Velvet Haven

centuries.”
    “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
    “A brother. You?”
    “Nope, an only child. It was a pretty lonely childhood.” She couldn’t help but notice how he was looking at her. When he tilted her face up with his fingers, she shivered. “What?” she asked, bristling under that stare of his.
    “I’m just thinking how beautiful you look in the moonlight. How right, as though you were made to walk in the woods beneath it.”
    She didn’t know what to say. This guy was so smooth. So experienced.
    “It’s not an empty compliment,” he murmured, lowering his head. “I don’t give compliments, or at least not ones like that.” His mouth hovered over hers, and they looked into each other’s eyes for the longest moment. Mairi was screaming inside for him to take her mouth and plunder her lips. He did, but it was not the sort of kiss she expected from someone who looked like Bran.
    It was soft. A sweet brushing of his mouth over hers. Slowly. And again. Then he opened his mouth and kissed her, covering her lips with his open ones. It turned a bit hungrier, a bit deeper, and then his tongue was sliding between her lips, and Mairi felt her entire body go limp.
    This man could kiss!
    She clung to him, her fingers pressing into his thick biceps. He pushed her back a few steps and brought her up against the wall of the mansion. His hands shot out, his palms landing flat against the wall on either side of her. He was breathing hard as he looked down at her. Then, like a hawk, he swooped down and captured her mouth, devouring her in a kiss that was blistering hot.
    Mairi had never been kissed like this, like she was food and he a starving man. But oh, God, she loved it. The way it made her feel. Her entire body flared to life, her blood heating her, especially her core.
    He tore his mouth away and pressed his lips to the pulse that bounded madly at her throat. “You smell so good,” he growled. She heard him inhale, felt him brush his face into her hair.
    She clawed at his shoulders, holding him to her neck as he began to suck and nibble at the flesh, working his way down to the V of her T-shirt. He was pulling the fabric aside, revealing the swell of her breast. His tongue, hot and wet, trailed between the cleft of her breasts and she moaned his name.
    His hand left the wall and he snaked his arm through his coat, wrapping it around her waist, slamming her up against his body. He was hard, his cock pressing up against her as he ground his pelvis into her, rubbing in small circles, making her feel him. And holy hell, did he feel big and hard. And she wanted it, buried deep inside her.
    “Weep for me, Mairi. Let me smell it.”
    She could barely understand him, she was out of control with lust. She didn’t sleep with strangers, but this guy . . . she would not give up a chance to experience a night with Bran. She would never have another chance, and he was too amazing to pass up.
    “Let’s go inside,” she begged, giving him an open invitation to strip her bare and plunge into her.
    He pulled back as if she had slapped him. “I’m forgetting myself.”
    “No, oh, no,” she gasped, pulling him closer. “It’s all right. Really all right. ”
    “This isn’t what I had intended when I brought you up here.”
    “I know,” she said, “but I want to.” She hated that her voice sounded needy as she tried to entice him back to her. But hell, the orgasm of her life, the one she sensed Bran would give her, was pulling away. Bran was acting as though he didn’t want her.
    That thought was like a bucket of water overhead, cooling her libido.
    “Oh,” she said, embarrassed. “I get it.” Maybe she was throwing off those needy, clingy vibes that made men nervous. Or maybe he wasn’t that interested in her. One thing was for sure: She was confused as hell by his sudden coolness toward her.
    His eyes darkened and he reached out to caress her cheek with his fingertips. “I can’t do this. You’re not that type of woman, Mairi.”
    Her lips trembled and she nodded, feeling totally humiliated. She got it. It hurt. And she turned away, walking as fast as she could back into the mansion. She refused to look back over her shoulder. She didn’t want to see him standing there, watching her.
    At the door of the study, she paused to listen for his heavy steps. There was no sound but the waves crashing, hitting the sand and rocks. Thunder rumbled, and a flash of lightning lit the room in a