Bachelor's Wife by Jessica Steele Page B

the journalists.'
    'There's...' no need, she had been going to add, but the rest of it was lost as he claimed her lips with his and fireworks went off in her head that never had she known a man's mouth to be so at once inviting, tempting and, for her sins, so irresistible.
    His kiss deepened, both arms holding her securely, tightening when some inner instinct, common sense gone, had her trying to be free. 'Relax,' he instructed quietly, taking his mouth from hers only briefly. 'Nothing is going to happen you don't want to happen.'
    His lips on her once more, the warm masculine smell of him, sharp, clean, in her nostrils, had her hands gripping tightly on to his shoulders as she strove desperately to control the wild urges his kisses aroused.
    'No!' she protested hoarsely when his lips left hers to transfer to her throat, to kiss across her collarbone and to the hidden swell beneath her dress. Her flesh tingled just before he obeyed and transferred his mouth back to her own, his hands caressing in delicious stroking sensation on her bare arms, moving to her spine, pressing her to him.
    For mind-blowing moments his lips left hers to lightly kiss her flushed cheeks, to trail kisses to her ears." And then his hands were in her hair, taking all appearance of sophistication from her as her shining honey-gold hair cascaded over her shoulders..
    His look was satisfied as he pulled back to see his handiwork. 'Beauty is an understatement,' he breathed, and the next time his mouth hovered near hers, Perry's lips parted of their own volition to receive his kiss.
    'Nash,' she cried his name, when his kiss finally ended, her arms now about him, all inhibitions disappearing as he wakened ardour in her, 'hold me close!'
    Needing no second invitation, with one arm holding her securely close to his heart, the other busy at the zip of her dress, he pressed forward until she felt the solidness of the settee against her.
    How she came to be lying down^ her dress loose about the top of her, she was too far gone to know or care. Nash's kisses had awakened dormant fires she had been ignorant of, his caresses making her moan from pure pleasure. She was his wife, came the words to quell any last-minute feeling that she shouldn't be like this with him, as he lay down with her his hands caressing her naked shoulders, his mouth moving enrapturingly nearer her breasts.
    She wanted to tell him this was her first time as she felt him pick her up in his arms—instinct would direct him to her- bedroom door she knew. But she couldn't tell him, and as at the door of her bedroom he paused, his hold secure as he bent to kiss her, the only words to leave her were a submissive:
    'I'm glad we're married, Nash.'
    The bedroom door was never opened. She sensed a coldness coming to him the moment the words left her— that second before he set her to her feet.  
    'What's wrong?' she asked, her desire for him giving her no lead to why that warmth should suddenly have left him.
    His breathing was as harsh as his expression as he stepped away from her. 'As you say,' he said, his jaw rigid as he moved only to right her dress on her shoulders and hiding from view her half-naked contours, 'you are my wife. When you remember you also have a fiancé, I think like me you'll agree we shouldn't do anything that will make that divorce the harder to come by.'
    Everywhere felt cold when he had gone. Even though
    burning inside with shame and mortification, Perry sat huddled over her gas fire ten minutes later still wondering what had come over her.
    That Nash's blood could have been nowhere as overheated as hers, that her reminder that they were married had instantly alerted him to how close they were to consummating that marriage, made her want to howl her eyes out from the humiliation she felt.
    What had happened to her inner chemistry she had no idea. But she faced squarely that she had been part way to being seduced before Nash had so much as kissed her! That it had been Nash