Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 127: Kissing on the snow

Chapter 127: Kissing on the snow

Mia’s eyes flew open, her gaze moving on the truck driver who was cautiously walking toward them, frowning as he tried to peer at their faces.

"Goddammit, put your arms around me and pretend you like what we are doing!" Neil warned against her lips. His mouth was imprisoning hers, the gun in his pocket was grazing her side, but he had released her wrists now. She could struggle, and very possibly, the truck driver with a friendly face would see that something was very wrong and come to her rescue.

And he would die.

Neil had ordered her to put her arms around him and "and pretend she liked what he was doing."

Like a puppet, Mia moved her leaden wrists from the snow and let them drop limply onto his shoulders, but she could not make herself do more than that and only allowed him to kiss her.

Neil tasted her stiff lips beneath his; he felt her body, rigid as stone beneath his weight, and he assumed that she was trying to gather her strength for the next moment when she, with the help of five truck drivers, would put an end to his brief freedom and his life. From the corner of his eye, he saw the driver slow down, but he was still coming toward them, and his expression was growing increasingly cautious and skeptical. He didn’t want to kill anyone but if he had to do it to avoid going back to that hellhole__that was starting to turn him mad__he would do it.

All this and more raced through Neil’s mind in the space of the three seconds they lay there, pretending unconvincingly to kiss.

In a last helpless effort to stop the inevitable from happening to him, Neil dragged his mouth to her ear and whispered the words he hadn’t let himself use in years,

"Please...help me!" Tightening his arms around the rigid woman, he said it again with a groaning urgency he couldn’t suppress. "Please, Mia..."

Feeling as if the world had suddenly gone insane, Mia heard the plea wrench from him as if it were torn from his chest a moment before his lips seized hers and he said in a tormented whisper against her mouth, "I didn’t kill anyone, I swear to anything and everything that’s holy."

The pleading and desperation she’d heard in his voice were eloquently alive in his kiss, and it accomplished what his threats and anger could not: It made Mia hesitate and waver, it made her believe that what she heard in his voice was the truth.

Dazed by the confusing messages racing through her brain, she sacrificed her escape for the safety of the truck driver. Driven by the need to spare the man’s life and by something less sensible and completely unexplainable, Mia blinked back her tears and slid her hands hesitantly over Neil’s shoulders, and yielded to his kiss.

The moment she did, Neil sensed her surrender; a shudder ran through him and his lips gentled on hers. Unaware of the man’s footsteps crunching to a stop in the snow, Mia let him part her lips and of their own volition, her fingers curved around his neck, sliding into the soft, thick hair at his nape. She felt his swift, indrawn breath when she hesitantly returned the kiss, and suddenly everything began to change.

He was kissing her in earnest now, his hands shifting, sliding over her shoulders, and then burying in her wet hair, lifting her face closer to his hungry, searching mouth.

Somewhere inside her chest where her heart had laid dormant for five years, the warmth of his lips on hers seemed to travel into her heart wrenching it back alive as it began to beat in a rapid rhythm.

Somewhere far above her, the truck driver’s bewildered voice called out,

"Woman, you need help or what?"

Mia heard him, and she tried to shake her head, but the mouth that was slanting fiercely over hers now had robbed her of the ability to speak.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew this was only a performance for the driver’s benefit, she knew it as clearly as she knew she had no choice but to participate in the performance. But if that was true, then why was she feeling heat surge through her body to the extent she was arching her body to his rigid form?

"I guess you don’t," said the truck driver on a lewd chuckle as he watched the couple kissing intensely on the snow ground as if there was no tommorow. He could feel his own body coming to life just from watching them. "How about you, sir?" He glanced at Neil,"do you need any help with what you’re doing? I could give you a hand down there..."

Neil’s head lifted just enough to break contact with Mia’s mouth, his voice husky. "Find your own woman," he snapped at the driver. "This one is mine." The last word was breathed against Mia’s lips before his mouth touched hers again, his arms sweeping around her, his tongue sliding hungrily across her lips, urging them to part, his hips hard and demanding against hers.

With a silent moan of surrender, Mia gave herself up to what became the hottest, sexiest, most insistent kiss she’d ever tasted. For five years, her body had felt like it had died and would never get aroused again, she’d thought she had lost the ability to engage in any sexual activities, she’d thought she would never like to be kissed or touched ever again, but today she was experiencing something she had thought she would never experience again; she was aroused...

Yards away, a truck door opened and a new male voice called, "Hey, what’s going on over there in the snow?" Asked the other driver.

"Hell, man, what does it look like? A couple of grown-ups are playing at being kids, having snowball fights and making out in the snow." Said the truck driver who was standing over the couple, he looked down at them again and saw how the kiss had grown intense, flushing deeply, he turned back to his friend, "Looks to me like they’re going to be making a kid on the snow if they don’t slow down at this rate."

Perhaps it was the new male voice or the sudden realization that the man atop of her was becoming physically aroused that snapped Mia into reality or perhaps it was the slamming of the truck door followed by the roar of an engine as the truck began to pull away from the rest area. Whatever the cause, she put her hands against his shoulders and exerted pressure, but it took an unnatural effort for her to move, and her shove did nothing to make him stop kissing her. He kissed her like a starved man who had finally been given food. His rough hands were roaming all around her body.

