But strangely she did not.

Hard hands seized her shoulders, dragged her upright, spun her around.

And she gazed into eyes of slate, into eyes of pride and cunning.

She stared at an angular, weather-beaten face.The caretaker? But surely the man did not take his duties so seriously as this!

Her heart still thundering, Gray fought to recover her control. She frowned, shoving at his hands. "Just what do you thinkyou"re doing, Tarzan?"

"I believe I asked first, Miss Mackenzie. Your work here does not entitle you to decimate my gardens, after all."

Fury speared through Gray. And then she realized they were trapped on the narrow band of soil between rock and water, thigh to thigh, chest to chest.

Heart to pounding heart.

And it felt sinfully,painfully good.

Most of all, it felt oddly familiar somehow...

Red-faced with fury and embarrassment, she wrenched at his hands. "Let me go, you arrogant-" Her hand lashed out, driving against his chest.

His grip only tightened. "Who are you, woman, that you try me so sorely?"

What was the madman talking about?Painfully aware that she wore nothing but a satin nightshirt that barely skimmed her thighs, Gray tried to twist free.

And got nowhere. Her hands were captured securely between hard, calloused fingers.

In her struggling, Gray"s hips brushed his taut thigh. Heat flared through her as she felt the powerful muscles bunch and flex at her touch.

Her captor flinched. His breath seemed to catch. "Whoare you?" he repeated, his voice as raw as Gray"s had been. "Is this some new sort of test?"

But when her eyes rose, Adrian Draycott read nothing but bewilderment in their azure depths.

Sweet heaven, what was happening here? In truth, he was at least as confused as she!

A vein hammered at Adrian"s temple as heat swept between their tense bodies. Around him the night swayed, and time slid to a halt. Had he been even halfway sane at that moment, he would have pulled away, stopped before it was too late...

But maybe it had been too late the first moment he"d seen this stubborn, exasperating creature.

And sane was the very last thing Adrian Draycott was feeling right then. How could he be sane with her soft breasts caressing his chest, her slim thighs brushing his belly?

"By all the heavens above, woman, you task me beyond measure! But arrogant I always was.

Damned, too, perhaps. If so, then it makes no difference if-"

It was reckless, of course. Worse yet, it was utterly dangerous. And yet...

And yet he cared not.

The next moment Gray was swept close, molded to his urgent body, "S-stop this! What do you think you"re doing-"

She got no further, her protests drowned beneath the hot silk of his probing lips, the velvet fury of his kiss.

Kiss?she thought dimly.Kiss was far too tame a word for this total possession, this storm of heat and hunger he unleashed.

And even as she struggled, cursing, Gray felt his need kindle an answering heat within her.

Impossible! Unthinkable!

And yet...

With a gasp, she wrenched at his iron grip, kicked at his legs, but all her efforts won her only a peal of dark laughter.

Mouth to mouth they strained, caught on the very edge of the moat, where the slightest misstep would send them both flying into the water.

Neither cared in the least. In furious silence they struggled, she to wrench free, he to drive closer. To claim and possess.

Infinitely. With a hunger that Adrian Draycott realized he had never known before, nor even dreamed of in a life spent pursuing every imaginable form of pleasure.

Somehow there was a fatedness to the moment, as if his roses had been left here over the long centuries, waiting for just such a meeting.

And in spite of all her fire and struggling, Adrian knew the woman in his arms felt it, too. Her breath was too ragged, her pulse too wild for it to be otherwise.

He knew he ought to let her go. He knew he should turn and melt back into the night where he belonged. But somehow he could not. Not tonight, not when he found such searing pleasure in her touch.

Just once, he told himself.

His mouth opened. He captured her velvet underlip in his teeth and savored the mystery of her mouth.

At that single exquisite movement, desire raged full-blown through Adrian"s frame. His fingers sank into her hair as he slanted her face up to his, desperately afraid that if he released her, she would be torn from him forever.

Just a little longer, he promised himself...

Caught against his chest, Gray bit back a moan. What waswrong with her? "L-let me go, you-you snake, you-"

Too late, she found out her mistake. Her black-clad captor seized the moment and slid his tongue deep, caressing the inner textures of her mouth and searching out all its hot, forbidden secrets.

Suddenly the night was ashimmer, electric with danger. With a wild, reckless hunger that made Gray moan and strain against him.

She, who had never moaned, had never wanted, had never evenimagined that such desire existed.

And now, in the span of an instant, she had discovered a thousand exquisite textures that she could no longer deny herself. Ablaze with wonder, she combed her fingers through the long hair that swept his shoulders, feeling it part like silk at her touch. She shivered as his breath surged ragged at her neck, raw and hot against her cheek.

