There was a darkness in his eyes, he had lost veneer of civilisation. Everything about him carried an aura of menace, almost of savagery. If it came to a fight between them she wouldn't have a chance against him and the cottage was so isolated. There wasn't a soul within earshot. She was at his mercy.
Her stomach clenched with a volcanic mixture of fear and excitement.
"I've waited three years to catch up with you," he whispered, watching her so intendly that she felt he knew what she was thinking, could pick up all her feelings. Her panic grew worse. If he could read her mind, she had no privacy from him. If he had the key to her most secrets thoughts, how could she protect herself?
"Three bad years, Linzi," he said curtly. "Night and day I've thought of nothing else but you -- catching up with you, finally having you...."
She was scarlet. "Don't say things like that! Ritchie, you........ you wouldn't...."
His gaze held her eyes, the blackness of night in his stare. "I would," he whispered. "I will."
"Don't threaten me!" she whispered hoarsely, shaking and knowing that he could feel the tremors running through her body. She fought to control them but her body was out of her control.
"Threaten you?" He smiled coldly. "That isn't a threat, Linzi, it's a simple statement of fact. An army couldn't stop me taking you now. Three years ago, I needed you, I begged you to stand by me, and you walked out on me."
"I didn't have any choice!" she said, anguished. "After you killed Barty, how could I ever see you again?"
His hand tightening on her arm, he Bent angrily towards her, and she flinched stiffening. Ritchie froze too, his grey eyes glittering like black stars.
"What did you think I was going to do?" he bit out, ice on his voice. "Kill you too?"
Shock made her eyes dilate, she hadn't known what he might do. This man was a stranger, unpredictable, disturbing. She couldn't begin to guess what he might do to her but he frightened her.
He laughed bitterly. "Oh, don't worry," he drawled. "That wasn't what I had in mind. Although the idea has occurred to me once or twice! When I was in that place, spending a lot of my time locked up in a cell hardly bigger than a broom cupboard, I used to fantasise about what I'd do to you when I caught up with you." He gave her a cold, mocking smile. "But killing you wasnt often an option. No, Linzi, I had other plans for you."
And then he swooped. His head came down so suddenly that Linzi didn't know what was happening until too late. She cried out in shock as his mouth touched her, the moist warmth of his tongue moving sensuously between her startled, parted lips.
She began to shake so violently she couldn't stand up. Ritchie took hold of her shoulders, still kissing her, she hung between his hands like a limp rag doll.
A second later he had taken his mouth off hers and she found herself tumbling back on to the lounger. Her long, fine hair blew across her face, blinding her. Before she could get up, Ritchie was on top of her, the weight of his body knocking all the breath out of her for that instant.
"No, don't," she muttered, her hands pushing at his wide shoulders, struggling underneath him. His hands caressed her bare midriff, trailing slowly across her smooth skin, his fingertips cool, tormenting.
"This is what I dreamt about for three years," he whispered, kissing her throat, light, flickering, frustratingly brief kisses brushing upwards, under her chin behind her ears, along her jawline.
She was shuddering, her mouth parted, breathing so fast that it hurt as she felt his hand creeping upwards to touch her breast. She jack-knifed in panic then her hands clenching into fists. "Stop it now, Ritchie! Stop...."
YOU ARE READING
Guilty Love (Completed)
Romansa"Everything I did was for you!" "For me? You killed my husband for me? Do you really think I wanted him dead? I loved him!" It was an obsessive passion. It had gone too far, and Linzi's husband had died as a result of it. Ritchie Calhoun was sexy an...
