Page 94 of Tamed By Her Touch

Sendar looked bored, Maera looked pleased, and Varell looked expectant.

Clair looked as though she might spontaneously combust.

Kaelus knew exactly how she felt.

The problem wasn’t that he didn’t want to do this…it was that he did. He wanted to kiss Clair again—wanted to kiss her everywhere. But he knew if he did, he would only become even more possessive of his lab partner.

“No,” he said.

Clair elbowed him.

“Kaelus.”

He looked down at her and saw that her cheeks were bright red.

“This is an extremely intimate performance,” he growled. “I would be kissing you in places that no one should watch me kissing.

“There is no choice,” she whispered.

He frowned.

“There is always a choice.”

“Yes. Our choices are do this or get thrown out before we find the cure for Savage Syndrome,” she said.

That was unfortunately true. Kaelus exhaled slowly…then he looked at Clair.

“Are you comfortable with this?” he asked quietly. He didn’t care what their hosts said—if Clair didn’t want this, he wasn’t going to do it to her.

Something in her expression softened.

“Yes,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”

Only then did he step toward her.

Clair rose from the table and for a moment they simply stood facing each other. Then Kaelus cupped her cheeks. The instant he touched her, the memory of their earlier kiss returned with brutal clarity.

He had gone too far with that kiss—Kaelus knew he had. He told himself this kiss would be controlled…ceremonial and nothing more.

Bending low, he kissed her.

Clair’s hands came to his chest. Again she softened beneath his mouth, and again Kaelus had to force himself not to deepen the kiss until he forgot where they were and why they were doing it. Somehow, he broke away before his control deserted him completely.

Her eyes were dark with desire when they opened.

Kaelus swallowed.

One sacred part had been honored…two remained.

His gaze dropped to his ‘wife’s’ body. The metallic blue gown Maera had given Clair fit her curves far too well. It cupped her full breasts lovingly, outlining their generous shape and making it impossible for him not to remember how they had looked bare the night before. Gods, he wished they were alone and he could kiss her with nothing between them!

Kaelus bent low and pressed his lips first to one breast, then the other, feeling the warmth of her body even through the thin fabric. Her nipples went tight and he felt them brushing his lips as he kissed gently and reverently. She was so soft and sweet and beautiful—he wished he could go on and on but there were people watching and besides, this was only making him more and more attached to his coworker in a way that wasn’t good for either of them.

Clair inhaled sharply but didn’t move away as he pressed his face between her breasts, breathing her in.

He loved the smell of her skin and hair. And beneath that was the warm, sweet feminine scent that had been driving him mad since the day they met. Finally, he would get to kiss the source of that scent.

Kaelus sank to his knees. Their height difference was so extreme that he was still almost face-t0-face with his petite “wife” but at least it got him closer to where he needed to be.