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He waited politely for a reply, but she simply dipped her spoon into her soup and gazed at him with those dreamy green eyes.
She wanted to say that she accepted his apology, but she knew the words would be incendiary. Adam Savage was doubtless a man who seldom apologized.
He finished his soup. “From this moment on we must fiercely guard your reputation. I have already explained to Mrs. Kenny that you traveled here in male attire to dispel gossip, because you had no female chaperone. She was bursting with curiosity at your unconventional antics.”
Mr. Burke brought in the smoked salmon with its parsley and dill sauce. He also served tiny new potatoes, asparagus tips, baby carrots, and parsnips. A salad of scallions, fresh mushrooms, watercress, and fiddlehead ferns completed the course. Plumb partridges and rabbit pie were being taken from the oven as they tasted their salmon.
It was Antonia’s turn to smile to herself. First she’d been a male, then a female. She wondered what Mrs. Kenny would make of her tonight.
As Adam watched the play of light and shadow over Tony’s lovely face and bared shoulders he wondered what her secret thoughts were. She looked as if she knew something he did not. He made the mistake of looking at her mouth, and its effect upon him was immediate and pronounced. Her mouth was made for making love.
She dipped her finger in the sauce and licked it. He was hard and throbbing. He shifted imperceptibly to ease the fabric stretched tautly across his swollen groin. He tried to tamp down his desire, but it blazed merrily out of control as he remembered taking her sensual lower lip into his mouth. He felt a jolt all the way to the tip of his phallus as she reached for her goblet and her breast almost spilled from her bodice. He was no longer hungry for food as another hunger gnawed at his belly.
When Mr. Burke brought in the next course, he shook his head and told him that would be all. Savage’s voice became husky when he tried to speak. He cleared his throat. “When we return to London you will make your debut into society as Lady Antonia Lamb. You will say you have been visiting friends in the country. I shall let it be known that Lord Anthony Lamb has departed for Ceylon.”
Antonia gazed at him, not really listening, as he put her world in order. He had an unstudied arrogance sitting here in the banqueting hall of his own castle. With his long black hair and scarred face he could have been a warrior from another century. She shivered delicately as she thought of his bronzed body conquering her and forcing her to yield to him. A fantasy she would give her soul to play out.
Adam Savage threw his napkin on the table and pushed back his chair, waiting for her to arise. He looked so self-composed and in total control that more than anything on earth she wanted to shatter that composure into a million shards. As she arose from the table Adam stood up, but what he saw momentarily rooted him to the spot. With the exquisitely feminine gold tulle bodice she was wearing tight trousers and high-heeled slippers. The boys’ pants emphasized her long, slim legs and molded her deliciously round bottom. He remembered her legs wrapped about his naked body and he was lost.
All thoughts of marrying her to someone else vanished into thin air. She was his. He would keep her forever.
He strode to her and swept her up into his powerful arms. His voice was as smoothly sensual as black velvet. “There is unfinished business between us.”
Chapter 35
Antonia’s arms entwined about the thick column of his neck and she shuddered as her fingers tangled in his long black hair. Her cheek rested against his wide shoulder and she could hear the deep, steady beat of his heart as he strode toward the staircase. The linen of his shirt felt rough beneath her soft cheek and she suddenly went weak all over, as she knew without a doubt his naked chest with its furred pelt would be far rougher than linen. She closed her eyes as his man-scent stole to her, making her dizzy with desire.
As he swept up the stairs, his arms tightened about her body and she felt the brush of his marblelike thighs against her bottom cheeks and knew an overwhelming rush of power that she had the ability to do this to his magnificent body. He carried her with such ease, she rejoiced in his great sexual energy, knowing he would expend it all on her.
Suddenly she became shy and apprehensive. What if she wasn’t woman enough for Savage? She stole a look at his face as he carried her into his bedchamber. Silver-blue eyes gazed into hers with such intensity, it was like fire and ice. His mouth was set and hard and looked unbelievably cruel. She drew in a quick breath. She had never seen his face look like this before. He looked like a satyr, nay, he had the ferocity of a wild animal, primal, untamed. He looked like a leopard.
Heat leapt from his body, almost scalding her. His intense masculinity overwhelmed her. Was she mad to let him carry her to his bed? He was too frighteningly dark. He was too big for her, he was too old for her! He was an experienced libertine, immoral, well versed in debauchery, corruption, and sin.
As Adam Savage carried the prize to his bed, he felt a surging wave of lust that threatened to drown him in need. The very blood slowed in his veins and he felt a throbbing in his chest, his loins, even in the soles of his feet. His sex was so engorged, he had difficulty climbing the stairs, and when his phallus brushed against her bottom cheeks, it was exquisite torture.
Her black hair, just the color of his own, spilled over his arm like a waterfall. Her green eyes were wide, bottomless pools. Before he was done with her he would watch them darken with desire, turn smoky with sensuality, blaze with a flaming lust he would ignite, then turn pale and dreamy with delicious languor.
Her fragrance was an intoxicating mixture of violets and woman-scent. He wanted to taste her but did not trust himself not to bite and crush the soft mouth that tempted him to madness. As he swung her into his bedchamber his gaze ran along the length of her long, slim legs encased in the trousers. He had never knowingly seen a woman in pants before and the effect was unbelievably erotic. Tony had known the effect it would have on him. She had deliberately worn them with the ultrafeminine bodice and high-heeled slippers to provoke his manhood and steal his senses.
Her clinging to him, as if her need was as great as his own, spurred him on to ferocity. As he put her down upon the wide bed he caught a look of panic on her face and suddenly realized she was afraid. A curl of tenderness spiraled inside his chest. He sat down on the bed, gazing down at her as she lay absolutely still. He took her hands into his. “Sweetheart, are you afraid of the act or are you afraid of me?”
“I—I don’t know,” she said faintly.
“A little of both, I suspect,” he murmured.
“You … suddenly seem dangerous.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t play with fire unless you wanted to get scorched.”
She remembered him telling her in Venice that he would not break her hymen because they did not have time for her to become accustomed to the pain and move beyond it. Tonight they did have time.
“Adam, the last time we were together was the most wonderful night of my life. Can you make it like that again?”
“I can try,” he whispered, brushing the back of his fingers across her cheek. “Last time, because I refused you, you wanted it so badly you thought you would die. Now because you know I am going to complete coitus, you are not so sure you want it at all. It’s perverse human nature, and you are the most perverse female I’ve ever encountered.”
The corners of her mouth went up as a delicious thrill ran through her. The way he looked at her, as if he would devour her, made her feel beautiful and desirable above and beyond all other women. The countless pennies she had dropped down the wishing well as a child must have miraculously worked their magic.
Adam knew he would have to bank the fires of his desire while he rekindled hers to such an intensity that it consumed every last shred of fear and apprehension. He braced himself on his arms and leaned over her. He bent down until his mouth almost touched hers, then he began to tease her. “I dimly recall forbidding you to wear male attire ever again. Then you flaunt those long, beautiful legs at me in pants to deliberately arouse my anger and my lust.” He brushed her lips with his.
