Give Me Tonight(68)

Addie made an effort to sound flippant. "I'm sure they'll miss you."

"Not as much as you would have."

"You're so conceited. I w—wouldn't have missed you."

"Just the same, I couldn't let you stay out here alone underneath all these stars."

"I wouldn't have minded being alone," she said, her breath catching as his hands slid behind her neck. "I've never minded it."

His palms traveled up to the hollow beneath her jaw, coming to rest on either side of her face. He couldn't keep from touching her any longer. "Then say you want me to leave. Go on. Say it."

She closed her eyes, fiercely willing herself to say the words, but they wouldn't come out. "I can't," she whispered in despair.

"Because you belong to me."

"No, not to anyone. I . . . I don't know why I want you. I don't even like you."

He smiled and brushed a kiss on her lips, so light she could hardly feel it. The hint of warmth was enough to make her gasp. Then he waited patiently, waited while seconds dragged by, silently daring her to make the next move. Finally her face nudged past the frame of his hands and her mouth came in search of his. Her lips were soft and seeking, and Ben made a low sound in his throat, tightening his arms until she was forced to stand on her toes. Hungrily she answered the pres­sure of his kiss, the movements of his tongue, know­ing she would never get enough of the taste of him.

He slid one hand up to the back of her neck and pushed his fingertips into her hair, wanting to bury himself in the softness of her. Addie touched him as she had dreamed so many times, moving her palms in circles across his back, straining her fingers through his hair, rubbing the pads of her fingers across his face and savoring the rough-smooth surface of his jaw.

"Finally," he breathed when their lips had parted, and she nodded, understanding his infinite relief . . . she felt it too.

"Don't look at me like that," she said, her fingers drifting across the back of his neck.

"I can't help it." One comer of his mouth lifted in a half-smile, and she smiled back at him unsteadily.

"It makes me nervous. You look like you're about to swallow me whole. "

He pressed his mouth to her forehead and then strung kisses from her hairline down to the tip of her nose. "I've got better things in mind, darlin'."

She was overwhelmed by the pleasure of being close to him. "This is . . . just awful," she said, her voice catching. "What am I going to do?"

Nothing could stop Ben from kissing her again, with a need that had built up in him for weeks. Her mouth shifted under his, alternately playful and demanding. Their passion burned hotter than before, and he lost all awareness of everything but her. A shudder es­caped him, and he fitted his hands over her hips, clamping their bodies together.

Addie wrapped her arms across his broad back.

Wrong or right, she couldn't deny him, when her en­tire being begged to be filled with him. She could feel his hands skimming over her back and waist, but the sensation was blurred by her thick corset. Never had she resented the prison of laces and stays so much. All she wanted was to be na**d in bed with him, learning the secrets that lovers shared.

Suddenly she realized how far she had traveled, the distance between what she'd once been and what she was now. With a shiver she pulled her mouth away, resting her forehead against his shoulder to keep him from finding her lips again.

"Addie?" he breathed, and she shook her head, gasping. He hooked an arm around her slender neck. "Tell me," he said, his mouth close to her ear. "Tell me."

"This isn't right."

"Oh, yes it is. It was meant to be like this between us. "

"I sh-shouldn't. Not with you."

"Why not?"

"Something tells me I should be afraid," she said in a stricken whisper.

"Of me?" he asked, becoming so gentle she hardly recognized him. "Why darlin'?"

"B-because wanting each other this way isn't enough. Once the desire is satisfied, there'll be noth­ing to keep us from tearing each other apart. And I won't survive it. Don't you understand?"

"No, I don't. Do you think I'd turn on you some­day? Is that it? I'd never hurt you, Addie—I couldn't if I tried. You have to believe that. "

She looked up at him and nodded, her eyes glittering in the moonlight. The sight took Ben's breath away.

"God, you're beautiful."               .

"I'm not." Self-consciously she tried to turn away, but he caught her chin and stared into her eyes.

"You are. Sometimes I can't take my eyes off you.

I can't sleep without dreaming about you."

"I dream about you too."

"And about this?" He cupped her breast in his palm and low-ered his mouth to her neck. She sighed and nuzzled her face into his shirt, pressing her cheek against the hard muscles underneath. Shivery delight raced through every nerve as he bit gently at a sensi­tive place on her throat. His thumb rushed over the peak of her breast, teasing, drawing pleasure from her body with every stroke.

"Does that feel good?" He caught her more firmly against him, continuing to fondle her lightly. "Does it?"