Lilac Temptress by Elizabeth Davis Page A

flitted her
eyes open, and was instantly caught in his gaze.
    “ I know this may sound
brash, but I’ve been lying here restraining myself for far too
long, and I need to ask you if you will let me have the kiss that
you refused me earlier in the bar. Normally, I wouldn’t ask. To be
honest with you, I would just take it, and risk any consequence,
but I don’t want you to feel that I’m treating you like...
like...”
    “ A whore?” Sierra finished
Drake’s sentence for him, bolting upright. She was petrified at the
thought of kissing him. She had only shared such intimacies with
one other man, a mere reality, and he’d been gone for over a year
now.
    What did she know about kissing a man,
a real man, as good-looking and tempting as this one who rested
beside her? An experienced man his age, probably in his early
thirties, she guessed, would no doubt pick up on her inexperience
with kissing men. She was truly afraid to let him touch
her.
    “ If I permit you to
kiss me, it might lead to something more, and I can’t let that
happen. You cannot simply take what you will.” She pushed herself
away once again, putting distance between them on the bed. And then you would leave at dawn and I would
never see you again , she thought. “I don’t
think the choice would be a wise one.”
    “ Then I should take my
leave now. You do make things difficult for me,” Drake said with a
palpable yearning in his voice. “I don’t know how much longer I can
keep myself well behaved. You are the most enticing woman I’ve ever
met, and also the first to deny me her pleasure. You have my
deepest respects.” Drake rose up from the bed.
    Sierra just sat there, looking up at
him as he took his hat from the floor, and placed it on his head.
“It’s better that you walk outside my bedroom than give me
something I might forever miss. Already you’ve shared things with
me that I’ll always remember. You have my gratitude. Maybe one day
I might see your city.” Sierra blinked innocently at
him.
    “ For God’s sake woman!”
Drake said in exasperation, realizing in that moment how badly he
wanted to take her with him. He wanted to dress her like a proper
lady, and show her the power she had over him.
    He wanted to give her the
finer things in life. Take her to his home and have exquisite
dinners, and drink imported champagne. Perhaps go for long walks
along the Mississippi. He wanted to show her all the things in life
that she was missing, and how she would be wasting away if she
remained in a small town like Jadesville. I must be losing my mind. How could
I want so much for her and know so little about her? Drake wondered.
    He tried to reason with
himself. Maybe it was because she was the first woman to say no to
him and mean it. That had to be it, Drake thought. Women either threw themselves at
him or tried to be a challenge, which was often short lived. It had
been an easy sport to woo a woman into bed. He would treat her to
fine cuisine, buy her an expensive trinket, and say sentimental
things. Once he had won her over, which never took long, he might
take her to his townhome in New Orleans, into his
bedroom.
    If he had met Sierra back home, he
would have taken his time with her, rousing her desire until it
matched his own. But this wasn’t New Orleans, and he seemed to be
the only one aching with lust. No woman had ever made him burn for
her so badly, not even Isadora.
    Damn it! Drake recalled. He had completely forgotten about
Isadora, whom he thought of as his remote goddess. “Goodnight,
Sierra.” With those two words Drake departed.
    “ Goodnight, wonderful
stranger,” Sierra whispered softly after he had closed her door.
She was angry with herself for letting him go. Adrienne was right.
It was time for her to experience a man, but she once believed in
saving herself for marriage, and the man she loved. Despite the
fact that she thought true love might be a thing of fairytales, she
would let no man ruin her so easily.