His After-Hours Mistress(23)

'There's nothing the least bit magical about me.'

His brows curved upwards. 'Then how come it feels as if you're casting a spell over me?'

Her nerves leapt, and her pulse started to beat just that little bit  faster. 'That's indigestion from too much rich food,' she retorted,  making him laugh.

'I can handle the food, it's you I'm worried about.'

Tiny tingles were being set off along her nerve-endings. 'I'm no  threat,' she countered huskily, vitally aware that being this close to  him was undermining her resolve to keep her cool. The warmth coming off  him was heating her blood.

Still his eyes searched hers and she was unable to look away as he  sighed. 'Maybe not to world peace, but my sanity is in real danger.'

Her throat closed over, for the banked fires in his eyes told her he was  feeling just the same as she was. Together they were combustible, and  it was happening so fast it took her breath away.

'Then let me go,' she suggested tightly, though her whole body was  sending out the message that it wanted to be closer, not farther away.

'Something tells me that will be impossible unless you walk away,' he  confessed, and her stomach tightened as desire flared inside her.

Her brain knew the right thing to do, the safe thing, but it reacted  sluggishly, unlike her senses, which were going into overdrive. Walk  away? When it came to doing that, she was in the same boat as Roarke.  She didn't have the strength to do it right now. In a moment of perfect  clarity, Ginny knew that there was only one thing she wanted to do. She  would worry about the consequences later, but right now she made her  choice and moved that fraction closer to rest her head on his shoulder,  her arms rising to encircle his neck. Beside her she felt Roarke take in  a deep lungful of air, and then his arms tightened round her. Her  eyelids dropped, closing out the world.

They danced on as one slow song changed to another. Their bodies moved,  touching just enough to tantalise. Ginny breathed in the aroma of his  cologne, which made a heady potion blended with his own male scent. The  brush of his hand tracing lazy patterns up and down her spine was  totally alluring, and in response her hand sought his nape, her fingers  caressing up into his lush dark hair in combing strokes.

And all the while they danced she could feel his body hardening,  responding to the stimulus, whilst her own was going into meltdown. She  hadn't wanted this, she told herself. Lord knew it was the very last  thing she had wanted, and yet she couldn't seem to stop herself craving  more. It felt so good, how could it be wrong?

A little while later the music changed to a faster tempo, and they were  reluctantly forced to move apart. Ginny glanced into eyes as stormy as  she knew hers must be. Tempestuous forces had been created, and were  barely leashed. Neither had wanted the dance to end and that was why,  when Roarke took her hand, she allowed him to lead her off the floor and  out into the night without a word of protest.

There were extensive gardens surrounding the hotel and Roarke followed a  meandering path, eventually stepping off it into the shadows round the  bole of a tree. Leaning back against the trunk, he drew Ginny towards  him. The freshness of the clear air brought with it a momentary return  to sanity and she resisted, pressing her hands against his shoulders.

'We shouldn't be doing this,' she protested, though there was little force behind it.

Roarke continued to urge her closer. 'I know. This is the last thing I  expected or wanted. I must be crazy, but what the hell … ' He began to  lower his head.

'No, Roarke,' Ginny commanded weakly as his lips hovered over hers. 'I  don't … ' The words were cut off as his mouth claimed hers with a  devastating passion, and her resistance vanished like dust in the wind. A  groan of satisfaction escaped her as her hands stopped pushing him away  and clung on tightly instead.

The kiss was every bit as mind-blowing as the others they had shared,  and it reinforced the strength of their attraction. Lost to the world,  they were swept away by the passion they sparked in each other. One kiss  was never going to be enough. They were caught in the grip of a fever,  and the only cure was to allow it to run its course.

Finally, Roarke managed to drag his mouth from hers. Breathing heavily,  he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. 'If I don't  stop now, I don't think I'll be able to,' he declared in a voice made  thick by passion.                       
       
           



       

Ginny groaned, every bit as breathless herself. 'Why is this happening  to us? What did we do to deserve it? I was happy disliking you!' She  railed against the fate which had brought them together.

