by Jackie Ivie
“You wish to speak with me privately?” He reached in and touched a finger to her cheek, then he pulled back. “Now is your chance. Never fear, cherie. I’m a gentleman. Now, go. Go quickly! Before anyone else sees this. Now.”
He tossed another coin at the coachman. Linna heard the sounds of astonishment as it was caught. Then the carriage door shut.
CHAPTER FIVE
Linna had a lot of time to review her hasty actions. The black carriage had come for her just as Raoul had said. There had been a black cloak to wear and a solemn coachman to drive her. She didn’t think she’d been driven far. She had no idea where he’d had her taken, actually.
She could even be back at the Larroquette Mansion, for all she knew. That building was made of stone and stood three stories tall. This one hadn’t been lit, so there was no telling how large it was. The apartments she found herself in were amazingly rich and also made of stone. They were on the second floor. She’d only had to force herself to climb one staircase to reach them. She didn’t worry about the descent. She had worse things to worry over.
There was an antechamber, probably designed to be a dressing room for the wealthy owner, she suspected, while through the one large doorway, a four-poster bed sat, dominating that room. Linna had gasped when she first saw it and backed out. She was in Raoul Larroquette’s chambers? His bedroom? Dear God, what had possessed her? This was not going to get her a marriage proposal! This was going right past part two and somewhere beyond...five!
The antechamber had three wooden, ladder-back chairs and an oaken table big enough for a banquet. She wondered what sense that made. There was a small chandelier directly above the table and four oil lamps lighting the space, one on each wall. There wasn’t any sign of the man she was awaiting nor was there any evidence that this was his room. Surely he had more clothing than what he wore, didn’t he?
She didn’t hear him enter.
Linna was sitting in one of the chairs, wrapped in the black cloak and drumming her hands on the table when the lights sputtered with a sudden shift in air. She started and looked up before guiltily clasping her hands in her lap. Her senses were deceiving her, for he looked even larger than before as he approached. He was unfastening the lacy white linen wrapped about his throat with one hand as he walked, and by the time he reached the table, he had it undone. Linna watched him unwind it, tipping his head both times, and then he dropped it, creating a messy pile on the table top.
“Good eve, Miss...Linna,” he said. And then he smiled.
She jumped and his smile broadened.
“I trust you arrived without incident?”
She nodded. She didn’t dare use her voice. Her mouth was dry, her throat clogged, and her chest tight with an emotion bordering on fear.
“Come. I brought up champagne. I think you need it. Here.”
He had a bottle and two wine goblets in his other hand. Linna watched in silence as he uncorked the bottle and poured. He placed one on the table in front of her and turned to fill his own. Linna picked hers up with both hands and still it trembled. She hoped he wouldn’t notice.
The bubbles stayed in the bottom of her glass until she tilted it to drink. Then they fizzled to the surface making minute moisture on her cheeks. She drained the glass and set it back down. Raoul raised his eyebrows but said nothing. He held the bottle up again but Linna shook her head.
She was desperate for some courage, not for oblivion. She suspected he knew it, too. Her eyes widened further as he started unfastening his mother-of-pearl buttons with the delicate motion of one hand, all the time, never taking his eyes from her.
“I don’t mean to frighten you. I merely mean to get more comfortable. You’ve no idea how restrictive such garments are. At least...I hope you don’t.”
“I shouldn’t be here,” she replied.
He smiled and glided the velvet jacket off his shoulders. His shirt had been sewn without sleeves and he raised one arm to undo a cuff. Linna had never seen such strength as he possessed in just one arm. She wondered where he could have honed such a physique. Her father and her brother, Vincent, had spent long hours at work; the Daniel plantation had field slaves as well; but nothing compared to the man standing in front of her.
“No,” he answered finally. “You probably shouldn’t. There. Much better.”
He tossed the cuffs onto the tabletop and then flexed every bit of his arms as he stretched them first over his head and then behind his back. Linna couldn’t help it. Her lips parted as she simply stared.
