Claire Delacroix by The Moonstone Page B

him with a shiver. Niall was temporarily disconcerted by the bold display of her nipples, taut beneath the thin and now wet cloth of her chemise.
    Nay! He would not be tempted! Niall gritted his teeth and made to wish.
    But the witch crowed with delight before he could summon a verse to his lips.
    “You brought it!” She pried the moonstone free from a startled Niall’s fingers as her eyes widened in awe. “Oh, you wonderful man! I just knew that you had a good heart, I just knew that you were a true hero.”
    She flung her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek yet again. Niall caught a disconcerting whiff of the scent of her skin, more feminine than anything he had smelled in years. The wind and sun had filled her hair with the smell of outdoors, yet a perfume reminiscent of the finest flowers teased his nostrils. His eyes closed, his hands fell of their own accord to the neat indent of her waist.
    How long had it been since he tasted a woman fully?
    Niall inclined his head to kiss her fully, his eyes drifted closed before he consider the wisdom of his impulse. But Viviane lifted the chain of the pendant over his head with nimble fingers and proudly dropped it over her own.
    Niall gasped but she had turned away to show the others.
    “You see? Isn’t this just perfect? First, he saved my life, then he returned my pendant, then, oh -” she turned a shining glance upon Niall “- you show up just when I’m thinking about you and wondering about you, almost as though you heard my thoughts!” Viviane rewarded him with yet another dizzying kiss.
    Clearly she had discerned that he could be twisted to her will in this way, for this kiss fell leisurely upon his mouth. Niall tried to fight his response, knowing ’twas no coincidence that her soft lips so adeptly coaxed his response, that her tongue nudged against his own lips.
    But he lost. His fingers tightened, gathering a fistful of that bewitchingly sheer cloth and brushing against the ripe curve of her buttocks.
    She fit perfectly against him, her lips soft and alluring beneath his own. Aye, his blood was roaring, though he fought to remind himself that she sought only to manipulate him.
    Charm or nay, he wanted . Niall might have tightened his grip upon the temptress’s waist, slanted his mouth possessively across hers, intent on thoroughly sampled all she offered.
    But Viviane danced suddenly out of his grip, taking her talisman distinctly out of his reach. Niall instinctively snatched after her and the pendant, and she laughed.
    Zounds, she was more unpredictable than Majella!
    Viviane’s cheeks flushed prettily as she shook a finger at him, clearly savoring his frustration. “Not in front of everyone!” she chided, mischief in her eyes. Her kirtle lifted in the breeze, as though ’twould tease him with a greater glimpse of her slender thighs. Their gazes locked and a heat rose between them, a heat that Niall longed to turn to his own advantage.
    How he wished he could show this sorceress the fire she awakened!
    And how he wished he yet had a grip upon that talisman. He took a deep breath. Somehow Niall must win it back from her, and with all haste. ’Twas clear enough that he could not trust even his own response in this woman’s presence.
    But Viviane seemed intent on reminding him that ’twas she who would call the tune. She held the pendant out for the perusal of the others, the chain dangling from her fingertips, the stone winking in the sunlight.
    “Look? You see?” She was as delighted as a child with an unexpected sweet. “My mother gave this to me, it was a token from my father, but I lost it on the way here. I was so disappointed.” Viviane turned a dewy smile upon Niall. “But my very own knight brought it back to me. Just like an old tale of lovers true.”
    It seemed that ’twould be churlish to snatch at the woman in this particular moment and be gone. Niall folded his arms across his chest and resolved to await his chance.
    “What a