'You won't get an argument from me about that!' he agreed, planting a trail of kisses down her cheek to her jaw line.

Ginny's head tipped backwards, allowing him access to the tender skin of  her throat. 'I didn't ask to want you this way!' she groaned achingly.  It wasn't what she had planned. It wasn't fair.

Roarke's teeth nipped gently at her earlobe, making her gasp and shiver.  'What have you done to me, you little witch? I can't seem to keep my  hands to myself. You're like a drug, the more I have the more I want.'

Her hands had somehow found their way to his chest, delighting in the  heat that scorched her fingers through his silk shirt. 'I know, but we  have to stop,' she said vaguely, concentrating on freeing one of his  shirt buttons so that her fingers could slip inside. His flesh was warm  and firm, inviting her to explore further.

'God, that feels good,' Roarke groaned against her neck, his tongue darting out to taste her.

Ginny shivered, caught in the grip of an intense desire. She had never  felt like this before. Not with Mark and definitely not Daniel. She  froze. Daniel! His name was like a douche of cold water, cooling the  fire in her blood. From somewhere she found the strength to wrench  herself away.

'Oh, God! What am I doing?' she whispered in an agonised voice. She  raised her head to look at Roarke, who stood watching her, breathing  heavily. She shook her head slowly. 'This is wrong.'

Roarke dragged a hand through his hair. 'Not wrong, sweetheart, just  damned unexpected,' he growled back. 'There's nothing wrong with a man  and woman wanting each other.'

Ginny rubbed her forehead to ease the beginnings of a headache. 'But you're the wrong man, and I'm the wrong woman.'

That brought a twitch of humour to his lips. 'Obviously not. Nature  seems to be telling us we're the right people, physically at least.  Maybe we should listen to what we're being told.'

'And sleep with each other, you mean?'

'Sleeping comes later.'

She scowled at him 'You just couldn't resist that, could you?'

'Actually, it's you I'm finding impossible to resist. Experience tells  me it isn't just going to go away, so ignoring it isn't going to work.'

Ginny had been reaching that conclusion herself. Words were easy to say,  but they only had to look at each other to go up in flames! Her eyes  met his, and even in the darkness she could see the intensity there.  'You seem to be taking this very calmly.'

His response to that was to take her hand and place it over his heart so  that she could feel it racing. 'I'm not calm, Ginny, far from it. In  fact, I'm as confused as I ever hope to be.'

'You're saying this has never happened to you before? I can't believe that,' she charged him mockingly and he grimaced.

'Laugh if you want to, but it's true. Finding myself wanting you this  badly has knocked me for six. It isn't a feeling I'm familiar with. When  I'm around you I can't seem to think straight. I only know I want to  make love to you. You feel it too. We're caught in a fever, Ginny, and  there's only one cure. We have to let it burn itself out.'

'It sounds so cold-blooded,' she said with a shiver that had nothing to  do with coldness and everything to do with the idea of making love with  him.

He laughed huskily. 'Believe me, sweetheart, our blood will be anything  but cold. I'm not suggesting a long-term commitment. These things never  last long. It will burn itself out quickly unless we try to ignore it.  We wouldn't be hurting anyone.'

Ginny looked steadily into his eyes. 'And afterwards?'

'Normal service will be resumed. I have no doubts we'll be back to daggers drawn in no time.'

Ginny turned her back on him and took two paces away, needing the  thinking room. She had to be crazy to even be thinking of doing it, but  what he was suggesting made a strange kind of sense. It wouldn't be a  love affair in the usual sense. All they needed was to drive the fever  from their blood and turn things back to normal. No one need ever know.

'My choice?' she asked over her shoulder, and Roarke nodded.

'I leave the decision up to you.'

She chewed on her lip. 'You'd abide by my decision?'

He groaned audibly. 'I might want you with a certain amount of  desperation, but I've never seduced a woman against her will, and I  don't intend to start with you.'