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"So that's how the Gypsies-steal-children rumor got started. "
"Yes," he said. "I do not have a woman in every town. I am not supposed to have a woman at all. Or at least not one who is gadje. I would be declared marime. An outcast. "
"But you're the leader. "
"That doesn't matter. " He stared straight into my eyes, then very deliberately lifted his palm to my cheek. "To touch you is forbidden. "
"Then why are you here?"
He looked out the window, toward the wood. "I couldn't stay away. "
The idea of him being forbidden to touch me, that touching me could get him exiled, or as exiled as one could get in the twenty-first century, was strangely intriguing.
"Kiss me," I murmured, and his gaze returned to mine.
"You accept my offer then?"
I hesitated. Once I did, I'd be committing to more than a kiss. I knew that, despite what he'd promised. But I wanted to heal, to get past what had happened, to move on, and this was the perfect opportunity.
What if I tried to have sex with someone from Lake Bluff and I. . . couldn't? I wouldn't be able to stay here, either.
But Cartwright was leaving. And best of all, he couldn't tell anyone that he'd touched me or risk being ostracized himself.
I reached past him and yanked the cord on the drapes so that they slid across the window, obscuring us from the rest of the world.
"Kiss me," I repeated. "Then touch me" - I pointed to the curve of my neck - "right here. "
He smiled and did exactly that.
Chapter 12
I don't know how much time passed as we kissed and then kissed some more. He touched me nowhere but my neck, my mouth, yet my entire body hummed at the nearness of his.
My breasts ached; my legs wobbled. I was damp, desperate. "Bedroom," I managed against his mouth.
He stepped back and I nearly fell. "Not yet. "
"What?"
"Too soon. " He brushed my hair out of my face. "You aren't ready. "
I felt more ready than I'd ever been.
"I thought I was the one calling the shots. "
"To a point. I am not going to do anything foolish. "
The double entendre of his words made me flush. His turning me down when my body screamed for a release I hadn't had in. . . I forget, made me angry.
"Fucking the forbidden is already foolish," I snapped.
"I haven't fucked you. " He opened the sliding glass door and slipped through, pulling it closed behind him.
Right before the latch clicked, I heard him murmur, "Yet. "
I reached for the handle, yanked the door open, got tangled in the curtains, and impatiently shoved them aside; then I stood staring at the empty deck, the deserted yard, the silent wood.
To disappear that quickly Cartwright would have had to vault over the edge and sprint into the trees. Even then, he'd have to be very, very fast. Guess he couldn't wait to get away.
