"I thought you'd be pleased."
Betz's voice was redolent with satisfaction, and it served to jerk Jared from his state of bemusement at the sight of Tania Orlinov. He whirled to face the other man, his eyes blazing with an intensity of anger that caused Betz to take an involuntary step backward. "You arrogant son of a bitch!" Jared's voice was hoarse with rage. "Whatever gave you the idea that you could do this to someone?" He strode nearer to the bed and picked up Tania's wrist. The pulse was slow but steady. "What the hell did you give her?"
"She'll be quite all right in a little while," Betz said soothingly from behind him. "She breathed in an innocuous gas, which knocked her out immediately. On the plane she was accompanied by a competent physician, who kept her sedated at a very safe level of drugs. She'll wake up in a few hours without even a trace of a headache."
"My God, you actually kidnapped her." Jared was charged with incredulous anger. "Didn't it ever occur to you that she's an independent woman, with the right to make her own decisions? You can't ride roughshod over a human being this way."
"It was necessary," Betz said calmly. "We offered her a great deal of money, but she wouldn't take it. We had no other option but to use force." He frowned. "You needn't worry that the method of her arrival will spoil your pleasure. We've taken precautions against something like that happening."
"Take her back to New York!" Betz's eyes widened in surprise. "Back to . . ." He studied Jared's tense face and blazing eyes for long, thoughtful moments before he slowly shook his head. "I'm afraid we can't do that, Dr. Ryker. Aside from the fact that our actions in abducting her might be discovered and make things difficult for the senator, the reason we took Miss Orlinov in the first place still exists." He paused. "You want her."
Oh, yes, he wanted her, Jared thought grimly. Even in his anger he could feel his swelling need for her push against the fabric of his jeans. The sight of her lying there before him, her shoulders and the upper swell of her breasts rising from the satin sheets, was like a delicate loving hand stroking him. His eyes turned compulsively to the pulse point his thumb was absently stroking even now. Her hand. He drew a deep breath and carefully laid her arm back on the counterpane. "It's the mark of a civilized man that he does not always take what he wants, even if he can have it. That quality separates us from the Neanderthal. Take her back to New York, Betz."
"No. The situation hasn't changed, so it would be unreasonable to undo all our work at this stage." He frowned. "I don't understand the problem, Dr. Ryker. It's been obvious that the reason you've been taking
these hazardous trips to New York was Miss Orlinov. Now the trips are no longer necessary. You have her here in the chateau."
"And have you informed Sam Corbett of your solution to your little problem?" Jared asked caustically. "I think he'd regard your reasoning as simplistic, to say the least."
Betz shook his head. "I didn't consult him, but I don't think he'd have any major objections. My instructions were to take any measures necessary to protect you." He paused. "Any measures, Dr. Ryker."
"Delightful," Jared said bitterly. "You wouldn't consider your attitude a bit ruthless?"
"You have the reputation of being a bit ruthless yourself, upon occasion. You should have no problem understanding our position." Betz meticulously straightened his discreetly-patterned tie. "Now I really must be on my way. I'll probably be back within a few weeks, but if you need anything, you need only inform Mr. McCord, of course."
"Of course," Jared echoed ironically. "If I want another woman abducted or a murder committed, I'll just tell Kevin."
Betz's lips curved in an uncertain smile. "You're being humorous?" He shrugged and turned away. "I'm sure after consideration you'll realize this action can only be to our mutual benefit." He was moving swiftly toward the door. "Until you come around to a more logical way of thinking, however, I should warn you that I've left instructions with my staff that under no circumstances is Miss Orlinov to be allowed to leave the chateau." He paused at the door. "Oh, one more thing. I know that you've mentioned your disgust at the cloying willingness of some of the other women we've provided for you. I did think, though, that you might find rebelliousness or resistance on Miss Orlinovs part not to your liking." He smiled. "I wanted to make sure you and she started out on the right foot, so I had the doctor give her an injection of paradynoline."
Paradynoline. A potent illegal drug whose side effects were aphrodisiacal. "You really are a bastard, aren't you, Betz?" Jared said, his lips twisting. He hadn't the slightest doubt that the man knew exactly how that piece of information would affect him. His stomach muscles contracted from a jolt of pure lust at the thought of Tania's waking to find him beside her, and desiring him as much as he desired her.
