Page 21 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
He didn’t smile.“I don’t want you confusing me with Lord Alfred.”
“He’s an arrogant swine who doesn’t understand the word no.”
“Then I definitely don’t want you confusing me with him.”
She turned and stared out the window.They’d reached the river.In the uncertain light, her profile made him think of a queen on an old coin.Pure lines of forehead and jaw and chin.That imperial nose.An air of wistfulness around the lips.
The silence was charged with all the desire he felt for her.And he hoped a trace of her desire for him.
She still didn’t look at him.When at last she spoke, her voice was so low that he had to lean in to hear her.“Damn you, Sir Hugo Brinsmead.”
She sounded genuinely angry, and her hands clutched in her lap.
He wasn’t sure how to reply.She didn’t sound frightened.And despite her words, she didn’t sound like she hated him.
She drew in a shaky breath, audible in the confined space.“If I kiss you, you’ll just go on pestering me.”
Her voice held a hint of rueful humor.Hugo sat up straight, every instinct on alert.He’d prepared for her to tell him to pull his head in when he mentioned kisses.But while she might be hesitant, she hadn’t yet said no.“I’d leave you alone if I believed you had no interest in me.”
“I’ve said I haven’t.”
“Yes, you have.”
“But you don’t believe me.”
Heat churned in his blood, making a mockery of the arctic temperature.“Perhaps I’m an arrogant swine after all.”
At last she looked at him.Her eyes were brilliant with what looked like excitement.“So why am I thinking of kissing you anyway?”
Hugo fought the urge to leap across and seize her.“Because I don’t desire alone?”
He waited to hear her deny his claim, but he underestimated her.“Of course you don’t.But you already know that, plague take you.”
It was beyond human strength to resist touching her.He shifted across and lashed his arms around her.“I hoped.”
Bold black eyes dared him to do his worst.She was splendid, by God.“Don’t pretend to modesty now.”
He laughed, drunk with the dazzling woman he held.“You’re a peach, Aphrodite.Or whatever the hell your real name is.How the devil could I stay away?”
“And you’re the last thing I should want,” she said, close to growling.
Before he could argue with that description, she plunged forward and jammed her lips against his.
Chapter 7
Come kiss me, sweet, and make me love
And show me every pleasure bright.
Let’s dance and laugh and revels prove
And cling together through the night.
Athene tasted astonishment on Sir Hugo’s lips.Lips that were cold on this wintry night.Firm lips that held a trace of salt.Then those lips opened beneath hers, and she lost control of the kiss in a flaring second, hot as lightning.
Vaguely through the passionate melding of mouths, she felt him gather her closer, angling her across his body.When his tongue slipped through to explore her mouth, she gasped in surprise.Then made a long hum of encouragement, while a deluge of sultry pleasure swamped her.Her shaking hands formed claws in his thick coat, as her head reeled with the onslaught of powerful sensation.
He made a soft growl against her lips, as his tongue danced around hers.She couldn’t ignore the invitation and she responded with avid enthusiasm.A deep throb set up between her legs, as the craving rose to fling off the inconvenient clothes that kept her away from that big, powerful body.She squirmed in his lap and pressed nearer as their mouths clung.
