She slid her hand behind his neck and held him to her so it would not end. She waited for him to touch her. She wanted him to. Needed him to. Her breasts itched for his caress with an anxious craving that already made her body move and left her breathless.

She took his hand, and laid it on her breast.

He broke the kiss and looked into her eyes.

His touch left her body and he gently slid her to the bench beside him. Taking her face in both his hands, he kissed her again, then stood.

“Not here. I do not want you excusing it later as madness in a moonlit garden, or a magical dream in a firelit lodge. Nor will it be a seduction where pleasure buries your good sense. I am not looking to subvert you with passion. Consider whether you believe I am telling the truth about that, and make your decision.”

To her astonishment, he walked away.

“You know where to find me, Nesta.”

CHAPTER 16

He waited for her to come to him.

He waited so hard that time slowed.

As the night slid past, he moved from the chair to the window and finally to the bed. His mind shifted too, from expectation to resignation and finally to fury.

He cursed himself for not just taking what she offered in the garden. Saints knew he would never do anything that stupidly chivalrous again.

He imagined her sleeping peacefully, relieved that his demand for clearheaded surrender had saved her. His mind’s eye saw himself entering that chamber and throwing out the servants and using his hands and mouth to defeat the misgivings that kept her from him.

That they were sensible misgivings ceased to matter as his thoughts churned and boiled.

Finally, he admitted she would not come. He swung off the bed smothering him with its soft warmth, suddenly understanding Nesta’s immunity to the cold. The fire had shrunk to mere embers in the hearth, but he was hot. It was not just anger and arousal making him burn. An agitation of the spirit warmed him, and kept his body alert and alive and unable to rest.

As he stripped off his clothes, he tried to tell himself that her resolve was probably for the best, but his attempt at acceptance was futile. He wanted her, and nothing else really mattered. Wanted her with the kind of reckless persistence that caused a man to risk everything to obtain the object of his desire.

He stretched out on the pallet that lay on the floor between his bed and the wall. His body found some comfort there, but not his mind. She filled his head, as she had every night since he first saw her. Memories flowed and merged as he embraced her phantom presence.

A vague sound broke the silence. He snapped alert.