Bobbi Smith - Captive Pride

CC didn’t understand exactly what was happening to her, but the languid weakness that had spread through her at the touch of his lips on her breast became now a driving force, urging her to move against the hand he pressed so tightly, so intimately to her most secret places. Noah accommodated CC’s movements, matching the thrusting of her hips to massage her expertly to heights she’d never known existed. He wanted to please her and to show her the ecstasy only his touch could give.

Hands that had fought him earlier gripped his shoulders now in rapturous desperation…wanting…needing…craving. CC’s breathing was strained, panting as her body responded wantonly to Noah. When he moved to kiss her again, bringing her hips full against the hardness of him, a rainbow of rapture shot through her at the alien contact that suddenly seemed so right. He held her hips pinioned to his, letting her move against him in feverish rhythm until she crested the peak her body had instinctively known would come. Shudders of spendor wracked her slim form as she collapsed in his arms, her head thrown back in sated ecstasy, her eyes closed, savoring the delights her body had just revealed to her.

It pleased Noah to find that she was so responsive to him and that he could pleasure her so easily, and he laughed softly as he held her cradled victoriously against the hardness of his chest.

It was that arrogant, deep-throated chuckle as his lips sought once again the soft flesh of her exposed throat that jarred her back to reality. CC blinked in shocked realization of what she’d done. She had allowed him liberties she’d never allowed another, and now he was laughing!

“Now, love, you shall know true satisfaction,” Noah was saying as he started to strip her pants from her in preparation of introducing her to the joy of love’s completeness. He was caught totally by surprise when CC let out a high-pitched shriek of indignity and pushed away from him full-force. Stunned to find herself out of his restrictive embrace, she backed nervously away from him.

“How dare you? You are more vile than I ever dreamed!” she cried, clutching her arms about herself protectively as she stared up at him with wide, terror-filled eyes.

How could this have happened to her? Somehow she had to get away! She had to!

Noah loomed threatening above her, his face dark with anger, his eyes narrowed and glittering. “So it’s a tease you are, is it?” he thundered, not willing to let it end so easily between them. His body was on fire with desire for her, and he had no intention of letting her flee from him. He reached out to her, wanting to finish what they’d started.

CC backed desperately away from him, but she found herself pinned against the wall of the stable. He moved forward, his expression so ominous that she knew there would be no escaping his wrath. She thought about running, but he was blocking her only path of escape.

“No…” She held up one hand to ward him off, turning her head against the sight of him, so tall and dark and foreboding.

“Oh yes, my little hellcat. Even a tease has to pay the price sometime, and your time is now.” Noah’s tone was unyielding, as were his hands as he reached out and grasped her by her upper arms. The sweetness of the moment was gone. Before she could protest again, his mouth swooped down to cover hers as his hands slipped within the waistband of her trousers to touch the womanly core of her that he so longed to penetrate.

Only the sound of the door to the meeting room opening and low, muffled voices coming their way saved CC from Noah’s full possession. Hearing the others coming, Noah gave a growl of complete frustration and released her abruptly, stepping away. He eyed her disdainfully as he straightened his clothing with a casual nonchalance.

“I would suggest you cover yourself or leave,” he advised dispassionately. “Unless, that is, your friends are used to your doing this. In fact,” he added in a low tone, “if you wish, you may come to my room at the Red Lion Inn later. Then we can see this to a proper end.”

“How dare you?” She gasped at his words and struck out at him with all her might, the sound of her hand connecting with his cheek rending the night.

“This is not the end, CC. Not by any means.” His expression carefully blank, Noah stared down at her for a brief moment before turning away and walking off into the stable to meet the men who were coming for him.

Numbly unaware of the compromising danger of her situation, CC stood stock-still staring after him as he disappeared into the building. When he’d gone from sight, the harsh truth of the moment assailed her. She knew she had to get home, and get home fast, by the darkest, most out-of-the-way route possible.

Clutching her shirt across her bosom, CC ran from the scene. She was scared, but that was not the overriding emotion that was driving her as she skirted the more populated areas of town and stayed hidden deep in the shadowy cover of the night. No, hatred for Lord Noah Kincade was the fuel that was guiding her flight homeward. It was a hatred that burned so fiercely it left her wondering if she would ever be able to look at him again without wanting to wreak very real vengeance upon his person.

Gasping for breath, she finally reached the haven of her tree, and with her last ounce of energy, she climbed it’s protective branches to the safety of her own bedroom. Secure within the protective surroundings of her own locked chamber, she moved unsteadily to her four-poster bed and collapsed weakly across it.

Her heart pounding, CC lay panting upon the softness of the counterpane. As she stared up at the ceiling, her thoughts were of Kincade, and Kincade only. She despised him. He was everything she’d thought he was and worse! And to think that he had the gall to suggest she come to his room later! The thought embarrassed her, and she rolled quickly over to hide her burning face against the coolness of the covers. Still, the despicable visions of his unwanted kiss and touch would not be so easily dismissed, and a shudder wracked her as she remembered in humiliation the way her body had responded to him.

The memory of the ecstasy she’d experienced at his hands troubled CC, and she drew a long, ragged breath as she thought of all that had happened. How could she have done it? How could she have sought his touch so eagerly when he’d brought her full against him? CC blushed as she remembered how she was all but climbing all over his lean, hard frame. A dull, hungry ache started anew within the heart of her as she recalled the heat of his mouth upon her breast and the taste of his passion-inducing kisses, and, frowning, she timidly touched herself. CC gasped at the sensation that shot through her and gritted her teeth as she climbed off the bed. What had that fiend done to her? She had never felt this way before, and it was all his fault!

Her distress evident in her actions, she viciously stripped off the boy’s clothing and poured herself a bowl of cold water at her washstand. Vigorously she scrubbed every inch of her body, wanting to erase his scent from her skin, but even as she washed, thoughts of the way her breasts responded to him haunted her, and she threw the damp wash-cloth across the room with violent force.

“Damn him!” she uttered in frustration. Why couldn’t she put the memory of him from her mind? He had used her…abused her…

CC stormed to her armoire and rummaged through, looking for her nightdress. Finally locating the soft, filmy garment, she tugged it on impatiently, trying to ignore how sensitive her nipples were now to the material’s silken caress. Bundling up her boy’s things, she hid them carefully again in the back of her wardrobe.

After climbing back into bed, CC curled on her side and tried to rest, but sleep would not come. Instead, her exhausted mind replayed again and again her degrading, outrageous encounter with Kincade. She had been helpless against his formidable charms, and she was devastated by the realization. He had manipulated her body just as he manipulated people. Though CC forced herself to acknowledge that she had responded to his touch, she vowed never to allow him near her again. She would see him Friday night only because circumstances forced her to, and after that he could fall off the ends of the Earth, for all she cared. She hated him. She despised him.