He started unbuttoning hershirt.
She instinctively jerked back.
He quickly grasped both herwrists in one hand. "Shh, it's all right." His other hand moved fromthe buttons to pet her breasts through the material. "I just want to seeyou." He smiled as he looked down at the protrusion of her nipples againstthe material of her shirt. "Ah, isn't that pretty." He rubbed hispalm slowly back and forth over her breasts.
Jane felt heat ripple throughher and a tingle begin between her legs. Why wasn't she struggling? She wasstrong enough to break his grip if she made the effort. Pachtal. She graspeddesperately at the only sensible reason occurring to her. She must be afraidPachtal would come if she made a disturbance, or perhaps it was this incensethat was making her dizzy and weak. "I... I don't want this."
"Of course you do."He undid two more buttons. "Why else are you here?"
She swallowed. "You don'tunderstand."
"You said that before.You're wrong. This is something I understand very well. Ask Zabrie." Heundid another button. "We can—"
"Stop it!"
"You don't want me toundress you? Whatever you say." His hand fell away from the buttons andgathered up both her hands in his own. "See, I've stopped." His thumbrubbed slowly, exploringly, over her palm. "Calluses." He turned herhand over and gazed down at it. "Hard and rough. You didn't get theseplanting flowers in an English garden."
She tried to draw her handaway from him, but his grasp tightened.
"I meant no insult. Ilike them. They make us akin. I have calluses too." He rubbed his palmover the top of her hand. "Feel them. You see? I know what it is to workso hard I'm tottering on my feet with exhaustion. I understand weariness anddiscouragement. I understand how you can try and try and still never reach agoal. It's not easy to have to fight every single day, is it?" His voicewas caressing, his words weaving silky bonds around her emotions. "That'swhy we have to reward ourselves when we get the chance."
"I don't have to rewardmy—"
"Shh… " He leanedforward until his mouth hovered over her breast. "I want to see you butperhaps this is better. It's quite arousing seeing what your nipples do to thatshirt. Is that why you wear men's things instead of a mask when you comehere?"
His breath was warm on hernipple, and the tingling increased between her thighs until it was close topain. She felt drugged, disoriented... yes, it must be the incense...
His head was bent, and shecould no longer see those light, glittering eyes, but his sun-streaked hairshone in the lamplight and she had the odd impression of sensual savagery,hovering, about to strike…or stroke.
His warm tongue touched thetip of her breast through the thin cotton of her shirt.
She gave a low cry, her backarching in a spasm of sensation.
"That's right," hewhispered. "Feel me.Needme."
She did need him, she realizeddazedly. She had always thought it was men who needed women, that the soft,whimpering cries of pleasure and subjugation she had heard from her mother andthe other whores were pretense. Now she had to bite back those same cries asshe felt the warmth of this stranger's lips. Dear God, perhaps it wasn't theopium pipe that had seduced her mother and made her a slave, but this samepleasure.
No! She wouldn't be caughtlike this. She would not be a whore. She would not be a slave. "Let mego!" She broke his grip and leapt to her feet. She fastened her shirt withtrembling fingers. "Don'ttouchme. I'm not a whore."
He didn't try to stop her, nordid he make any attempt to cover his nudity. He merely lay and watched her,graceful, catlike, aroused. "I didn't think you were. I understand fromZabrie that a number of the British wives of the officers from the fort comehere to amuse themselves."
"I told you, I'm notEnglish." Her voice was shaking, and she tried to steady it. "It's amistake. I don't want to fornicate with you."
"I beg to disagree."His gaze lingered on her engorged nipples clearly outlined against her shirt."You most certainly do."
"It was a mistake,"she repeated with sudden fierceness. "I was frightened and offguard."
"Frightened? Of me?"
"No." She backedaway from the bed toward the door and then stopped. She couldn't leave untilZabrie came back and unlocked the door. "Not of you."
He sat up and swung his feetto the floor.
She stiffened. "Don'tcome near me. I have a knife."
"Do you? How veryuncivilized." He didn't move from the bed. "I wasn't going to attackyou. I can wait for my pleasure since you are apparently reluctant to provideme with it. Won't you sit down?"
Her gaze flew back to hislower body.
