A Passionate Magic Read Online Free Page B

and of a hot, moist
tongue licking at her skin.
    Dain kept his mouth where it was, but his
hands were busy, pulling the shawl out of her numbed grasp,
dropping it on the floor.
    Still Emma could not move. Dain slowly
trailed his lips along her shoulder to a spot just below her ear.
Again his mouth and his tongue worked their singular magic, and
Emma discovered that her ear-lobe and the area around it were both
wonderfully receptive to Dain’s calculated touch.
    For what he was doing was carefully
calculated. It could not be otherwise; Dain did not love her, he
did not know her, and after his rude reception of his bride she
believed he did not even like her, yet they must lie down together
and consummate this marriage between strangers, and try to conceive
a child whose existence would be the surety of lasting peace
between their families.
    Emma believed her only hope for a reasonably
contented life at Penruan lay in pleasing her husband. And so she
rested her hands on his arms to steady herself, and when Dain’s
mouth seared across her cheek she offered up her lips and let her
hands slide up the sleeves of his tunic, noticing with her
fingertips, if not with her preoccupied mind, the hard muscles of
his upper arms and shoulders.
    When his arms suddenly clasped her about the
waist and pulled her close against him, and one of his hands
splayed down over her buttocks to push her closer still, and his
lips seized hers in a kiss that rocked her to her very soul, she
knew he was not going to be a gentle lover. Dain was going to
plunder her body and take everything she had to offer.
    She wanted him to take her. She wanted to
belong to him completely, utterly, and she knew in her heart it was
what she had wanted from the first moment she had seen him. In the
single, shattering instant when his mouth claimed hers, Emma
recognized in Dain her predestined mate.
    The magical recognition left her defenseless
against him, for while she was eager to give him both her body and
the love she had stored in her heart for her eighteen years of
life, along with all her hopes and dreams for their future
together, Dain wanted only her body. And revenge.
    She was lost in his kiss, in the wild, heated
sensation of his hands on her back, on her shoulders, and on her
breasts. His kiss deepened. Dain’s mouth forced her lips open and
his tongue plunged into her, tangling with her tongue as if in a
mysterious, passionate dance. Emma gasped.
    With his lips still on hers, Dain loosened
his grip on her a little. Emma was aware of his hand stroking down
her thigh, of her shift being drawn upward, and his hand warm on
the soft skin of her upper leg. His fingers skimmed across her
thigh and into her warm, moist, most private place – and stayed
there, even when she moaned and tried to pull her mouth away from
his. He ignored her protest, instead thrusting a finger farther
still, touching – touching -
    An exquisite, piercing sweetness enveloped
Emma, and she found herself pushing back against the pressure of
his hand. Finally, Dain lifted his head, releasing her mouth from
his.
    With one arm still supporting her, for she
was by now quite incapable of standing by herself, he used his
other hand to wreck havoc upon all her senses until she was at the
brink of a marvelous discovery. Longing to share her wonder with
him, Emma opened her eyes.
    Dain was watching her, and there was cold
triumph in his beautiful, blue-green gaze. Watching her!
Disinterested, coolly judging her reaction to his lovemaking that
was not lovemaking at all. His hand stayed where it was, between
her thighs, and to her horror Emma realized she wanted him to
continue what he was doing to her. Worse, she wanted him to carry
her to the bed, for she knew she was unable to walk even those few
steps, and in his bed she wanted him to complete what he had
started.
    Dain smiled at her – a superior, knowing
smile – and let his finger sink a little deeper into her. Seeing
his smile, Emma