Sweet Temptation by Leigh Greenwood Page B

that smoldered slowly, irresistibly, toward the powder keg that would soon cause the only existence she had ever known to explode into nothingness, and she was totally unable to do anything to prevent it.
    She was unable to resist when he pulled her closer to him. His nearness, the intensity of his presence, the force of his attractiveness took her breath away. Why, when she had thought of him all those years, had she never realized what it would be like, really be like, to be with him? In her imagination, being with him had been a natural thing, something she did willingly, not waiting fearfully and apprehensively in the dark, wondering what would happen next. This was nothing like the wonder and magic she had dreamed of, nothing like the ecstasy she had looked forward to. She felt as though she were not a participant, merely an object to be used.
    Sara was unable to resist when he reached over and roughly kissed her full on the lips, but she could not repress a tiny gasp of shock. The trepidation and fear was still there, but deep inside her a tiny kernel of pleasure began to unfold.
    Gavin noted both her surprise and her lack of response, but the taste of her sweet lips reinvigorated his flagging ardor and he took her slender, trembling body into his arms. Sara thought she would disintegrate from the impact of her excitement. Her entire body was on alert, every nerve screaming that she was under attack, that something shockingly new was happening to her; she didn’t know how to protect herself, or whether she even wanted to try.
    Gavin kissed her again, hungrily this time, his lips roughly crushing her mouth, and pressed her unresisting body against his chest. She was a skinny little thing, but curiously appealing nonetheless. There was a freshness about her, a feeling of newness that was unique in his experience, a sensation he found rather exciting. His tongue forced its way between her tightly compressed lips and plunged into her sweet mouth. At the same time his hands impatiently slipped the nightgown over her shoulders baring the breasts to his attack.
    “I’m going to kiss your breasts now. There’s no need to be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”
    Sara had not resisted when Gavin’s tongue ravaged her mouth even though she had wanted to. But now her body became rigid, and she gasped when his hot hands cupped her breasts; her breathing became shallow and rapid when his lips deserted her mouth for the rosy, mounding peak of her right breast. If her nervous system was in a panic before, it was having hysterics now. She hardly knew what she was feeling, but she was completely incapable of controlling her response. Everything was new, unsuspected, and affected her body so violently, her muscles rigidly refused to do anything she told them.
    Her maidenly modesty, horrified by what was happening, encouraged her to resist, to brush away the hands and lips that were being so free with her body. These feelings were so insistent she was only marginally aware of the sensation of sensual pleasure that continued to flower, that was vainly trying to make its presence known; ignorance and fear were the twin drivers as her emotional carriage careened out of control.
    Into his control, she realized. But was it so terrible a thing to surrender to him?
    “Don’t fight so hard,” Gavin murmured without ceasing his attention to her breasts. “Relax, and you may find it as enjoyable as I do.”
    With a great effort, Sara forced herself to lie perfectly still, not because Gavin told her she might enjoy it, but because she told herself it was her duty. She wasn’t supposed to enjoy this night, and she wasn’t. She wasn’t supposed to know what was happening to her, and she didn’t. But it frightened her. Gavin’s actions were nothing like what she expected. His lips and tongue attacked her body like a starving man at his first meal and his hands were like those of a blind man determined to memorize every inch of her. To lie here