The Beads of Nemesis by Elizabeth Hunter Page B

penalty the courts had imposed on her when she had taken responsibility for David’s death and the corresponding gossip that had so dismayed her family. What else could she do but agree with him when he hadn’t mentioned the word ‘love’ once to her certain knowledge?
    “Pericles,” she began. Her lashes swept down to hide her eyes.
    “Uh-huh?”
    “I wouldn’t ask you to pretend exactly, but her cheeks turned scarlet. “I haven’t told them that you find it convenient to marry me, because of the children and so on. Would you - would you mind very much - ” She broke off, unable to continue.
    “If I laid more stress on ‘and so on’ than on the children?” he
    suggested. There was amusement in his voice.
    She didn’t dare look at him. “They all knew that David preferred Delia to me. We all pretended for a while, but they knew, just as I knew.”
    “Perhaps we should get into practice,” he suggested.
    Her eyes widened and she shot him a swift glance. The brilliant laughter in his eyes did nothing to reassure her. “I only meant,” she said hurriedly, “that - that I’d prefer them to think that we were getting married for all the usual reasons -”
    “I know exactly what you want them to think!” he said. “All right, Karthia mou, we’ll play it your way. I may enjoy stringing them all along
    - especially Delia!” He put a hand beneath her hair on the nape of her neck and drew her towards him. She felt a suffocating sense of excitement and was immediately afraid that he would know how he affected her.
    With a little gasp, she pulled away, but he would have none of it.
    “You have to pay for your pride,” she heard him say as from a distance. “We can’t have you getting in a panic every time I touch you or no one will believe I find you irresistible, or that you melt with desire every time I come near you. That wouldn’t do at all, would it?”
    She licked her lips. “No,” she said.
    The pressure increased on the nape of her neck and, perforce, she had to take another step closer to him. His body was hard against hers and his arms were like two steel bands holding her tightly to him. The excitement within her exploded into something she had never
    experienced before. She was trembling and she scarcely knew whether it was with fear of the unknown, or with sheer longing for him to initiate her into that unknown.
    “You’re a better actress than I thought,” he said dryly, pushing her hair back from her face. “I could swear you were enjoying this!”
    She hid her face against his neck and pretended not to have heard him. But she could feel his laughter and it made her tremble still more.
    “Look up, little Morag,” he said more gently. “How can I kiss you when you hide from me?”
    She wished she had the courage to do as he asked, but she knew that if she did look up he would see what lay in her eyes.
    His fingers stroked the nape of her neck for a few more seconds, then they entangled themselves in her hair and forced her head backwards whether she would or would not. She shut her eyes, putting her hands flat against his chest, her body tense and waiting. “You have to kiss me too, you know!”
    “I can’t,” she breathed.
    “Why not?” he touched her mouth lightly with his own. “You have two excellent lips just made for kissing. All you have to do is this and this - and this.” The first two kisses were meant to tease her, but the third was of a different quality. It began just like the others, but soon the pressure of his firm mouth parted her lips beneath his and she felt his male joy in conquest as her resistance flared and died, changing into a delicious surrender that wanted only to please him. Her arms slipped up behind his head and the tension went out of her. She felt his hands exploring her back and the soft curve of her breasts and she dug her fingers deeper into his hair. It was tough and virile like him and showed as little sign of bending to her will, and