Chapter Eighty Two

Jasmine scooped in a quick breath, '...they chase each other endlessly around the bowl. I think Rhett and Scarlet did that, even after the book ended.'

'Perhaps they simply feel trapped,' He released her waist and slowly ran his fingertips up her arms, a feather-light touch that gave her the freedom to move if she wanted to. She didn't. She held herself completely still and the tiny little tremors under her skin told him how sensitive she was to his touch.

Another swift intake of breath. 'No. They're happy fish,' she insisted.

'How do you know?' He trailed his fingers up her neck, over the soft thickness of her pinned-up hair to the dark red rose.

'Because I watch them play. They like their bowl. Its hexagonal shape is good Feng Shui, promoting peace and harmony. They have fun pushing the pebbles around at the bottom and the aquarium plants offer ready food beyond what I feed them. They're happy fish.

' He'd tucked the rose in his breast pocket and was pulling out the hairpins. 'Well, I guess they have eight views of the world from their hexagonal bowl, and many of them would be of you, so I'd call them fortunate fish.'

No reply this time. Absolute stillness.

'And very exotic. Like their owner,' he added, feeling her breath-held tension as he loosened the upswept curls and gently massaged her scalp. Her taut submissiveness tempered the fire of need burning through him with a strange flood of tenderness. Instead of hurling the hairpins away and stripping her naked as fast as he could, he tucked them into his pocket behind the rose, then simply enjoyed the spill of her hair, cascading over his hands and arms, brushing her shoulders, tumbling down her back... beautiful, glossy, excitingly sensual...

'You think I'm...exotic?' The husky lilt suggested that Jasmine's mind had only just caught on to that word and didn't know how to process it.

'Uh-huh...a rare, exquisite creature with glorious hair and golden eyes.' He stepped around to face her, smiling over the truths he'd just spoken. He lifted her hair up on either side of her face, then let it slide through his fingers to float around her like a living fan. 'Perhaps you don't know how rare you are, Jasmine, but I do. I do,' he repeated as desire surged again at the soft, hazy wonderment in her eyes...such asensuous look, fringed by the long thick lashes that brushed his face when they kissed.

Her lips were slightly parted, lushly inviting, irresistible. He gathered her in...this woman who struck chords that made him almost a stranger to himself... and kissed her with a sense of exploring new territory, wanting to know what it meant, how it was, where it was taking him, and why it was so different to all he had known before.

No need for any haste. He had hours to take her all in, sift through the feelings she aroused, define them, understand them. With understanding came control and Collins wanted control over the effect Jasmine Leclaire had on him.

Yet even as he kissed her with a conscious seeking in his mind, he could feel his quest For control melting under the sweet taunting heatof her lips and tongue. The addictive possession of her mouth burned his brain cells. His whole body burned to be inside her, enveloped by the velvet heat he knew was waiting for him. Only the most ingrained discipline drove him to check what had to be checked. It took an act of will to withdraw from the intoxicating fusion of desire long enough to breathe out the necessary words.

'Is it safe, Jasmine?' he asked.

She didn't reply. Her face remained tilted to his, her lips parted enough for a soft waft of breath to escape, her eyes closed as though all hersenses were focused inward, poised to respond to whatever he did.

She wasn't listening to anything but the fire raging within, the fire that could so quickly flare into a furnace, consuming them both to the exclusion of everything else.

'Jasmine...' he groaned, his whole body screaming against any pause for precaution. 'I didn't bring any condoms with me. I didn't plan...'

He was admitting her power to draw him beyond any limits he imposed, but right at this moment he didn't care. 'Is it safe?' he asked raggedly, begging for a yes, because any negative now would be intolerable.

Impossible to shut down on the blinding urge to take her, have her.

Safe?

Her stomach curled a fierce protest at Collins caution as her mind reluctantly came to grips with the question.

Condoms...contraception...she'd been off the pill for months. No need for it. And Collins hadn't been expected at the wedding. She hadn't anticipated being tempted.

But if she said no....

Panic and rebellion rolled through her. She couldn't let him leave her, not when she was only assured of one night with him. It couldn't stop now. The yearning for some fulfilment of her need screamed at her to lie.

Though it might not be a lie. Where was she in her monthly cycle? She couldn't think. It didn't matter. She could take the morning-after pill tomorrow if there was a risk of pregnancy. She didn't have to lie.

'Yes,' she said on a heady gasp of release from caring about any unwanted consequences. 'Safe.' Yet it was a lie.

Jasmine knew in her heart there was nothing safe about what she was doing with Collins Templeton tonight. She would give him all she had to offer because he drew that from her as no man ever had before, but he might very well take her body, break her heart, and leave her soul empty.

Tomorrow he would be gone again.

Tomorrow she would think about what to risk and what not to risk.

Relief curbed the aggression that had gripped Collins, virtually compelling an abandonment of all caution. Safe meant there was nothing to fight.

Safe meant uninhibited pleasure. Safe meant there would be no shadows on his freedom, once this night was over.

He forced himself to relax, determined on regaining control. He didn't want to be swept headlong into the final act of sex within the first few minutes of having Jasmine to himself. Much better to savour the excitement of anticipation, take the time to explore every facet of his fascination with her, know all of her so totally there would be no curiosity left to taunt or haunt him in the future.