Bride of Fortune by Shirl Henke

Author:Shirl Henke [Henke, Shirl]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Shirl Henke
Published: 2012-03-20T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Nicholas thought he was drowning, attempting to thrash his way to the top of a pool of foul, stagnant water. Ice-cold water. His teeth chattered and he shook, causing a searing arc of pain to shoot across his shoulder and arm. Then he felt the warmth of another heartbeat, another body. Soft heat enveloped him, small smooth hands soothed him. He could feel her body fitted against his, perfectly familiar as no other woman's had ever been. The fragrance of lavender filled his nostrils as he drifted off into peaceful oblivion at last.

Mercedes felt him relax. The chills that had wracked his body were over and he slept naturally for the first time in forty-eight hours. She had spent the second night lying beside him, at times throwing her own body over his to keep him from breaking open his stitches as he struggled against the linen bonds that held him fast to the mattress. When the chills began, she covered him with warm blankets, then stripped off her clothes and pressed her body against his to quiet him. Sometime during the night the fever had broken. She had removed the bindings from his wrists and ankles, and then she had drifted off to sleep herself.

Scooting over in the bed, she sat up and studied the man sleeping so peacefully. His swarthy skin was pale from his brush with death but still bronzed against the white bed linens. A beard stubble shadowed his jaw, giving his face a piratical look. Those troubling wolf's eyes were closed, the thick dark lashes swept down onto the high, finely chiseled cheekbones. She reached out and touched his face, letting her fingers feel the raspy scratch of whiskers, trace the elegant contour of his thin hawkish nose, glide over the smooth arch of a heavy black eyebrow. Sleep made him look younger.

Her hand moved lower, unconsciously seeking out the steady reassuring drum of his heartbeat as she pressed her palm against the hard slab of chest muscle. When her hand followed the natural pathway of the narrowing arrow of body hair that vanished below the covers at his waist, she withdrew it abruptly with a small gasp of recognition. She wanted him to make love to her, wanted to feel what she had felt lying beneath him on the hard rocky earth! He possessed her very soul now. Here she sat, completely naked in his big bed, gazing down lustfully on his equally naked body, caressing it while he slept!

“Don't stop now, beloved. You were just reaching the best part,” his husky voice whispered. He chuckled when she gasped again and seized the edge of the sheet, pulling it up to cover her breasts. His eyes blinked open and he looked at Mercedes. She looked enchanting with her cheeks pinkened in embarrassment, her hair tousled and falling in tangles around her shoulders. Her amber eyes met his, darkening in accusation.

“You were supposed to be asleep,” she said crossly, self-consciously running her fingers through her hair.

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