“I understand you’re angry.”
“I’m not angry, my lord. I’m furious.”
He regarded her for a long moment, then asked quietly, “Have you given any thought to the possibility that you may be carrying my child?”
“Pray don’t concern yourself. I wouldn’t demand that you give me the honor of your name. I’d rather bed down with a nest of asps.”
A muscle worked in his jaw, telling her how hard he was working to rein in his temper. “If you’re pregnant, I’ll take care of you and the babe.”
“How magnanimous of you.” The image of his baby at her breast while he looked on nearly broke her heart. “But in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t need you. What possible reason would compel me to subject myself to your ill humor?”
“Perhaps because you have some small feeling for the man who could be the father of your child.”
Bliss wished it wasn’t so, but she did care. She’d glimpsed sweet, vulnerable things beneath Caine’s hardened exterior. But he didn’t care about her. She had been a means to an end, nothing more.
“If I were pregnant, what then? Would you be performing nightly in Lady Buxton’s bed to support us? For you certainly wouldn’t be anywhere near mine.”
The inferno that suddenly flared in his eyes was the only warning she got before his control snapped. He stepped in front of her until her spine was pressed up against the wall, his hands braced on either side of her head.
“Don’t tempt me to prove how easily I could change your mind. If you didn’t feel something for me, you wouldn’t be acting like such a shrew. You care for me, damn you. And I…I feel something for you.”
Bliss trembled. God, how she had missed him, the loathsome, beautiful wretch. She realized that she had been trying to incite his temper, wanting him to explode. She was too proud to tell him she wanted him to kiss her and whisper roughly in her ear that he would never let her go, as he had once before.
“The only feeling you have for me, my lord,” she said with contempt, “is between your legs.” She boldly laid her hand against the front of his trousers, the heaviness surging hotly against her palm telling her that she still affected him.
He hissed sharply through his teeth, the fire in his eyes blazing nearly out of control as he moved against her, leaving her no escape as he molded her body between his hot, hard form and the wall.
Her breath was suspended in her throat as she gazed up at him in challenge. She nearly sobbed with relief when his mouth came down on hers, the contact sending sparks everywhere.
Seventeen
When there is no peril in the fight,
there is no glory in the triumph.
Pierre Corneille
He kissed her fiercely, his mouth opening over hers, his hips grinding against her, letting her feel the hard press of his arousal that she had so brazenly caressed.
His hands seemed to be everywhere, not allowing her a moment to catch her breath, forcing every hungry, eager thing from her soul.
Bliss tried to retain a shred of defiance, tried not to give Caine what he wanted. But he took hold of her arms and settled them at his shoulders, leaving her hands in reach of temptation—the firm contours of his shoulders; the warm, pliant length of his neck; and that hair, that soft, untamed hair that begged someone to caress the smooth strands, to run it through her fingers and then tighten it in her grasp, bringing his head down even closer, his groans mingling with her soft cries until the world around them was no more substantial than a wisp of smoke.
She was drowning in him, consumed by his heat, the taut line of his body flush against hers, powerful muscles shifting as his mouth took hers in flagrant, willful possession.
His fingers dug into her hair, loosening the heavy mass from its topknot and letting it spill down her shoulders. He grabbed a fistful and imprisoned her with it, tugging her head back so that he could taste the curve of her neck, the sensitive spot behind her ear. An aching pant built at the back of her throat. He captured the sound with his mouth.
Her heart beat a wild tattoo, excitement coursing through her veins as Caine tilted her mouth up to his; a piercing ecstasy arrowed from her nipples to her belly and blossomed between her thighs.
But behind her closed eyes, images began to invade: flashes of Caine with other women, disarming their inhibitions as he was so masterfully doing with her, all of them succumbing to his seduction, all of them feeling the sinuous strength of his body, writhing beneath his expert touch, their faces blurring and then sharpening into one.
Olivia Hamilton.
The woman’s cold, mocking countenance appeared before Bliss’s eyes, her cruel words ringing like a piercing knell that tore at her heart.
He spends a good deal of time plotting revenge against those who have wronged him. And you, I’m afraid, were an irresistible target.
Bliss tore her mouth away. “Leave me alone.” She shoved at him, and then again, until her fists were pounding against his chest.
He grabbed hold of her wrists, manacling them at her side, his breathing labored and his eyes heavy-lidded with passion as he stared down at her. “Stop it.”
“Let go of me.”
He hesitated, and then with a wordless sound of frustration, he released her. Bliss escaped to the other side of the room before facing him again.
“Wasn’t once enough for you?” she said, despising the slight catch in her voice. “You’ve vindicated yourself. You’ve taken my virginity as your prize. Your father’s memory has been avenged. What else do you want?”
Silence filled the room as Caine regarded her, his gaze embracing and damning all at once. “Perhaps,” he finally said, his voice slicing through the quiet void to pierce her heart, “it’s you I want.”
The confession stunned Bliss, a pang of joy flickering to life inside her. But she couldn’t believe him. She wouldn’t. He was toying with her again.
“Why?” she asked angrily. “Is there some other family member you believe my father has wronged?”
