Darkest Dreams (11 page)

“What would be your first suggestion?” he asked.

My thinking abilities did the same thing as the room. They shrank. It seemed like an entire minute passed as I stood blinking at the room, my mind completely blank.

“We need to go out the door and then walk back in. It is the best way to determine where your eyes focus when you first enter a room. You want your best, most impressive asset displayed there.”

“Indeed,” he said, his voice sounding strange. “I can see the merit of that philosophy. What if you have more than one outstanding…asset?”

“Then you have a choice to make as to what you wish to have seen first,” I replied, refusing to look his way. I made a beeline for the dragon doors. The tone of his voice rumbled deep, matching the sensuality of his earlier words at lunch.
 
I could still hear them tingling inside me.
 
The golden goddess of love, beauty and…extraordinary rapture of a certain nature.

Before I could open the doors, he leaned from behind me and placed his hand on the door handle. His warm breath caressed my ear, and his enticing scent teased my senses.

“There are a number of things I would love to see first. To have them displayed to their utmost magnificence, so I'll let you decide for me, Miss Andrews.”

Not a single artifact came to mind as his words caressed their way through me. I kept thinking of the hunger in his eyes. If he'd hesitated at all upon opening the dragon door, I would have fallen back against him. I burned…everywhere.

The fresh air from outside hit my face as the door swung open and came as a welcome relief. I bolted like a rabbit fleeing from the fire of a dragon, but a bit too late. My nerves were so crispy it seemed they would shatter at any moment.

He must have sensed my nervousness, because for the next two hours he kept his distance, and his voice didn't deepen to the point that it stole my breath. Or it could be that he had to call the butler and two footmen to help make the adjustments to the room, which left us very little privacy.

In the middle of the grand entry hall, I placed a collection of statues. The center one was an elegantly draped, tall woman with one breast exposed. Surrounding her I situated four dancing nymphs that were half her size. Each held their own Maypole. The way the woman's arms were curved, she needed to have a something nestled in them, but I'd worry about that later. The entry hall could change depending on what other treasures I unearthed, but this would do for now.

“There,” I said, as the viscount and I walked through the front doors again. “You're immediately swept away into a world of beauty and a celebration of life.” I smiled in satisfaction.
 
For the display was in complete contrast to the dying dragons on the entry doors gave.
 
Perhaps this Trojan Horse Plan would bear fruit after all.

“Very well done,” he said.

“It only needs one thing to be perfect,” I mumbled, almost to myself.

“Which would be?”

“The woman needs to have something in her arms, something colorful like a spray of flowers or—”

“What about glass grapes?”

“Glass grapes?”

“Follow me. I'll show you.” He led me down a corridor in a different direction from the ballroom. The room was filled with cabinets displaying all manner of glasswork.

“Good lord! Look at all this.”

“That's most likely why I spend most of my time outdoors, in the stables, on a horse, or on a ship. So I don't have to look at all of this.” He moved to a cabinet across the room where a cluster of purple glass grapes was set amid emerald glass leaves strung together by delicate silver chains.

Unable to stop myself, I ran my fingertips over the cool, smooth surface, marveling in the craftsmanship. As I moving closer, I accidentally brushed against Alexander.

“It is perfection,” I whispered. “You can almost taste the fruit.”

“I agree, Miss Andrews.”

The urgency in his voice made me turn abruptly his way. He stood so close to me that my breasts brushed his chest. His hands settled on my hips, pulling me flush against his chest. “Forgive me,” he whispered as he leaned down, bringing his mouth to mine but not touching my lips yet, “but I must taste the fruit.”

I blessedly couldn't read a hint of what was in his mind. But I had no question what was in mine. Rather than speaking, I parted my lips and pressed my mouth to his. He groaned, wrapping his arms around me, crushing me against the hard length of his body.

His lips moved against mine, then his tongue caressed my bottom lip. I gasped at the tingling sensation, and his tongue delved further into my mouth, tangling hotly with mine. For a brief second I was shocked, but then the passion in him set me on fire, and my entire being ached for more of his consuming heat.

