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"No In fact--" She broke off abruptly
"In fact?" Leo pro"
"You were Soainst your will"
"Certainly not," Catherine said primly, but Leo saw the twitch of a sood looks?" he suggested "My fascinating conversation?"
"No, and no"
"Seduced by ish swerving of his brows that finally reduced her to laughter
"Yes, it must have been those"
Settling back against the pillows, Leo regarded her with satisfaction
What a wonderful laugh she had, light and throaty, as if she had been drinking chane
And what a problem this could beco real to hiined
As Catherine read aloud, the ferret eed from beneath the dresser and climbed onto her lap He fell asleep in an upside-down circle, his htest Catherine’s lap looked like a lovely place to rest one’s head
Leo feigned interest in the complex and detailed narrative, while his mind occupied itself with the question of what she would look like naked It seeic that he would never see her so But even by Leo’s dilapidated code of ethics, a in unless he had serious intentions He had tried it once, letting hi as a result
And there were some risks a ht Catherine woke to the sound of a baby’s whi, and the usually sweet-natured cherub had been fretful of late
Catherine stared sightlessly in the darkness, kicked the bed linens away fros, and tried to find a more comfortable position in which to sleep Her side Her stoht
After a fewsoothed by his attentiveThe worst kind of awake
She tried to occupy herself with old Celtic sheep-counting words, still used by rural farmers in place of modern numbers … yan, tan, tethera, pethera … One could hear the echo of centuries in the ancient syllables Sethera, ular blue eyes, striated light and dark, like strips of sky and ocean Leo had watched her while she had read to hi And underneath their banter, and his relaxed façade, she had known that he wanted her Yan, tan, tethera …
Perhaps Leo ake at this very , but it ht need water A cool cloth
Catherine left the bed and snatched up her dressing robe before she could think twice Finding her spectacles on the dressing table, she placed them precisely on her nose
Her bare feet crossed the wood floors of the hallway as she went on her charitable mission
The door to his room was partially open She slipped in without a sound, like a thief, tiptoeing to the bed just as she had the previous night The darkness of the rooht from the open , as if the shadoere a sieve She could hear the soft and steady flow of Leo’s breathing
Making her way to his side, Catherine reached out tentatively, her heartbeat thickening as she laid her fingers on his forehead No fever Only s fractured as he awakened "Cat?" His voice was sleep-thickened "What are you doing?"
She shouldn’t have gone to hiave would sound false and ridiculous, because there was no rational reason to have bothered him
Aardly she muan to draw back but he caught her wrist with reht and he was barely awake They both went still as she was caught poised over hirip
Leo exerted tension on her ar her to lean farther over him, farther, until her balance was compromised and she fell on hi him, she scrabbled to brace her hands on the mattress, and he used every movement to lever her more fully onto his body She started as she encountered bare flesh tightly knit with muscle, his chest covered with a soft, crisp fleece
"My lord," she whispered, "I didn’t--"
His long hand curved around the back of her head, and he brought her mouth down to his
It wasn’t a kiss, it was a possession He took her fully, the heat of his tongue thrusting inside her, draining her of volition and thought The masculine incense of his skin filled her nostrils Erotic Delicious Too many sensations to take in at once … the hot silk of his rip of his hands, the hard masculine contours of his body
The world revolved slowly as Leo turned with her in his arh and sweet, kisses involving lips and teeth and tongue Gasping, she reached around his neck and bandaged shoulder Heher as if he wanted to devour her
The folds of her dressing gown listed open, the he to her knees Leo’s in a luscious search of her throat, following tender nerve paths down to the place where her neck and shoulder own, un the thin fabric
His head lowered, his lips slowly ascending the tre her into his ue Ragged usts of his breath Leo settled ht until she felt the hard length of hi hiswaves of involuting pleasure
With every es of arousal wearing away to exquisite rawness Leo took her un a subtle rhyth himself to arouse her She twisted beneath hi hardness Their bodies pressed together like the pages of a closed book, and it felt so right, so wildly pleasurable, that it frightened her
"No," she gasped, pushing at hiainst his injured shoulder, and Leo rolled off her with a curse
"My lord?" She scra in every limb "I’m sorry Did I hurt you? What can I--"
"Go"