Whisper To Me of Love

by Shirlee Busbee

  It was most unfortunate for her peace of mind that Chambers came to the doorway of the scullery just then and said quietly, “Pip, the master would like to see you in the library.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Pip’s eyes were huge as she stared at him. “Why?” she asked breathlessly. Something Ivy had said earlier suddenly assumed great significance and she blurted out, “He isn’t angry with me, is he? He doesn’t think it was my fault, does he?”

  Chambers could only shrug his shoulders. “I really can’t say, my dear. He merely requested your presence.”

  “Oh,” she said blankly, certain that she was going to be met by a very angry man. Leaving the safety of the kitchen, she grimaced. What did it matter? Every time she was in his vicinity, all her good intentions to keep a civil tongue in her mouth vanished. If he wasn’t angry, she thought mournfully, he certainly would be by the time she opened her mouth a few times and spoke without thinking. It shouldn’t have mattered to her that he might be angry with her, but it did—quite a bit—and she sighed. If only he were not so very intriguing, or so very handsome, she thought bleakly. And if only just the mere idea of seeing him didn’t make her heart beat in the most alarming manner!

  Angry at herself and just a little resentful at the power Royce seemed to wield over her wayward emotions, with a decided lack of enthusiasm, Pip made her way to the library. Reminding herself again of her mother’s fate, her soft mouth set in a determined line, she knocked on the double doors and, at Royce’s command, entered the room.

  Of all the rooms of the house, this one was Pip’s favorite. It was a long, narrow room, with a wide fireplace at one end. The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with leather-bound books of various hues, and a row of tall windows looked out over the tiny rose garden at the rear of the house. A softly colored Axminster carpet covered a portion of the gleaming wooden floors in front of the fireplace, and several comfortable red leather chairs, a black damask sofa, and a few satinwood tables were scattered across the carpeted area.

  Today, however, Pip’s delight in the room was subdued, and deliberately keeping her eyes downcast, unwilling to let herself even look at Royce, she quickly crossed the room to stand in front of him as he lounged near the fireplace. “You wanted to see me, sir?” she asked stiffly.

  Royce let his gaze travel slowly over her slender form, thinking, not for the first time, that she really needed some other piece of attire than his cook’s castoff garment. Not that she didn’t look charming in the faded blue and white gingham, it was just that Royce wondered what she would look like in fine muslins and gossamer silks or ... wearing nothing at all....

  Startled by the positively indecent pictures that flashed through his brain, he forcibly brought himself back to the matter at hand and his stunning reaction to the tableau that had met his eyes in the dining room such a short time ago.

  Royce had never experienced the savage emotions that had exploded through him at the sight of Pip in Stafford’s embrace. He had been furious, outraged that another man had dared to touch her—touch her in ways he had only dreamed of. And he had been shocked to realize that mixed in with this fury and rage had been a powerful sensation of possession—Pip was his, and only he should have the right to taste that provocatively shaped mouth! It had only been by the greatest exertion of effort that he had been able to keep his hands off Stafford, and not even Pip’s obvious dislike of the situation and her subsequent retaliations against Stafford had stilled Royce’s strong desire to inflict grievous punishment upon the other man. Just remembering Stafford’s hands on Pip made his temper rise, and his voice harsher than he meant it to be, he said, “I wanted to talk to you about this evening. Explain to me, please, what occurred before I entered the room.”

  Reacting to his tone of voice, Pip stiffened angrily, and Ivy’s words ringing unpleasantly in her mind, she answered tersely, “There is nothing to explain—I was clearing the buffet when that creature came in and grabbed me. You saw the rest.” Her eyes locked on Royce’s brilliantly shined Hessian boots. “May I leave now? There are things that I have to do in the kitchen.”

  “No, goddammit, you may not leave!” Royce said explosively, both her words and her manner unexpectedly infuriating him. “What the hell is the matter with you? I’m not the one who assaulted you!”

