Desire and Deception by Nicole Jordan

groan, a low gutteral moan deep in his throat. Yet she was too caught up in the spiraling heat his kiss was evoking to analyze the primitive sound.
    His kiss held her entranced as he eased the bodice of her gown from her shoulders, then loosened the ribbon of her chemise. When the delicate lawn fell away and her thrusting breasts were bared to his gaze, Jason sucked in his breath.
    Seeing where his flaming eyes were fastened, Lauren tried defensively to cover her nakedness with her arms. But one of her hands was trapped against his muscular chest, and Jason captured the other and held it at her side.
    "You have beautiful breasts," he murmured, measuring the lush fullness with molten azure eyes.
    Her face flushing with embarrassment, Lauren tried unsuccessfully to free herself from his imprisoning grasp. He was assessing the rose-hued areolas as if he meant to devour them. Then brazenly, he reached up to circle her right nipple with the tip of a finger. Lauren gasped as a bolt of unexpected pleasure shot through her.
    "Beautiful and perfectly formed. I like full breasts on a woman."
    "Why?" she said distractedly, trying to concentrate on anything but the traitorous feelings he was stirring in her body.
    Jason smiled at her suspicious tone. "Because they fit my hands well when I hold them . . . like so." His hands were large and well shaped, with long fingers and a sprinkling of sun- lightened hair on the back. They bespoke his noble breeding, yet their work-roughened texture indicated that he hadn't spent a life of leisure. He cupped a thrusting breast in his calloused palm, his thumb just barely touching the quivering nipple.
    Lauren clenched her teeth at the unbelievable sensation the featherlight pressure elicited. She hadn't realized her breasts were so sensitive, but the nipple had immediately hardened in response to his touch.
    "And they taste good when I take them into my mouth . . . like so." Jason lowered his head as he spoke, closing his lips over the tip of one breast.
    Lauren nearly bolted out of the chair as his moist tongue flicked the coral bud, but she found herself held immobile as he bent her back over his arm, leaving her breasts totally at his mercy.
    A shocking warmth invaded her body as he plied and teased and coaxed the right nipple to a diamond-hard point, then lavished the same attention on the left. Lauren let out a strangled gasp as he suddenly nipped the taut bud with his teeth, then soothed the throbbing ache he created with his lips. She thought she must be mad to allow him the freedom to do such things to her, but she couldn't seem to find the will or even the voice to protest.
    It was only when Jason began to hike up the flowing silken folds of her gown and his hand began to slowly wander upward along her thigh that she suddenly realized what he was doing.
    "No!" she gasped when his hand found the golden, downy triangle between her legs. "Please . . . you shouldn't."
    "Be still, sweetheart, let me love you."
    His whispered entreaty confused her. Love? What did he mean? No one had ever loved her like this. Lauren stared at Jason, searching the vivid blue of his eyes.
    Seeing the confusion on her beautiful face, Jason felt his heart swell. She would be happy with him, he vowed. He would see to it that she never regretted this night, this sudden intervention of fate. For himself, he needed no ceremony to bind them together. The tenderness he felt for her was, at this moment, burgeoning in his heart, so much so that he thought it might burst.
    "Ah, sweetheart, what a coil this is," he murmured. "It is no trick I am playing when I say I want you. I do, with all my heart. I want you to be my wife, my mistress, the mother of my children, my dearest love."
    His words stirred turmoil in Lauren's heart. She would never love anyone. Loving meant pain and degradation and loneliness—a truth that her mother had discovered to her sorrow. Elizabeth DeVries had been trusting and innocent once, before Jonathan