She thrust her hips in a seductive beckoning to his throbbing sex.

He brought himself hard up against her pulsating cleft, and she turned her head away to hide triumph as she pushed herself against him and felt him kiss her feminine fold.

He drew in a sharp breath. He had to stay away from her. There was no middle ground here. He must either take her or send her away. He moved away, oblivious to the spurt of cream coating his ridged tip, and she moaned.

"Yes, you liked that. You'll take anything, won't you, Drue. Any penetration to show you have power overthis." He grasped it and turned back toward her. "Well, my naked puss, you have no power. And if I choose to take you, it won't be because you seduced me or you tempted me, or because I want you. I brought you here for the sole purpose of ramming your naked body into that wall to gratify my lust."

"Then do it," she goaded him.

"You are a willing piece."

"And you're primed to explode," she taunted. "You can't keep your eyes off my nipples, you love my swaying hips. You want what's between my legs, Court. You can't deny it. You know how tight it is, how wet. How hot… how much you want it…"

"But I'm not going to take it. That's my strength and my power." But he had come closer to her, jutting erotically toward her as if it had a mind of its own; his words roared in his ears. "I'm not going to take it…" Closer. "Not, damn you…" His penis nudged her, hard, strong, urgent."Not…"

He breeched her and she gasped. "Not…" Panting now as he shifted himself and drove into her. "Jesus God…" Pumped himself into her in a steady rhythm of short, sharp strokes. Pinned her against that wall with his hard piston length, not letting her move, not letting her feel.

But she felt it anyway, the strength and length and purpose of him. And the strength and power of her bodythat she could push him to the limits of his control; that she could encompass every hard, naked inch of him so fully and completely; and that the violence of their coupling blasted them into a rocketing culmination of their erotic game.

She melted all over him; his cream saturated her body, her bones. She didn't want to move. He was still rock hard inside her, his chest rough against her cheek, his heart pounding as thunderously as hers.

Oh, did he not want her…

She moved languidly against him, loving the feel of him still rubbing between her legs. Words were superfluous. She wanted more and she knew all she needed to do was wriggle herself more tightly against him to provoke him.

She contemplated doing it for several minutes; even the thought of his explosive reaction was pleasurable, let alone the hard thick thrust of him inside her. And he was all there, thick as a tree and rooting between her legs.

How blatant an invitation did he need to take her again?

"So you think you've won," Court murmured. He eased away from her, and she made a protesting sound at the back of her throat. "You want more." He was still as stiff as a poker. "Who doesn't want more…?" He released her hands. "Everyone wants more…" He swooped down and lifted her off the floor. "… some of us don't get more…"

He awkwardly pulled open the door. "Evie…!"

She appeared out of nowhere.

"Take the mistress to her room." He set Drue on her feet. "Bathe her. Make sure she rests."

"I don't want to…" Drue started to protest, but he had already turned away from her and retreated into the office.

"You come," Evie said to her. "Master knows best."

Drue shot him a look of pure outrage. He closed the door on her.

Not a minute longer with her, or he'd lose his mind altogether. He'd already surrendered his manhood.

Goddamn. He didn't know where he'd gotten the strength to lift her away and get out of her sight.

One more minute, one more sinuous movement, and she would have had him on his knees and wrung him dry.

She'd gotten enough out of him today. More than he'd wanted to give, today.

Goddamn… goddamnhe could have rutted in her all night

A glint of light on the floor caught his eye. He bent and picked up one of the thin golden loops she'd worn around her nipple.

He rubbed it between his fingers, feeling himself swelling and thickening still more.

And he was in real trouble if just the thought of her breasts could jack him up like this.

Damn her, damn her, damn her…

Damn her.

"Master…"

He pulled himself up groggily. It was morning and he was in his bedroom, but he remembered very little of how he got there.

He thought he had had a glass of wineor two, or three to quell the gnawing desire, to calm his rampant body.

He shielded his eyes against the incandescent sun. "What is it, Evie?"

"Another note, master. From Louisa, who give it to me."

Shit… He bolted out of bed and grabbed for his clothes.

"Maybe she find a way to write to him in secret."

He didn't choose to comment on that. "Where's the note?"

"I have it here." She gave him the envelope, but he waited until she'd left the room to open it.

He didn't want to open it.

Who in his house had betrayed him?

He picked up the envelope and removed the note.

My dearest, darling Pet,

Your words do not console me. I must see you. I must hear from your own beautiful lips that you have willingly chosen this course, and you mean to honor your vows to a man who isn't worthy to kiss your feet.

Please, please, please, I beg youcome to me tonight; I will await you in the arbor by the light of the moon. No one will know. She who has delivered this is devoutly to be trusted.

If you come to me tonight, if you tell me face-to-face with your own sweet mouth that we must part, I swear on my life I will bother you no more.

But give me the chance to see you, to hear your lovely voice, to look at you one last time, to claim one last meaningful kiss if that is truly your final, irrevocable decision.

Your beloved, Gerard

He slammed his fist against the wall.

Sothe bastard wants to see her now… It's not enough that he makes love to her with his hot-blooded words. It's not enough that he covets another man's wife. No, he must ask for an audience with her as well

So be it. It is in mypower to grant his fondest desire.

