Meg Allison
Indulge your senses...
Historical Romance
When Alaina Ryan promised to take her father home to die, she never dreamed he wished her to marry a stranger.
After surviving the War Between the States and a violent attack, she’s unable to stand the thought of a man’s touch. But her betrothed awakens new feelings and Alaina finds herself trusting him despite her fears.
Torin O’Brien regrets his misspent youth and the death of his first love. Unwilling to burden another with the shadow cast over his life, he refuses to consider marriage. Then Alaina’s beauty and sweet nature tempt him beyond measure, and his resolve is sorely tested.
But what kind of life can they share if no one trusts a man accused of murder?
Print ISBN# 1-59998-408-3
EXCERPT:
She moved as if to stand and he leapt forward, toppling his chair in the process, and grabbed her in his arms as she started to fall.
“Mind your ankle,” he admonished. Torin’s senses went on full alert as he gathered her close and held her. “I didn’t mean to imply—I’m sorry, Alaina.”
She gazed up into his eyes and he felt her ridged body soften in his embrace. He lifted her from her feet and sat down again in her chair with her in his lap as she looked at him in wonder.
For a moment he forgot the past and the future. All he could think of was the woman sitting in his lap. Nothing else mattered. He understood now the recognition that sparked between their souls on the dock at Ballyvaughn. They were created for one another.
Neither of them spoke. The air hung heavy between them. The attraction had become too much to ignore.
She stared at him, her breathing short and shallow as her eyes clouded. He knew what she was feeling, even if she did not. He knew how to satisfy the fire that smoldered in those amber depths. How he wanted to satisfy them both…here…now.
He claimed her mouth in a gentle kiss—a sweet kiss borne of tenderness and wrapped in control. But it produced the spark he had dreaded and soon scorched his last visage of self-restraint. Her soft hands on his face were his undoing—the ardent acceptance of his lips on hers, his breaking point.
Alaina moaned softly as he wrapped his arms about her and pulled her more deeply into the kiss. He stroked the seam of her lips with his tongue and she opened for him, allowing him to delve into the sweet recesses of her mouth. She gasped and pulled away a little before he coaxed her back, closer, deeper.
Her fingers threaded through his hair and Torin felt the weight of her bottom pressed against him. The sensation increased the flow of blood to that region as his body hardened with need and desire.
Thought became hazy as lust took over. The feel of her curves beneath his hands…the scent of her hair…the small sounds of pleasure she made as his tongue dueled with hers were all his undoing. All he knew was her touch, the feel of her, the need that rose until the feral beast within demanded he take her. Now. His woman. She had been given to him. Why not take what had been dropped at his feet?
Then her soft sigh of acceptance, her sweet, innocent trust as she all but melted into him did what no amount of cold water or self-righteous denial could. It tamed the beast and sent it slithering back to where it belonged.
Torin pulled back from her, his hands gentle but firm on her flushed face as he broke the kiss. “Forgive me,” he muttered, his voice still thick with passion. He leaned his forehead against hers and fought to control his ragged breathing and the roar of blood through his veins. Other parts of his anatomy protested as he pulled away.
“What for?” she asked as she blinked her clouded eyes in confusion.
Torin sighed. “For taking advantage. You’re far too innocent for your own good, lass.”
That seemed to shock her out of her daze. “I am not.” He raised a brow and her face turned scarlet. “I mean…” She cleared her throat. “You say it like it’s something to be ashamed of when it’s not. You were the one that started this…” She waved a hand between them and glanced away, arms folded over her middle.
(c)2007 Meg Allison