What a man. Such awe stained the thought, he couldn’t help being aware of it. Raoul Larroquette was quite a man. He had to know it, too.
He put a palm atop the chair beside her, spun it around and straddled it, linking his arms through the latticework. Then he leaned his chin onto the back of it and regarded her from so close, she could feel each breath he exhaled. Linna blushed at his continual gaze and had to drop her own.
“Now...wasn’t there something said about wanting privacy? With me?” He prompted it after seemingly endless moments of silence.
Linna wove her fingers together and twisted them in front of her. This was impossible! She opened her mouth at least twice to say something, but nothing came out. Raoul was watching her the entire time. She knew. She had glimpses of it whenever she glanced up.
“You certain you wouldn’t care for more champagne?” He asked it while lifting the bottle to pour her goblet full again. Linna watched the majority of the bubbles sitting on the bottom on her goblet, daring only to slice through the liquid and up the sides, until she would tip it and set them all free.
She took a deep breath. “I...need a husband.” She whispered the words to the glass and then looked over at him.
She knew he’d heard it as he pulled back, a stunned expression on his face. Then his eyebrows rose and a look of merriment danced about his mouth. She couldn’t continue facing him and returned her gaze to her glass. The champagne was safer.
“I’m not certain I heard that,” he finally said.
“I said...I need a husband.” Linna had to clear her throat to say it. Her voice was showing her nervousness. She didn’t know what she could do about it.
“And?” he prompted.
“I don’t know what it is you’re asking,” she replied, glancing up to meet his eyes. She couldn’t hold the gaze, however. Linna dropped hers again to her entwined fingers.
“I’m to take it, you’re asking me to fill the position?”
“Uh...yes.” The word didn’t make it into sound, but she knew he heard it.
“What, pray tell, would I gain from such an arrangement?”
“Why...a wife.” She said it breathlessly, glancing up once but not quite meeting his eyes. The light from the chandelier tossed shadows along his cheeks. She risked another glance and looked back down.
“You believe perhaps that...I do not already have one...non?”
Oh dearest God! The horror of it overwhelmed her, making actual dots dance in front of her eyes. She’d just proposed to a married man! There could be no worse sensation. She felt faint. Linna closed her eyes and started panting to stave it off. She refused to swoon. She refused to sob. She was going to do the only thing possible. She was going to flee...down a flight of steps. And then she was going to collapse.
She opened her eyes and stood, surprising the strangest look on his face. “Forgive me, Monsieur Larroquette. I beg your indulgence in seeing me to my...home.” The last word would have sounded a lot better if she hadn’t just sobbed it.
She turned, managing two steps before his bulk stopped her, and then he was lifting her easily from the floor when she started struggling.
“Now wait a minute, Linna! Wait! I teased. Listen to me!”
She was beyond listening. She would have been screaming if she wasn’t using the energy to struggle. More than once she had an arm or a leg free, but to no avail. He was just as he looked. Strong. Very strong.
“Listen to me! Stop that!�
�
She heard the black cloak tearing, felt the hot tears of shame splashing onto her cheeks, and closed her eyes to all of it. She just wished she could shut her consciousness off as easily. Nothing was going to stop it. She was going to be ravished by a married man that she’d just proposed to. Nobody could blame him. She was the one who’d placed herself in the position.
She shook with the effort at gaining her release, but she refused to cry out. She wasn’t going to embarrass herself further. Then his words began sinking in.
“Forgive me! I’m unwed. I swear. Do you hear? I would apologize but it’s senseless. We’ve just met. And what you propose...? Cease struggling!”
He took away the choice as his arms tightened, stealing her breath and her energy. Linna stopped wriggling, more due to running out of breath than his insistence on it. Raoul wasn’t even breathing hard.
“Put...me down.” Linna panted it.
“Are you ready to listen?”