"I do what I think is necessary."
"Betz!"
The security man turned to look at him inquiringly.
Jared's gaze was once more on Tania's sleeping face, fixed with compulsive fascination on the parted pinkness of her lips. She looked so damn young and innocent. Her skin had the clear, silky sheen of a child's. "Who undressed her?"
"The doctor and I. Why?"
Jared reached out a hand and touched the curve of Tania's cheekbone. "Don't ever touch her again, Betz," he said thickly. "You'd better make damn sure that no one ever touches her again."
A smile of infinite satisfaction touched Edward Betz's lips as he softly closed the door behind him.
The first sensation of which Tania became aware was of dreamy languor; the second was of molten heat, which was surging through her in a restless tide. Her dark head thrashed on the satin pillow as she resisted the sensations burning through her with a strange, fitful fury.
"Shh, easy." The voice was a dark velvet murmur. "Relax and flow with it, little Piper."
She lifted heavy lids to meet glowing silver eyes that were oddly warm, despite their color. They seemed to blaze in the shadowy darkness of his face, just as the vitality of his slender, jean-clad body appeared to shimmer like a flame in the dimness of the bedroom. Somehow it seemed perfectly natural to open her eyes and see Jared Ryker sitting in an elegant tapestry-covered wing chair beside her bed. As natural as any dream could be, she thought hazily. For there could be no doubt whatever that this was a fantasy, though a strangely tactile one. Her hand rubbed lazily against the smooth satin of the sheet that covered her.
The man was frowning. "Do you know who I am, Tania?"
Of course she knew who he was, but it was most inconsiderate of a fantasy figure to demand that she rouse herself to answer when it took so much effort. "Ryker," she said, the word sounding slurred and far away, even to her own ears.
He smiled grimly. "Well, that's something, anyway. How do you feel?"
She smiled dreamily. "Wonderful." Then her face clouded in confusion as she once more felt that hot electric surge of sensation go through her. "No." She shook her head vaguely. "I don't know. Something."
She heard a murmured curse from the man in the wing chair, and suddenly he was sitting beside her on the bed, his hands gathering hers in a warm, secure clasp. A very tactile dream, she thought contentedly, as her own hands tightened on his. "Listen, Tania, and try to understand. What you're feeling is going to get worse when some of the sedation wears off." His gray eyes were holding hers with compulsive force, as if trying to pierce the veil that was enveloping her senses. "I'd give you something to put you out again, but I can't risk it without knowing precisely what they used on you. It would be too dangerous. Do you understand?"
The face looking down at her was oddly taut and
strained. There were graven lines on either side of his beautifully cut mouth hinting at a power and sensuality, that aroused her even through the dark haze surrounding her. Yes, a beautiful mouth.
Then his hands were on her bare shoulders, shaking her. "Do you understand?"
Understand what? She'd forgotten what he'd been saying. But he obviously wasn't going to leave her alone until she answered him. "I understand," she said. It wasn't nearly so slurred this time, she thought with a vague sense of pride.
"I hope to hell you do," he muttered, exhaling slowly. One hand left her shoulder to run restlessly through his dark hair. "Look, I'm going to help you in the only way I can. Trust me, okay?"
She nodded happily, her dark eyes dreamily content. Why had she been so wary of him at that first meeting? She wondered. There was nothing to be afraid of in the dark, intent face of the man above her. Then the hot tide flowed over her again, and she gasped at the aching need it left in its wake. She knew a wrenching emptiness in her loins, and the tips of her breasts were suddenly so sensitive that the touch of the satin sheet against them was almost painful.
Ryker murmured an obscenity that would have shocked her if she hadn't been lost in an intensity of sensation that was tearing her apart. "So help me God, if I had Betz here right now, I'd strangle him," he snarled savagely, his eyes blazing. He leaned forward and gently brushed her forehead with his lips. "Hold on, sweet, its going to be all right in a little while. I'll take care of it."