And I will finally put an end to his obsession…

chapter 8

He couldn't help himself. He wanted her. In spite of common sense, cool head, male determination, and his fury over her feelings for Gerard, Court wanted her.

And she wasn't so sure about her feelings for Gerard now. Not after these explosively erotic couplings with him.

What was happening to her?

She rolled over in her bed and stared at the morning sun pouring in through the window. The window was open now. The bed had been covered with a crisp cotton sheet. There were curtains on the windows suddenly.

Changes that she hadn't even perceivedor expected. Changes in herself, changes in him. Changes in her wants, her needs, her desires. Her power.

She wanted Court.He had changed her, by teaching her to understand the depths of her power.

Thank God she hadn't answered Gerard's letter. What would she have said to him? Whatcould she say after yesterday's shamelessly carnal mating with Court?

Her body twinged. Already she wanted more, she was ready for more. And to think, this ravenous electric joining with Court would now be the tenor of her life with him.

She shivered with anticipation.How could she have known?

She stretched languidly, reveling in the freedom and safety of her naked body. If he came right now, this minute, she would spread her legs for him willingly.

She drew a deep hissing breath.Let him come. Now.

She reached across the bed for the veiling that had shrouded her head and draped it across her breasts. Her nipples protruded, erotic and mesmerizing against the black veil.

And bare. She bolted upright. The golden loops! They were goneoh, Lord… they were gone!

Noooo… She scrambled around on the bed frantically.Not on the bed.

But had she even been wearing them when she came upstairs last night?Oh, God, I can't remember…

She'd worn them last night. Yes… she remembered exactly the feel of them on her nipples as she'd done her erotic little dance to entice him.

So then… when? That thrilling moment when he had picked her up? The unbelievably disappointing moment when he set her down?

She got down on the floor and crawled around. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Not even dust, a testament to Evie's housekeeping skills.

… where?… Sheneeded those loops, she loved them…

… waitthere by the door…

… only one

She picked it up and held it to the light. It was so light, so thin, malleable…malleable

Could be squeezed and tightened…

The way her body was squeezing and tightening at the thought of it.

What an unbelievably voluptuous little thing.

And even more erotic just adorning one nipple.

She stared at herself in the mirror, cupping the one breast, trying to see whathe saw, to imagine the carnal impulsehe felt looking at her.

The bedroom door opened behind her.

Oh, yesmy fantasy

But it wasn't fantasy: he was there, bare-chested, his trousers just barely hanging on his hips, the bulge of his sex contained… for the moment.

She held her breath as he cat-footed his way behind her, close, hot, a breath away, his arm coming around her, his fingers dangling the missing golden loop.

She dropped her hand. She couldn't breathe. She felt him taking her hands and loosely binding them. She didn't care.

She arched her back against him as he began caressing her bare nipple. As he dropped the golden loop over the hard point and then gently squeezed.

A thousand darts of pleasure assaulted her body, enhanced by her sense of being held captive. She caved against him as his fingers kept up the inexorable pressure and he took the other nipple in his hand.

Both now, both tender, hard points compressed by his fingers until she was squirming for mercy. Her buttocks writhed against the hard ridge of his penis, as if she were both trying to elude his relentless touch and begging for more.

He wouldn't let her go; her nipples were so hard, so pliable, so lusciously erotic, two voluptuous pleasure points that were his to do with as he desired. His to adorn, to play with, to stroke, to squeeze, to drive her to the explosive edge of frenzy.

Never to stop; always his: his wife, his pleasure, his power, as he kept up a consistent erotic pressure on her nipples.

She had to get away. She would crack wide open if he didn't let her go. She kept backing against his hips, pressing and seeking the throbbing rock-hard bulge of him, wanting to settle herself against it and crash to the shore.

She was breathless with the sensation of it. It was unspeakable, indescribable, and heightened by the reality of the image of her watching him, watching the unrelenting press of his fingers on her nipples, watching her body's voluptuous undulations, and the way she arched herself forward and mutely begged for more.

She was an utter wanton in his hands. She could not stop him; she didn't want to. She could have loosened the bonds in a moment, and she didn't.

She was, in her fantasy, a slave to the inescapable pressure of his fingers on her nipples. And she would not plead for mercy until he had wrung the last drop of pleasure from her rippling body.

She craved more and still more of his ruthless touch. She felt it swelling up in her, billowing, gathering, commingling with the twisty feeling spiraling from her breasts.

She was breathless with it; she felt the sensations collide, implode, and shoot between her legs like a rocket.

She bent double with it as it burst all over her body, and he followed her down, down, down, his fingers unyielding on her nipples, and her hands grasping his penis convulsively as she slipped to the floor.

"No, no, no…" she moaned. "No more, no… oh, God oh… ohno more, please, no more"

He couldn't stand to let her go, but he heard the raw edge in her voice, and reluctantly, slowly, he removed his fingers from her breasts and pulled her roughly against him.

She felt his fingers fumbling with the restraint, and then a gentle caress as he removed the golden loops from her breasts as well.