Passion's Tide (44 page)

Amber’s eyes snapped open
.
“No!” she gasped, her hands flying to her breast to keep the ring
hidden beneath her bodice
.
With her outburst, the tears she had been holding back began falling in earnest
.
Logan ignored her and freed the rest of the chain from where it was concealed beneath her dress.

“I think I’ll keep this, whatever it is,” he said as his fingers tightened around the thin gold
rope
.
With a single tug he broke it and pulled both ends towards him
.
She made a final, futile grab for the chain, but he easily tore it from her grasp
.
“Now, lets see what you were hiding between those de
lectable breasts of yours…” he trailed off into silence
.
Amber slowly turned around to face him
.
His expression was unreadable; his eyes were locked on the ring where it lay in his open palm amidst the coils of the broken chain
.

“You kept this?” he as
ked, his voice incredulous as he stared down at the gold hoop
.

“I had to,” her quiet voice replied.

His eyes drew up to meet her gaze
.
“You lied to me.”

“Let me explain—” his lips crushing down against her mouth silenced her, as his arms surrounded her and pulled her tight against h
is body
.
He kissed her with such intensity that the wall she had tried to erect between them crumbled instantly, and she found herself obeying her body and relenting to the heat of his embrace
.

“You lied to me,” he repeated, his voice a low growl ag
ainst her lips.

“Please,” she begged, her hands at the back of his head, tangling in his thick dark hair and trying to pull his face closer to hers
.
A whimper
escaped her throat as he took a step back.

A dark storm raged in his eyes as
he surveyed her flushed cheeks, her parted lips
.
“Swear to me you’ll never lie again,” he demanded
.
At her quick nod he closed the distance between them and took her mouth again for another feverish kiss that left her lightheaded
and swooning against
him for more
.
His urgent hands swept along her shoulders down to the small of her back, and then even lower, bunching handfuls of her skirt and pulling her tighter.

He cupped her chin and tilted her head back, his mouth leaving hers to burn a trail of
kisses down her exposed neck and chest
.
Her mind went blank, drunk on the heady scent of him and the sensation of his touch
.
She knew only the fierce need that drove her to him, the hunger that made her arch her back against his hard
body, the desir
e to feel his skin against hers.

“You don’t know how I’ve missed you,” he whispered against her neck
.
“Every night I spent without you was torture.”

She opened her mouth to reply that she
did
know, that part of her died when Mendoza shut the door on h
er that fateful night, but he was kissing her again and she forgot what she was going to say
.
Instead, she found herself murmuring his name over and over again.

“Logan,” she breathed, grabbing the lapels of his waistcoat and pulling her hips against hi
s erection
.
He groaned
.
“Logan, I need you.”

“I know sweetheart, I–” his head shot up, and he covered her mouth with his hand as he listened to the faint footsteps of approaching people
.
With his hand still in place he dragged her backwards i
nto the shadows
.

Amber watched as Dominic
marched
into the light, a flustered Olivia behind him
,
trying to keep up with his
longer
strides.

“Dom, slow down!  I can’t help you
to l
ook if I am running behind you,” Olivia complained, stopping in the center of the path and planting her feet
.
Dominic spun around angrily.

“If you hadn’t lost her we wouldn’t be out here looking at all, and I would still be inside, winning another thousand pounds off of Warwick
.
So shut up and keep looking
, before mother discovers we’re all gone.” With a pout, Olivia followed him past the concealed couple and further down the path
.

Once they were gone Logan lowered his hand from Amber’s mouth
.
“We can’t stay out here,” he told her as he caressed her che
ek
.
“I can’t be seen.”

“Where can we go?”

“I think I know of a place where we can be alone,” he whispered, “if that’s what you want.”

She briefly thought about running after her cousins and letting them know she was fine, but decided against it
.
She
needed to be with Logan
.
So she held out her hand to him and smiled
.
“Take me.”

He swept her close for one last searing kiss, and then, after checking to make sure they wouldn’t be spotted, he led her back
towards the house
.
Instead of going in throu
gh the ballroom he quickly brought them through a dark servants
’
entrance, careful to avoid the bustling kitchen as they hurried down the hall
.
Then he led her up a damp staircase and onto the second floor
.

She stayed hidden as he ven
tured out to see if the hallway of the main house was deserted, and then darted through the
door he held
open
for her
.
Closing it behind him, he turned the key in the lock and pocketed it
.

As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she realized that they were in an expansive library
.
There were rows of floor to ceiling bookcases, and a window seat overlooking the garden
.
A large brick fireplace dominated one wall, there was a mahogany writing desk by the door, and a marble table with a chess set in the corner
.
Everythi
ng was decorated in rich golds and greens.

