Free Midnight Eyes by Sarah Brophy Page A

twisted perversion that had forced her to turn from the passion he offered her so freely.
    Suddenly it seemed to her that those memories weren’t as important as the feelings that had come to life inside her with Robert’s touch.
    “I don’t need all that much time.”
    She said it so quietly that it took Robert a moment to hear it. His shout of grim laughter caught her by surprise.
    “You don’t have to lie to save my feelings. Of course you need time to get over the fright and disgust caused by the insatiable animal you have married.” He slumped into a chair by the fire. He buried his face in his hands and tried to control the guilt and desire that raged in conflict through his body. Imogen could still feel it like it was a presence under her skin.
    It was that new pain that made her decision for her.
    Carefully she followed the sound of his ragged breathing and knelt slowly in front of him. She slid a hand up his thigh, partly for support, but mostly because she liked the feel of his coiled strength. Robert lifted his face, startled first by the voluntary touch and then by the look of earnestness on her face.
    “Don’t say that. I know what fear and disgust feel like, and I didn’t find either in your kiss. It was beautiful and I wasn’t exactly fighting you off, if you remember.”
    “How could you fight me? I’m at least twice your size,” Robert said darkly, trying to deny himself the comfort she offered.
    “But you never used your size against me.” Her hand tightened over the tenseness of his thighs. “You stopped,” she whispered, and that knowledge was like a shaft of light into the darkness of her world. He hadn’t tried to harm or overwhelm her. He had stopped the second she had wanted him to. He had given her the choice. With that revelation came another, equally startling one; she chose to feel more of the fire he had built in her with just the touch of his lips on hers.
    “May I touch you?” she asked, her face flaring with embarrassment at her own daring. She refused to be daunted, however, and took his sudden silence as an affirmative.
    Robert’s breath stopped as he felt her small hand begin to move caressingly over the length of his thigh. “Lean back,” she murmured, and Robert found himself mutely complying, unable to resist the chance to feel her touch on flesh that craved it. She moved till she kneeled between his muscular thighs and carefully moved both her hands to his face. She ran a fingertip over the whorls in his ear, the fine hairs on his brow, the bridge of his nose.
    “So soft,” she purred as she ran a thumb over the satin of his lips. Robert inhaled sharply as he felt the small tip of her finger trace the moist skin just inside his mouth. He couldn’t resist drawing it in even farther and gently sucking on it, all the while keeping his eyes locked on her flushed face. He watched in fascination as a faint shudder ran through her body, and felt an answering quake through his soul.
    “It’s odd,” she whispered with awe, “that such little things can feel so large. I can feel your tongue all the way to the pit of my stomach.”
    She slowly pulled her finger away, mimicking the action that his body burned for. She trailed the damp tip down his neck, tickling his Adam’s apple and the hollow of his collarbone. She mewed with frustration when the silky edge of his tunic stopped her explorations. She tugged ineffectually at the cloth, needing to touch the warm male skin that lay intriguingly beneath.
    Suddenly Robert surged forward and all but tore the valuable cloth from his body.
    Smiling with satisfaction and with her bottom lip caught between her teeth, she moved her greedy fingers over him. Burying her hands in the springy hair on his chest, she sighed at the decadent pleasure of the feel of him under her palms. When she found the small masculine nipples that hid there and teased them gently, Robert had to grit his teeth to stop himself from sweeping her up and