Panicked by her lack of strength to push him off, Mia clenched her fist and slammed it hard against his chest. "S-stop it!" she cried softly against his lips. "Stop it. He’s gone!"

Stunned by the sound of tears in her voice, Neil lifted his head, staring at her dewy skin and soft mouth with a hunger that he was finding difficult to control.

The exquisite sweetness of her surrender, the way she felt in his arms, and the gentleness of her touch almost made the notion of making love in the snow at dawn seem plausible.

Slowly, he looked around at where they were and reluctantly levered himself up off her body when he realized the truck drivers were indeed gone. He didn’t completely understand why she’d decided not to scream to the truck driver to help her when he was standing so close to them earlier, but whatever her reasons, he owed her more than an attempted rape in the snow as repayment.

Silently, he held his hand out to her, suppressing an amused smile when the same woman who’d melted in his arms a moment ago unleashed her defenses by pointedly ignoring his gesture of helping her up. She pushed herself up and out of the snow. "I’m soaking wet," she complained, carefully avoiding his gaze and swatting at her damp hair, "and covered in snow."

Automatically, Neil reached out to brush the snow off her hair, but she jumped out of his reach, avoiding his touch as she brushed off her arms and the back of her pants.

"Don’t think you have the right to touch me just because of what happened just now!" she warned him glaring at him, but Neil was preoccupied with admiration for the results of their kiss: Her huge, dark-lashed eyes were lustrous, her snow white skin tinted with roses at the cheeks. When flustered and a little aroused, as she was now, Mia Harrison was absolutely breathtaking!

She was also courageous and very kind, just like she had always been in the past, for although he’d not been able to subdue her with threats or cruelty, she’d somehow responded to the desperation in his plea.

Noticing how he was looking at her like he was just seeing her for the first time, Mia resumed to warn so he wouldn’t cross any boundaries again. "The only reason I let you kiss me was because I realized you were right, there’s no need for anyone to get killed just because I’m scared. And, please stop looking at me like that. Now, let’s get going and get this ordeal over with."

Neil sighed. "I gather from that sour tone of yours that we’re rivals again, Ms. Harrison?"

"Of course we are, and we will always be," she replied dusting off her rear end. "I’ll take you wherever you’re going without any more tricks, but let’s get one thing straight, Mr. Wayner. As soon as I get you there, I’ll be free to leave, right?"

"Of course," Neil lied with a straight face.

"Then let’s get going, I have a Christmas shopping to do tomorrow."

Brushing snow off the sleeves of his jacket, Neil followed along behind her, watching her hair tossing in the wind and the graceful sway of her slim hips as she stalked toward their car. Judging from her words and the rigid set of her shoulders, there was no doubt she was determined to avoid any further romantic confrontations between them.

In that, as in everything else, Neil was now firmly committed to accomplishing a goal that was in complete opposite to her own: He had tasted her lips again after five years and he had felt their response to him. His starved senses craved more than just a kiss; he desired to feast in the full banquet, to go beyond a mere kiss and possess her, even though he knew she was engaged to that bastard Owen and likely had been intimate with him or another man. Despite this, he remained determined to have her.

A part of his mind cautioned that any sexual involvement with her would be foolish, complicating matters unnecessarily. Yet, another part of his mind heeded the clamor of his aroused body and argued that it was cunning. After all, contented captives could become willing participants and delightful companions.

Neil resolved to seduce her, turning his daring escape into a pleasurable adventure for both of them. He aimed to make her succumb to him, to make love to her in a way she had never experienced with her foolish fiance, ensuring he would leave an indelible mark on her. While she had once forgotten their childhood, she would never forget this moment.

He didn’t plan to make love to her because she possessed endearing qualities that captivated him, or because he found her highly attractive, or because he harbored any budding affection for her. Instead, he rationalized that he would make love to Mia Harrison because he knew they both desired it, and, of course, because it would bring immense pleasure.

With a newfound courtesy that had been absent before their kiss and that Mia found entirely absurd—and even unsettling given their current circumstances—Neil escorted her to the driver’s seat, though he didn’t need to open the door for her as it was still ajar from her earlier attempt to escape. After closing the car door behind her, he circled around to the front of the vehicle. As he settled into the seat beside her, he noticed her wince and gasp when she shifted position.

"What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?" he asked, his voice gentle.

"I hurt my hip and leg when I jumped out of the car and when you tackled me," Mia retorted bitterly, angry with herself for having actually enjoyed that kiss on the snow. "Does that fill you with concern and remorse?" She asked.

He said quietly, "Yes, it does."

Mia quickly shifted her gaze from his somber face, unable and unwilling to be charmed into believing such an implausible lie. He murdered her mother in cold blood, and she must not, dared not, forget that ever again!

"I’m starving," she announced, because it was the first thing she could think of to say. She knew it was the wrong thing the moment his gaze fastened on her swollen lips. "So am I." He whispered.

She stuck her chin in the air to hide the redness that rushed to her cheeks and turned on the ignition.

His answer was a soft chuckle and a shake of his head.