None of this was what you thought it would be. None of it.
She had chosen to marry him, it was true. She was the one who’d demanded it. Yet had it been something she’d have insisted on if she’d known what it truly meant? That she would end up here, lying in his arms, aching with feelings she didn’t quite understand?
The unprotected sex had been stupid of her. Because sure, while he might have taken responsibility for that, it went both ways. She was a virgin, but she’d done her research over the past three months. She knew what condoms were. She could have stopped him and demanded he put one on, but she hadn’t. She’d been as lost to what was happening between them as he’d been.
Yet another thing you didn’t know that you didn’t understand.
But that thought wasn’t a useful one. Right now, she was in his arms, and he was hot, and he felt good against her. And she wanted more of his heat, more of his passion. She wanted to explore him as thoroughly as he’d explored her, see if she could make him tremble, make him call her name. Exert her feminine power over him, bring him to his knees.
Yes, that’s what she wanted.
She stared into his eyes, relaxing against him, her fingertips stroking his hard muscled chest, glorying in the feeling of being surrounded by his heat and his power. ‘So, what about now? What do you want to do now?’
His mouth curved deeper, his attention dropping down to her throat and her breasts pressed hard to his chest. ‘I think you can guess what I want.’ He lifted his gaze back to hers. ‘But it has to be what you want too. If not, then no matter what I told you earlier, you can walk away.’
Something fluttered hard behind her ribs, an unexpected emotion tightening in her throat.
It was as if he’d somehow known all the doubts about understanding and choices that had been going through her head. It was as if he knew her, and not just as the stranger he’d married or the trafficked woman he’d married, but her. Rose. Knew what she’d be thinking about now and what would distress her. She didn’t know how he knew since they hadn’t had much to do with each other these past six months, nevertheless he knew.
And perhaps it wasn’t a good thing. Perhaps it was dangerous to be known in that way, yet it didn’t feel dangerous. It felt reassuring. Comforting. She had always been a mystery to everyone including herself, a mystery that no one had ever wanted to get to the bottom of. But he had.
A warrior, he’d called her, as if he could see her soul already. And she liked it.
A warrior was exactly what she wanted to be.
So, she stared back at him and let him see her fierce spirit in her eyes. ‘What happens is that you will take me up to your bed and you’ll let me do whatever I want with you. And then in the morning, since it’s only fair, you can do the same to me. And then after that, we’ll start all over again.’
His smile widened and those silver-green eyes of his warmed, the green deepening, becoming less an arctic sea than a tropical one, making her catch her breath at his beauty. At the warmth of his smile and the scars that pulled at his skin, all melted and twisted and yet a part of him. She still didn’t know why he had them, though she suspected, but they were beautiful too in their way, because they were part of him.
Again, this is dangerous. You shouldn’t be thinking of him like that.
But she didn’t know why it was dangerous to admire him, and she didn’t want to think about it now. What she wanted was him and his smile, his beauty and his passion. She wanted the warrior in her to do battle with the warrior in him. A sensual battle full of pleasures she could only dream of.
‘In that case, little maid,’ he said softly. ‘I think I can definitely accommodate you.’
Then she was caught up in his arms as he got to his feet and took her up to his bedroom. And as the afternoon descended into night, a fiery, hot, feverish night, one thing stayed stuck in her head. That this time she’d understood fully what she’d chosen downstairs in his arms, to have this moment, this night, with him.
And she had no regrets.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘NO,’ARESSAID. ‘Your hand needs to be like this.’ He took Rose’s small fist in his, extracted her thumb and tucked it over her clenched fingers, then he turned it so her knuckles were facing up. ‘Then when you strike, you twist your arm like so.’ He demonstrated, extending her arm, then turning it.
She watched him with unwavering focus, as if this was the most important thing she’d ever done, which was the way she approached most things, as he’d discovered.
They were in his gym at the manor, and he’d been teaching her some self-defence. He had a protection detail watching her in Paris, of course, but he’d thought it prudent to teach her how to defend herself. She’d been very keen to learn. In fact, she was very keen to learn about everything.
She was a quick learner too, never had to be told anything twice, and was stubborn when she didn’t get it right the first time, trying and trying until she had it. The lessons he’d particularly enjoyed had been the ones he’d given her in bed, though after that first night, where he’d taught her all the ways in which to pleasure him, they’d discovered a few more things together and those had been particularly sweet.
He had to admit that he couldn’t get enough of those lessons, as if all the long passionless years had created a need in him that couldn’t be quenched by a couple of nights. Or even a couple of weeks. He was already wondering what he was going to do when her two weeks was up, and she went back to Paris. It would mean three months of celibacy for him and everything in him roared with denial at the thought of it.
Even right now, as she created the fist he’d taught her, that look of fierce concentration on her face, he could feel the burn of desire.
It’s not just about desire, though, is it? You want to spend time with her.
He liked her, it was true, and he liked spending time with her. But this desire had nothing to do with that. It was completely and utterly physical.
Today Rose wore tight-fitting black yoga pants and a black athletic bra, her lush curves and golden skin on full display, and already he was imagining laying her down on the mat they stood on and pinning her there with his body, getting her to fight him until she finally surrendered in the most sensual of ways.