I slid my hands up the hard planes of his chest, leaning into him more as I threaded my fingers into the black silk of his hair. I followed the lead of his tongue, moving with him and against him, feeling the magic and the power of desire sweep over me. The pressure and heat of his hands moved down my back then up my sides to settle against the swell of my breasts.

Groaning, I arched my back, searching to soothe the pulsing ache inside me. He broke off the kiss, breathing heavy. But I wanted more, needed more.

“Please,” I said, leaning into him, looking deeply into his drugging gaze.

His features seemed harsh, fiercely intense with his passion. His voice was rough, strangely unsteady, and vulnerable. “Please do or please don't touch you as I so desperately need to do? Have so desperately needed to do for too long.”

“Please do,” I said.

He cupped my breasts, lifting their fullness as his thumbs brushed roughly over the aching tips through the silk of my dress. I cried out, my hips shifting against him as pleasure rippled over my whole being.

“God help us both.” Stepping toward me, he slipped one arm behind my back, bending me so that he could bring his mouth to my breast. Through the silk, he suckled me. I writhed against the intense pleasure, latching onto his shoulders as my head fell back in surrender to the sensations driving me beyond reason.

His other hand slid down my stomach to slip between my legs and rub firmly against my most intimate places. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I knew I had gone from innocence to far past a point of ever returning to it. I knew the mysterious curiosity in me about passion and what he made me feel had grown instantly into an intense hunger. I knew that by all things proper and right I should push him away and recover what little sense I had left.

And I surely would have done that except for one very shocking thing. I didn't want to.

Alexander moved again, abandoning my aching feminine flesh to lean me further back as he went to one knee. Then he laid me upon the carpet and stared down intently, his eyes burning, his chest heaving.

I might have said stop even then, but he planted his hands on the floor next to either side of my head, and his mouth claimed mine in another searing kiss, one that brought the full length of his body and the hard press of his sex intimately against mine.

Chapter Eight

“Good Lord, what am I doing?” Alexander said harshly as he pushed up from me. His arms trembled with the force of his emotions.

My whole body shook from the force of our passion. I stared up at him, blinking at him in amazement. “I believe you're very adeptly seducing me, my lord.”

He cursed. “No. I am not.” He sat, moving further back from me.

I rose unsteadily to my elbows. “You're not?”

“No, Miss Andrews. What I was doing without a single thought to the consequences was taking serious advantage of a young woman who is not only under my employ, but also a respectable member of my family!”

I couldn't very well argue with him, for I was under his employ, and it was essential for my future to stay that way. I was a member of the family in that my sister was married to his brother. And though I hadn't behaved in such a manner, I was nowhere near ready to abandon my respectability, at least the concept of it. So I took umbrage with the only thing I could. With as much grace as I could possibly muster, I rolled to my side and gained my feet. “Taking serious advantage implies that I wasn't a willing participant. And I do believe I kissed you first, my lord. But you are correct in that we were rash and gave little forethought to our actions. Is that something one gains with experience in these matters?” I asked. Heaven help me, but I didn't think my mind capable of thinking where he was concerned.

He stood, stared at me a moment, then burst into laughter.

“Captain Black? The lass's buggy is at the door.” The butler's voice reached us before the seaman-turned-servant did.

Alexander whipped around and none too gently gathered the glass grapes. He shoved them my way. “Carry these against your heart, my dear.” Then he raised his voice. “We'll be right there, Brighty! Tell the driver to wait.”

The seaman appeared in the doorway. “Aye, aye, Captain.” Before he left, he nodded eagerly enough to make me wonder if he would lose the bird's nest wig on his head. But I had more important things to worry about at the moment.

When I looked down at the grapes in my arms I was shocked find a large dark, wet circle stained my left breast. The breast Alexander had taken in his mouth and done
 
amazing things to. My stomach clenched and my pulse raced again. Oh my!

