Free His Convenient Marriage by Sara Craven Page A

said calmly. 'And lay a place for yourself in the dining room. I told you that I'd expect my future wife to help me entertain my guests.'
    She said between her teeth, 'I am not your future wife.'
     
    'Lady Markham thinks you are,' he said softly. 'Because you told her so, Francesca. And, as I've made clear, you'll behave accordingly until I decide otherwise. So it's lunch for three and no arguments.'
    She gave him a defiant glance. 'Is that an order—sir?'
    He had the audacity to grin at her. 'Yes, ma'am.' He limped forward and perched on the edge of the table beside her. 'I'm seeing a totally new side to you, Chessie,' he remarked. 'All these months, you've behaved like a polite, efficient mouse. Yet now...'
    'Overnight I've turned into a rat?' She glared at him.
    Miles laughed. 'I was thinking of something altogether more feline—a tigress, maybe.'
    Chessie looked down at the froth of eggs in her bowl. There was something about this turn in the conversation— a note in his voice perhaps—that disturbed her. That, and his proximity.
    She said crisply, 'Now you're being absurd. And if you want me to feed your guest, I'd better get on.'
    'Presently,' he said, and his voice was soft, the blue eyes narrowed in speculation. 'I've seen your claws, Chessie. But now I'm wondering if I might just make you purr.'
    The egg whisk dropped from her hand, clattering to the tiled floor as he reached for her, pulling her into his arms with a stark purpose that defied resistance. She was held against him, trapped between the hard muscularity of his thighs. One arm lay across her back like a band of steel. His other hand shaped the slender curve of her hip as he smiled into her eyes.
    Her lips parted to protest—perhaps even to plead—but the words were stifled by his mouth. At first it was a quest—a slow, controlled exploration. Firm but tender. Serious and teasing.
    So many sensations—emotions—building inside her as he quietly and deliberately ravished her mouth. She hung in his arms, her limbs turning to water, tiny sparks of light dancing behind her closed eyelids. And her hands, braced against his chest in a vain attempt to push him away, crept upwards to fasten on his shoulders.
     
    And everything changed. He pulled her closer still, kiss¬ing her deeply, hungrily, making no more concessions to her relative inexperience, or the fact that it was still the first intimate contact between them.
    Ruthlessly, her lips were pressured apart so that he could plunder all the inner sweetness of her mouth. There was no gentleness in him now. No coolness either. Just a fierce need driving him beyond tenderness, beyond consideration.
    The high dam of his reserve had been breached, and she was caught in the torrent. Drowning now in unguessed-at desires of her own, her aroused nipples blooming against the wall of his chest, her fingers biting frantically into his shoulders.
    Gasping, tasting him, breathing him, drawing the male scent of him deep into her lungs as the world spun dizzily around her. The warmth of his skin blazed through her thin dress. She felt the sudden clamour of her pulses, the surge of the dark, heavy blood through her veins.
    And then, as if a light had been switched off, it was over, and she was free. Taking a shaky step backwards, then another. Staring at him with ever-widening eyes. Lifting a mechanical hand to touch her swollen mouth. Hearing noth¬ing but the raggedness of her own breathing. And his. In a silence that seemed to go on for ever.
    When at last he spoke, his mocking drawl scored her senses like a sharp blade. 'Well—that was—instructive.'
    Her breasts were aching against the cling of her dress, her nipples white-hot pinnacles of excitement. And he could see that. Would know...
    She crossed her arms across her body, hiding the evi¬dence of her self-betrayal from his cynical scrutiny.
    'Why?' she whispered hoarsely. 'Why did you do that? How did you dare...?'
    'Because we were both curious,' he said.