Wildest Hearts

little talk,” Oliver said.

    “So am I. The thing is, Oliver, you can't go through life manipulating and bullying people, even if you think it's for their own good.”

    “I see.”

    “You have to learn to trust others if you want them to trust you. Trust builds trust. Suspicion just creates more suspicion.”

    “I appreciate your thinking on the matter.” Oliver opened his arms. “Can we go back to bed now?”

    Annie went to him at once. “Yes,” she said against his bare chest.

    He picked her up in his arms and carried her back to the shadowed bed.

9

    Oliver centered himself and then slowly, deliberately lowered his body from the yoga shoulder stand into the plough position. Without a break in the flowing rhythm, he turned onto his belly and arched his body smoothly into the cobra. His muscles coiled and uncoiled easily, obeying every command he gave them. Energy pumped through his veins.

    He could not recall when he had last felt as good as he did today. He took his excellent health for granted most of the time, but this morning he was keenly aware of the vibrant sense of well-being that filled him. The yoga routine he ritually went through every day was astonishingly easy to complete today. He moved from one difficult posture to the next without any effort.

    Annie was his, he thought with deep satisfaction as he stretched his body out into the full locust. Last night she had become his wife in every sense of the word. She had responded to him as if she had been made to order for him.

    His self-control had been tested to the limit during the long hours in bed with Annie. He had wanted her more than he had ever wanted any woman. But he knew only too well that at this stage his hold on her was tenuous at best. As far as she was concerned, their marriage was still a temporary affair.

    His goal was to slowly and surely bind her to him as completely as possible. The strong bond of physical attraction was an invaluable tool.

    With such a crucial objective in mind, Oliver had been able to deny his own needs. He had worked hard to ensure that Annie's first experience with him would make her forget any other relationships she might have had in the past. Not that there had been many for her, he thought, pleased. He had known from the way she reacted to her first orgasm that her experience had been extremely limited.

    He was not surprised, he thought as he sat up slowly and put his left foot over his right knee. When Annie gave herself, she surrendered completely. That was one of the first things he had learned about her last night. He sensed she would not take such a risk lightly. The fact that she had taken it with him was proof of her growing commitment to him. He twisted himself into the new position, feeling the stretch of muscle from his shoulders through his thighs.

    He was satisfied that he had accomplished his goal last night. Over and over again he had brought Annie to the point of release and then sent her flying over the edge. She was a beautiful instrument, and he had played her to perfection. She had told him of her pleasure in a hundred tiny cries and murmurs. He had been certain that he had satisfied her.

    He drew himself up out of the twisting stretch and into one of the balance postures. He frowned, aware that he was not paying full attention to the movements. He had practiced them for so many years that he could run through them on automatic pilot. But that was not the point of the exercise. The point was to focus and concentrate, mind and body together in a disciplined routine that strengthened his sense of control.

    Oliver was ruefully aware of the nature of his concentration problem this morning. His body was going through the motions, but his mind was still full of heated images from last night. The result was that he was going to end this morning's yoga with the same fully aroused body that had brought him awake a short while ago.

    He glanced back toward the rumpled bed. Annie was sound asleep in an exhausted sprawl. Her face was turned away from him but he could see the sweet, enticing curves of her shoulder and hip beneath the black and gold comforter. In the predawn light her hair was a billowing halo on the pillows.

    She would definitely remember last night, Oliver told himself. And so would he.

    Desire surged through him, as hot and fresh and demanding as it had been during the night. He wanted nothing more than to go back to the bed and pull Annie's warm, soft body