Page 59 of So Wild A Heart

Miranda could not help but thrill to the hot emotion in his eyes, even though she might bridle at his commanding tone. She had no intention, of course, of doing anything with Dr. Browning except fleeing to escape his conversation the next time she saw him, but she did not intend to let Devin know that.

“You are ordering me?”

“I am ordering you,” Devin replied, reaching out and placing his hand across her throat. Her flesh was soft and silken beneath his palm, and the intensity of his lust shook him. “I will not let him touch you. Do you understand?”

Miranda’s breath was ragged, her thoughts scattered. All her awareness was centered in that span of flesh where his hand lay, burning her with his intensity. “I understand that you are breaking our agreement.”

“To hell with our agreement! Did you actually think I would allow you to sleep with other men? Did you think I was that low? That weak?”

“What am I supposed to do, then?” Miranda asked calmly.

“This,” he answered, as his hand stole beneath the neck of her gown, and his mouth came down on hers.

14

His mouth was hot and hungry on hers, and his hand burned her skin as it grazed the top of her breast. The neckline of the gown impeded his progress. He curled his fingers around it and jerked down, and the flimsy material gave beneath him with a rending sound. He cupped her breast, exposed by the tear, and a soft groan escaped his lips. He changed the slant of his mouth on hers, burying his lips deeper into hers, his tongue taking her mouth. With a gentleness at odds with the fierce way his lips consumed her, he caressed her breast with his fingers, kneading and stroking, finding the bud of her nipple and teasing it with his fingertips until it hardened.

“Miranda…” He breathed her name as his lips left hers and began to trail across her cheek to her earlobe. “Let me…please, I can show you how good it could be.” He took the lobe between his teeth and worried it, sending darts of heat shooting through her.

His mouth moved downward, and everywhere he touched her skin it was like fire. Miranda trembled, sagging against the support of his arm, hard as iron around her back. “Dev…”

Hearing his nickname in her mouth sent a tremor of desire through him. There was an intimacy there, a liking, that he had never believed Miranda felt for him. He untied the sash of her dressing gown and opened it, sliding his hands in underneath it, pulling her up into him. She was soft against him, her nipples hard points of desire. He ran his hands over her back and hips, digging this fingertips into her buttocks and pressing her up against his engorged staff.

Fire licked along their veins, radiating heat through them. Miranda moved her hips against him, aware only of a deep, primitive need to do so. His breath came out in a shudder, and he nipped gently at the juncture of her neck and shoulders, teasing with the sharpness, then laving it with his tongue.

He wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up and turning to carry her back to his desk. Instinctively, Miranda clamped her legs around him. He set her down on the desk, sweeping off the other contents onto the floor and bearing her back down on it. His body was deliciously hard and heavy on hers, the imprint of his passion burning into her abdomen. He curved his hands around her breasts, his thumbs caressing her nipples. He looked down at her face for a moment, taking in the way her eyes darkened with passion and her face turned soft and sweet as his hands caressed her.

Dev bent and kissed the nipple of one breast, then curled his tongue around it in a lazy, teasing circle. She arched up against him, moaning, and it shook his control almost to the breaking point. He paused for a moment, fighting back the rush of lust.

Looking straight into her eyes, he said, “Isn’t this what you want? Isn’t this enough for you?”

At this moment, it was, Miranda knew, but she managed to pull the scraps of her self-control together enough to answer, “Is it enough for you?”

He stiffened, his eyes still boring holes in her. “What?”

“Are you saying you want to be my husband in reality?”

“Yes.”

“Both of us entirely faithful to each other?”

He almost said yes, but he thought of Leona, and his face changed subtly. Miranda let out her breath in a sigh.

“Ah. I see. I would be faithful. You would not.”

She sat up, and he stepped back, not stopping her, although he ached to shove her back to the desk and take her right there. Miranda pulled the sides of her dressing gown around her and belted the sash tightly.

“I think we shall stay with our present arrangement,” she said and walked from the room, taking care not to give in and run.

The following morning Uncle Rupert came down to breakfast earlier than normal for him and announced that it was time he gave Miranda the tour he had promised.

“You have been here over a week, and you’ve scarcely seen anything of the estate, just the village and a few farms around the house. I thought we would ride along the river,” he said. “Beautiful spot, don’t you think, Dev? After our stultifying evening yesterday, we deserve a treat.”

“That sounds splendid,” Miranda said. She would rather have stayed and worked on some of the multitude of tasks she had to do, but she felt that she ought to make a special effort with Devin’s uncle, whose feelings, she suspected, had been a little hurt by his being removed from management of the estate.

“What do you say, Joseph?” he went on, turning to Mr. Upshaw. “And you, Dev? And, of course, anyone else who would care to come…”

Michael and Elizabeth, who were also there, shook their heads, but Joseph was eager to go, and Devin was almost as quick to agree.