Chapter 31

Her name was a low and repeated sound on his lips as he kissed each part of her face, her neck, her hair. His hands burned into her, searching her narrow waist. and slender flanks with a growing demand that Natalie knew would not be denied for very much longer. She had no will to break away. Kip's urgency was part of her too.

Tasting was no longer enough. They strained together with a frantic yearning and her body moved to accommodate him when his hand slid inside her shirt to close around the still-damp contours of her breast, his fingers seeking the sharply aroused peak with an almost cruel compulsion.

'I want you! I can't wait for you!' He breathed the words into her mouth, arching her back, the close confines of the seat bringing a low growl of impatience to his throat. 'I can't make love to you here, in the front seat of a car on an open road. Come back home with me. Stay with me, Natalie!'

'I can't!' The denial seemed to be torn out of her. Words seemed to bring her to her senses and she found herself looking with distressed eyes into the burning dark of his. His skin was flushed and the fingers that flexed against her breast trembled.

'Can't, or won't?' he asked thickly. 'You want to be in my bed and I want you there.' He sat up, moving slowly away from her, relaxing the vibrant sexual tension.

'Please!' She tried to sit upright, trembling too much to really trust her own voice, looking quickly away. 'This—this is just one of those things—it's...' What was it? He didn't love her, she didn't love him. It was merely a sexual need, the sort of thing that had always disgusted her. It was an almost violent feeling that she could not accept and yet there was nothing of disgust in her when she thought of being in Kip's arms.

She found herself meeting his eyes almost warily and for a second his darkened gaze held hers.

'It's sheer necessity—for both of us,' he informed her in an uneven voice. 'You want me to promise it won't happen again? I can't guarantee it. I don't want to. I'm through pretending, Natalie. I want you as I've wanted no woman before in my life.'

He started the engine and she slowly allowed herself to breathe again. Nobody had ever taken her by storm before. Nobody had ever said outright the things that Kip had said. Her own reaction to him scared her and she knew his idea of love—one or two nights. She looked out of the window, trying to compose herself and not doing very well at all.

'How long do you imagine we can keep this up?' he growled as they neared her hotel. Neither of them had spoken all the way in and the tension had mounted with every passing mile. 'I'm not letting you out of my sight because you'll surely kill yourself as you could so easily have done today. When you're in my sight I want you and you melt into me as soon as I touch you. You want exactly what I want, Natalie. Admit it.'

'I—I don't. I can't think why...' She heard her own voice shaking and he certainly heard it too. 'When the others come-'

'There'll just be more people around to get in the way,' he snapped. 'Crowds won't make any difference, however large.'

'You forget. I'll be leaving with them.'

He shot her one of those lightning glances that brought shudders to her skin.

'All right, butterfly. Escape. Forget me.'

'I will,' she said angrily, annoyed at the sudden taunting note in his voice. 'In any case, there's nothing to forget. I don't even know you at all.'

'You knew me on sight,' he scoffed.

'You didn't even like me on sight!'

Unexpectedly he grinned to himself. 'You seemed inadequate for your profession. I knew as soon as I saw you just who would be looking after you. It annoyed me. I've had to rescue you with almost every move you made.'

'I'm really sorry,' Natalie fumed bitterly, glad to have the excuse for temper. It was more reassuring than her other feelings.

'Don't be,' he interrupted before she could enlarge on her sarcastic beginning. 'I'm getting a taste for tucking you under my arm. You're different. Maybe I've grown too accustomed to women who cope with events and stand up to them.'

'Or lie down for them,' Natalie put in with a crude annoyance, thinking of Annette Shelton.

'I confessed my love-life,' he murmured infuriatingly, just as she realised that the thought of Annette Shelton made her feel jealous. What was she thinking of? Jealous? She had been jealous of Paula because of Neil. Kip Forsythe could go and do whatever he liked. In about a week she would be away from here and never see him again.