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Savage murmured, “A firm hand applied regularly to the backside will put an end to her drinking and carousing about in trousers.”
The household staff of Leopard’s Leap had outdone themselves. When dinner was served in the long dining room, it was more like a banquet. It was ten at night before Denville proposed the last toast. Roz lifted her hands for silence.
“I think we should continue this party at Government House and let the newlyweds have their privacy.”
When the two carriages pulled away from Leopard’s Leap, Adam swung Tony up into his arms and carried her back into the bungalow. “You are an outrageous baggage. Did you wear bright yellow to shock them?”
She moved against him sensually, brushing her hand provocatively across the bulge at his groin. “They’d be shocked if they knew the effect bright yellow had on you. It arouses you to madness. The first time I wore it you took me across your desk!”
“You exaggerate.”
“Exaggeratemeans to enlarge or increase beyond the normal. I plead guilty, milord.” Tony deliberately touched his swollen erection once again. “Take me to bed.”
“To hell with bed. I’ve waited an eternity to take you to my bathing room.” His gaze was so intense, she blushed at the things she knew he would do to her.
“Your eyes are as blue as … a baboon’s bum,” she whispered wickedly. Then she screamed as his teeth bit down on her earlobe.
Anthony was back at Leopard’s Leap at the crack of dawn. Adam and Tony had slept only about two hours. They awoke in each other’s arms with strands of black hair entangled about their naked bodies.
The lovers clung to each other, whispering, kissing, touching, tasting. They ignored Anthony’s cheerful voice as he talked with the house servants. As their passion mounted everything faded away until there were only two, alone in paradise. Their bodies fused, becoming one.
As always it was a wild, erotic love ritual, burning, thrusting, surging, pulsing, throbbing. Savage was all rippling muscle, all rampant, driving male. Antonia was all silken, liquid heat, all scented, sultry sensuality. At their mutual, bursting implosion, lust melted into delicious, overwhelming love.
He cradled her against him with one powerful arm, while his fingers brushed the clinging tendrils of hair from her temple, then traced the lovely curve of her cheek and throat.
“He won’t go away, you know,” she whispered.
“Anthony? No, I can hear him pacing out there.”
“He’s worse than a plague of locusts. I wanted us to have a long, lip-licking breakfast in bed, then a warm, scented swim in the bathing pool.”
“I’ll lick you tonight,” he promised, recalling last night’s lovemaking in the pool. The wet slide of skin, the liquid tremors, until they were love slick and almost drowning in need. “By tonight your scratches should be all healed over and I won’t have to be so gentle with you.” He groaned as he ran his calloused palm down her tempting leg. “When your long legs swoop up into the curve of my back, I want to lie like that forever.”
Adam and Anthony spent the first of many days together. He got to know his wife’s twin brother well. Anthony was so enthusiastic about everything, Adam could tell Leopard’s Leap was already in his blood. He recognized the symptoms. Ceylon had had the same effect on him when he first arrived. It was still a part of him, of course, but his future and the future of his children now lay in England.
They began the tedious, backbreaking work of replanting. Adam noted with satisfaction that Anthony’s enthusiasm did not diminish with hard work.
“Will you be returning to England soon?” Anthony asked his new brother-in-law.
Adam nodded. “If Tony would like to go home and feels up to the voyage.”
“Is she unwell?” Anthony asked with concern.
“No, she’s not unwell. She’s blooming with health. She’s redolent with child.”
“Oh, I see,” Anthony said, laughing. “I can understand why you want to get back to Edenwood. Mr. Burke has already packed grandmother’s things for England, and mother’s off to Bombay for a holiday, but I simply don’t want to leave yet.”
“Why don’t you stay on at Leopard’s Leap? The lease to the East India Company has only a year left on it. If you’re a successful planter by that time, I’ll make you a partner,” Savage offered.
“Do you mean it?” Anthony asked, astounded at his generosity.
“You’re a godsend, an answer to my prayers. What more could I ask than to leave Leopard’s Leap in your care? I have a vessel called theJade Dragonin Colombo. I use it for export on the China run. Why don’t you try your hand at that too? There are only two cargoes I forbid: opium and ivory.”
A fortnight later the trunks were stacked at the front door of the bungalow. The factory was being rebuilt and the fragile tea seedlings had been planted up the rolling slopes of Leopard’s Leap.
Adam Savage carried his bride from the bathing pool into the spacious bedchamber they would use for the last time. He had let Antonia decide whether they would stay or return to England. She made the decision for them, knowing what was in her husband’s heart. Though he loved Leopard’s Leap, it was time to found their dynasty at Edenwood.
Adam slid into bed beside her and lifted her onto his hard body. “Sweetheart, I’m so much in love with you. Thank God you finally believed there was nothing between your mother and me.”
She raised herself up on her knees above him, poised for the plunge. “Indian Savage, you don’t really believe me that naive, do you? I simply came to the conclusion that you were right, as always. It was none of my business!”
She heard a low growl in his throat, before he pounced. Soon, however, they were both purring. Much later, in the still of the fragrant night, they sat propped against their pillows, sharing plans for their future. Savage reached for a cheroot made from fine Jaffna tobacco. He lit it, inhaled deeply, then stretched back luxuriously. When his glance was drawn back to Tony, he was stunned. She, too, was smoking a cheroot.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
“Something you taught me to do,” she pointed out, her lids half closed against the blue smoke. “What’s sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose.”
“Too goddamn much sauce!”My God, she is lovely,he thought. “I suppose I’ll have to give it up if I expect you to stop,” he conceded.
Tony crushed out the cheroot and slid down against him in the bed. Savage became instantly erect. She rolled him between her hands like a fine cigar. “Mmm,” she murmured outrageously, “let’s put this on the mantelpiece and I’ll smoke it in the morning!”