  Guiltily conscious of the truth of his words, Pip smothered the heartfelt apology that hovered on her lips. Grimly she reminded herself that it was far better that he think her an ungrateful, sullen little wretch than to have him being nice to her. Angry, she could keep him at a distance, but otherwise ... Otherwise, she admitted miserably, she found him far too attractive. Taking a deep breath, she asked stonily, “Is that all, sir?”

  Resisting the urge to shake her silly, Royce fought his temper under control and forced himself to act with his usual calm. Yet unable to keep himself from touching her, he reached out with one hand and gently tipped up her face. His compelling eyes stared down into hers. “Are you all right?” he asked softly. “He didn’t hurt you in any way, did he?”

  At his touch, light though it was, Pip felt a funny little quiver in the pit of her stomach, and helplessly she looked up at him. “I’m fine; he didn’t hurt me.”

  His fingers unconsciously caressing the smooth skin of her jaw, Royce’s gaze roamed with blatant pleasure over her features, missing nothing, from the curly, black hair that framed her face to the heavily fringed smoky gray eyes and the almost pouting fullness of her rosy mouth. His eyes locked on her lower lip, he admitted in a low voice, “It’s as well for him that you say so.... Otherwise, I think I might be driven to kill him.”

  Pip wanted to move away—he was standing much too close for her peace of mind, his big body nearly touching hers—but she could not seem to force herself to move. She was unbearably conscious of his hard, muscled length scant inches from her, painfully conscious of the strange drumming in her blood as each second passed and he continued to stare at her. Mesmerized by the rhythmic motion of his fingers on her skin, she watched him wordlessly, aware of the danger of this sudden intimacy, but unable to break away from him. As the moments spun by, feeling some comment was required of her, she said huskily, “Then I’m glad I can set your mind at ease—I would not want his death on my conscience.”

  Royce, too, was aware of the inherent risks of their situation, but like Pip, he could not seem to bring himself to shatter the moment. Beneath his fingers, her skin was warm and soft, and that sweet mouth, that sweet mouth which had haunted his dreams unceasingly these past days, was so temptingly near. Warning himself that it would be both dishonorable and cavalier to give in to the growing desire to taste that mouth, to crush that slender body against his own, Royce nobly tried to focus his thoughts on something else other than Pip’s tantalizing charms, and almost desperately he seized upon another subject. He did not, however, move away from her, nor did he stop the gentle, feather-light movements of his fingers along her cheek as he murmured, “Have you heard from your brothers?”

  Pip blinked, so lost in the sweet beguilement of his softly stroking fingers that it took a second for his words to register. Gathering her scattered thoughts about her, she answered, “No, I haven’t.” A thought occurred to her and she asked, “Have you seen them again?”

  Royce frowned slightly. “No, I haven’t, but I don’t believe it is cause for alarm, do you?”

  Pip shook her head. “They know I’m safe, and they wouldn’t want the one-eyed man to learn that they have been loitering in this vicinity. I suspect that I will hear something from them soon, though.” She grinned. “Even if they have to rob you to get a message to me!”

  Royce smiled at her words. There was no need to prolong the conversation between them, yet he found himself reluctant to end it. Seizing on the first thing that crossed his mind, he asked lightly, “And how are you doing under Chambers’s tutelage?”

  “Well, I haven’t broken anything yet, and he says that I am a quick learner,” she answered d
ryly.

  Royce grinned. “I must tell you that Chambers is positively astonished at how quickly you have managed to rid yourself of your, er, colorful way of talking. He tells me every day how much you have improved.”

  Pip laughed, a sparkle in the gray eyes. “Well, you did tell me to drop the accent,” she replied demurely.

  His smile gone, his voice suddenly husky, he muttered, “And will you always obey me so readily?”

  Pip’s mouth was suddenly dry, her heart hammering in her breast, as the earlier dangerously seductive quality to their situation returned without warning. Her gray eyes locked with his and she found herself saying breathlessly, “I-I-I don’t kn-kn-know; I think it would depend upon what y-y-you asked of me.”

