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yet, anyway.”
    Grim-faced, Draycott pulled her from his shoulder. The next instant Kacey was sliding slowly down his rain-slick body.
    He was all hardness, bone and muscle against her softness. And Kacey felt his need revealed clearly in every taut, wet inch.
    Her feet touched the grass, and his eyes fell to the small dark crests upthrust against the near transparency of her wet shirt.
    Draycott’s breath checked. The pain at his groin returned, far worse than before.
    â€œDear God, who are you?” he said hoarsely. “What are you doing to me?”
    Kacey stared back at him, equally dazed. His words drove straight into her heart, echoing the same turmoil she was feeling.
    The storm around them paled to insignificance beside the savage, wordless emotions that rocked them both.
    Their eyes locked. She felt all his need, his shock, his fury…
    His vulnerability, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
    Around them, the air shimmered, supercharged, crackling with electricity and the relentless force of their opposing wills.
    Time shuddered and then ground slowly to a halt.
    Above them, the wind raged on, hurling sheets of rain down onto their frozen bodies. Lightning split the sky, sending an ancient beech smoking to the ground. The world seemed to cry out and twist on its axis, unable to endure this confrontation of relentless opposites.
    And then suddenly there was no world and no time, only the two of them. Only the naked need that swept out of some other place to engulf them.
    Kacey shuddered, rain sliding chill and forgotten down her face.
    Draycott frowned. “You’re freezing,” he muttered, almost to himself. “You’ll catch pneumonia out here.” Unconsciously, his grip softened, his fingers cupping her shivering shoulders. “Come back to the abbey with me, Kacey Mallory. Let’s begin again.” There was a note of desperation in his voice. “I’m afraid I’ve been a bloody fool. You don’t have to be one, too.”
    Kacey could barely breathe for the intensity of the feelings flowing over her. For the touch of his hard body from her neck to her knees. For the need to feel him far closer still, bodies bared, skin pressed inch to sweat-slick inch.
    As they slid into passion’s raw center.
    When had everything changed? she asked herself dimly. When had she become this strange new person, this wanton creature of hot desire and reckless need?
    Dear God, what was happening to her? His touch was too keen, her need too raw.
    Settle down, Katharine Chelsea. It’s just all those femalehormones talking. Maybe you’ve gone too long without listening to what they had to say.
    And they were certainly talking right now—with a vengeance, she thought.
    â€œKacey?”
    One word, but the way he said it, slow and uncertain, nearly pushed her over the edge.
    â€œI—I can’t go back.” Her words were no more than a whisper. “I won’t. I can’t ever go back. Not there— not with you! ”
    â€œYou must. The Whistler’s waiting for you.” He paused, studying her tense features. “I saw you in the long gallery, you know. You loved looking at it. You adored it with your eyes. No, don’t try to deny it, Kacey. Your eyes couldn’t lie—not about a thing like that.”
    Another shudder ripped through her. It was madness even to consider what he asked. She knew instinctively that she had to get away from this place, from this man. Yes, far away—before she did something crazier still. “Please…”
    â€œThink of it,” Draycott whispered, his lips feathering over the chill curve of her ear. “No one else has even seen the canvas for one hundred years. You’ll be the first to touch it, to learn its secrets. It’s waiting there right now, Kacey. All you have to do is come back with me.”
    It was the lowest sort of bribe, but Nicholas Draycott didn’t care. He