Page 33 of To Desire

With every step toward her, Darien told himself to stop. Not to get any closer.

“Are you not tired?”

“You almost kissed me.”

He’d not been expecting that. Yet perhaps he should have. Liana might not have traveled beyond Crimson Hollow. She might not have been with a man. But this was no simple woman. In fact, Liana was anything but. She was the most complex, intriguing . . . “I did,” he admitted, realizing she waited for a response.

“Why?”

He took another step. “Because I wanted to. Want to still. Very much.”

“Why did you not?”

“That answer is less easily wrought,” Darien said, close enough now that if he were to reach out, he could touch her. Pull her toward him.

In response, Liana raised her chin. She’d asked a question and expected an answer.

“I would not dishonor you, Liana.”

“I understand,” she said, turning back to the fire.

Nay, she did not. “Our paths⁠—”

“Are not meant to intertwine in that way,” she finished.

He hated the truth of her words. “Would you have let me?” he asked, tempting fate but too curious to back down.

Liana sighed, her shoulders lifting and falling as her eyes closed. He may have missed her nod had Darien not been watching her carefully. Liana would have let him kiss her, but clearly did not relish the fact.

He understood. Darien’s thoughts warred with each other. No part of him should have moved, and yet he stepped forward. His hands should not have reached for her, but when they did, Darien invested fully in the movement. He pulled her to him so quickly that one moment they stood apart, and the next, she was pressed against his chest, his hands cupping both of her cheeks.

Their eyes met for the briefest of moments, Darien waiting for her to refuse him. Instead, her lips parted. It was his undoing.

Pulling her toward him, Darien touched his lips to hers. They were as soft and inviting as he’d imagined they would be. The gentle touch did little to cool the flames of desire between them. He was about to use his tongue to guide her mouth open, but she did so of her own accord. So she had been properly kissed before?

That only urged him to be certain that, whichever man—or men—had held Liana in his arms, this kiss would erase all memory of it. As her lips parted, Darien’s tongue took full advantage. When she touched hers to him, Darien reminded himself to be gentle. Instead, he found himself holding her to him. Slanting his mouth for better access. Touching his tongue to hers. When his hand moved from her cheeks to the back of Liana’s neck, Darien pulled her even closer.

It was no ordinary kiss.

The rightness of it was incomparable. He didn’t want to take a breath. Didn’t want the kiss to end. Problem was, Darien wanted more too. The thought of slipping off her robe and running his hands down her body, his fingers brushing over the swell of her breasts . . .

Of being inside her.

That need did have him pulling away, despite every fiber of his being wishing to stay. To kiss her endlessly. To make Liana his.

Those are dangerous thoughts, Darien.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he admitted, backing up another step.

“I shouldn’t have wanted it.”

Her lips were swollen from his kiss. No woman had ever appeared as beautiful to him as Liana did in that moment.

Darien would never defile her. Neither could he imagine not kissing her again. His gaze dropped to her chest. The robe was too tightly pulled for him to see the mark between Liana’s breasts. He’d stared at it so often . . .

Closing the gap between them, he reached out. Used his thumb to gently push open her garment to reveal the mark he sought.

“These are the interwoven runes?” he asked, running his fingers through the design.