Page 19 (1/2)

"Is that how you auise yourself and bed whomever you like?

How aze, flecks of gold in her green gaze She swiped a hand through the air "There have been no others"

"Oh, I’h his hair "Only _I _ inspired you to toss yours skirts to the wind"

Angry coloroff her pallor "Stop," she spit out, her lips tre "It wasn’t like that!"

"Why did you cory path toward her "To gloat?"

His eyes raked her, seeing past the ugly black sack she wore to body beneath, the war the memory of every other wo hiainst hiht to see her again And here she was Aurora Jane Anger and desire surged inside hih his veins

"All this tied" He burrowed his fingers through her hair The pins dropped free, ski the tops of his hands on their way to the floor

"Please," she moaned as her hair flooded past her shoulders in a rich mantle

"So cold, so proper, all ice in your veins," he snarled against her quivering lips, fingers fisting in the silken tendrils of her hair "You should have toldhis lips to hers, he smothered her cry and plundered her mouth in a brutal kiss His hands spanned her waist and lifted her onto the wet table in a hardhihs

An erection pushed at his breeches, aching and hungry for her sweetness, for the snug heat of her Grasping her hand, he forced her to touch hiainst his length Heaven and hell in one touch He guided her fingers over hied herher

She submitted, complied, caressed him in feverish strokes Not a sound escaped her as she took his kiss, suffered the savage invasion of his lips and teeth and tongue on her softto life in his arms as she had done at Vauxhall

Or at the usted, he cursed and broke contact Chest heaving with serrated breaths, he fought his need for her and deers traced her lips, wet and swollen from his kiss

"Why?" he thundered

She stared, her eyes hunted, wounded Large and bright in her pale face Beautiful Hell’s teeth, even now she got beneath his skin

Bile thick in his throat, he stepped back and swung around, the erotic picture she s atop the table too much to bear

With the desk between the, da in her voice then, in her barely audible words that had hionized look in her eyes told hie his life

"I’m with child"

Chapter 17

Jane shoved her skirts down and slid down froave out She grasped the edge of the table, barely catching herself froside the vase

Seth h her His scar so very stark, lightening-white on his swarthy face Her stomach heaved, pitched, and for a moment she feared she would be sick all over the fine Persian rug She clutched a hand over her belly as if she could quell the violent reaction

His brown gaze darkened, the a as he followed the ranite-carved face cracked and e his head, his lips peeled back frohter carried an edge Like a finely honed razor, she felt its slice keenly, digging and twisting into her heart Dropping her hand, she squared her shoulders "I’ve cohed harder, the sound slicing through her "And you’re so concerned hat’s right, are you?"

Heat swarmed her face

"You’ve co"

She dropped her gaze, studying the swirls in the carpet with rapt attention "I don’t know," she replied, squeezing her eyes in one long blink, ht"Why? Was this your scheain "Is the child eveninto her tender palms "I suppose I deserve the question" She wet her dry lips and wondered if she would ever endure soain "Yes, it’s yours Whether you believe aze roving over her face in searing thoroughness, as if he stripped away flesh and bones to see all she hid within

"And you’re expecting a proposal no doubt?" he de before hi the hot condemnation of his stare, she wished she had not come

Some sha about, she headed for the door "I shouldn’t have coht to acco her around "Don’t you?" His fingers flexed, burning through the fabric of dress "You knew precisely what it was you wanted froled in his arms, furious at his words because she could not deny the, Jane? Is this any way to treat your husband-to-be?"

She froze, staring at hi eyes, certain she had misunderstood

"Isn’t this what you wanted? Can you not find the nerve to adainst his

"Ironic, isn’t it? Once upon a tihtly together, she was unsure where either one of thean or ended He cupped the side of her face, and the ware hand, the rasp of his calluses on her skin sparked a response deep within her She had to stop herself fro cat