She kept her back to him as her hands did their work. Her long, waving tresses began falling in luxurious strands, down her back. She shook her head when they were all free, and the long sway floated back and forth in a sensual shimmer.

Marcus suppressed his reaction. He’d be damned if—

Her hands began releasing the lacing on the side of her gown. “Of course, if I am to be humbled, we should make it as complete as possible, so that your pleasure in your victory is all it can be.”

His gaze fixed on the delicate plucking of her fingers on the lacing. He knew he should stop this, but the slow release of her gown’s closure mesmerized him. An onslaught of furious desire buried the anger that had demanded she kneel. It remained alive beneath the hunger, however, giving his reaction a keen edge.

She shrugged the gown off her shoulders. It slid down her body in a slow, tantalizing path until it pooled at her feet. The firelight revealed the shadowy shape of her body beneath the shift.

She turned to face him, her eyes downcast. The soft cloth of the thin shift fell over the swells of her breasts, and the hard nubs of her nipples pressed the fabric. The evidence that she too was aroused obliterated every thought except the desire to have her.

“Is this humble enough?” Her gaze rose, and the primal sensuality that had always bound them yelled its silent demands. There was no submission in her eyes. She was all challenge and daring and female power. “Perhaps not.”

Her hands reached for the fabric on her shoulders. Not averting her gaze, connected to him as if by a chain, she slowly revealed her luminous skin. “You were correct that day in the cottage. I enjoy making you want me. No touch could be as tantalizing as the way you are looking at me now. It gives me more pleasure than a tongue licking all over my skin. It makes me shiver with delicious anticipation.”

Her words and the slow slide of the shift revealing her nakedness, had his head storming.

Her hair draped around her, swaying as she stepped toward him, and glimpses of her body came and went as she moved. She approached until she stood right in front of him, her breasts peeking seductively through the tresses and the scent of her increasing the madness threatening to own him.

She reached for the closure on his robe and undid it, then brushed the garment down his body. “I had intended to leave by now, but the craving indeed goes both ways, and in unhorsing you with this weapon I find myself defeated too.” She looked up at him, and he thought he would drown in her eyes. “You appear angry still. I think that I will kneel, after all. Because I choose to.”