Moonwitch by Nicole Jordan Page B

closed.
    “I would do this to you, for instance…” His large hand moved down her throat to cup the soft fullness of her breast, his thumb brushing her nipple, stroking until it stood rigidly erect. Selena was scarcely aware that the sharp gasp came from her own throat. “And this…” Kyle murmured. His other arm went around her, his fingers cupping her buttocks to bring her hips even closer to his. “I would take my pleasure of you at my leisure, whenever I wanted.”
    A shudder shook her body.
    “I would waken all the passion in that lovely, untutored body of yours—” Kyle broke off suddenly, realizing his mistake. He could feel his body throbbing at the image his own words were arousing.
    Mentally flaying his thoughts into obedience, he made a fierce effort to control himself. “I would make you moan for me, Moonwitch,” he rasped against her silken throat. “I would make you scream with pleasure.”
    Selena believed him; the fire streaking through her loins was so fierce it made her tremble. Of their own volition, her hands crept to his powerful shoulders, and she let her head fall back, giving him full access to her throat.
    But he only bent further, his lips seeking her left breast, his mouth closing over the taut nipple, hot and moist even through the layers of muslin. Powerless, wanting, Selena arched her body upward against Kyle’s mouth.
    Kyle groaned in response. This wasn’t working. He was driving himself insane. He could feel sweat break out on his palms as he lost the battle for control.
    Selena sensed his struggle. Through the heated dimness that had enveloped her mind, she heard him groan softly. His hoarse whisper dredged from his throat “Devil take it, I can’t keep my hands off you.”
    With an abruptness that left her swaying, Kyle tore himself away. He stood there at arm’s length, staring at Selena in the gasping silence as if seeing her for the first time, as if she were an apparition, his expression one of dismay, a look halfway between pain and pleasure.
    She was glad for the support of the wall behind her back. Otherwise she might have fallen, her legs felt so warm and weak. Unsteadily, she fixed her gaze on his mouth, not comprehending why he had broken off their embrace.
    Kyle hardly knew why himself as he looked at Selena standing there, wide-eyed and vulnerable and trembling. And lovely. God, she was lovely. He wanted her with a fierceness that took his breath away.
    Marriage,
he reminded himself, trying to regain some semblance of control over his throbbing body. That was why he couldn’t have her. He would have to marry her then, and he couldn’t do that and claim his son, too. He wanted his son more. Didn’t he?
    Kyle shook his head to clear his reeling senses. His strategy had backfired with a vengeance. He had begun by trying to frighten and threaten her and had wound up with his own resolutions threatened, instead. He had wanted nothing more than to carry her to her bed and take up where they had left off the previous night, to show her just what depths of passion could be found in her proper lady’s body.
    Perhaps, he thought disparagingly as his inner turmoil turned to self-scorn, he
was
the fool he kept insisting that he wasn’t. He should never have gotten so near Selena, should have kept his distance. Hadn’t his past encounters with her taught him that he had no self-command where she was concerned, that he couldn’t resist her?
    But not again. From now on, he would stay well away from her. He wouldn’t lose control of himself again.
    But there was still the problem of the wedding. Kyle clenched his fists, anger sweeping through him again as he remembered the governor’s ultimatum. Fiend seize it, he would not be forced into marriage, not even to a woman as lovely and bewitching as Selena Markham.
    He gave her a hard look, his mouth tightening as he stared at her softly heaving bosom and the tantalizing mouth that was still full and hot from his angry