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She felt his heart quicken beneath her breast, felt his arms imperceptibly tighten around her shoulders, and still he said nothing, just started to stroke her hair with a rhythmic caress which had her sighing with pleasure.
‘Go back to sleep,’ he urged her quietly.
She said nothing in response to this, but she felt her body answering for her—in the thrust of her nipples which had begun to nudge insistently against that hair-roughened chest, in the hot ache between her thighs and in her hungry lips which lay pass- ively against his neck, but in whose centre beat an eager pulse which longed for his kiss above all else.
She heard him mutter something beneath his breath, felt him shift a little as if to move away from her. ‘I must go,’ he said with quiet emphasis.
But Jade did not want to be alone with her fears and her insecurities and her nightmares. More than that, she did not want him to go. Not tonight. To- night she needed Constantine, as she needed no other. She laid her soul bare for him to see, and in doing so she felt completely empty. She needed Constantine to cover her, to fill her, to make her whole once more.
‘Don’t leave me,’ she whispered.
‘I must.’
She gave a tiny shake of her head. ‘Stay.’
There was a sense of urgency in the deep voice. ’But if I stay, you know what will happen?’
‘Yes.’
‘Better another night.’ She could hear his reluc- tance, but in her need, she chose to disregard it. ‘When you aren’t so…’ He paused, as if searching for a gentle put-down.
He was giving her a way out, but she didn’t want to take it. ‘When I’m not so—what?’ she whis- pered throatily. ‘You told me you wanted my body; told me you wanted to slake your desire until it was no more.’ Her eyes fluttered open to surprise a look of such naked, feral heat which burned in the depths of his eyes, but she began to tremble. ‘Are you telling me now that you weren’t speaking the truth?’
It was as though her own tremor had set up an answering response in his, for she felt a shudder rake through the length of his body.
‘Were you?’ she whispered. ‘Speaking the truth?’
‘You know I was,’ he ground out. ‘But then I spoke in anger. Tonight there is no anger between us; tonight…’ His words tailed off.
‘Tonight?’ she prompted, in a husky whisper.
She caught the gleam of steel from behind the narrowed eyes. ‘You are vulnerable tonight, agape mou. And your heart is aching—’
‘Then take that aching away,’ she said softly, as- tounded by her own daring, but urged on by needs which could not be constrained by the mere con- vention that the man should be the seducer, and not the woman.
There was a pause; she could almost hear him battling with his conscience—if a conscience he had.
But how could he have a conscience which was troubling him now, after he had taken her so cold- bloodedly and without compunction the other day?
Could it be because she knew and he knew that if he came to her tonight it would not just be ‘good sex’ as he had so ruthlessly said after that frantic coupling on the sofa just next door? Tonight, her emotions were too raw and exposed; she had laid herself open to him honestly, as he had to her, and she knew, with some kind of unerring instinct, that tonight he would have to respond to her in kind. With his heart.
If he came to her. She closed her eyes, prepared for him to take his leave of her.
‘Open your eyes,’ he commanded. ‘And look at me.’
Weakly, she obeyed, fearful of what she would read in his, but she saw his o
wn need shining through the dark waters of that ebony stare.
For a long moment, he stared down at her, and then, slowly, lingeringly, began to kiss her mouth as if he had all the time in the world.
It was a kiss so delectably sweet that she started to tremble again; she had never believed that a kiss could be so poignant and so tender. The last time she had lain in his arms like this, he had kissed her with all the masculine authority of the dominant sex, had branded her with fiery kisses which led straight into the blaze of sexual consummation. But this kiss—it was infinitely more subtle; and in its way far more distracting. She felt her eyelids flutter to a close again.
‘No!’ came the soft command, the accent very slightly emphasised. ‘Watch me now, as I watch you. Drink in my body, Jade, as I do yours, and see the effect you’re having on me. Keep your eyes open all the time, and watch me while I love you.’
Her gaze ran hungrily over him. He was still wearing the suit he’d had on earlier, and as if he’d captured her thoughts he gave a small, brief smile before momentarily releasing her to shrug out of the jacket where it fell to the floor with a whisper. He sat, motionless on the edge of the bed, his eyes fixed firmly on hers, compelling, waiting.
With trembling fingers she reached out to unknot the silk of his tie then to pull it off and discard it, so that it joined the jacket on the floor. Suddenly shy, she made as if to move her hand away, but he stopped her with a shake of his head.
