“Ain’t proper for a young lady to wear red to her engagement ball. When I done dressed Master Kingsley’s mother for hers, she done wore white. Why you got to be different, Miss Diana? Master Kingsley ain’t gonna like you wearin’ red like you is a fancy trollop. He’s gonna blame me for this, child.”
Diana, used to doing what she wanted within limits, didn’t see the problem, but she did notice that Hattie was very worried. “Master Kingsley has no say over my clothes, Hattie, and if he’s upset with me, he better not take it out on you. You answer to me, not him.”
“Yes, Miss Diana,” mumbled Hattie as a knock sounded on the door of Diana’s bedroom and Hattie admitted Anne.
“Red! Oh, heavens, Diana,” were the first words out of her sister’s mouth. “I had no idea.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the color. Red suits me better than white.”
Anne Richmond’s gaze flickered over her. “But it’s just that … couldn’t you have worn pink? You’ll be the talk of the countryside.”
Diana thought she looked rather nice in the gown. She’d chosen it because she was tired of being treated like a young girl. Since she was going to be mistress of Briarhaven, she wanted her future neighbors to see her as an adult, not the little girl over whom Anne still felt she must fuss. A moment’s qualm did distress her, but she dismissed it immediately. She was grown up now, as of this night.
“I trust Kingsley will give me his approval.”
Anne shook her light brown head, but even in her disapproval Anne was pretty in a gown of lavender satin, designed to hide the early stages of her pregnancy. “Well, I suppose you’ve made up your mind,” Anne conceded at length, and smiled back at Diana.
Locking their arms together, Diana and Anne left the bedroom and descended the wide staircase to the festivities below.
When Diana reached the bottom step she became aware that everyone was staring at her, their earlier conversation seemingly forgotten at the sight of Kingsley Sheridan’s fiancée in the scarlet gown. She nearly turned to run upstairs, but Anne steadied her with a grip on her wrist, a subtle reminder that she made her own choice and must live with it.
Diana held her breath when Kingsley came forward. In a frock coat of beige and tan satin he was quite handsome, but she was more interested in his reaction. He raised a sandy eyebrow but she couldn’t read his thoughts. Finally he held out his arm to her and smiled. Visibly relaxing, Diana allowed him to lead her into the candlelit ballroom and convinced herself that everything was going to be fine now. She’d passed the first hurdle in becoming the mistress at Briarhaven.
The evening passed quickly. With Kingsley and Harlan Sheridan beside her she met the people who would be her neighbors. At one point Harlan bent his silver head low and whispered kindly into her ear, “I believe you’ve quite captivated everyone, Diana. Kingsley is an extremely lucky young man. With you as mistress of Briarhaven and the future mother of my grandchildren, I predict there are wonderful times in store for us.”
Diana hoped so. She smiled at Harlan, who made an impressive figure in his blue satin attire. She danced with Kingsley and David before finding herself to be the sought after companion of the other gentlemen present. She had triumphed in her scarlet gown, but she wasn’t happy.
Diana begged off from the next dance and sat next to Anne, away from the center of the dance floor. “You look like you’ve eaten too many blackberries,” Anne commented, seeing Diana’s solemn expression. “You should smile, dear. At least you can dance the night away while I must sit here like a fat toad on a lily pad, forced to listen to matronly conversation that would bore a preacher. Tell me, is something wrong? You don’t look like a girl who is soon to become the bride of a rich and handsome young planter. What more could you want, Diana?”
“I want…”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Anne laughed gently and rearranged the curl that hung over Diana’s shoulder. “You’re nervous, that’s all. Once you’re married you’ll be fine.”
Diana knew Anne was being kind and concerned about her. She and David truly believed that Kingsley Sheridan would make a wonderful husband. But Diana didn’t think that Kingsley would be as tender and gentle with her as David was with Anne. She didn’t know why she thought that — Kingsley had never given any indication that he might be unkind — but the thought persisted and filled her with dread.
Also, she didn’t feel comfortable admitting to Anne that Kingsley had kissed her and that she’d felt nothing. She imagined that Anne’s response would be to reassure her that in time she’d feel a great deal. But what was it she should feel? And if she felt anything, would it be what Anne felt for David?
