Page 77 of The Burning Mountain
Silence reigned again.
“Why?”
“You know why.”Part nervousness, part defiance, and a greater part certainty made Chandra stand her ground when her instincts were screaming at her to run. She didn’t know when she had changed her mind to stay. To go all the way. He was her destiny, and this was inevitable, no matter how much she fought against it. And why should she fight? He may not have said the words, but he gave her something far more precious.
His trust.
“Because you love me?” he asked.
She frowned. For a man who confessed he didn’t enjoy feeling all those things for her, he seemed determined to get her to say she loved him repeatedly.
“I haven’t said it back, Princess. Doesn’t it matter to you?”
“It matters, but I’ll wait.”
“And what if I never say it? What if I reject you?”
Chandra flinched at his question. She peered at him, to divine what his thoughts might be to make him ask such a question. And found that there was, underneath a carefully cultivated mask of indifference, a maelstrom of emotions swirling in those pewter eyes. A longing that warred with guilt. A desperation that echoed and resonated with her own feelings.
His words said one thing, but his eyes conveyed the opposite meaning.
Don’t go. Stay. Be mine.
She was going to get nowhere, being shy and retiring. It wasn’t in her nature, anyway. She was the one who had asked him to keep his distance, so she was the only one who could rescind those vows. He had rendered the two things she asked of him null and void, so she would have to be the one to revoke this last thing. Yes, her heart spoke before her mind did, but it wasn’t a lie.
“Then, ask me to leave,” she said, chin tilting up.
“I already have,” he said past a clenched jaw, as if he was physically experiencing pain from having to utter them.
“Again,” she challenged.
Veer opened his mouth, but words never came out. Chandra watched the play of emotions on his face—the war he fought within himself.
And she realized with a heady sense of power, he could no more refuse her than cut his arm off. He could curse the day he laid eyes on her, but it wouldn’t matter. From their first meeting, they had been circling to this point in their relationship.
“Damn you,” he whispered finally, reverently, closing the distance between them and sweeping her into his arms. Her soul soared.
36
A NIGHT OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
He carried her farther into the room, to that bed that was so inviting. And intimidating at the same time. Bars of moonlight shifted on the floor, the moon bright enough to see each other clearly despite the lack of light in the room.
Gossamer curtains gently billowed in the room, the rise and fall of waves a constant beat that competed with the thunder of her heart.
He sat her at the edge of the bed and took a step back, watching her through those dark eyes.
She knew about the mechanics of making love. Kalpana and her sisters had inferred so many times that she was able to read between the lines. She knew that with the right person, it could be very satisfying.
He reached out and his fingers brushed her cheek, lingering on the faint scar that ran from her mouth to the edge of her jaw.
Self-conscious, she leaned back, but his fingers followed, and he cupped her chin gently. “There is nothing about you that turns me off, Princess. I like everything I see. Your scars, the way you wear your heart on your sleeve, the way you care. Everythingabout you drives me mad with longing. And I would like to know every part, every facet, every last bit of you.”
His fingers slid to the back of her neck, gripping her gently so she couldn’t retreat even if she wanted to, holding her still to receive his kiss.
A kiss that was nothing like the cautious, careful exploration of the previous one. This was like a force of nature. In the strength of the feelings it evoked. A tempest of need and want, of fires burning under the skin.
His rough jaw scraped the sensitive skin at the hollow of her neck. The blunt bite of his teeth at the strong tendon of her neck made her whimper. The path his calloused fingers took ignited fire along her nerves, a heat the coolness of the breeze couldn’t soothe, and made her itchy to remove those last barriers.