I shot my gaze to him and found him staring at my breasts as if he was a heartbeat away from repeating his earlier actions. I crushed the grapes to me, and their hard glass balls made my nipples tingle even more. “How will I ever get home?” I groaned.

“I've a cloak I will lend you. Perhaps you can say you accidentally spilled your drink? I will meet you in the entry hall,” he said, then quit the room.

I stood stunned a moment, feeling as if I'd been swept away from anything and everything I'd ever known by a wild storm. It was very disconcerting. Forcing my feet into motion, I found my way back to the entry hall where, a few moments later, Alexander came dashing into the room from a completely opposite direction. I truly had to wonder if he were not some dark man of magic.

“Hold this.” He handed me the cloak and grabbed the grapes, sliding one hand on top of them and one beneath. “The sweetest fruit God ever made,” he murmured.

His brushing of my breast as he lifted the grapes away from me was far from an accidental caress, and let me know exactly what fruit he was speaking of. He turned and securely placed the glass grapes within the woman's arms, creating the dénouement to my day's hard work. It was perfect, a vision of beauty and grace enriched by a dazzling cluster of sparkling, jewel-like color.

“Perfect,” I said.

He took his cloak from me and slid it over my shoulders, but didn't let his hands linger. His scent and delicious warmth enveloped me.

“I have to agree, perfect. And I won't ruin it,” he said, then stepped away from me. “So, in light of that, there will be no need to wait for my opinion regarding any changes you wish to make, Miss Andrews. I have a number of business matters to attend to up the coast and fear I won't be available. I do sincerely thank you for…sharing such treasures and your expertise with me today though. Brighty will see you out, lass.”

“Aye, Captain. Should I send word for Captain Jansen to ready the ship?”

“Yes.” Alexander strode from the room, leaving me to feel more alone than ever before.

 

 

Upon arriving at Killdaren's Castle, I hid Alexander's cloak under my pillow, “accidentally” spilled an entire ewer of water down the front of my dress, then called for a bath. As the maid helped me undo the row of buttons, I expressed my desire to give the gown away.

She was ecstatic, saying she would have the perfect use for it. I watched the dress disappear from my sight with mixed feelings. I wanted to both remember and to forget the feel of Alexander's mouth and hands. Placing Aphrodite's ring in a special box upon my vanity, I sank, deflated, into the heated bath water. The more I considered my uninhibited response to Alexander the more depressed I became. Why, I was like Iris in the training ring, responding to his every move, his every word, his every touch like a nymph in the forest.

The man was abandoning his castle and training his new horse to escape having to encounter me, a situation that would in no way help repair the Killdaren brothers' estrangement. If anything, I'd added to it.

At dinner, I discovered that Cassie and Sean were at odds and received the impression it had to do with my employment at Dragon's Cove. Prudence's golden eyes were shadowed with worry. After last night's nightmare, Rebecca had lapsed back into stuttering badly with her every word, setting her back months in the healing process. The earl and Sir Warwick were absent, but Lord Ashton and Mr. Drayson had joined us for dinner. I knew that the entire Killdaren household was on edge, but it seemed to me that Mr. Drayson was unsettled, or more accurately distracted. I finally had to ask, “Is something wrong, Mr. Drayson?”

He exhaled, his poet's eyes troubled. “It's the strangest thing. A rather terse note was left for me at the hotel's desk this morning, demanding that if I had compromised anyone of late to make full restitution or pay the consequences. I swear upon my honor that I've never done such a thing. I'm extremely troubled over it.”

Lord Ashton cleared his throat. “Egad, Drayson. The same for me. I didn't mention it because I was taken aback by what it implied. I've done nothing to compromise anyone as I see it. And of course you haven't either. The first thing that came to my mind is someone is trying to set up some sort of blackmail scam. I sent the offending thing on to my lawyers with strict instructions for them to investigate the matter thoroughly. A man could take the missive as a threat of bodily harm for some undisclosed and, believe me, completely unknown transgression.”