Her mind whirled, and suddenly she wanted to go outside into the garden and breathe in the sweet smell of the yellow jessamine that grew in profusion around the rose-tinged pillars of the house. While Anne started conversing with a young woman who had recently become a mother, Diana sneaked away into the balmy night.
She supposed she should have sought out Kingsley for this late-night stroll, but he was nowhere to be found in the ballroom and she hated to admit that she didn’t want his company. Meandering away from the house, she took a well-trod path beneath ancient oaks whose leaves glistened with moonshine, before stopping on the bluff. Below her, the misty river rolled gently past, bathed in silver silence. The clear, star-filled night was scented with the spicy fragrance of the sea breezes that blew up the Santee from the Atlantic. It seemed a paradise, something out of a long forgotten past, but it was real. And Diana didn’t want it.
She wanted … what?
“I don’t know,” she whispered into the night, feeling an ache within her breast she couldn’t name. “I want … I want…”
“Tell me what you want and I’ll get it for you.”
Diana swung around at the deep voice behind her. Her dismay deepened when the tall broad-shouldered figure came forward from the path, where he apparently had been watching her for some moments. It was Tanner, but a Tanner she barely recognized from the one who stood on the bank and oversaw the slaves.
This Tanner had smoothed his hair back from his face and wore it styled in a queue, emphasizing high cheekbones over tautly tanned flesh. A flurry of white lace on the front of his shirt dipped down into a V, clearly showing his muscled chest. Though the shirt appeared worn in spots, it was immaculately clean and neatly tucked into black breeches. With ebony knee boots shining from a fresh polish, he presented a far different image from the sweaty, half-naked man she’d seen five days ago. He didn’t resemble the person whom she’d declared crass at all.
Yet once again, as she stared into those eyes of his, eyes so dark that she barely discerned the pupils, she started to shiver.
“Are you chilled?” he asked.
“A bit,” she answered. “The night has grown suddenly cool.” It was far from chilly, but Diana couldn’t admit that having him stand so near to her caused goose flesh to rise on her skin.
“Perhaps a dance would warm you. May I have the honor?” Tanner bowed from the waist and extended his arms to her.
“Oh, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem proper somehow. And the music from the house doesn’t carry this far.”
“Then you aren’t hearing the music I hear.” A grin slashed his sensual lips and in an instant she found herself locked in his arms, moving with him across the bluff. “Listen, Diana. Don’t you hear the mellow tune of the sea breezes as they ruffle the river’s surface, or the steady chirp of the crickets in the grass? Certainly you must hear the soft song of the nightingale in that tree above you, and hear the rapid beat of my heart as I hold you like this, hear the swelling cadence of your own. If that isn’t music, my darling, then you aren’t listening.”
“I hear it,” she said in a breathless voice that couldn’t be her own. But it was. Suddenly she clearly heard nature’s orchestra, not realizing she followed Tanner’s lead in a scarlet swirl of silk and cream lace. His bronze
d, handsome face mesmerized her, and in that second she’d have given him her soul if he’d asked for it.
Suddenly he stopped. “Let me kiss you, Diana. I want to kiss you just once.”
“Oh, Tanner, I don’t know. I’m frightened…”
“Of me?”
She nodded, wanting him to kiss her, but something about the panther-like way he moved, the easy grace with which he held her, and the haunting and hungry way he looked at her scared her. No man had ever stared at her with such a feral gleam in his eyes, as if he wanted to devour her in one large bite. Diana feared a man such as this wouldn’t be satisfied with only a kiss.
“You have nothing to fear from me, Diana,” he whispered into her ear, “I want to love you.” His mouth began a sensual exploration of her earlobe before moving wantonly across her ivory cheek to claim the ruby treasure of her lips.
“No … ,” Diana moaned, feeling herself melt.