Then he was on his feet, pulling the cream sweatshirt over his head and tossing it carelessly on the wing chair. He turned to face her, his hands working swiftly at his belt. "Do you know how many hundreds of times I've
thought of having you like this?" he asked thickly. "With that strong, lovely body naked and willing to take me into you? I think I know your body now better than my own. I've watched those video tapes of your performances until I've almost worn them out." He slid his jeans and briefs over his hips, his gaze still fixed on her flushed, dreamy face. "I know how you move, how your expressions change like quicksilver. I love those flyaway eyebrows. I've wanted to run a finger over them more times than I can count." He smiled, his harsh face oddly tender. "You're always laughing. Even when the role calls for you to be sad and pensive, the laughter is lurking, waiting to burst free. I think that touches me more than anything else about you."
He stepped out of his loafers and moved closer to the bed, totally naked now, his lean, whipcord body gleaming like polished gold in the dimness of the room. He shook his head. "No, that's not true. It's the totality of you that obsesses me." His face became grim. "Even an unimaginative bastard like Betz recognized the signs that you'd become special to me."
Betz? The name was vaguely familiar, wasn't it? Then she dismissed it as unimportant, as her gaze ran admiringly over Ryker's naked body. She was accustomed to male beauty in her partners, and she generally appreciated it with the impersonal attitude with which she viewed a beautiful painting. Ryker's body wasn't as graceful and symmetrical as many she'd seen, but it possessed a lean, muscular tension radiating a leashed power that sent a tingle of excitement through her. Her gaze traveled from the springy mat of dark hair on his chest to the hard, muscular stomach and down to the soft nest of hair that cradled the root of his manhood.
"Do you like me, little Piper?" His voice was as darkly mellow as cognac. "Do you want to feel me inside you as much as I want to be there?"
This fantasy was beginning to seem more real by the minute, Tania thought vaguely as Ryker sat down next to her on the bed. Not that it mattered. She was infinitely content to have it so. It was as if Ryker were weaving a golden gossamer web of sensuality about her.
"I wonder if you're comprehending even half of what I'm saying to you." He sighed heavily, filled with frustration. His hand gently smoothed the hair at her temple. "It wasn't supposed to be like this, damn it. I was going to wait until it was safe to come to you, and try to make you want me as much as I want you." He grimaced. "Well, Betz blew that all to hell, so we're going to have to make the best of it."
The warmth of his hips against the thin satin sheet was causing the throbbing between her thighs to accelerate to a cadence of need like liquid fire. Her hand lifted lazily from the sheet to rest on the soft mat of hair on his chest. She smiled contentedly as she felt his heart jump beneath her hand and saw him inhale sharply. It was nice to have one's fantasies respond so satisfactorily.
"I love to have your hands on me." His voice was a low, husky growl, and his eyes were closed in a face that was taut with an almost painful pleasure. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to pull this off, Tania Orlinov." His lids swept up, and the silver eyes were a fresh shock as they looked down at her with a glazed absorption. "I'm in a hell of a box. If I take you now, when you come out from under the drug, you're going to be angry as hell with me for taking advantage of you when you were helpless." He reached up and touched her hand that was curled intimately in the thatch of hair on his chest. "And if I don't take you, you're going to spend the next few hours being uncomfortable as the devil."
He lifted her small hand and kissed the palm lingeringly, his warm tongue probing the soft center with a thoroughness that made her heart leap in response.
"You taste so good," he said softly. "I can't let you hurt when I can do something about it, love." The expression on his face was an odd mixture of sensual longing and stern control as he looked down at her. "So I'm going to give you what you need, and maybe I can salvage something to build on along the way. Before you go back to sleep you're going to know my body so well that every breath I take will be your breath; you're going to know how your touch excites my every muscle and tendon. You're going to know how your tongue can make me shake like a kid with his first woman." He sucked tenderly at the sensitive tips of her fingers. The warm moisture of his mouth tugged erotically at her senses. He released her fingers. "I'm going to make sure of that, because once the anger starts, that memory may be the only weapon I have." His lips curved in a bittersweet smile. "Are you ready for me, little Piper?"
She nodded slowly, her dark eyes cloudy in smoldering response to his words. A flicker of pain crossed his face. "Tell me," he demanded. "Say the words. For God's sake, let me know you're at least aware of who the hell is making love to you."