roof.”
She stiffened in shock as his hands touched her, exploring the slender curves with the confident assurance of a well-seasoned seducer.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
His head lowered to stroke his lips over the bare skin of her shoulder, brushing aside the narrow ribbon holding up her chemise to taste of her lavender-scented skin.
“Claiming my reward,” he murmured, nipping the curve of her neck before soothing it with his lips.
“Stop this. Edmond…” She caught her breath as his hands found the proud curve of her breasts, strumming his thumbs over the sensitive tips. “Dear lord.”
“Do you like that, ma souris?” he whispered next to her ear, allowing his tongue to trace the delicate shell.
“No, you cannot,” she groaned, her hands lifting to cover his own, although they made no effort to halt the soft caresses.
“Perhaps you prefer this.” He teased the tender nipples until they hardened to tight little buds, his cock growing thick with need as she moaned in pleasure. “Yes, sing that sweet song for me.”
Kissing a path down the curve of her neck, Edmond breathed deeply of her intoxicating scent, one hand slipping down to press flat against her stomach, urging her backside more firmly against his aching erection.
He had started this to frighten the minx into fleeing his home, to prove to her that he would not be cajoled or threatened or manipulated into taking her in. His purpose in joining her on the bed, however, was swiftly being forgotten beneath the searing flood of hunger that pulsed through his body.
He would be driven mad if he did not have her soon.
Still caressing her breast with one hand, Edmond allowed the other to slip over her stomach and down to the delectable heat between her legs. He hissed in pleasure as he felt the dampness through the thin material of her chemise.
She wanted him. Her body could not lie.
Debating whether to simply lift her leg over his hip and enter her from behind or to lay her on her back so he could watch her face as she received him into her body, Edmond was caught off guard as she suddenly began to struggle against his hold.
“No.” Squirming with determination, she managed to turn to face him, although he refused to allow her to break free. The green eyes smoldered with a combination of anger and terrified desire. “Damn you, Edmond. All I ask for is your protection until Stefan can become my legal guardian. Is that too great a burden to you?”
He growled in frustration. “You have no notion whatsoever.”
“I promise not to be any bother. You will not even know I am here…”
“Mon dieu,” he rasped. “You cannot be that innocent.”
Her brows drew together in annoyance. “What do you mean?”
“This.”
Without a shred of modesty, Edmond grasped her hand and tugged it beneath his dressing robe. Brianna made a sound of shock as he wrapped her fingers around the hard thrust of his erection.
“Dear God,” she breathed, her gaze trapped by the searing heat in his eyes.
“This is what you do to me simply by being near,” he growled. “If you remain here, I will have you.”
“You do not even like me,” she protested, her voice oddly breathless.
His hand remained wrapped around hers, but it was Brianna who began to stroke slowly downward, as if curious in spite of herself at the feel of his throbbing erection. She reached his heavy sack before she moved back to the tip, her thumb brushing the bead of moisture that had gathered. Edmond moaned at the exquisite sensations that exploded through his body. He had nothing more than her fingers on him, but she offered more pleasure than any number of women who had devoted hours to bringing him to climax.
“You are a desirable woman and I am a man who possesses a fine appreciation for such beauty,” he managed to mutter, his voice raw as the pressure began to build with a stunning swiftness. “Christ…yes. That feels so good.” He shifted, then scattered kisses over her startled face. “Squeeze harder.”
She shivered beneath his soft kisses, her breath rasping loudly in the air.
“Edmond, I do not think…”
“Precisely.”
“What?”
“Do not think.”
Smothering her lips in a demanding kiss, Edmond closed his eyes and allowed himself to savor the bliss of her slender fingers tightening around his cock as his hips pumped forward. He had known the moment he had gazed into those magnificent green eyes that it would be like this. A searing, mind-shattering desire that stripped a man of his thin veneer of civilization.
The next time he experienced this, he intended to be buried deep inside her as she screamed her own release.
Edmond plunged his tongue into the wet heat of her mouth as his hands toyed with her straining breasts, tasting her heady sweetness as his muscles clenched with a sharp, sudden pinnacle of delight.
“Brianna.”
With a wrenching groan, he turned onto his stomach to release his seed into the sheets.
CHAPTER FIVE
BRIANNA WAS AN INNOCENT, well-reared maiden who had been taught that any intimacy should be conducted only between a husband and wife, and she knew that she should be shocked and horrified with what had just occurred.
But she could not deny a dark fascination as she watched Edmond’s beautiful features twist with what appeared to be intense pleasure, a pleasure that she’d briefly tasted as his hands and lips had explored her body.
For a wild moment, she had wanted to allow his experienced caresses to continue, to discover precisely where the tingling sensations would carry her. It was only fear, and a stubborn refusal to concede so easily to this aggravating man, that had brought her to her senses.
Now, she could not deny a sense of frustration, as if her body were determined to punish her for denying it the satisfaction Edmond seemed to offer.
Dear heavens, what was the matter with her?
She had spent months fending off Thomas’s repulsive touches, even those of her few suitors who attempted more than a chaste kiss. The mere thought of having their hands on her breasts had been enough to make her physically ill.
But with Edmond…it was not revulsion that she felt.
Far from it.
With a low, husky laugh, Edmond rolled to face her, his dark hair charmingly tousled and his face sinfully handsome in the morning light.
“Now, that is a perfect means to beginning a day, ma souris,” he murmured, his hand lifting to lazily play with an auburn curl that lay against her cheek. “Of course, I should have preferred to be snugly tucked between your thighs. Next time, I will be deep inside you when I find my release.”
Lightning streaked through her body at his casual words, the image of Edmond poised above her as he tutored her in the pleasures of passion all too vivid.
“There will be no next time.”
He gave her curl a sharp tug.