Amber would
instantly
have
felt at ease in the room, but the heat of Logan’s stare bore into the back of her neck
.
Unable to ignore it, she turned to him
.
He
lunged
at
her immediately
,
and she open
ed
her mouth to him and his
fervent
kisses. His arms lifted to steady her as he pushed her further into the room, her feet shuffling backwards while her hands worked on the buttons of his coat
.
A jolt of pain and a wooden object pre
ssing against the back of her knees
told her
that she had run into some sort of table, but Logan steered her around it with an apology, and they
fell to
the floor before the fire.

At once,
Amber
she gasped at the pleasure of having Logan’s full weight on her
.
She arched into him as his kisses deepened and moved from her mouth to the sensitive spot behind her ear
.
Desperate to feel his skin beneath her fingertips she started tugging at the cravat around his neck, s
truggling with the complicated knot until he loosened it
and tossed it aside
.
Her mouth went to his newly bared flesh, nipping and sucking at his neck.

“Minx,” he rasped, pulling away from her hot mouth
, and
kissing her again
.
He reac
hed under her back and tried to loosen the stays that held the bodice of her dress against her like a second skin, but ran into difficulty with the tight knot that her maid had tied
.
Before she could offer to help him, he had wrenched the dress apart with
a tug
.
She cringed at the ripping sound, but was soon distracted as Logan freed her breasts from the boning of the corset and lowered his mouth to one, his hand curving around the other one and gently squeezing
.
The shocking mix of sensations was overwh
elming and with a whimper she buried her fingers in his hair and thrust her breasts upwards, so he could possess them more fully.

He groaned
.
“Forgive me sweetheart, I have to have you
.
I can’t wait any longer
.
”
H
e lean
ed
back and reach
ed
beneath her skirts
.
He slipped off one shoe, and then the other, and
her eyes fluttered closed as his hands traveled up her silk-covered legs, her anticipation growing as he gr
ew nearer and nearer to the part of her that
craved
him the most.

Suddenly, he stopped
.
Amber prevented herself from calling out in exasperation
.
“What’s the matter?” she asked instead, studying his puzzled expression.

“What the hell is this
…” he trailed off and lifted her skirts, his head disappearing beneath them, “metal contraption?”

“Damn it,” she cursed, remembering the wire cage around her hips
.
“They’re called panniers, and they make my dress wider.”

His head reappeared with a wicked grin
.
“I thought you looked especially fat this evening,
but, being the gentleman I am, I refrained from mentioning it.” She giggled as his fingers tickled her thighs
.
She pushed him away.

“Stop that! They’re the newest fashion.”

“I don’t care
what it is,” he said as he continued to explore the metal hoop, “how the bloody hell do I get the damned thing off?”

“You can’t take them off without first removing my dress.”

Logan rolled his eyes
.
“I’ll never understand ladies fashion
.
Whoever decided that dresses should be made to hinder the wearer from passing t
hrough a doorway without turning sideways deserves to be shot
.
All right, new plan.” Without warning, he grabbed her waist and rolled
both of
them over so she was straddling him
.
“Problem solved.”

“Oh my,” she whispered, her body wiggling to adjust to the new position
.
Then she smiled
.
“Just like in the bathtub?”

Logan recalled the morning after they had first made love, when she had ridden him in the bathwater, and nodded
.
“Just like in the bathtub
.
Can you lift for me, sweetheart?” he asked, and a
s she did
he reached between their bodies and released himself from the front of his trousers
.
Then, holding himself in one hand and steadying her with the other, he guided her onto him
.

Amber closed her eyes and shuddered, her body at once accommodating the intrusion
.
She had almost forgotten how large he was, but perched on top of him like this she could feel every inch of him, stretching her, filling her
.
With a moan of satisfaction, she began to move against him, her speed increasing
rapidly as she brought herself closer to her own release
.
She threw back her head and braced her palms against his still-clothed chest as the heat spread to her toes, on the verge of exploding through her body with
monumental
force.

But Logan’s hand on her cheek stopped her, his amused voice quieting the need inside her
.
“Easy
love
, I haven’t done this in awhile
.
If you come apart right now I won’t be able to last, and I’ve waited too long for this to be over so soon.”

All the built-up heat rushed to her cheeks, and she smiled down at him in embarrassment
.
“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for being passionate
.
Don’t you ever apologize
.
You’re beautiful when you lose yourself, and normally I wouldn’t dream of stopping you
.
But just for
now, let’s keep it nice and slow
.
I want to finish with you.” She nodded and began moving again, this time at a more relaxed pace
.
“Ah, sweetheart, that’s perfect,” he told her as she slid up and down his hard length, punishing him with her gentleness
.
His hands roamed her body, pausing at her hips, her breasts, her neck, her face
.
He wanted to touch all of her, to feel her hot skin beneath his large hands, but he made do with th
at portion of her that
was exposed
,
and instead imagined her naked, filling in from memory what he couldn’t see through the layers of
her
dress
.