Bobbi Smith - Captive Pride

CC saw a flicker of some unknown emotion in his gaze but had little strength then to question it. “Noah…” It was a helpless sigh that wreaked havoc on his emotions, and with a muttered curse, he swept her up into his arms and strode back toward the carriage.

“Sir?” the driver asked, not knowing what to do as the gentleman placed the young boy in the carriage and then climbed in after him.

“Just drive for now. I’ll give you directions in a moment…” Noah instructed as he pulled the door shut.

The coachman stared at the closed door for a moment before returning to his seat and once again taking up the reins.

CC sat quietly in the comfort of the coach, her heart, her mind, her soul filled with Noah’s overpowering presence. When she’d opened her eyes after the accident and had seen Noah’s handsome face hovering above her in the darkness, it had seemed for just a moment that she had been dreaming…that there had been no one else in the world but the two of them. The feeling had been rapturous.

Ever since their encounter in the parlor the other day, he’d been constantly in her thoughts. CC didn’t understand why his touch and kiss could affect her so, but she knew that there was something about Noah Kincade that left her weak-willed and hungry for his touch. It worried her even as it fascinated her. She knew him. She knew what he was about and what he valued. He was not a man she could love, and yet she found herself irresistibly drawn to him.

CC sighed as the reality of the situation intruded on her. Running away from John, as she had, had been stupid. She shivered as she imagined the repercussions of anyone discovering her true identity. She was glad that she’d taken the time to anchor her tricorn so firmly, for that extra care had prevented it from being dislodged during the accident and had saved her from possible recognition.

Wearily she reached up to remove the pins that held the hat so securely. As she removed the tricorn and unpinned her hair, Noah turned to her. The relief he was feeling over the fact that she had suffered no lasting harm in the accident was quickly forgotten as his eyes met hers, and he read there what he thought to be her usual dislike of him. The thought infuriated him. He had just saved her from who-knows-what, and she had the gall to glare at him as if he were some kind of monster.

CC was trying to decipher the strained look on Noah’s face when suddenly he erupted in fury, his eyes narrowing to the forbidding silver expression she knew so well.

“Just what the hell do you think you were doing running around the streets like that?” Noah snapped harshly, staring at her garb.

“It’s none of your business what I was doing!” she countered, the last sweet fragments of her imaginings disappearing as wisps of fog before a cold, devastating winter wind.

“When you ran out in front of my coach, you made it my business!” he argued, not sure whether he wanted to shake her until she admitted the foolishness of her act or kiss her until she understood how frightened he’d been.

“Then I beg your pardon, Lord Kincade. Believe me, I had no wish to intrude on your evening, and I hope my untimely arrival didn’t ruin any of your plans…” she bit out ungratefully as she shook her head and allowed her hair to tumble free.

“I’m afraid you did ruin my plans…all of them…” he muttered softly, more to himself than to her as he stared at her in the dimness of the coach light. Even Noah’s anger, which was substantial, could not dampen the thrill of excitement he felt at having her so near, so unexpectedly.

Her upset was such that, even though his answer surprised her, it did not stop her from replying brashly, “Again, my apologies, although I fail to see how a moment’s delay in your busy schedule could ruin anything. Just stop the carriage and let me out. You can then be on your merry way.”

“Why? So you can try to kill yourself again?”

Wondering why he should even care, she glanced at him, puzzled, and time hung suspended as their gazes met and locked. They studied each other warily in the softness of the night shadows, his eyes, smoke-gray now, challenging and questioning hers as each dared to probe the other’s thoughts and emotions. Slowly, as if mesmerized by the gentle rocking and sweet privacy of the carriage, Noah leaned closer and, without touching her in any other way, let his lips meet hers. The moment was explosively enthralling as the gentlest of caresses sent shock waves of awareness through both of them. Noah moved back slightly to stare down at her in wonder, and he lifted one hand to tenderly touch her cheek.

“You’re very beautiful, CC…very beautiful…” His voice was low and filled with husky male desire.

CC felt as if she were drifting. The rough velvet sound of his deep voice and the tingling caress of his hand left her breathless and weak. All thoughts of hatred and distrust were banished. Languidly, as if she’d known for all her life that this moment would happen, she went into his embrace, whispering only “Noah…”

Noah gloried in her seeming willingness, and he wrapped his arms about her in a fiercely possessive hold as his mouth moved to claim hers, tasting and testing the joy to be found in that passionate exchange. Feverishly they broke apart for an instant and then melded again, the impassioned kiss a mere imitation of the mating their bodies so longed for.

CC felt Noah’s hands upon the buttons of her shirt, and she shivered in expectation. She remembered well the ecstasy of his hands upon her bare flesh, and a low moan of excitement escaped her.

Until that moment Noah had been holding a part of himself back, refusing with that one last shred of resistance to believe that she was coming to him without a fight, but the sound of her eager need cast the last of his doubts aside. Boldly he parted the soft material and slipped a hand within to push aside her bindings and cup the round fullness of one breast. Tantalizingly, he teased the nipple to hardness as his lips left hers to explore the sensitive cords of her throat.

CC clung to Noah desperately as his hands and lips worked their magic upon her silken flesh, and when he guided her down to lie upon the comfort of the leather seat, she did not protest. His caresses were intoxicating, and she was drugged with desire. There was nothing she wanted more than to be one with him, and she looped her arms about his neck and pulled him down to her.

“Please, Noah…”

“Ah, CC…” he groaned as his lips moved lower to seek out the taut crests of her breasts.

CC whimpered her need as Noah suckled there, the erotic drawing arousing her to a fever pitch. For the first time in her life, CC knew a desire to touch as well as to be touched. She reached out to Noah in her excitement, caressing his hard-muscled form with eager hands. His response to her aggressiveness was immediate and exhilarating and she found herself enjoying the feeling of power it gave her to know that she was able to please him.

With trembling fingers CC unbuttoned his shirt and then embraced him fully, exploring his chest and stomach with a restless, heated touch, coming near but never quite touching that most intimate part of him. Her teasing caresses were driving Noah to distraction. Desperate to feel the softness of her hand upon him, he finally grasped her wrist and forced her to touch the hardness of his need for her.

CC gasped at his slightly rough maneuver, but when she saw reflected on his face the sheer rapture her caress gave him, she no longer needed to be forced. She wanted to please him. She wanted him to experience the same ecstasy that she felt whenever he touched her. More brazenly now, she traced patterns of fire upon his body, and Noah groaned in passionate need.