But it was too late to protest. Tanner had already claimed her lips in a kiss that stilled her speech and thoughts, a kiss that broke her will to resist. And she didn’t want to resist. Nothing in the entire world would have possessed her to fight Tanner’s arms as they circled her waist or stopped the thrill that soared through her when her breasts pressed against his chest. She lifted her hand, splaying her fingers on his shirt, and felt the rapid thump of his heart beneath the hard wall of sinew and muscle.
His tongue, hot and searching, found hers. This act of primitive plunder caused her to moan against his mouth.
“Oh, Diana, Diana,” he groaned. “I want you so much. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you.”
He pulled her onto the soft grass, and she unresistingly followed him. His hands moved from her waist to her bodice as he lowered her gown from her shoulders to reveal her chemise-clad breasts. With agile fingers, Tanner worked the tiny lacings loose before Diana was even aware. It was only when his mouth, warm and moist, settled upon one of her nipples that she realized what he intended to do.
“Tanner, you mustn’t … this is wrong. I can’t…”
His lips left her breast, and he looked down at her with eyes that shone so darkly that she could see herself within their depths. “This is right for us, Diana. I know you want me as much as I want you. I’ve tried to resist you, but you’ve become my obsession.”
“But Kingsley?”
“Do you feel this way when he kisses you or touches you?” he demanded. “Am I wrong to think that you want me? Tell me you don’t want me to do this…” He kissed her with a hot hunger that burned right through her. “Or this.” His hands cupped her breasts, taking her fullness into the calloused palms. “Or this.” And then his lips settled upon her nipple to suckle and drive her wild with a feeling she couldn’t name.
This was how she had thought to feel with Kingsley, but she had no idea it would be anything like this. This was what she wanted, this incredible ache within her that was part pain, part forbidden pleasure — such dark pleasure she thought she might die from it.
Her fingers wove into the thick strands of his hair. “Oh, Tanner, please…”
She wanted him to stop, yet not stop. All thought of Kingsley fled as Tanner’s hand slid up her skirt to stroke the softness of her inner thighs. His fingers traced a path higher and higher on her silken flesh. Diana stared up at the moonlit sky, her eyes widening in mute surprise. He couldn’t mean to touch her there. It wasn’t decent, it wasn’t right. But when his fingers found her velvet target, stroking and readying her for what was to come, it felt glorious.
“Do you want me to stop, Diana? I will if you want me to stop. But you must tell me, otherwise, I’ll undress you here and make love to you. Tell me what you want. Tell me.”
His breath fanned her naked breasts while he suckled each nipple in turn. His fingers worked their magic within the heated crevice of her body. She had no will, no power to stop him. She felt as if she were going to melt and dissolve into nothingness. Tanner was doing something to her, something so unbearably wonderful that nothing mattered, nothing and no one. At this moment all she wanted was for the achingly pleasant sensation between her legs to continue. The thought of Tanner undressing her here and loving her aroused her senses and only made the ache flare with something so undeniably exquisite that she couldn’t deny him.
“Tell me,” she heard his voice again. “Tell me what you want.”
“I … want … you.” She sounded breathless.
“I love you, Diana.” Tanner kissed her again, his fingers not ending their assault upon her lower body but moving more deeply within her until she found herself panting with a strange and powerful wanting.
The sky above them seemed to glow with silver and gold, her whole being shimmered like moonbeams upon the river as her body writhed beneath Tanner’s sensual stroking. Her breath began to come in tiny pants and she knew something was about to happen to her, something so unbearably wonderful that she found herself arching to meet it.
Her hands found the broadness of his shoulders, clutching him in preparation for the wonder of it all. She shut her eyes. “Oh, Tanner, oh, Tanner—”
“Diana!”
Through her desire-shrouded brain Diana recognized the owner of the voice that cut like a razor through the night. She stiffened, and a sick feeling of dread destroyed the ultimate pleasure she would have experienced beneath Tanner’s hands.
Opening her eyes, she saw Kingsley looming over them.
2
Kingsley wrenched Tanner from her, but Tanner instantly sprang to his feet and knocked Kingsley to the ground with a sharp jab to the jaw. “You bastard!” Kingsley growled up at him. “I’ll make you sorry for that.”
