into the chopping block, and suddenly an image of this powerful male as he chopped wood flashed before her eyes. His muscles working, his naked torso glistening with sweat, a ferocious growl renting the frigid air as he relentlessly cleaved one chunk of wood after the other. Her eyes dropped to his large hands, his fingers slightly curled. She felt her breathing quickening, and her heart fluttering wildly at the thought of those hands on her naked body, those fingers grasping her bare breasts. She quickly placed her own hand on her chest in a bid to still the heavy thud of her violently beating heart.
When she looked up she saw him scowling at her and she involuntarily tossed her red mane over her shoulder, then rushed past him. “I’ve seen enough,” she announced a little huffily, and as she entered the house, she knew he was only a few paces behind her, his dark eyes boring holes into her back. Good thing he couldn’t look into her mind, she thought as color stained her cheeks.
Shaking his head, he decided that their living arrangements would work themselves out. Until Marco returned they were forced to put up with each other, and had to make the best of a bad situation. He stared hard at the way her pert behind moved in those tight jeans she was wearing, and could only imagine how she would look out of them. He’d already noticed that her breasts were large and that her waist was narrow, and that when she was upset her pulse beat a steady drum at the base of her throat.
For a moment out there, as she stood panting heavily, her hand on her heart, she’d looked like a fairy princess. With her long red curly hair, her remarkable green eyes and her pale features, she could have been a princess in ancient times, and a beautiful one at that. She was young, but at the same time there was something ancient about her, an elusive quality that made her look much older than her years. It was in her eyes, he decided. Something haunted, as if she’d been through quite a terrible ordeal and had barely managed to survive.
Not that any of that mattered. She was simply a guest in his home, and he would have to bear her presence. If only she kept to herself, they’d be just fine.
Chapter 4
S he was standing before him , her arms lifted as if she was reaching for something. He frowned. He’d just walked into the kitchen after a tumultuous night filled with nightmares of flames licking not just at his own body but at Molly’s as well. Fire was consuming her and she was screaming for help. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t save her, and before his very eyes she was consumed by the fire, her features melting until there was nothing left but charred bone. He woke up bathed in sweat, quickly throwing off the covers and walking over to the washbasin in the corner of his room to splash some water on his face. Christ. Night after night for the past year he’d had these horrible nightmares, but usually they had to do with the ordeal he’d been through. This was the first time the nightmare had changed.
He’d lain awake for the longest time, staring at the ceiling, and when the first light crossed the horizon, sending beams of light slanting in through the small window, he rose with a groan, knowing sleep wouldn’t come anymore.
He’d walked into the kitchen and that’s when he’d come upon her, standing on a chair, her arms raised over her head. Trouble was, she was wearing some kind of flimsy nightie and knee-length knickers, and each time she shifted, to grab hold of whatever she was trying to reach, her ample breasts wiggled.
He watched the scene for a few moments, the sight of her breasts as they shifted beneath the sheer material of her outfit firing a trickle of arousal along his nerve endings, awakening sensations he’d long thought dormant.
And as the bright morning light lit her up from behind, her heavy breasts were clearly outlined beneath her top, the darker skin of her areolae slightly swollen, her