Lady Hawk's Folly by Amanda Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

numb.
    Mollie raised a hand to one cheek as Hawk watched her.
    “What is it, sweetheart?” She told him, and he chuckled low in his throat. “You are breathing too fast and not deeply enough. Take a slow, deep breath.” It was more difficult than it sounded, but she managed to obey him. Then he put his hand upon her shoulder, and she nearly gasped again, stiffening a little when he urged her closer.
    “You…you said you wished to talk,” she reminded him.
    “Later.”
    She looked up then, and there could be no mistaking the desire in his eyes. Whatever he may or may not have felt for her four years before, he wanted her now, and that wanting set vibrations throbbing between them that were nearly tactile. Hawk grasped her other shoulder, and then, roughly, he pulled her to him, his lips crushing hers as he gave full rein to his rapidly increasing passions. Mollie gave a low moan and strained toward him, reaching to entwine her arms around his waist.
    At the sound Hawk relaxed his grip and lifted his head, drawing in a steadying breath. “Ah, sweetheart,” he murmured, “forgive me. I am a hasty brute.”
    Looking up at him, her fingers clutching at his firm, muscular waist, Mollie protested. “Don’t stop,” she begged. “Please, don’t stop now.”
    Hawk’s eyes began to twinkle, and he scooped her into his arms. “I won’t stop, Mollie, but I never intended this to be a rape, and if I don’t exert a bit of control, that’s exactly what it will be. Come to bed first, sweetheart.”
    He carried her over to the massive four-poster bed, with its huge carved tester, and sat down, still holding her gently in his arms. This time when his lips touched hers, there was a gentleness, a tenderness that hadn’t been there before, but his kiss stirred her just as much as it had before. And when the pressure increased, when she felt the tip of his tongue against her lips, Mollie responded without hesitation, parting her soft lips and letting her tongue dart to meet his, teasing him, knowing instinctively that her actions were stirring his passions to greater heights than ever.
    As he proceeded to undress her, fumblingly at first and then more easily when she helped him, she found herself delighting in the control he tried to exert over himself. Mischievously, she had an urge to see if she could make him abandon that control. As soon as her chemise drifted to the floor, leaving her naked in his arms, she moved her hands caressingly across his chest to the lacings of his shirt.
    “’Tis not fair that I be so vulnerable to your touch, my lord,” she whispered.
    “Go slowly, Mollie,” he warned. “We’ve the entire night before us.”
    “Have we, indeed, sir? I saw you yawning with the others.” She slipped her hand inside his shirt, enjoying the feel of the soft, springy hair of his broad chest against the sensitive skin of her palm.
    She heard him catch his breath as her fingers encountered one rising nipple. So, she thought, she could excite him with her touch just as easily as he excited her with his. She smiled at him. But to her astonishment he pulled her hand away and dumped her off his lap onto the bed.
    “’Tis not sleep that will overcome me, sweetheart, if you intend to play that game,” he said with a chuckle, standing to shed his clothes. “You’ve changed, Mollie.”
    She wasn’t sure what he meant, but she was suddenly extremely conscious of her own nakedness, and though she was fascinated, she didn’t want to stare at him while he undressed, so she scrambled under the thick, eiderdown quilt before she answered him.
    “I haven’t changed, sir. I have merely grown up a little, I think. I have thought often about you, you see, so…” She faltered, not really certain she wanted to continue, to tell him of her fantasies in the long, lonely nights since he had gone. But he seemed to understand. The look in his eyes was a warm one when he joined her beneath the quilt, gathering her once more