  Neither seemed capable of breaking the sensual spell that was weaving itself so insidiously around them. His voice deepening, Royce murmured, “I wonder what you would do if I made the sort of offer that Stafford presented to you.” One hand still caressing her face, the other moved to where it gently cradled her dark head, his fingers moving seductively through her black curls. “Would you, I wonder, react the same way?”

  Her heart nearly stood still at his words, and a slow, treacherous excitement slid deliciously through her slender body. This was madness, she thought wildly with one part of her brain, I must escape, and yet ... and yet there was a part of her that found this moment too intriguing, too hypnotizing, to break away. Her eyes huge in her small face, her lips unconsciously inviting, Pip stared mesmerized up at his dark features. In a throaty voice that sounded nothing like her own, she asked recklessly, “Are you saying you want me for your mistress?”

  “I’m saying,” Royce admitted bluntly, “that you are driving me half-mad and that if I don’t kiss you, I think I shall very definitely go completely mad!”

  Giving her no chance to reply, as if he could stand it no longer, Royce crushed her slim shape against him, his lips hungrily finding hers. His mouth was hard and seeking against hers, his kiss both demanding and coaxing as his lips moved with a carnal explicitness on hers. This was no innocent kiss of first love, this was a man’s kiss, a man whose desires had been kept too long in check, and Pip’s fervently virginal response was not what he was seeking. Against her stunned mouth, he muttered thickly, “Sweet Jesus, open your mouth to me! Let me ... I must ...”

  But Royce was too driven by the almost frantic desire to kiss her fully, to take possession of her mouth, that he could not wait for her to obey. He had hardly uttered the words before his fingers caught her chin and gently pulled downward, forcing her lips to open slightly. It was all he needed, and with a half groan, half sigh, he boldly took what was so helplessly offered, his tongue plunging deeply into her mouth.

  For one mad moment Pip reveled in his kiss, and then the terrifying knowledge of where this could take them flooded icily through her. From here it would be a simple step to become his lover, his plaything, and she retained just enough sanity to resist. Frantically pushing against his shoulders, she twisted her mouth away from the intoxicating pleasure of his kiss. “Don’t!”

  Gripped by the most intense desire he had ever felt in his life, Royce murmured dazedly, “What? Don’t kiss you? Don’t hold you in my arms like this? You ask the impossible of me, sweetheart.”

  His lips gently caressed her temple and cheek, his breath warm and exciting on her flesh, and Pip felt her resistance crumbling. It was only a kiss, she told herself fiercely. Surely she could allow herself the pleasure of his kiss without losing her head completely ... just this once!

  She looked up at him, her pulse thudding wildly through her body at the expression in his eyes, and then his mouth touched hers and she was lost. Drowning in the explicitly hungry demand, Pip could deny him nothing, her mouth accommodating the searching thrust of his tongue, her arms coming up to hold him nearer, her fingers unconsciously clenching against his broad back as her young, aroused body pressed eagerly into him. Totally oblivious to anything but Royce’s big body and the mindless pleasure of being in his arms and experiencing the uncompromising passion of his kiss, Pip could not even think, she could only feel. Feel the smooth fabric of his jacket beneath her fingers, feel the strength and warmth of his body as it pressed against her, and feel the erotic abrasion of his tongue as he thoroughly and passionately explored the sweet confines of her mouth.

  As Royce continued to kiss her so hungrily, his one hand holding her head captive, the other sliding determinedly down her back to cup her buttocks and draw her even nearer, Pip was dimly aware that her body was reacting with a mind of its own and she swayed in his embrace, unconsciously rubbing against him. Her breasts were straining beneath the soft fabric of her gown, and she knew a mad desire to bare them to his gaze ... and touch. A shudder went through her at the image of Royce touching her naked breasts and she suddenly became achingly aware of the insistent throb between her legs. The sweet sensation of Royce’s hand fondling her hips was undeniably arousing, but no more arousing than the aggressive thrust of his rigid shaft between their locked bodies. Even through their clothing she could feel his violent arousal, the heat and size of him, exciting her further as he held her still and deliberately urged her against him.