“Put me down, please,” she repeated, emphasizing the last word.
“Are you in the family way? Is this why you need a husband so desperately that you ask a stranger?”
“How dare you suggest such a thing?” She didn’t have enough air to screech it like she wished, so she sucked in more. His arms halted it. She narrowed her eyes, instead. “Put me down now, Monsieur Larroquette. Now.”
“You’re not in the family way, but you still need a husband? This is even stranger. Why, then?”
“I’ve changed my mind. I’m no longer desirous of your hand in marriage, or continuing another moment in your company. Now please, put me down!”
He sat with her instead, holding her imprisoned in the same arms she’d sighed over earlier. She should have known they’d feel like iron bands, she told herself as she tried to pry them loose. Her struggles made a trickle of sweat start at the base of her neck, and the cloak was stifling her with heat. Raoul chuckled and placed what had to be his tongue at the juncture of her shoulder and neck. Linna gasped at the first touch and stilled.
“What—are you doing?” she asked.
“Showing you what you forgot to mention.”
“What?” Her voice rose an octave as he ran his tongue along the bottom of her earlobe and then around the outer edge.
“I wouldn’t get just a wife, Miss Linna. I’d get this. And this.” He’d finished his exploration of her ear and was traveling down her neck. Despite everything, Linna quivered. One of his hands was undoing the folds of her cloak and pressuring her chin back. She finally gave into what he wanted and tilted her neck.
Raoul filled the space of her throat with his lips, running his tongue down to the bodice of her gown and then back up, stopping only momentarily when she gulped. The area raced with fire, then cooled with the force of each breath.
“This is what I’d get from you, Linna...and this is just a sampling.”
She knew it was probably her mouth that lunged for the kiss, grasping at the sweetness of his mouth before toying with the fullness of his lower lip. She moaned and heard his answering sound.
“Do you...understand now?” He pulled from the embrace first. The flush of his cheeks was as mysterious as the message in his eyes. Linna dropped her own at what she saw there. His were no longer gray-green in color. They were as dark as pitch.
“This is what I’d get if we wed. This. And much more. Much, much more.” He was catching at breath through the words, making them harsh and almost frightening to hear.
Linna raised her chin and met his look, although it sent a plethora of shivers down her spine to do so. “It took all my courage to say the words to you and you mocked me.”
He laughed, moving her with it. “You must forgive me. I thought you in jest. I replied in kind. This is really true? You are desirous of a husband, and you’re truly asking it to be me?”
Linna nodded, then lifted a hand to the band of his arms about her. “Will you release me now?”
“You’ll come back into my arms willingly?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “You’ll have to test it, I think.”
Raoul opened his arms wide. Linna stepped from his lap gingerly, trying to avoid looking at what he’d immediately moved his legs to hide. She knew the heat she was suffering was a blush now. She’d been raised on a plantation. They had horses. They had other domestic animals. She knew what it was. And she knew the power it just gave to her.
Linna tossed the cloak onto the table, masking his discarded garments under the mound it made. Then she curved her body backward, raising her arms to lift her hair from the back of her neck as if to cool it.
“Woman. You don’t know what you do.”
The low growl came from where he sat. Linna tipped her head toward the sound. This was much more exciting than any teasing she’d ever done. Raoul looked like a solid mass of coiled strength. Her eyes narrowed as she considered him. His mouth was opened to allow a panting sort of breathing. She guessed the reason and didn’t think she was far wrong.
Linna began taking the myriad of pins from her hair, pulling out each coil into a long ringlet. Raoul’s reaction was palpable. It was reflected in the low sound accompanying his every breath.
“Are you ready to bargain?” She asked it sweetly, when she had the last of her hair undone. Then she turned from him, bending backwards to run her hands through the tangled locks. Garbled choking noises were coming from the man at the table. She didn’t look to verify it.
“Bargain?”