“Go on,” Tanner baited. “Get off your backside and do something about it. I’ve been waiting for years for the opportunity. Or are you too much of a coward to defend your honor? What about defending Diana’s honor, if not your own?”
Diana watched intently, barely able to breathe. From the hate shining in Kingsley’s eyes she could tell he longed to attack Tanner. Instead he cradled his bruised jaw in the palm of his hand while Tanner helped her to her feet.
At that moment David came charging down the path. He stopped short, his gaze flickering over the scene, taking in the sight of a blushing Diana as she rearranged her bodice into some semblance of order. Tousled hair fell in shadowy locks around her shoulders.
David shook his red-blonde head in dismay before looking at Tanner with condemnation in his eyes. He extended a hand to Kingsley. “Anne is worried about you, Diana,” David told her. “Please return to the house.”
“No, I want to know that Tanner will be all right,” she insisted and twisted around to see the man whose hands were warm at her waist. A shock coursed through her as she discovered that Tanner wasn’t even looking at her but at Kingsley. From the scowl on his finely made lips and the loathing on his face, it was evident to Diana that Tanner hated Kingsley.
“I’ll be fine,” she heard Tanner say in a clipped tone of voice. “Do as your brother-in-law said.”
Kingsley grabbed Diana’s arm and pulled her away from Tanner to stand beside him. Tanner made a movement to spring forward but apparently thought better of it. Instead he waited, his powerful legs thrust apart in a bold and defiant stance. The pressure of Kingsley’s fingers dug more deeply into her flesh, a not-so-subtle reminder of who she belonged to.
Kingsley made a snorting sound. “I find Diana’s regard for your welfare most touching, Tanner, considering that I discovered you attempting to have your way with her.”
“That’s not true!” Diana blurted out, but Kingsley tightened his grip around her, forcing her to silence.
“Ah, such an innocent she is. Don’t you agree, David?” Kingsley ignored her and didn’t let David reply before turning his attention again to Tanner. “I trust I arrived in time before any true damage could be done to her. I should hate for her to be initiated into the rites of love by such a bastard. And you are a bastard, aren’t
you, Tanner? You know you are.”
“Kingsley, please don’t go on…” Diana interrupted.
“But I will go on,” Kingsley continued, his voice growing more menacing. He moved her forward and placed her directly between him and Tanner. “Now, my innocent love. I want you to look at Tanner and remember him well. Remember the face of the man who tried to have his way with you. Look at my father’s bastard son, my half-brother, who shall always be little better than one of the slaves, who will never be a Sheridan. Go on, Diana, look at him and be disgusted to realize that such a man ever touched you.”
Suddenly she couldn’t bear to look at Tanner. Bastard son. Half-brother. Tanner was Harlan’s bastard son. She should have seen the resemblance between Harlan and Tanner. But that wasn’t why she couldn’t look at him.
She guessed Tanner must be humiliated to be an overseer on his father’s plantation, never to be acknowledged as Harlan’s son. He was a proud man, a kind man, and she didn’t want to see his pain. But when she lifted her eyes to his face she stared into two ebony hate-filled pools. A tight pain clutched at her heart. Was his hatred for her, too?
She almost spoke his name, but Kingsley spun her about on the path to face in the direction of Briarhaven. “I’m taking Diana back to the house. I know she’ll want to bathe and wash away the feel of your hands upon her. But, Tanner, I’m not finished with you. Not yet.” Kingsley pulled at Diana, literally dragging her with him.
Tanner moved forward with ready fists. “You can’t treat her like that!”
Suddenly David jumped in front of him and restrained him with a strong forearm. “I suggest you cool off, sir,” David suggested. “Diana isn’t your concern.”
“But Kingsley might harm her.”
“No. Kingsley loves Diana and would never hurt her. Besides, Anne and I are with her. I don’t know what happened here tonight, or what almost happened. Either way I hope you act the gentleman and leave my sister-in-law alone. You have no claim upon her and no future with her.”
“Oh, but my brother does because he’ll be master of Briarhaven. Yet I run Briarhaven. Doesn’t that count for something?”
Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) Page 2