Endless moments stretched between them as they stood frozen, him waiting for admittance, her unwilling to grant it. His whirling thoughts grew as he took in the agitated rise and fall of her chest, the slight pursing of her full mouth. They stood tantalizingly close. He inhaled her breath, her scent, so achingly floral and familiar.
His eyes made a quick scan of her thinly-clad body. A spark of anticipation cut through him, igniting his desire. Christina grabbed a wrapper and struggled into the white garment. As she yanked it closed, she stared at him with angry green eyes.
He cleared his throat. “Shall we talk for a while?”
-190-
The Lady and the Dragon
“Talk?” she challenged. A bitter laugh followed. The cynical sound surprised him.
She was afraid, he realized. A new man, a new life. It seemed logical that such adjustments would breed anxiety.
He nudged through the door, then shut it behind him with a click.
“Christina, you are my wife. I cannot deny that I want you.”
The honesty of his soft words hung in the air between them. Christina touched a shaking hand to her chest and looked away.
Drawing in a sharp breath, she crossed to the other side of the room.
“Before we commence with the distasteful business of marriage, perhaps we should talk after all.”
The acidic tone of her voice raised Drex’s brow. He strode across the room and seated himself on the stool at her dressing table. The early evening moonlight gleamed with pale vigor through the window, giving her an ethereal glow. Silver light swirled about her. He swallowed against the rise of awareness.
“I am no simpering miss, I assure you,” she snapped.
Drex had to smile. “About that, there could be no mistake.”
She raised her chin, preparing for a fight. “I intend to further the cause of women in society, and you cannot stop me.”
He cocked his head in thought and scanned. Why had she chosen this particular subject tonight? “As you please.”
Her delicate hands balled into fists. “I’ll read what I want, think what I want, and do what I want.”
Drex wondered exactly what scheme she was planning, but decided he’d do well to play her game. He nodded.
Instead of placating her, his accord drew her taut-faced fury. “You do not own me. No man does!”
He said nothing, taking in her squared shoulders and gritted teeth, along with her earthy beauty. She wanted a fight he wasn’t eager to give. But he knew her enough to believe she wouldn’t give up until he pursued her path.
“Do you understand?” she asked, breath harsh.
-191-
Shelley Bradley
Drex let silence fill the air for a moment. “I understand. You like adventure and things you know you shouldn’t.”
Her eyes widened as she gasped. “That is not what I said.”
Drex rose and approached her, flashing her a shark’s smile when she stood her ground. “Of course it is. You like being where you shouldn’t, behaving in ways you know you shouldn’t.”
Christina’s bowed mouth dropped open. Her fists clenched. “Whatever you’ve heard, I am a lady.”
“Yes. And ten times the woman of any other in London. That is the reason I made you my wife.”
Christina drew in a ragged breath, momentarily silenced.
“You are beautiful,” he murmured.
Her eyes turned wary and wide as she retreated a step.
“I know what you want.” Her voice shook.
“Good. There shouldn’t be any confusion between us.”
He moved closer, closer. Christina stepped back once, then again. The third time, her back hit the wall. Drex followed, trapping her against the hard surface.
“I’ve longed to taste your sweet mouth,” he whispered as his gaze delved hers.
She opened her mouth, probably to deliver a stinging retort. But he leaned closer, mere inches from her. He could have touched her easily, in a multitude of places. He didn’t. Instead, he stood so close a whisper of air passed between them.
He found his breath trapped in his chest, his heart racing. The pulsing at her neck echoed his heartbeat. He planned to put his lips there first.
Her shallow breath caressed him like a feather, tantalizing. It transported him back in time. He could almost feel tangy Bahamian air on his skin and sweet Lilli moaning in his arms.
Finally, he touched her. She gasped as he caressed her shoulder. His fingers glided their way to the bare skin behind her neck. She exhaled on shaky breath.
-192-
The Lady and the Dragon
Drex held in a groan. He slid his hand up to her face, then to her hair. One by one, he pulled the pins free as she stood, silent, staring with those wide green eyes he couldn’t forget, and trembling. “I’ve waited forever to kiss you.”
Though he wanted to devour her, Drex forced himself to brush her lips with his own. A gentle feathering, as if taking the sugar from atop a cookie. She stiffened. He tasted her again, rediscovering the flavor and texture of her lips.
Christina’s behavior might be different, but somewhere under that starch was his Lilli.
He pulled away, trailing the pad of his thumb across her mouth before he covered her lips once more. This time, he penetrated her mouth and wrapped her stiff form in his embrace. His tongue swirled and played with hers, mated and beguiled.
Slowly, Christina relaxed in his arms. He encouraged her, kissing her neck, nibbling on her lobe, testing the fluttering pulse at her throat. He knew her breathy gasps, and the sounds filled him with triumph.
Slowly, her arms wound about his neck. Drex felt his blood pump through his veins in icy hot streams. His belly tightened. His cock hardened. He devoured her lips with a searing kiss.
Without warning, without reason, Christina wrenched from his grasp and turned her profile to him. Her tense bearing had returned, warning him away.
But with golden hair streaming down her back in an angel’s cloud and golden light bathing her in warmth, Drex succumbed to his yearning to touch her again.
As he caressed her shoulder, she turned her face to him, her expression flat. Stung, he dropped his hand to his side.
“Last summer, I fell in love,” she said without inflection.
Drex smiled softly, wonder infusing him like brilliant sunlight after a long winter. She hadn’t forgotten him. She truly had loved him. Perhaps she still did. Elation filled him. He reached for her again.
“He was a criminal by society’s standards, a pirate to most. I came to trust him, with both my heart and my body.”
Drex touched his hand to the small of her back and tried to nudge her closer. “I know all that. Christina, darling—”
-193-
Shelley Bradley
She twisted away from his touch. “I laid with a masked stranger whose name I never knew. I gave myself freely to a bastard who cut my heart out and left me to bleed. It won’t happen again.”
Drex let his hand fall away, stunned by her bitterness. He frowned as Christina walked past him to the center of the room. Immersed in gilded light, she discarded her wrapper, then her nightrail.
Naked, she faced him. Moonlit shadows clung like a phantom lover to the swells and hollows of her body. Pouty breasts and shimmering pink nipples beckoned. The sweet curve of her waist, accentuated by shades of gray, lengthened into a flat stomach and long legs.
Drex lost his breath, his mind, as he stared at the temptation she offered.
God, he’d waited, forever it seemed.
Then his stare made its way up again. He took in her squared shoulders and taut cheeks, her face a beautiful fortress guarding her tattered heart.
Drex couldn’t move, couldn’t speak or comprehend.
Christina cast him another flat stare, then made her way to the bed. Drex’s gaze consumed the lithe curve of her waist, the graceful slope of her spine as it dipped to her pale, round buttocks and slender thighs. The ability to breathe left him.