He walked to the window and looked out. Clouds laced the night sky, their shadows briefly filtering across his face before moving on. Slowly, he turned to her, the moonlight exaggerating the chiseled lines of his jaw. His mouth was firm, his eyes a tumult of emotion she could only guess at.
“This is no longer about my father or yours,” he said.
“Isn’t it? You made it about our fathers the moment you set out to seduce me.”
“I tried to stop.”
“Does passion come so easily to you, my lord, that you can simply turn it on and off at a whim? Did you desire me even a little? Or are you so adept at seducing women that you can make them believe they mean something to you?”
His jaw tensed. “You know I wanted you, damn it.”
“A lust for revenge and too much alcohol has the power to motivate even the most reluctant individual.”
“Revenge had nothing to do with what happened between us.”
“You’ll forgive me if I disagree.” Bliss realized her hands were gripping her skirt. She dropped the material and forced her feet to move. “So tell me, what truly prompted your visit today? Have you discovered you only have a week to live and must now make amends before God? Or did a sudden bout of conscience miraculously overwhelm you?”
“According to you, I have no conscience.”
At the dark note in his voice, Bliss glanced at him, uneasy at the way he seemed to track her movements.
“Whatever your reasons for coming here, you’ve at least given me the opportunity to tell you what I think.” She faced him, her voice trembling with anger. “I don’t believe your claims about my father. He would never intentionally set out to hurt anyone. He is not that kind of person.” She could have told him about the letter, perhaps offered to let him read it, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing she had doubted her father for even a moment. “I’m sorry about what happened to your father. I truly am. But I won’t take the blame.”
&
nbsp; The shadows enshrouded all but his eyes, intensely blue and determined. “I took my anger out on you. I had convinced myself I hated you. But somewhere along the way…” He paused, his voice sounding weary as he said, “Somewhere along the way, things changed. Once you were gone…”
“You realized you had lost your whipping post,” she finished bitterly.
He gritted his teeth, his expression stony. “No, I realized I had made a mistake.”
The admission stopped her short. Then she remembered she was dealing with a master manipulator and seducer. “Forgive me if I’m not flattered, but I never want to see you again.”
She whirled on her heels, her skirt making a furious snap as she started for the door. In a flash, Caine reached her and spun her around to face him.
“I think the kiss we shared a few moments ago says you feel otherwise.”
“Think what you will. If you’ll excuse me, you’ve interrupted my work and chased off my model.”
“So that’s what that buffoon was doing here? Modeling for you?”
“Yes.”
“Then I think it only fair to make it up to you by offering myself as a replacement.” One corner of his lips lifted, sinful intent in his expression as he shrugged out of his jacket, the expensive material falling in a dark pool at his booted feet.
“W-what are you doing?”
“Disrobing.” He divested himself of his waistcoat next, that unprincipled grin daring her to stand her ground.
“Well, stop it.”
He ignored her, his gaze holding her immobile as he undid his cuff links, each one making a small ping as it hit the floor. Then his hand rose to pull away the cravat around his neck, the snowy white material drifting to the floor in slow motion. He unbuttoned his shirt in the same unhurried fashion, revealing his heavily muscled chest inch by tantalizing inch.
As much as Bliss tried to look away, she couldn’t. And when his shirt whispered to the floor to join his other belongings, leaving him standing in a golden glow of lamplight, her palms began to sweat.
The moment he reached for the top button on his trousers, she found her voice. “Don’t!”
“Why not?” Caine asked in a silky tone, noting the heightened color on her cheeks, and the way her tongue darted out to lick her dry lips, the quick rise and fall of her chest. “Scared?”
He closed in on her, taking perverse delight in the way her eyes devoured him, making him disintegrate in little pieces. That look had been what had haunted his dreams the most. Those hot eyes skimming over him, missing nothing, incapable of telling lies.
She had awakened something inside him that he couldn’t face, and he had done whatever he could do to get away from it, allowing himself to believe what he felt for her was still hate.
But once she was gone, and one empty day melted into the next, he realized hate had stopped being a factor. He had missed her—her smile, the way she smelled, how she walked, how she stood up to him. Hell, he had even missed the way she could whip him into shape with that sharp tongue of hers.
But what he had missed the most was the way she felt in his arms, how she fit, and how she held nothing back when he kissed her.
He wanted that again. She couldn’t hide her true self from him when he touched her. She wasn’t experienced enough in playing the game to know how to disguise her emotions.
He reached into his pocket to retrieve the item he had brought with him. “Remember this?” he asked.
Her eyes widened, slow heat flushing her cheeks. “That’s my garter.” Her gaze lifted to his, those pretty eyes mortified. “Where did you get it?”
“Off your thigh.” The telling blush on her face rose to new heights and Caine smiled to himself, knowing she was thinking he had taken it the night they had made love. He would enjoy enlightening her. “You don’t hold your alcohol at all well, love. Any number of unscrupulous scoundrels might take advantage of that fact.”