His pulse hammered, echoing her own.

Blindly, Gray dug her fingers into his hard shoulders, glorying in his instant stiffening, in the groan that tore from his lips.

There beneath the moonlight, hunger flared between them like summer lightning, and Gray felt herself tossed like a leaf in the wind.

She moaned restlessly, sliding closer against his hard thighs, which clenched like forged steel in response.

Shivering, she felt the unmistakable thrust of his rock-hard arousal. Even then she could not pull away, could not forsake the heat she had discovered in his granite body.

For that, too, was somehow familiar.

"Damn and bloody blast!" Strangely enough, it was he who pulled free and stared down at her, scowling. "By the name of all the saints, woman-"

He never finished. His eyes glittered down into the flushed beauty of her cheeks, the dazed depths of her eyes, bright with passion still.

And as Adrian Draycott watched, a single tear squeezed free and inched slowly down Gray"s cheek.

He cursed, his jaw clenching. Slowly his calloused finger rose to the salty bead.

As if in a dream, Gray felt his hard hands anchor her cheeks, saw his face slant down.

"I never meant...by God, I swear I never planned-"

And then, slow and infinitely gentle, his lips covered that single tear and eased it onto his tongue. Dazed, Gray felt his lips close, felt him draw the bead into his mouth.

In truth, she had no idea what had caused the tear. Not pain, of that there was no doubt. Nor did it stem from anger. Perhaps it was the sheer violence of the sensual discovery she"d just made.

And then Gray had no time left for thinking.

His lips tightened.

Slowly, exquisitely, he drew her delicate skin tight, molding every captive inch with his teeth.

Heart pounding, Gray swayed, feeling the dark force of his possession. A low moan tore from her throat.

Heat.

Need.

Dear God, the unimaginable power of touching and being touched in such a way, as if the whole world began and ended in texture and sensation.

Sweet heaven, she"d never imagined the reckless wonder of it, the wild, sweet splendor of it.

She shivered, her nails digging into his neck.

An eternity passed. Around them the abbey slept and the night hung still, caught in timeless dreams while an ancient, primal drama raged on beneath its weathered walls.

Then, with one sleek tugging movement, Gray was free. Her intruder stood back, his eyes hooded, glittering.

"I"ll not apologize, so don"t expect it. For you puzzle me sorely, woman. You raise too many questions for which I have no answers. But I"ll have my answers, every one. And until then, Gray Mackenzie, I leave you with something to remember me by. It has always been the punishment for stealing a Draycott rose." His fingers swept her flushed cheek. "Here. Here you will wear my mark."

Overhead, ragged clouds ran before the moon. Gray shivered, realizing she was standing half-naked in the reckless, heated embrace of an utter stranger.

"You arrogant, p-pigheaded-"

His smile was the merest curve of brightness in his dark face. "Completely, I"m afraid. And yet at this moment, I could almost wish that-"

Somewhere in the night a clock began to chime. Gray felt him stiffen.

And then, with a faint rustle of the ferns along the bank, he was gone, loping across the little terrace and skirting the bridge to disappear into the shadows beyond.

Even then, Gray did not move, shaken profoundly, feeling that a new person now occupied her body, a complete stranger.

Blood leaped to her cheeks. She shivered, feeling as if the man stood before her still, his breath ragged, his body tense with need.

Just as your own is,a mocking voice whispered.

Dazed, she raised trembling fingers to her cheek and traced the flushed skin where his mouth had lingered only seconds before.

Already, she could feel his mark rising.

CHAPTER THREE.

SUNLIGHT SPILLED THROUGHthe opened French doors. Gray yawned and burrowed back beneath the satin pillows, smiling drowsily.

Roses. There had been roses.

Her lips curved as she remembered her rich, heady dreams of the night before.

Beacon fires burning in the darkness. A golden brooch with intertwined dragons.

A cat with eyes of unblinking amber.

And roses-roses everywhere, in every shape and color, their scent spilling out into the night.

But they were only dreams, she told herself, stifling another yawn. In one fluid motion she stretched, then tossed back the covers and came to her feet.

And there she went absolutely still, reeling as the full truth of the night returned. The hard truth of a man, brooding and reckless, driven by implacable need.

The raw truth of her own wanton response.

She, who had seemed fated to feel nothing. She, who was always distant, cool, detached.

Grieving.For what, Gray was never quite sure.

Her hands cupped her flaming cheeks. What in the name of heaven was happening to her?