Linna stopped her movements at the word. It didn’t sound at all like the man she’d just addressed. She wondered at her sanity, then she shrugged it off. Shyness wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. Boldness was.
“Bargain. I’ve a marriage proposal on the table. You’ve yet to accept it.”
“Sweet Lord.” He whistled it through his teeth. “Yes. God, yes. Yes.”
“We’ve got that much settled? Already? Good. Now...as to what you’re bargaining with?”
A lower growl met her question, and Linna glanced his way again. She’d guessed at his feral passion. It was beginning to sound it. She watched in fascination as her own shivers reached the backs of her hands. She hadn’t known that could happen. She had to discount it. Linna was used to getting what she wanted. Him, she wanted. But at her price.
She lifted one arm and with the opposite hand slid the lace ringlet of her sleeve off of her middle finger, smoothing down the material as she did so. Then she did the same to the other one, making it a caress.
“Anything. Name it. Dearest God! Name it and have done.”
Linna look at him then and couldn’t believe what she saw, much less what she heard. Raoul looked like he was in torment, his eyes dominating his face, his jaw locked, and his hands gripping to the chair arms so tightly she was afraid he might split the wood.
“Raoul?” she asked.
“What do you want? Name it and it’s yours. I swear it.”
“I want my freedom.”
“What?”
The chair fell as he left it, and then he was there, backing her into the table and bending at his knees to slide his loins against hers. She felt him lifting her onto the table surface, all the while ignoring her shocked gasps for breath. His eyes were glazed strangely, and Linna tried to stop the rising panic.
“No,” she gasped it. “Please no. Not like this. No. Please?”
“No?” He repeated the word, making it senseless-sounding. “No? What kind of woman promises what you do and then says no?” Raoul pulled away then, holding his arms wide to encompass the entire room, rather than touch her. He was shaking with the effort, too.
Linna gulped and blinked hastily. “I don’t tease, Raoul. I promise. I’ll give all I’ve shown. Once we’re wed. Only when we’re wed. I vow it.”
“I refuse your terms then.”
“What?” Now it was Linna’s turn to sound stunned.
“And give you my own. I’ll accept your proposal to be my wife. I’ll get
a special license in the morn. We’ll wed. We’ll sail the moment it’s done. But I get one thing in return, Miss Linna. One.”
“One?” she asked, around the dryness in her throat.
“One. I get you. I get you...now. Right now. I’m not waiting much longer. I want you. This moment. I want you passionately, completely, and totally. There’s to be no doubt about it. None. That is my price.”
“Now?” she choked out the word.
“Right now.”
“You want me to—to bed with you...right now?” No matter how much she tried to control it, she stammered through the words.
“On the table, in yonder bed, on the floor! Have you no notion of what you do? Name the place, name the chamber, name the equipment, but know the terms. You get your wedding, but I get tonight. All of tonight. All of you. Now. I’m not fond of waiting, either.”
“If I say no...will you take it?”
He probably wanted to yell the response, but little sound escaped his mouth as he tipped his head to the ceiling. Linna watched the veins strain against the skin in his neck as he did it. Then he lowered his head, heaved another breath, and glared at her. Linna’s eyes widened.
“I may,” he said.
She didn’t hear her gasp over the sound of her own heartbeat.
CHAPTER SIX
There was still light being shed about them, the champagne still fizzled in her glass, and the mound of cloak-covered clothing still resided behind her on the tabletop, yet nothing felt the same. Linna had both legs over the edge of the table and was leaning backwards, supported by her arms, just as he’d placed her. It wasn’t a very defensible position.
It wouldn’t have mattered though. She had no defense. She was the one who’d placed herself in his rooms. He could do with her as he wished. She knew it. He knew it. She knew where he was looking, and what he was going to do when he had it unwrapped, and there was nothing she could do about any of it. How did everything get so out of hand?
“Didn’t you hear me?” he asked, lowering his head to pierce her with his gaze.