Page 10 (1/2)

Stopping in the middle of the corridor, she lifted those daive me," he murmured "I find it hard to credit"

"And why is that?" she dee

"Ladies of the _ton _ strike me as the _busy _ sort" Too busy for friends like Julianne at any rate

"I’ in a softer voice, "nor am I likeher head, she muttered, "Never mind"

"What?"

Her lips flattened into a line and she shook her head harder

"I don’t re so reticent, Jane"

Her eyes widened and he felt certain it was his use of her naood to say it, to hear hie," sheoverly long at herher for the first tie len that he had seen outside Macao He recalled the sunlight reflecting off a nearby waterfall, gilding the rich browns and greens, and the peace that had filled hi to think, he brushed his thu if they had always felt like satin, wondering why he had never thought to find out before… and why he wanted to find out now

He trailed a path down her throat to the wildly thruainst the almost translucent skin of her neck He drew a lazy circle over the faint pattern of delicate blue veins there

"What are you doing?" she whispered, inching away until the wall at her back stopped her fro his hard length against her softer one

Her curves settled against the hard lines of his body,into the sea He bit back a groan at the sensation, longing to sink _all _ of hi his head, he pressed his mouth to her throat, where her neckhe could not name, a ive the slightest indication of surrenders, and he would take her With no thought to propriety, to servants that lurked in shadows, he would lift her skirts and put an end to his torainst his chest as he opened histhe sweetness of her flesh with the rasp of his tongue

Lifting his azed into her astonished eyes

A sih hi every line of his body

His gaze dipped to her ain, to the pouty lips that obliterated the last of his logic

Jane shook her head, fingers raze her neck, her skin moist and cool where he had kissed her

Did he do this to every wonetisht in a woman’s head was him? His hands on her body? His mouth on her skin? Did others fall victi they were special?

Jealously seized her For who she only envied herself

Mortification spread prickly hotly through her chest, rising up her throat to choke her "I--I should go," shefor the door

He snatched hold of her wrist, his fingers a vise about her His hot look burned with familiar intensity

"Why so unfriendly, Jane? We were friends once, e not?"

Friends Had he never realized that she wanted to be , in fact Her fists clenched Rot hi her back

His fingers tightened and pulled her close Too close He stared at her in that consu her blood "Have you forgotten?" he deotten? Sing down the thickness in her throat, she replied, grateful for the brusque sound of her voice, "Of course not"

"Good" His touch gentled on her wrist, thu in slow circles over the inside of her wrist "Because I’ve thought of you"

She snorted "Have you?"

He sether When I thought of hoh bothered by the realization

She said nothing, too incredulous to forer in his thoughts Madeline, yes Her? Never

"You’ve changed," he continued "You’re not the little girl frozen in my mind all these years"

His eyes slid over her slowly, the seductiveheat up her arm

"You’re different, too," she retorted "The days of stripping to our un passed"

Fire flared in his eyes "Pity"