that suddenly swept over him. He wanted her in his arms--but he dared
not touch her. Not until Nalte made his decision.
He swallowed hard and came to his feet. He stared at her and hoped that
his scowl was menacing. Yet he didn't even know if it remained upon his
face, for he couldn't deny the moonlight or the strange, mystical
sensation that seemed to touch her. She seemed to be of the
supernatural, too beautiful to touch, an angel, a spirit, the spirit of
life that pervaded the mountain.
'What are you doing out here?' he demanded harshly. She smiled, a slow
cu~rl of her lips that touched her eyes to deep, shimmering radiance.
She took a step toward him, shook her head slightly.
And reached for him.
Her arms came around him, giving, soft. She pressed against him. She was
naked beneath the buckskin, and her breasts were full and flush against
him, the hardened peaks seeming to rake his flesh despite the layers of
clothes between them. Sparks tore into him, igniting great fires,
ripping through his limbs, thundering down to his groin.
And then she kissed him. Her teeth grazed his lips, and the tip of her
tongue encircled his lips, touched the roof of his mouth, swept into his
mouth. There was a pounding so fierce he could not deny it.
He touched her. Touched her almost violently, his arms sweeping around
her, his lips seizing hard upon hers, his tongue returning each sweet
torment she had cast upon him. He swept her from her feet and carried
her to the soft embankment. He pressed her to the earth, his mouth still
covering hers. He felt the soaring temptation of her nails raking
lightly against his back, drawing new, shimmering sensations of deadly
heat within him.
This was madness.
He drew his lips back from hers, and her eyes met his. Violet,
beguiling, with a touch of fire, a touch of innocence.
Sweetly wicked, she smiled again; she touched his cheek. Her lashes fell
demurely, sultry, sensual against the pale marble beauty of her cheek.
She had come to seduce him.
He groaned aloud.
It was madness.
Nalte might well kill them both if he came upon him. But the fire had
spread throughout his limbs. Tension and desire pervaded his heart and
his mind and knotted fiercely at his loin, driving him to madness. How
could she smile so hauntingly, knowing that she invited him to doom. He
swore softly, and he touched her lower lip in the moon glow, meeting the
wild violet beauty of her eyes. 'Lead me to death then, if you would,
Miss. Stuart. I cannot leave you now.'
And he seized her lips once again with his own. The rich, verdant scent
of the earth and stream surrounded them, and he was lost.
Chapter Twelve.
l_9ie? Tess whispered against his lips. Desperate to be near him that
night, she had hardly believed the good fortune that had let her come to
him, and now, in the magical splendor of the night, he was talking of
dying in her arms.
He was so tense above her. His eyes raked over her with a hard edge, and
