Bound By Passion: No Desire Denied / One More Kiss / Second-Chance Seduction. Cara Summers

Adair and Piper missed her terribly. But they at least had the memory of her. I don’t. You and I can have each other now. I’d rather live with the memory of that than with regret, wouldn’t you?”

      Regrets. Reid was sure he’d have them. He already knew he wanted to give her more than she was asking for. More than he was capable of giving her. “You win.”

      When he leaned toward her, she placed a firm hand on his chest. “We have to find a better place for me to seduce you. We don’t want the legend kicking in.” Rising, she tugged him with her and stepped out of the stone arch. “In my fantasy, I started my seduction very slowly. Just a stolen kiss in the gardens. Come on. I’ll show you.”

      “I can’t wait.” He’d been wanting to kiss her ever since they’d left the castle. Ever since the last time he’d kissed her. For seven long years.

      Forever.

      In one quick move, he pushed her into the shadows at the side of the arch and caged her against the stones. Her eyes darkened; her breath caught. He could have sworn he felt her body melting into his until every soft, round curve fit perfectly.

      “Wait. In my fantasy, I’m supposed to be the seductress.”

      “You’ve done your job.” He streaked his hands up her sides and thrust his fingers into her hair and crushed her lips with his. The low purr in her throat shot fire straight to his loins. The desire he’d felt for her, already consuming, became even more raw, more impatient, more primitive. Undeniable. It beat in his blood, in his mind, until he couldn’t think. He could only want. Take.

      He inched them farther into the shadows, but she slowed his progress by fisting her hands in his hair to keep his mouth on hers. Gone was the slow, gentle seduction she’d begun beneath the arch. Her tongue met his, tangling, tasting, testing. Her hands were just as demanding, tugging his shirt free from his pants so she could run her hands up his back.

      And those nails. Each scrape, each little stab fanned the flames she’d ignited with her story. He couldn’t stop touching her. She was stronger than he’d imagined and more agile. She moved against him, not in submission but in aggression. Give me more, she seemed to demand. As if there were something he was holding back.

      He wasn’t. He couldn’t. He thought he’d known all the variations of desire before, but it had never sliced at his control this way. As he dragged her closer, he thought that maybe she was all he’d ever wanted—the softness, the fire. When she was pressed against him like this, it was easy to block out the past, the future, and think only of now. Of having her right now.

      Nell told herself she had to think. She had to breathe. But the searing heat he created was burning her seduction plans with the ferocity of a wildfire. When he tore away his mouth to run kisses over her face, her throat, she dragged in a breath and willed the oxygen to her brain. She needed a new plan.

      “Wait.”

      “Nell....” His grip on her tightened. “You want me to stop?”

      “No. I just want you to let me show you another fantasy I’ve dreamed of.” The night air filled her lungs, and the sound of her ragged breathing mingled with his was erotic, tempting. “I’ve dreamed so often of doing this.” She pulled his belt free. “And this.” She unsnapped his jeans and tugged down the zipper. “And finally this.” She freed him and wrapped her hand around him. The instant she did, she revised the rest of her plan because she simply couldn’t wait another moment. “Now you can kiss me again.”

      The instant his mouth crushed hers, she did her best to melt into him. Her body had never felt this alive. She could even feel her blood racing through her veins. There was so much to absorb—every hard angle and plane of his body. The roughness of his hands as he gripped her hips to pull her closer. The sharp, unyielding press of the rocks at her back. Each separate sensation brought its own unique thrill.

      He tore his mouth from hers to run his lips over her face as if he was determined to absorb every texture through the sense of taste alone. Then he kissed her again with a thorough, feverish fury as if he were looking for some flavor that she might deny him.

      She denied him nothing. He was showing her more than anyone ever had, opening doors she hadn’t known existed. And he could give her more. More than she’d ever imagined. The very thought that he might take her here and now, with such urgent need and desperation, sent her own desires spiraling. She raced her mouth down his neck, sank her teeth into the curve of his shoulder. The flavors were amazing. Addicting.

      Now. The word hammered in her blood, pounded in her mind, as she dragged her mouth free of his. The cool night air eased her burning lungs as he dealt with her clothes. She thought she’d never felt anything more erotic than the slide of her dress over her arms and head. Once free of it, she wrapped her arms and legs around him.

      They’d waited too long. A lifetime. He lifted her hips; she wrapped her legs around him.

      “Now.”

      When she said the word, fresh needs exploded inside of him. Reid could see her eyes in the muted light, needed to see them as the last of his control shredded. He plunged into her. She surrounded him. For a moment, neither of them moved.

      If he could have, he would have held on to the moment forever. But she’d weakened him when she’d begun to strip him. Unable to resist, he began to move, quickly, fiercely. The sultry sound of her moans fanned the flames as she matched him thrust for thrust until he knew nothing else, wanted nothing else. He swore once without knowing what he cursed. Then savagely he increased the pace. Faster and faster, harder and harder, they raced into the vortex of a storm—a place where neither of them had ever been. Then they shattered.

      * * *

      SANITY SLIPPED IN SLOWLY. Reid had no idea how long he’d stood there, pressing her into the stone arch as bits and pieces of reality trickled in. She was still wrapped tightly around him, her head on his shoulder. His breath was still coming in gasps. His heart was still hammering against his chest. He still couldn’t think clearly.

      And he was trembling.

      No woman had ever made him tremble before. Somehow he found the strength to angle his head so that he could look at her. Her eyes were open, dazed. A fresh wave of desire shot through him. He felt himself grow hard again inside her.

      Good Lord, he needed a moment. Just a moment, he told himself. Or he was going to take her again like a madman.

      Murmuring his name, Nell ran her hand down his back. There’d been something in his eyes when he’d looked at her—vulnerability. It had her nestling closer. The gesture flooded him with warmth.

      “It wasn’t exactly what I’d planned.”

      “I’ll take it. Gladly.” Reid tipped her chin up. “Are you all right? I wasn’t careful.”

      She smiled at him. “Neither was I.”

      “I wasn’t careful about something else. Protection.”

      She cupped his face in her hands. “I have it covered.”

      His body jerked, pressing her hard into the side of the arch. The pinging sound registered in her brain at the same instant that she felt the sting on her cheek. Reid pivoted, holding her tightly against him as he sprinted into the stone arch. Then she was on the ground, his body on top of hers and her breath whooshed out.

      “Don’t move,” he said.

      Not a possibility. She could barely drag in a breath. Her mind was racing to process what had just happened—the jerk of Reid’s body, the sound like stone hitting stone.

      “What happened?” she asked.

      “Someone took a shot at us.” He’d lifted his head and was staring beyond them through the other end of the tunnel at the wooded hillside behind the stone arch. Her lover was gone and the Secret Service agent was back.

      “The floodlights don’t spill in this far,” he was saying, “so I think we’re safe