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‘I do care, Élisa.’

‘Why?’ she challenged, her heart pounding for unknown reasons.

He flicked his eyes over her face, and they darted like his mind racing as if toying with what he felt comfortable imparting.

‘You’ve gold I intend to take possession of. Until then, you’re in my care, and should anyone try anything, they’ll have to come through me.’

She jolted at the fierceness in his words. ‘How gallant of you, Ribau. However, you’re not kith or kin, so why put your life on the line for us?’

He gave her a look under his hooded eyes, and for a moment, she glimpsed a cold, icy danger within their depths that sent a frisson of terror through her.

Again, she sensed he was not all that he purported to be.

Too much lethal energy abounded in him, and for a moment, she shivered.

Just then, Ribau reached a hand and touched her arm. ‘I would never harm you, Élisa. Never, Ever.’

Her entire existence narrowed to focus on the cool hand resting on her. An arc of energy crackled between them, and her eyes tracked up to his.

Her throat went dry because she found a fervent earnestness, a promise in his expression that was rock solid to the core.

It came laced with a naked desire that she swayed into.

One so raw it ignited the same furnace inside her that surged through her loneliness.

Who would know it if she allowed him to take her and make passionate love to her here in this isolated place?

It was all she thought of as her lips parted and she leaned into him.

His eyes glittered like he sensed her need was arcing as he, too, came closer, devouring her with his fierce gaze.

He abandoned the beer in his hand and knelt, his burly, weathered form looming before her.

She lost herself in surrender as their bodies came closer.

‘Kiss me, Élisa.’

He blew the words onto her lips, and she whimpered as she gave in.

With hands so gentle, he cradled her head and bent, taking her mouth in a slow, firm motion. One that pried her open to the penetration of his tongue.

The kiss was long and sweeping, so powerful and unexpected that she clasped his shoulders for support.

Its tenderness burned its way through her until an inferno began to blaze between her legs, a sweet, throbbing ache that needed release.

Élisa melted, submitting to his delicious, sultry ministrations.

She breathed in his scent as his tongue grew more insistent, and she parted her lips to let him in.

Banding her in his strong arms, his kiss grew more urgent, more passionate.

He pulled her close as he tongue-fokkedher, his hands raking over her body and pinching her hard nipples through her jumpsuit.

She, in turn, clutched at him, threading her hands in Ribau’s hair, whimpering, twisting against him, her arousal pulsating through her and oozing from every pore.

It felt like coming home. To heaven, to a paradise she’d always dreamed of.

RIV