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Nina's fury built. The way he so blatantly told her what he'd done with her design was utterly galling.
"Now that the Minister of Defense has seen it," Dominic continued, "he wants more of your beautiful machines." He paused, observing her reaction. "Imagine it, Nina, a frontline of Daedalus spiders, cunning workers observing our coastline, able to march through any terrain and confront the enemy."
Her emotions twisted and turned. Pride flared in her chest, but at the very same moment the sense of injustice she felt bit deep into her. If she had taken the project to Parliament she would have been cast out as a foolish woman. "I suppose you expect me to be grateful that you took charge of it?"
"Of course not. You are far too contrary and stubborn to be grateful for anything."
The sardonic tone to his comment irked her even more.
Then he licked his lips as if he was relishing his power over her. "I've engineered your design successfully, improved on it, made it solid in real and useful, but all you can do is glare at me." He shrugged one shoulder. "I'm disappointed. Frankly, my dear, I expected more fire." His handsome mouth lifted at one corner, as if he was daring her to lash out at him. He knew her rebellious spirit far too well.
"I always knew it could be done," she retorted. "What annoys me is that you stole my designs and you ruined my reputation, and now you expect me to be pleased because you've sold it to Parliament, the very establishment I detest?"
"What better way to mutiny Parliament than from within?" He was quite serious, and she loved that. The suggestion was there in his eyes, bright, devilish, and promising her many an adventure. Her body responded, aching for him. "Besides," he continued, "as I recall you were quite willing to have your reputation ruined, eager in fact." He looked her over with undisguised appraisal, as if recalling their more intimate encounters.
Nina bristled. "Heat of the moment, nothing more."
"Is that so? And there was me thinking it was so much more than that."
He was right of course. Studying together meant that their mutual attraction had built steadily, until it could not be denied. And how well matched they had turned out to be in matters of sexual congress. Her body throbbed with arousal as treasured memories flitted through her mind. But that was behind them now, and that's where it had to stay.
Dominic strolled closer. He parted her cloak and gazed at her chest, then trailed the back of his knuckles along her jaw, his touch inflaming her. "In fact being a vicar's daughter only seemed to make you more rebellious in matters of morals."
Fury bit into her. She slapped him.
With lightening reactions he gripped her around the upper arms and kissed her, his mouth hungry and possessive on hers.
Stunned, she froze then melted. Her lips parted under his, her fisted hands pressed to his chest. His wicked charms always had made her weak.
"I want you," he demanded as he drew back, "right here and now, at the heart of the Daedalus." Bending her back over the area for map reading that was stationed next to the controls, he pinned her down to the flat surface with his hands on her shoulders.
"No!" Nina gasped, torn between fighting him and submitting. She hated the way he affected her so, but heat gathered between her thighs with startling speed. "Not until we discuss my rights."
Dominic's eyes glinted, as if that was the very thing he wanted her to say. He undid her cloak where it was latched at her collarbone then his hands moved to her skirt. He moved it in his hands, pausing to speak. "You have no rights whatsoever, but that is not because I took them from you."
Oh, how she reviled that fact, and he knew it. She'd ranted about it often enough, much to his amusement. It felt far too much as if he was making her face the paltry existence her sex was fated to, something she balked against as a woman who could outthink most men.
"The patent in your name," he offered, "in exchange for something I want."
Her lips parted, objection hovering there, but need put its own spin on her reaction, making her moan with longing instead. Without further ado he tugged her skirts and petticoats up, handling them roughly, until the material was bunched at her waist.
Desire tugged at her will, unraveling it. "You cannot put the patent in my name," she blurted, attempting to cling to reason. "As a woman I do not have the status to carry it." Heated emotions flared in her. Having a female monarch made not one jot of difference. "A scholarship to Cambridge for a woman of humble background does not change the fact she is a worthless woman."
He stroked her woolen stockings over her knees and his eyes flickered, dark and possessive, his mouth pursed as he observed her "Don't be bitter, Nina. It doesn't suit you. Besides, you were more intelligent than most of the men at Cambridge."
More intelligent than most of them, except him. If she was she wouldn't have been captured here and at his will, all for the sight and touch of a machine that she could never own. Her thoughts were in chaos, because the position he had put her in splayed her intimate parts against his hard erection. Fighting to stifle her response, she pressed her lips together and turned her face away, when what she really wanted
to do was rub against the hard bulk of his erection. He bent to kiss her in the dip of her cleavage.
"And more desirable than all of the women I have ever known," he added. "Why else do you think I arranged this?"
She stared down at him, her eyes widening. This was an elaborate trap? He'd used the Daedalus to bait her, knowing that she would have to see her dream made real? All the evidence suggested it was so, but she could not believe it. Dominic had the world at his feet. He did not need to toy with her, a vicar's daughter who had ideas and intelligence above her station—a burden if ever there was one.
"Ah, you see it now. Yes, that is how much I want you. I knew that you could not resist seeing it so I secreted it in the place that the local vicar's daughter knows so well." he ran his fingers down her cheek, and there was longing in his eyes. "If only I could lure you as easily as this machine has."
"You can lure me all too well," she shot back at him, "that is why I stayed away."
"Why did you run from me?"
