Free Captured by Beverly Jenkins Page A

bewitching her with a series of short, slow kisses that sparked, seduced, and promised more. She’d never experienced anything so deliciously overwhelming, and for a moment could do nothing but let him have his lazy, heated, feasting way. In response she was breathless, drowning. When he gently tugged her down onto his lap, she complied without protest. Easing her closer, he deepened the kiss.
    “You are sweet, petite,” he husked out, pressing slow hot touches of his lips against her mouth until it parted passionately. When he teased the tip of his tongue against the trembling corners and then nibbled possessively on the ripe, lush flesh of her bottom lip, she moaned.
    Dominic knew from the moment he kissed her that the longer she sat on his lap, the more likely she’d wind up with his hands touching her everywhere. He’d sensed she’d be passionate, but not this beguiling. Her lips were like manna, and all he wanted to do was slide his hands over her silk-dressed curves and then beneath to sample the damp fullness he knew awaited him there in the warm darkness. Wanting to pull away from her tempting mouth before things got out of hand, but unable to do so, he murmured over his racing blood, “Clare, unless you want to surrender to me fully, we should stop.”
    Her lips stinging, her breathing heightened, Clare pulled back just enough to break the contact. She closed her eyes for a moment in a vain attempt to find herself.
    He placed his lips against her ear, murmuring, “I could kiss you until the sun becomes the moon.”
    There seemed to be a haze over her vision and her whole body felt awake in a strange and wonderful way. Her nipples had tightened to hard points and her blood seemed to be singing a slow undulating tune. “Is this the way it should be?” she asked.
    “Is this the way what should be?”
    “The beginning of coitus between a man and a woman.”
    “Yes,” Dominic responded, noting her now serious manner. “Was it not this way when you conceived your children?”
    She shook her head and whispered, “No.”
    He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “Was there violence?”
    Clare knew what he meant. “No.”
    “Good, then I won’t have to find the man and kill him.”
    She pulled back so she could see his face. The hard glitter in his dark eyes revealed him to be quite serious. She fit herself back against his broad chest and let his strong yet gentle arms enfold her again. “He was a stranger chosen by Violet from amongst her brother’s field slaves. I didn’t know what to do, but he did, so I—I just lay there. I knew it would hurt, and it did. When he was done, I wasn’t sure how I felt. Shamed. Soiled.”
    He nodded his understanding.
    “A year after Benjamin was born, she chose another man, another stranger, and I sent my mind elsewhere until he was finished.”
    Dominic wanted to send Violet Sullivan to the bottom of the sea for her callousness, but putting his anger away, he said genuinely, “Coupling doesn’t have to be so joyless, petite. When our time comes, I shall be especially attentive.”
    Their gazes met.
    “I promise,” he declared, using a finger to tenderly stroke her cheek before placing a solemn kiss on her brow. “With all my heart.”
    “Do the women you have coitus with just lie still?”
    “I should hope not. That would make me a very poor lover.” Dominic had never had a conversation quite like this one, but he would cut off his own arm before mocking her for her inexperience.
    “And you are not considered a poor lover, are you?”
    “Non.”
    She sat up and he watched her appear to mull something over. After a few silent moments, she looked to him, asking, “Do you think I will be damned for all eternity if I choose to give myself to you?”
    The earnestly stated question made his heart swell, even as he shook his head negatively. “The people enslaving you are the ones facing damnation.” He traced a slow finger over the curve of her