“Ranelaw, no.” This time her denial emerged with some conviction. She backed toward the hearth. Eventually she’d run out of space, then what would happen?
Sadly, she knew exactly what would happen.
“You don’t mean that,” he said unsteadily, lifting his head to survey her from under sensually heavy eyelids.
“I do,” she said, then gasped as he began to flick open the buttons that fastened her modest bodice. “Stop that.” She brushed his hand aside.
“I want to see you.” His low voice was a seduction in itself. But she’d come back to herself enough to be horrified at how close she verged to disaster.
“You’re not getting what you want.”
Her dress gaped, revealing plain white cotton stays and shift. He must have seen women in the scantiest, most enticing of underclothing, but even so, she couldn’t mistake how his attention sharpened on her cleavage.
“I promise I’ll just look.”
She sent him a quelling look. “Yes, I believe that. Of course I do.”
His arm firmed around her waist. “I like you better when I’m kissing you.”
“I won’t fall victim to your shabby charm.”
She tried to fasten her dress but her fingers shook so violently, she couldn’t unite even one button with its buttonhole. Furious misery closed her throat. Damn Ranelaw. His charm might be shabby, but she couldn’t resist it. The glint in his eyes told her the devil knew it.
“How can such pretty lips say such nasty things?” His mouth twitched with amusement.
The hint of humor made her burn to kiss him again. She silenced Wild Antonia and lifted her chin. “Get out, Ranelaw.”
He looked breathtakingly handsome with his hair mussed. To her shame, she knew how those thick golden waves became so tousled. She’d buried her fingers in his hair while he pleasured her mouth.
God help her, why was she so weak? She knew what she risked, but one touch from Ranelaw’s skillful hands and she forgot everything else.
He grabbed her chin. His face was alight with a mixture of blatant sexual interest and laughter. “Oh, no, sweeting. This encounter is too interesting to abandon at this critical point.”
Inevitably he’d kiss her again. Determination tautened his angular jaw and arrogance sparked in his eyes. He believed her opposition merely token.
Why shouldn’t he when she’d kissed him as if he showed her the gateway to heaven?
“No,” she said staunchly, stiffening without managing to pull away.
“Yes.” He tilted her face up.
His mouth covered hers. She braced for another assault on her senses, but this time, he wooed her with a gentleness as ruthless as his passion. For one lost moment, she succumbed to delight.
He grabbed her arms, his kiss deepening. On unsteady feet, she retreated. Heat on the back of her legs told her she neared the fire but the only really dangerous flames in the room were those Lord Ranelaw ignited in her soul.
He slid one hand under her bodice. At last he touched her naked breast. A blast of arousal shuddered through her. As his thumb brushed her beaded nipple, she gasped into his open mouth. Her muscles loosened, resistance faded to a whisper in the far reaches of her clouded mind.
Desperate, knowing she had seconds before she begged him to do whatever he wished—and what he wished was no mystery at all—she fumbled behind her with one hand.
Damn it, where was it?
At last her hand closed over what she wanted. Her grip firmed, she summoned the faltering shreds of will.
And clouted him as hard as she could with the fire iron.
Chapter Five
Merciful heaven, she’d killed him.