Witchchild

‘The nights are getting colder—–’

‘Not that cold.’ She pulled him to his feet, moving away instantly as she sensed he was about to put his arms around her. She wasn’t afraid of him, she just didn’t want him in that way!

‘All right,’ he shrugged into the leather jacket he had draped over the chair when he arrived. ‘If the lady wants to walk, we’ll walk,’ he said wearily.

She doubted if Hawk Sinclair’s idea of a walk was to have six cats accompany him!

The cats’ idea of a walk round the garden was to ambush them every couple of steps, leaping out at them from behind bushes and tree-trunks, wrapping paws around their ankles until they were gently shaken off. Leonie and Hawk’s progress was severely handicapped by their mischievous antics.

Leonie’s mouth twitched with amusement as Hawk tried his best to hide his annoyance; he was obviously not used to having animals about him.

‘How did you ever end up with six cats?’ he finally burst out impatiently.

‘Strays,’ she supplied. ‘Every one of them. If a cat’s found wandering in the village and no one claims it then it’s brought here. We never turn them away.’

‘No dogs?’ he quirked dark brows.

She shook her head, her hair fiery-red in the last of the sun’s rays. ‘No dogs.’

‘Why not?’ He pointedly removed Rose, her pure white cat, from around his ankle.

She shrugged. ‘It wouldn’t be fair on them, neither Laura nor I have the time to walk them.’

His mouth tightened. ‘I’m sure your sister’s time is fully occupied with bedazzling Hal!’

She gave him a reproving look. ‘Laura is my image,’ she drawled. ‘And neither of us has the assets to dazzle anyone!’

He came to an abrupt halt at her side, looking down at her with dark grey eyes. ‘You don’t think so?’ he murmured softly.

She stiffened warily. ‘No.’

‘I’m dazzled,’ he stated quietly. ‘By you.’

Leonie gave a dismissive laugh. ‘Now look, Hawk—–’

‘I have,’ he said abruptly. ‘And I want it. Want you. Are you going to let me have you?’

Or what? Would he demand that Laura never see Hal again, would he smash the delicacy of their love because he had been denied what he wanted? She knew he was capable of doing exactly that, because although Hal might disregard his disapproval, Laura never would.

Could she make love with this man, with any man for such a reason? She would do anything to ensure Laura the happiness she hadn’t been able to find herself, even make love with a man who merely ‘wanted’ her for his own gratification. He would never be able to touch her emotionally, no man had been able to do that since her marriage to Michael. And the taking of her body couldn’t hurt her; it had been done too many times by Michael for one more time to matter!

He was going to be very disappointed if he thought making love to her would be more than that. Her only lover had been her husband, and his idea of lovemaking was to take his pleasure as quickly as possible, taking what he wanted like a thief in the night. If there were any other way to make love—and she was sure there had to be when so many people found the act addictive!—then she had never experienced it. And Hawk Sinclair looked as if he had experienced every pleasure that was available to him.

She drew in a nervous breath, her decision made. ‘We’d better go back to the house, the cats have no respect for privacy.’ She gave a nervous laugh. ‘Tulip once jumped on Michael’s back when—–’ She broke off abruptly. ‘Michael was my husband,’ she added awkwardly as Hawk began to chuckle at the image she had created.

‘So I gathered,’ he drawled. ‘Better make sure we close the bedroom door—the only scratch marks I want on my back tonight are yours!’

Leonie swallowed hard, wondering if she could go through with this after all. Hawk was making it obvious he expected some sort of grand performance from her in bed, and she knew she couldn’t give him that. But as they reached her bedroom she knew she had no choice, that it was too late to change her mind now. She was committed, she would see it through.

She trembled slightly as he slowly unbuttoned her blouse, revealing her bared breasts; Michael had never undressed her in this way, and he had never ever left the light burning beside the bed so that they could look at each other as they made love. Hawk was more than looking, he was touching too now!

Red-hot pleasure coursed through her, to remain a throbbing ache between her thighs. Hawk’s mouth was against her breast, his tongue lightly stroking the hardened nipple.

She whimpered low in her throat, that whimper turning to a groan as his hard mouth claimed hers, tasting her, his fingers wreaking havoc against her aroused breasts, cupping their firm weight as he lightly brushed the aching tip.

She didn’t want this man. Then why was she trembling with uncontrolled passion, knowing the first heady-sweet sensations of desire?

She gasped as his flesh seared hers, his shirt unbuttoned too now, her breasts crushed against the damp hardness of his chest. He wanted her so much a fine sheen of perspiration glistened on his body!

