Bobbi Smith - Captive Pride

Slowly Noah raised up above her, and bracing himself on his forearms, he stared down at her. How could it be that this woman had such a hold on his emotions? He didn’t understand it, and right now he didn’t even want to think about it.

“CC…” he said softly, “you feel so perfect to me…”

“Oh, Noah…” She blushed at his description and looped her arms about his neck to pull him down for a sweet, gentle kiss. “You feel good to me, too.”

His lips left hers to explore the sensitive flesh of her throat, and CC felt shivers of delight course through her.

“You know, we could stay like this all night…” he murmured. Moving even lower, he caught the taut crest of one breast gently between his teeth and nipped at it in a pain-pleasure caress that left her clutching weakly at his shoulders.

“Noah…don’t…oh, Noah…” CC threw her head back, arching her breasts to him, wanting more even as she was frightened by her abandoned response to his sensual punishment.

What slight pain there had been turned to ecstasy as he drew the tender bud into his mouth and sucked gently.

“There’s nothing I want more than to hold you and please you…” he swore against the soft flesh of her breast.

His lips and tongue were doing such marvelous things to her that she began to move restlessly beneath him. He stoked the glowing embers of her need to life again, creating a whirlpool of desire that swept her up in its power. CC hadn’t meant to say it, had never wanted to reveal the truth of her need for him, but in a moment of mindless delight, she cried out to him, “Please, Noah…don’t ever leave me…”

Noah stiffened at her words, and though he wanted to promise that he would stay with her forever, he knew it would be a lie. No matter how much he wanted her, no matter how much he craved the ecstasy of her lovemaking, he could not stay. Everything that was important to him was in England, and that was where he belonged.

When the heights of her ecstasy had passed, CC lay sobbing in his arms. His mastering of her senses had been complete, and she felt weak and well loved.

“Oh, Noah.” Gazing up at him, she sighed, the love she felt for him shining in the emerald depths of her eyes. “Being with you is so wonderful, I wish we never had to part.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, my dear.” His tone was almost aloof as he shifted away from her.

The moment of true intimacy was shattered by his coolness, and CC stiffened, suddenly wary of him.

“You don’t want me?” she challenged.

“Of course I want you,” Noah replied quickly, his gaze raking with scalding intent over her slender, supple form. He knew that it would be senseless to try to deny it after the passion they’d just shared.

“Then I don’t understand,” she frowned, trying to figure out exactly what he meant.

Noah suddenly realized that the rest of his life seemed empty without CC, and he knew he couldn’t possibly leave her when it came time for him to sail. He wanted her. He needed her. Noah thought of what a beautiful Lady Kincade she would make and how she would grace Kincade Hall, and he knew then that he wanted her to be his wife. CC would be perfect at his side. She was gorgeous, far more attractive than any of the women about the ton. She would do the Kincade name justice, and her father’s reputation would put her in good stead with his peers, colonial or not.

“CC, you know that I’ll be going back to England in the spring.” He met her gaze seriously. “Marry me and return with me.”

CC stared at him for a long moment in speechless disbelief. He had just proposed. It was what she had dreamed of, and yet, even as he had offered her marriage, he had made no mention of loving her. She had seen marriages undertaken without love, and they had seemed torturous for all parties involved. As much as she loved him, she knew it would be useless.

“No, Noah, I can’t.” It broke her heart to refuse.

Her refusal stunned him. He had never proposed to a woman before, and he had never expected her to turn him down. Anger surged through him.

“Why not? Is it this damned cause you’re so involved in? Walk away and leave it! As Lady Kincade, you would take London by storm…” he offered, not imagining the real reason for her rejection.

“Noah…” She spoke his name miserably as she waited for him to say the words that would win her heart and her undying love, but they never came.

“I could give you everything you’ve ever wanted…” Noah went on, thinking that the promise of riches would win her.

“I have everything I’ve ever wanted, thank you!” CC grew livid. He was making her sound just like a kept woman!

“But, CC, I could take care of you and protect you…” He was, after all, Lord Kincade, Noah thought with more than a little pomposity.

Her fury knew no bounds! So he wanted to take care of her and protect her, did he? He was just like John, only worse! John at least had professed to love her! Noah had told her only that he wanted her, nothing more. No doubt he wanted her only to be an ornament for him to put on display…to grace his life, to decorate his hall, and to warm his bed. He wanted her to become a mindless, simpering nothing, just like all the other aristocrats she’d ever met, and she wouldn’t do it.

“I don’t need you or anyone else to take care of me!” CC was seething as she moved jerkily away, standing up and beginning to pull on her clothing.

Her abrupt anger startled him and he stared at her in confusion, trying to understand her reaction to his words. “It’s certain that you need someone to take care of you!”

CC regarded him sadly. His command of her senses had been total. His possession of her body had been powerful and exciting. Still, for all the wonder of having shared the delights of loving him, there had been no meeting of their hearts. It had only been their bodies that had touched, and CC found, to her despair, that she could not separate the two. What touched her physically also touched her emotionally. If she loved with her body, she also loved with her mind.

Noah, she understood painfully, made no such distinction. While their passionate mating had only succeeded in deepening what she already felt for him, it had only been another sexual encounter for him. She had thrown herself at him, and he had taken what she offered. The thought thoroughly distressed her, and she knew she had to get away from him.

“Since it’s obvious that you hold such a low opinion of me, I see no reason for us to have any further contact,” she told him coldly as she quickly tugged on her breeches. “From now on, stay completely away from me.”

Noah, still dumbstruck by her manner, could only stare at her in mute surprise. Mistaking his silence as threatening, CC wheeled about to glare at him.

“I mean it, Noah. I don’t ever want to speak with you or see you again if we can avoid it; do you understand? Whatever it was we shared, and I hesitate to call what happened between us a love affair, it’s over… You’ve always known how I felt about you. Why did you think I’d changed?”

“I didn’t know that it was normal for a woman to make love to a man she despises.” Noah’s gaze turned steely as he regarded her.

“As I said a long time ago, what happens between us defies explanation. That’s precisely why I want you to stay away from me.”

“Believe me, my dear Miss Demorest, it will be my pleasure to avoid your chaotic company.”

CC slipped into her shirt and quickly buttoned it as Noah began pulling on his own breeches. He was still only partially dressed when she started from the stable.

“CC…where are you going?”

Her gaze glittered in furious defiance. “I told you before, Kincade, I don’t need or want your protection!”