The Pleasure King's Bride. Emma Darcy

coals, glowing at her. He slid his hand from its enmeshment in her hair and gently cupped her cheek. He spoke slowly, softly, using his words like seductive tentacles, winding around her, binding her to him.

      “We want each other. There’s nothing wrong in that so just let it be, Christabel. Time to ourselves, doing whatever pleases us, being free of everything else, taking the night and making it our night.”

      Being free...just for one night...

      “Say yes, Christabel. Say you’ll stay with me.”

      “Yes,” she said, impelled by more than Jared would ever know to snatch this time from the life she had to lead, the life that was forever burdened by her blindly naive decision to marry Laurens Kruger. “I want this night with you, Jared.”

      One stolen night.

      What harm could there be in it?

      No harm...just pleasure...with the pleasure King.

      And he kissed her again to show her how it would be.

CHAPTER FIVE

      WHAT they had started had to be put on hold until later. They were not alone yet, not in any practical sense, but Christabel felt oddly disconnected to being a mother or a guest in the aftermath of losing her long-held guard against the desires Jared King stirred in her.