It took only a moment for understanding to blossom. “Are you saying…”
“That I undressed you when you were too intoxicated to do so yourself?” He smiled as an answer. “You do make a fetching drunk, sweetheart. Quite hard to resist.” As she was at that moment, with embarrassment and rising anger sparking in her eyes. “All and all, I consider myself a rather noble fellow.”
“Noble!” she exclaimed in a furious tone.
“Had you seen how tempting you looked with the moonlight bathing your skin, and your breasts so luscious…Besides, it was either myself or St. Giles, and I’d like to think you would have preferred me.”
“I would have preferred neither of you!” she fumed, and in the same breath, “He was in my room, too?”
“It was a busy evening.”
“He wouldn’t have…”
“Let’s just say sleep wasn’t on his mind.”
She shivered, comprehension dawning on her. “The bruise on the earl’s jaw…You hit him, didn’t you?”
“Would it dilute my chivalry if I said I enjoyed it immensely?”
“I don’t understand you.”
“A common lament, I’m afraid. But what is uppermost in my mind at this moment is exactly what form your gratitude might take. I was thinking that you could put your mouth against mine, maybe run your fingers through my hair and whimper a little bit. You know the whimper I mean, that soft—”
“I want it back,” she demanded, holding out her hand. “Please give it to me.”
“‘It,’ as in the garter?”
“Yes,” she snapped.
“I don’t know,” he said tauntingly, working his way around her desk, trying not to startle her into bolting as he closed the distance between them. “I’ve developed a fondness for it.” He stroked the silk across his lips; taking pleasure in the way Bliss’s gaze followed his action, her breathing shallow. “But I might be willing to part with it—on one condition.”
“Which is?”
He grinned wolfishly. “If I can put it back where I found it.”
Her cheeks flamed with color. “Absolutely not,” she retorted hotly, lifting that stubborn chin and staring down her pert nose at him, a rather impressive feat, considering her lack of height.
“Guess I’ll have to keep it, then.” Caine continued to casually stalk her until the backs of her legs came up against the edge of the bed.
Her gaze shot to the door, that lovely closed door, all the way across the room. He could see she was calculating the distance, wondering if she could make it to freedom before he was upon her.
“Don’t try it, sweetheart.” His fingers slid around her wrist and he stared down into her furious, beautiful face, committing to memory the exotic tilt of her brows, the blunt perfection of her nose, the siren’s lashes that framed eyes whose glare was lethal.
He realized that somewhere along the way, the neat lesson he had once planned for her had turned on him. He was at her mercy.
“Did you miss me?” he murmured, gently shaping the soft flesh beneath his hand.
“Not in the least.” Her breath fanned his skin in warm, soft pants that roused his desire.
“Your eyes tell me a different story.” He tipped her chin up with his forefinger and saw the pulse leap at the base of her throat.
Bliss jerked her head away, praying only fury showed in her eyes. “Really? And what are they telling you now?”
He smiled, a chastened half grin that did strange things to her heart. “They’re telling me that you hope I suddenly burst into a ball of flame and wither into a pile of ashes at your feet.”
“Nothing so mild as that, I’m afraid.”
He laughed softly. “That may be true, but it still doesn’t change the fact that you want to kiss me.”
“Have you always been given to such delusional thinking?”
His warm breath caressed her cheek as he leaned down to say, “I find myself nearly insane where you’re concerned.”
For the space of a heartbeat, he almost had her believing in him again. Then she
blinked and rational thought was restored. “You want another tumble,” she charged.
A spark of anger flared in his eyes, belying the casualness of his words. “Of course. I traveled all this way just for the privilege of climbing between your sweet thighs and easing into your slick, tight heat, to feel your nails scoring my back as you arch up against me, your pretty nipples teasing my chest, your legs squeezing my flanks, your hips tipped up to sweetly receive every last primed inch of me—”
“That’s enough!”
“—when there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of women between here and Devon whom I could have plowed, who would have willingly tossed up their skirts instead of clawing and hissing at me.”
“You’ve made your point,” she said breathlessly, betrayed by the images his words aroused. “You’ll forgive me if I’m not properly appreciative of your devotion, considering it is so fleeting and unpredictable. I suggest you use your powers of persuasion on one of your other women. Someone without a brain in her little head. Now, step aside.”
The regal demand only incited Caine’s hunger for her. And he knew then that he wanted to hear her say that she loved him. Perhaps the reasons no longer had anything to do with Olivia and her damn wager.
He didn’t even know himself anymore. Every day, it seemed he understood less and less what motivated him. After Bliss was gone he’d convinced himself he was better off, that even though he hadn’t succeeded in getting his home back, he had still reaped his revenge. But it hadn’t brought any peace to his soul.
He had been forced to recognize that the absolution he was searching for had to come from within. All this time, he had been looking outside himself to mitigate the weight of the guilt pressing in on him, to find someone else to take the fall. But even though he had reached a milestone in the slow, painful progress toward redemption, he was still not ready to let go of the blame. He could not yet forgive himself.
“Are you sure you don’t want to give me another go, since I’m here?” he asked provocatively, blowing a loose tendril away from her cheek, smiling inwardly at the slight shiver that chased over her skin.
The Pleasure Seekers Page 18