Captivated

'You willnever have me,' she hissed defiantly.

He looked up at her. 'Oh, but I will, little fawn. And this will be the hardest lesson you will ever have to learn. The masteralways gets everything he wants.'

He rose gracefully to his feet. 'I want you naked. Are you still going to resist me, Drue?'

'Someone should,' she muttered, pulling the bedspread closer.

'But not the ungrateful drab whose father's life and reputation I saved. You should be naked and on your back, spreading your legs and begging me to stuff myself into you. Any other woman would have kissed my feet and any other part of my body I desired in gratitude for what I did.'

He inched closer to her. 'But not you. Oh, no, not the princess of Oak Bluffs. All that money and I can't evenlook at your naked body.'

He was as close as a breath now, hot and engorged with lust, anger, and pure wanton desire. 'You thought you could remain pure for that coxcomb, Lenoir, didn't you, little fawn? You thought I'd just lift your skirts and pump myself into you and that would be the end of it and you still could remain loyal to him. That's what you thought, wasn't it?Wasn't it? But that's not nearly how it's going to be.'

He closed his hand over the edge of the material that covered her shoulders. 'My house. My bedspread. My money.My naked wife. Let go of this thing,now… '

She resisted. She couldn't help herself. She could not willingly submit to him. And to the fury in his voice and the anger in his eyes. And the strength in his hand as he ruthlessly stripped the bedspread away from her body and stepped back.

She clutched the torn, ragged edge of the binding against her breasts, as if that would protect her from him.

He pulled it out of her hands and threw it on the floor, and then she had nothing but the cool gleam of his possessive gaze to cover her, from her burning face, downward to her taut-tipped breasts, downward still to those private places even she didn't know.

She froze as he walked around her to view her from every angle.

'Well, well, well, aren't you the hot-tailed little piece, my fawn. Who would have guessed that under all that virginal muslin and lace there was a naked body that looked likethis.'

And it was all his, his to teach, train, discipline, and do with what he would. No one else would ever have her now.

He was face-to-face with her again, his burning eyes two narrow slits as he gazed his fill of her naked breasts. 'I think maybe I didn't pay too much for you.' His voice turned steely. 'Don't move, Drue. I don't think I can get enough of looking at you.'

She could barely stand itthose knowing eyes, the huge obvious bulge between his legs, the feeling of vulnerability, and of being stalked by something more primitive and more powerful than she. He could devour her. Hewould, in ways she didn't even know about.

'Just… just get it over with,' she ground out.

'No. No…' He was circling her again. 'You are something to savor, my fawn. Those round, high breasts, those hard, pointed nipples, those hips, those buttocks… I want to take my time with you. Days and days, I just want to look at you…'

'Courtplease…'

'No. I want you to live naked in my house from now on, and I will tell you what I want and what to do. And you'll do it, Drue. I promise you. You will do it. And you won't have a moment to think about anyone or anything else. Now, turn and walk away from me. I want to watch the movement of your buttocks when you walk.'

'Please don't'

'Please don'twhat? Touch you? I haven't, although I want to, most powerfully. Force you? I haven't. I won't. It's enough for me to have you naked and at my mercy. Now,walk.'

Oh, yes, at his mercy; precisely. Definitively. And all those references to Gerard… they made her blood turn cold.

He knew

Dear God, how did he know?

And if he knew… she had no choice but to do everything he wanted, anything he wanted to protect Gerard and to conceal the fact she loved him.

Her whole body felt like lead. She didn't know how she was going to do this, how she was going to let Court even touch her.

She swallowed, turned, so that for one instant the curve of her breasts and the tight thrust of her nipples were outlined in the light, and then she slowly moved away from him.

Don't think about anything or anyone else. Don't feel his eyes on you or the heat washing all over your body. Don't… don't… don't

He watched her through hooded eyes. She was so perfect, flawless, her buttocks soft and rounded and flaring into those swaying hips that were made to be grasped tightly as a man centered himself to penetrate her.

He wanted to grab her right then, right there, and ram himself into her; a thousand fantasies played in his mind as she stopped at the wall and waited for his next command.

Oh? It was going to be like that, was it? A tiny act of defiance that he would squash right now.

'Turn and come back to me,' he ordered, and she swiveled around and started pacing toward him.

Her breasts bobbled just a little, her nipples begging that he look at them, marvel at them, lust for them.

He'd never been so hard in his life. He couldn't contain the iron-bar jut of his manhood. He didn't want to. He wanted to do exactly what she desired: throw her on the bed and embed himself in her to the hilt and beyond. He wanted to feel the bones of those hips grinding against him, and the hard-soft play of her breasts and nipples against his naked chest.

He wanted… all those things and more, more, more…

He itched to slide his fingers between her legs and make her moan with pleasure. She was that close to him, and that far, and not nearly ready for such an assault on her senses.

Her lips were moist from her having tongued them over and over in her nervousness. He wanted to suck them, he wanted her to tongue him all over his body and then root for his manhood and suck him dry.

Instead, she was standing before him, naked, abashed, trembling, virginal, her bosom quivering, her nipples more tempting than fate.

He could not allow himself to feel sympathy for her. She wanted to 'get it over with,' that was all. She wanted to save her immortal soul for Lenoir. He could see it in her eyes. And that made it easy for him to make the command.

'Get on the bed.'

Oh, God, yes, yes… She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh of relief. The moment of reckoning was here.

But how did a virgin seduce a libertine, she wondered suddenly, panicked, if she couldn't stand him looking at her naked body with those knowing, ravenous eyes, and the threat of that hard, flexing rod of his sex. There was no way she could escape him, no way she could renege on that contract she had willingly signed.

But she hadn't thought it was going to be like this with him. That he would be so hard, inflexible, cold- blooded.

Just let him stick it into me and have done… after that, the rest will be easy…

She moved toward the bed, aware with every step of his assessing gaze.

She heard him pull in a hot breath as she climbed onto the bed, and sat on her knees with the curve of her buttocks tucked behind her ankles.

He couldn't believe his response to that one commonplace movement and the tempting picture she made. All he had to do was lift her, straddle her and poke his throbbing ramrod into that hot,tight pleasure hole.

But it was too soon for that. She was obedient now because she wanted him out of her room, and because she thought her nakedness would make him instantly come to heel.

Like that upstart, Lenoir.

He would have bet she had the bastard twirled around her little finger. She was probably very used to batting