Free Past All Forgetting by Sara Craven Page B

be touched, to kiss and be kissed, to know and be known.
    At last he raised his head, and his arms fell away from her. She swayed towards him.
    'Rian,' she murmured, the ache of wanting unmistakable in her voice.
    'Janna!' His hands descended sharply on her shoulders, deliberately holding her away from him. His face was white under his tan, and his dark eyes seemed to burn as he looked down at her. 'This is madness and we both know it. You're a child, and you don't know what you're doing.'
    'Then teach me.' Her voice shook.
    ' No !' he said with sudden violence. 'You don't know what you're asking. You're a virgin, Janna, totally innocent, so don't try and pretend otherwise. And don't ask me to destroy that innocence. Keep it as a precious gift for the man you'll marry one day.'
    He let her go abruptly and turned and walked away from her into the lamp-lit brilliance of the drawing room. Janna stood alone in the darkness, totally bereft, a taste of blood in her mouth. But as coherent thought began to return, one thing dominated. Rian wanted her, as completely as a man could want a woman, and it was only some quixotic notion of chivalry which had stopped him from taking her. He'd thought her simply carried away by her feelings, overwhelmed by her first experience of adult lovemaking. She would prove to him that she was in deadly earnest, and that her desires matched his.
    She went through the darkened hall, where a few couples swayed in each other's arms oblivious to everything else, and up the stairs. No one noticed her, or if they did, they drew the obvious conclusion that she was looking for the bathroom.
    On the landing, she paused, nerving herself. She had no idea which was Rian's room, but she had no doubt that her instinct would take her to it, or that she would find him there. Cool reason suggested he had gone to seek privacy in which to regain his self-control.
    The enigmatically closed doors gave her no clue whatsoever, but she knew just the same. The carved knob twisted easily under her fingers, and she walked into the room. Rian was standing at the window, smoking a cigarette. He had discarded his jacket and loosened his tie. He swung round at the sign of the opening door, and she saw that he was frowning.
    'Janna,' he said, and his voice was grim. 'I'm warning you, go away from me now. Go back downstairs before something happens that we'll both regret.'
    'I shan't regret anything,' she said steadily. 'Rian, I—I've brought you a gift. Don't you want it?'
    Her fingers shook slightly as she unfastened the flimsy crochet top, and let it fall to the floor.
    He took one deep, unsteady breath and then his cigarette went flying out through the open window, and he came to her.
    She clung to him without reserve as he lifted her on to his bed.
    'I've been wondering all night what you could possibly wear under that fragment.' A laugh tore at his voice. 'Now I know.'
    He bent and kissed her breasts, his mouth warm and urgent on her body, and yet at the same time she knew that he was deliberately restraining himself, devoting himself to her pleasure, her arousal, so that when the time came she would have no fear of him.
    'God, I've wanted you,' he whispered. He took the pins out of her hair, letting it tumble on to her shoulders. He lifted a handful of dark strands and held them against his face.
    She drew his head down to her, offering him her lips, and he took them fiercely.
    At last he muttered raggedly against her mouth, 'Janna, my love, my sweet witch, you're wearing too many clothes, do you know that?'
    She knew that even then he was giving her the chance, if she wished, to change her mind. But she did not wish.
    'So are you?' she whispered in return. She slid her hands under his unfastened shirt, enjoying the unfamiliar warmth of his bare skin.
    The sudden blaze of light in the room was intrusion enough. Mrs Tempest's voice, unnaturally high-pitched and agitated, crying out, 'Rian—good God!' was a sickening,