Page 25 of The Stallion & The Tigress
“Why is that?”
She tilted her head and met his earnest gaze.No man, other than family, had ever asked her that before,certainly none of the many who had professed their admiration andproceeded to propose marriage.She considered giving him somevague, commonly held belief about her as an answer, but he hadasked, and so she was going to tell him.
“Perhaps a lifetime of big, strong menthinking me too frail to hold my head up with my girlish, princessneck, rubs me the wrong way,” she said.“Or perhaps it is because Idetest those who think me too stupid to complete some inane taskwithout their manly knowledge and guidance.”
“I see,” Aleksandr said, and he lookedneither amused nor insulted.
“Why did you defend me against Anastasia lastnight?”
“I hate her,” he said.“And I like you.”Heclosed the short distance between them, his expression open andwarm.“I liked kissing you.”He reached out and cupped her face inhis big, warm hands.“I think you liked kissing me.”
“So, what if I did?”
“So, I’m going to kiss you again.”
“It won’t change anything,” she declared,even as she grasped onto his arms to keep the earth from shiftingbeneath her.“I still won’t marry you.”
“I know,” he said, his low, rough voiceturning her bones to liquid.“I’m not asking you to marry me, and Iwon’t ask again.”He held his lips no more than a breath from hers.“Next time it’ll be you asking me.”He brushed his lips over hers,feather-light and teasing.“Better hurry though, before I findanother bride.”
She smiled against his lips.“Why would Iever ask you?”
“Because,” he whispered as he nipped herlower lip, “this.This heat between us.”He nibbled his way alongher jawline and suckled her earlobe.“Even you, my hard-headed,hot-blooded tigress,” he whispered in her ear.“Even you can’t denythis.”
She actually growled, low and guttural, andAleksandr wove his hand through her hair and pulled her head back,exposing her throat, tasting the skin where her pulse pounded.Hislips seared a path up her neck, and she gasped as those lips foundhers.His mouth covered hers, devouring as she opened to hisprobing tongue and tasted the salty heat of him.His hands roameddown her back, one settling between her shoulders and the othercupping her backside and pressing her body to his, branding hereverywhere they touched.She slid her hand between them and felthis breath catch and his heart hammer beneath her palm.She grinnedinto his kiss and nipped at his lower lip, her entire bodyreverberating with his groan as she curled her fingers into thelight matting of hair on his chest.
Aleksandr deepened his kiss, holding her soclose that her hand was pinned between them.An ache began to growbetween her legs, as did something hard that was pressing againsther belly.
Her eyes flew open.
“See what you do to me,” Aleksandr chuckledhoarsely as she pushed away.
She dipped her head to see the bulge in hisbreeches, and she swiped at the burning heat sweeping across hercheeks.She pulled her gaze from Aleksandr’s arousal to hisgrinning face, and swung.
Aleksandr caught her hand mid-strike.
“Easy there, tigress,” he said, holding herwrist in his vise-like grip.He shook his head and blew his breathout in a strangled laugh.“Surely you cannot blame a man forresponding to you.For wanting you.”
She wrested her wrist from his loosened gripwith an unladylike huff.“I thought you wanted an easy-temperedbroodmare for a wife,” she said.
“So did I,” he responded with a shrug.“I’mbeginning to rethink my requirements.What about you?”
“Me?”
“Still think you have no need of a husband,or a man?”
“Need?”She shook her head.“No.”Butwanting, she was beginning to learn, was something elseentirely.
“Beer or wine, my lord?”
Aleksi glanced up into the broad face of abuxom blonde serving girl holding a tray with two pitchers onit.
“I will have beer tonight,” he said, holdinghis cup out as she sat the tray down.“Thank you...?”
“Ursula, my lord.”
“Thank you, Ursula,” he said as she pouredthe beer into his cup.“But I am no lord.I am only Aleksandr.”
“I do not think you areonlyanything,Aleksandr,” she said with a blush and a giggle.