  But kissing soon wasn’t enough, and impatiently Royce lifted the skirts of her gown and eagerly slid his hand beneath her drawers to caress and explore the soft skin of her buttocks, gently squeezing and kneading the firm flesh he found there. Pip gasped at the sensation of his hand against her naked skin, a bolt of undisguised pleasure shooting through her. She was on fire, her body tingling and aching for fulfillment, and she moaned with helpless pleasure when his caressing hand left her buttock and slowly crept between their twisting bodies.

  Royce’s hand trembled as he explored her soft belly, his fingers aching to plunge lower, to sink deep within her heated flesh, to tease her, to ready her for his possession. He was painfully aroused, so swollen and ready to take her that it was all he could do not to throw her on the floor and satisfy himself this very instant. He had never felt anything like the driving, blind desire that consumed him at this moment. Her mouth was so sweet, her uninhibited response as intoxicating as rare wine, and Royce knew that he was very close to losing complete control over himself.

  The intimate touch of his hand on her belly brought Pip crashing painfully back to reality, and gallingly aware of how very close she was to forgetting Jane’s pitiful life, and her own avowal to escape that same fate, she began to struggle in his arms. She must have been mad to let events get to this point, mad to have thought that one kiss would satisfy a man like Royce Manchester!

  Royce did not immediately release her; he was still too deeply aroused to even realize that she was no longer sharing this sweet ecstasy. When Pip wrenched her mouth away from his, and her fingers tightly grasped his exploring hand to still its wandering movements, he raised his head and glanced down at her incredulously.

  Angry with him for being so damnably attractive, furious with herself for not being able to resist his allure, Pip glared at him. “Stop it! Take your hands off me! My mother may have been a whore, but I am not!” Rage was driving her, fear compelling her to put as much distance between them as possible. “I may be your servant and you may have offered me refuge from the one-eyed man, but I have no intention of exchanging one whoremaster for another!”

  Her words were ugly, but there was some truth in them, and Royce’s chiseled features froze. A woman had never made him lose control like this—ever—and certainly he had never before been consumed with desire for his own servant! He was appalled at his own actions, and Pip’s words bit deep, flaying him unmercifully. But infuriated by his response to her, almost hating her for the unsatisfied aching desire that still burned within him, he growled, “Since you’ve made your feelings insultingly clear, I suggest that you leave! Go back to the kitchen, where you belong.” Throwing her a black look, he added, “For your sanity, as well as mine, for God’s sake, stay there! ”

  Pip bolted f
rom the room. Certain the other servants would take one look at her face and know what had just transpired, with a low sob, she half ran, half walked to the servant’s staircase and hurried to her room.

  Thankful that she had met no one on her way, she stumbled into her room and flung herself onto the bed. Her body ached with unfulfilled passion, her breasts still swollen, the sweet throbbing between her legs unabated. Horrified at how near she had come to giving herself to Royce, she stared numbly at the ceiling, tears of shame and despair trickling from her eyes.

  I would have given myself to him, she thought sickly. I would have let him have me there on the floor and I would not have made one move to stop him... .

  Angry and frightened by her behavior, she rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in the small pillow. She was a fool! Did she think so little of herself that she would allow herself to become his plaything? Did she really want to follow in her mother’s footsteps? A shudder went through her. No! But could she trust herself to remain immune to his charm? Would she be able to continue to resist him if he persisted in his sensual attack on her emotions?

  For one wild moment she considered fleeing. Running as far and as fast as she could to escape him. But then a bitter laugh came from her throat. And run right into the hands of the one-eyed man! She had no escape. Drearily she realized that if she left the relative sanctuary of Royce’s house, she would be forsaking all safety. Royce was the only one capable of standing between her and the one-eyed man’s despicable plans for her. Her brothers would try to protect her, but what could they do against the one-eyed man? Jacko was already firmly caught in his toils, and it was Jacko’s very plight that gave the one-eyed man such a tremendous weapon against her. It was not a pleasant thought. But then, neither was becoming Royce’s mistress....