Had CC remained passive, Noah would have soon tired of the game, but she refused to submit gracefully to his attempt to overpower her. With all her might she fought against his hold, until in a moment of desperate desire, she tried to yank free. The cloth of her shirt gave way, revealing in the night’s deep shadows the full, round perfection of her breasts.

The sound of the tearing cloth penetrated Noah’s thoughts, and he drew back sharply to look down at the ragged piece of material he clutched in his hand, and then at her. Cecelia Demorest, Noah decided rather distractedly, had a beautiful body. Her hair…her eyes…and, bare for him to see for the first time, her breasts. Pale-hued and pink-crested, they rose and fell with the uneven tenor of her rapid breathing, and Noah could not stop himself from dropping the shred of cloth and reaching out to touch their creamy, hard-tipped perfection.

CC stood still, watching dazedly as he reached out to touch, ever so lightly, the swelling, taut fullness of her breast before moving to tease the pert, aching peak. The thrill of those practiced fingers caressing her most sensitive flesh was so unbearably erotic that CC felt her knees weaken, and she began to shiver. It was only with the sound of a low moan, one she realized later had come from her own throat, that reality intruded. Jerking quickly away from his questing, arousing touch, she desperately attempted to cover herself with the frayed material.

“No! Get away from me, Kincade!”

Noah, not used to being denied, was not about to let her put him off. She had been playing with fire, and it was time she learned that he was the one in control.

“Oh no, my little hellcat…” He leered at her appreciatively as he took hold of her shoulders, and the shirt once again gaped open. With slow, torturing precision, he drew her inexorably to him. “You started this, and by God, you’re going to finish it!”

“I hate you!”

“I know.” His mouth curved in an almost demonic slant as he bent to her. “You’ve hated me from the first…”

Why not? Noah thought as the need for release pulsed hungrily within him. Obviously the chit had the morals of a streetwalker if she was dressing up like a boy and involving herself in such volatile, masculine matters as the political underground. Noah felt certain he wouldn’t be the first to taste of her lovely charms, and he knew he surely wouldn’t be the last.

Crushing her to his chest, he kissed her hungrily. He wanted a woman, she was there, and despite her protests, Noah could tell by the response of her body that she was not as averse to his touch as she wanted him to believe.

CC was scared, more scared than she’d ever been in her life. Kincade’s hands were everywhere, touching, probing, exploring, and yet all the while preventing her from escaping his dastardly clutches. Her breasts, bare and sensitive, were throbbing as his fingers worked their magic on their pink crests. When his mouth left hers, moving lower to suckle one hardened peak, her legs buckled. Only Noah’s strong arm about her waist supported her, and she was unable to fight…unable to flee. She was mindless in her need. Never before had a man touched her so, and never in her wildest dreams had she ever considered that a man’s caress could bring such physical ecstasy.

As his lips and tongue continued their mesmerizing play, Noah slipped one hand lower to cover the sweetness of her heat. Suddenly he wanted more from CC than just to ease his manly need in the depths of her body. She was a flame of excitement to him…the feel of her…the scent of her. His senses were enraptured by her nearness. The desire for a passionate union with this woman surged through him, and Noah knew he would settle for no less.

CC didn’t understand exactly what was happening to her, but the languid weakness that had spread through her at the touch of his lips on her breast became now a driving force, urging her to move against the hand he pressed so tightly, so intimately to her most secret places. Noah accommodated CC’s movements, matching the thrusting of her hips to massage her expertly to heights she’d never known existed. He wanted to please her and to show her the ecstasy only his touch could give.

Hands that had fought him earlier gripped his shoulders now in rapturous desperation…wanting…needing…craving. CC’s breathing was strained, panting as her body responded wantonly to Noah. When he moved to kiss her again, bringing her hips full against the hardness of him, a rainbow of rapture shot through her at the alien contact that suddenly seemed so right. He held her hips pinioned to his, letting her move against him in feverish rhythm until she crested the peak her body had instinctively known would come. Shudders of spendor wracked her slim form as she collapsed in his arms, her head thrown back in sated ecstasy, her eyes closed, savoring the delights her body had just revealed to her.

It pleased Noah to find that she was so responsive to him and that he could pleasure her so easily, and he laughed softly as he held her cradled victoriously against the hardness of his chest.

It was that arrogant, deep-throated chuckle as his lips sought once again the soft flesh of her exposed throat that jarred her back to reality. CC blinked in shocked realization of what she’d done. She had allowed him liberties she’d never allowed another, and now he was laughing!

“Now, love, you shall know true satisfaction,” Noah was saying as he started to strip her pants from her in preparation of introducing her to the joy of love’s completeness. He was caught totally by surprise when CC let out a high-pitched shriek of indignity and pushed away from him full-force. Stunned to find herself out of his restrictive embrace, she backed nervously away from him.

“How dare you? You are more vile than I ever dreamed!” she cried, clutching her arms about herself protectively as she stared up at him with wide, terror-filled eyes.

How could this have happened to her? Somehow she had to get away! She had to!

Noah loomed threatening above her, his face dark with anger, his eyes narrowed and glittering. “So it’s a tease you are, is it?” he thundered, not willing to let it end so easily between them. His body was on fire with desire for her, and he had no intention of letting her flee from him. He reached out to her, wanting to finish what they’d started.

CC backed desperately away from him, but she found herself pinned against the wall of the stable. He moved forward, his expression so ominous that she knew there would be no escaping his wrath. She thought about running, but he was blocking her only path of escape.

“No…” She held up one hand to ward him off, turning her head against the sight of him, so tall and dark and foreboding.

“Oh yes, my little hellcat. Even a tease has to pay the price sometime, and your time is now.” Noah’s tone was unyielding, as were his hands as he reached out and grasped her by her upper arms. The sweetness of the moment was gone. Before she could protest again, his mouth swooped down to cover hers as his hands slipped within the waistband of her trousers to touch the womanly core of her that he so longed to penetrate.

Only the sound of the door to the meeting room opening and low, muffled voices coming their way saved CC from Noah’s full possession. Hearing the others coming, Noah gave a growl of complete frustration and released her abruptly, stepping away. He eyed her disdainfully as he straightened his clothing with a casual nonchalance.

“I would suggest you cover yourself or leave,” he advised dispassionately. “Unless, that is, your friends are used to your doing this. In fact,” he added in a low tone, “if you wish, you may come to my room at the Red Lion Inn later. Then we can see this to a proper end.”

“How dare you?” She gasped at his words and struck out at him with all her might, the sound of her hand connecting with his cheek rending the night.