Bobbi Smith - Captive Pride

As his lips left hers to trail fiery kisses down her throat and across her shoulders, her need overwhelmed her senses. CC didn’t care about anything except Noah and the joy that came from pleasing him. Her nipples hardened as shivers of excitement coursed through her veins. She arched against the solidness of his chest, begging in mute testimony for the more intimate touch of his mouth upon her aching, throbbing breasts. When at last his lips sought out that tender flesh, CC cried out at the wonder of it and began to move beneath him as her hands caressed him in restless need.

“Noah…Oh, Noah, I love you…” She said it before she realized, and yet her passion was such that she didn’t even care.

Noah, however, was surprised by her declaration and he paused in his lovemaking, his moment of the mindless passion lost. She loved him… Over and over she had declared her hatred for him, yet now, tonight, she was telling him she loved him? It didn’t ring true. His desire drained from him as he realized her presence here really was a lie.

CC, caught up in the wonder of his ardor, didn’t notice the change in him immediately.

“What is it you want, CC?” Noah asked, the cynicism of his tone muffled against the softness of her breasts. He was tense as he anticipated her answer.

“You, Noah…only you,” she gasped, still in the throes of the feverish excitement he’d created within her.

It bothered Noah to discover that he wanted to believe it…that he wanted to be the one who held her heart, but he wouldn’t allow himself even to pretend.

“CC…I want to know what it is you want.” He repeated his question sharply as he braced himself above her on his elbows and glared down at her.

“Noah?” CC blinked in confusion, her passion-dilated emerald eyes gazing up at him questioningly. She knew a moment of true apprehension as the smoky depths of his eyes turned to the impenetrable, steely regard she knew so well and hated so much.

“I want to know the real reason you’re here, CC,” Noah demanded cuttingly. He watched the play of emotions on her face. She had never been adept at disguising her feelings, and Noah could read in her expression all the embarrassment that went with his calling her bluff. His heart sank as he realized that he had been right in his assessment. She was up to something. “Well?”

“I don’t know what you mean…”

“Spare me your innocence, darling,” he mocked her as he moved away, needing to distance himself from her shapely unclad body. “I’ve told you before how bad you are at hiding your true emotions.”

CC shivered involuntarily and she wondered if her reaction was from the chill in the room or the derision in his tone. She answered simply, “I’m here because I want to be.” The truth…

Noah strode across the room and parted the drapes as he stood at the window. Keeping his back to her, he retorted, “CC…I find that very difficult to believe. The last time we were together you vowed your hatred for me and wanted me to stay away from you forever.” When she started to speak, he cut her off and kept on talking. “I complied with your wishes. I stayed away from you as you asked. Yet now you show up here in my bed, and you tell me that you love me. Do you really expect me to believe it?” Noah faced her. “Or are you the type of woman who always wants what she can’t have?” His gaze rested heatedly on her lush figure. “Cover yourself, woman!” Noah barked the order.

CC, seeing the desire revealed in his eyes, decided to make one last attempt at seduction. “Noah…Come to me, Noah… I want you desperately…” In an alluring movement, she rose from the bed and walked enticingly toward him.

Noah’s passion taunted him to take her and be done with it, but his logic asserted itself over his baser needs. Though he found the sight of her captivating, he kept a tight rein on his desire.

CC came to stand before him and then lifted her arms about his neck. On tiptoes, she raised up to press her lips to his, hoping to distract him from his thoughts. Noah accepted her kiss with a minimum of participation. CC was puzzled by his lack of response. Wanting to break through his suddenly icy control, she began to rub herself sensually against him. Her sinuous motions did come very close to shattering his composure, but CC never knew it as Noah viciously gripped her by her forearms and pulled her arms from about his neck.

Holding her away from him, he ground out, “I want to know what’s going on here, and I want to know it now.”

CC was caught in a trap of her own making. She knew there was only one way to escape from the web in which she found herself entangled. The only solution was to tell him the complete truth from the very beginning.

“You’re hurting me…” she protested.

Abruptly he released her. “Get your clothes on.”

No longer confident of her ability to seduce him, CC hurried to do as he’d commanded.

“Start talking, CC,” Noah ordered as he tried not to watch her as she dressed. Desperate in his own way, he struggled to look anywhere but at her, for the sight of her tempting breasts and dark triangle of femininity at the junction of her thighs was all too appealing.

CC sighed as she conceded, “All right, Noah.”

With jerky motions, she tugged on her shirt, quickly buttoned it across her breasts, and then pulled on the trousers. She felt decidedly unattractive and very vulnerable, but she was determined that he not know of her insecurities as she turned to face him. Schooling her expression not to reflect her nervousness, she glanced up at him. What she saw there caused her to grimace inwardly.

“Well? Why are you here? And what is it you want?” Noah folded his arms across his chest, the gesture making him seem even more unreachable, as his gaze bore unnervingly into hers.

CC wavered… Should she just blurt it out or try something else? Finally, knowing she couldn’t avoid it, she admitted, “I do love you, Noah. I have for a long time.”

“Right,” he drawled sarcastically.

“No, that is the truth.” CC almost took a step toward him, but his ominous expression put her off. “I freely admit that I didn’t want to love you, but…but sometimes we can’t control our feelings.” She gave a small, helpless shrug.

“So,” Noah began somewhat bitterly, “you love me, and you came here tonight only because you couldn’t bear to be parted from me any longer. Is that what you want me to think? Really, CC, sometimes you do astound me. You love me, but you refused to become my wife…” His eyes were cold upon her. “Somehow, it just doesn’t fit.”

Suddenly CC was angry. She had just bared her soul to him and he was mocking her. “I wouldn’t become your wife because you don’t love me! Do you think I wanted to be married to a man who doesn’t love me? You proposed, but you didn’t profess any feeling for me at all! I know you’re attracted to me physically, but beyond that, what do we have? You want to return to England, and I-”

Noah was stunned by her outburst. She had said that she loved him. His heart was swelling with joy at the thought as the recognition of his own feelings surged forth. The emotion he had refused to confront for so long was before him now, and he knew without doubt that he loved her, too. Before he could speak and declare himself, though, CC went on.

“And I want to help the revolution in any and every way I can. That was the reason why I came to you tonight. I knew that you wanted me. I came here with the intention of offering to become your wife if you would sell the munitions to Ryan at a lower price.” CC drew a deep, ragged breath as she paused.

Noah went from overjoyed at the news that she loved him to completely furious at her for her deception, and his voice reflected the heat of his wrath. “So you’re making the ultimate sacrifice, are you?”