Her eyes widened apprehensively as he dropped to his knees in front of her, his gaze holding hers as he unfastened her denims and slowly slid the zip down, several inches of her flesh bare above the lace of her briefs. Air was sucked into her lungs as, breaking her gaze, he bent and his mouth moved surely over that exposed flesh. Tiny pinpricks of explosions spun through her body as he kissed her through the material of her denims, sliding them down her thighs to cast them aside, the barrier between her and his caressing lips even thinner now. The explosions grew almost out of control as she felt the probe of his tongue against her.

‘No!’ she cried protestingly.

He firmly removed her hand from his hair as she would have pulled him away. ‘But you like it,’ he said gruffly. ‘And God knows so do I!’

The dampness of lace clung to her, that sheer barrier no defence against his marauding tongue, and as his fingers probed beneath the lace Leonie felt her knees buckle as she fell to the floor beside him.

‘Lean back,’ he instructed huskily, bending his head as she obeyed, his mouth closing hotly on the nipple that had escaped his attention earlier, sucking strongly at the aching bud, easing some of her tension, but evoking another one between her thighs. As if he was aware of her discomfort his hand trailed to the valley between her thighs, discarding the briefs that hid her from him, covering that fiery mound with his palm as he explored the moist vulnerability between her legs, feeling her readiness for him, entering her to ease some of the aching desire.

She was out of control, trembling all over, too weak to even support her weight on her knees as she fell to the floor, taking Hawk with her, sure she would die if he didn’t go on.

She groaned her dismay as he suddenly left her, watching him through narrowed lids as he threw off his shirt before slowly taking off his denims, standing between her parted legs as he revealed the throbbing shaft that promised so much pleasure Leonie was mesmerised by the glistening velvet.

‘Tell me if I hurt you,’ he groaned as he moved between her thighs, drawing her apart and up to him, entering her slowly, sinking deeper and deeper into her flesh as she surged up towards him. ‘God, that’s good!’ His head was flung back, his eyes closed as she sheathed the full length of him, closing around him, moving against him.

His mouth claimed hers, one hand against her breast, as he slowly began to move inside her, almost withdrawing completely before thrusting back to his fullest, his tongue entering her mouth in the same rhythm, the dual invasion leaving her mindless and begging for release.

Her whimpers of ever-increasing pleasure seemed to drive him beyond control, surging into her with fierce power, pulling her legs wider apart so that he could enter her more deeply with each thrust, the fire in her loins burning out of control as quake after quake of pleasure washed her higher and higher, knowing she had taken Hawk with her as he became rigid inside her before spilling himself, hot and powerful, into her waiting warmth. She took his gift greedily, moving against him until she was sure he was completely pleasured, her arms about him as he collapsed weakly against her breasts.

Neither of them spoke, as if they knew something rare would be destroyed if they did. And soon they had no need for words anyway; Hawk was hardening inside her as his mouth moved against her in slow drugging kisses.

This time their lovemaking was hot and quick, Hawk rolling over to pull Leonie above him, holding her hips as she rode them both to shuddering release, his teeth biting hungrily on her offered nipples.

Exhaustion quickly claimed her; she was unaccustomed to even one of those earth-shattering explosions that had taken her to the heavens, having reached that pinnacle twice, her body racked by only slighter, smaller rockets of emotions in the interim. She fell asleep with her head resting on Hawk’s chest and their bodies still joined, feeling complete for the first time in her life.

Morning brought with it a rude awakening!

‘Your little diversion didn’t work!’ Hawk rasped furiously.

Leonie woke slowly at the sound of his anger, knowing instantly that she was alone in her bed, that the body she had nestled up to in the night after Hawk had carried her here some time before dawn had been removed. She opened heavy lids to look up at a fully dressed Hawk, fury glittering in accusing grey eyes.

She sat up, pushing the hair from her face, pulling the sheet up over her breasts as she realised her movement had bared them to his gaze. Not that he looked as if he could be aroused just now. Except to anger, of course!

‘What’s wrong?’ She blinked to clear the exhaustion from her mind, her body aching from the fierceness of the lovemaking she and this man had shared the night before. Maybe she should feel uncomfortable about having made love with a man who had been a stranger to her until yesterday afternoon, but the pleasure they had shared precluded her feeling anything but gratitude. She now knew what it was like to feel completely a woman, a desirable woman.

‘What’s wrong?’ he repeated scornfully, the forceful lover of the night before replaced by a man held in the grip of burning anger. ‘You knew damn well that Hal and Laura weren’t coming back here last night, and you used your body to distract me from that fact.’

‘What?’ Her eyes were wide with disbelief.