Page 83 of Tempted
His powerful hands closed painfully over her shoulders. “Never speak tae me in that insolent manner again,” he said harshly.
She licked her lips over him “Anger and lust are a potent combination,” she teased
“I’ll show ye potent,” he growled, sweeping her into his arms and carrying her upstairs He set her feet to the carpet, and she whirled away from him to fling open the parapet door The throbbing music and laughter floated up from the courtyard and insinuated itself about the chamber.
For the first time he noticed she was wearing the gown with the tawny markings of an exotic animal—the one she had worn with the chain about her neck when she had been given as a prize to the king. Possessive jealousy now mingled with his lust and anger.
Tina kicked off her shoes, raised her arms above her head, and began to undulate with the music. Her movements were hypnotic, holding him mesmerized. At first her motions were subtle, teasing, tempting, but gradually her gestures became more overtly sexual. She lifted her skirt to peel off her stockings, then fastened the knife about her thigh.
Slowly, sensuously she lifted off her dress and threw it at Ram. He caught it deftly and buried his face in it to inhale her fragrance. Then she removed her undergarments and threw them at him. He lifted them to his nostrils to savor her woman’s scent. She was naked now, save the knife, and he wondered where in the name of hellfire she’d learned this erotic dance. The answer came back immediately: She’d spent too much goddamn time in Gypsy camps! He had been leaning his wide shoulders against the mantel of the fireplace, but he straightened and took a threatening step toward her.
“Hold!” she ordered, withdrawing her knife from its sheath and aiming it directly at his heart. His eyes widened in horror as he saw her draw back her arm and fling it toward him. The gold pieces he’d given her hit him in the chest and rolled merrily across the carpet, while miraculously the deadly blade never left her fingers. She sheathed it and threw back her head with laughter. “I’ll fuck you for free, Hotspur!” She stepped before the mirror to admire herself.
He was inflamed to madness and knew that was her intent. He grasped her about the waist and lifted her ceiling-ward until she screamed. “Ye look at yer tits the way I look at my cock,” he said huskily, tossing her upon the bed while he tore off his clothes. “Ye enjoy playing the wild little bitch,” he said, biting her neck, then running his tongue around her ear.
“I enjoy matching you in sensuality,” she admitted. His eyes were black with passion as he straddled her.
“Match this,” he challenged, then proceeded to lick and suck and tongue her throat, her breasts, and her belly with a mouth ravenous with hunger for her. Ram lifted his head to watch her lips part and moan with breathless pleasure. Her eyes grew languid with the loving, and he was thrilled with her physical and vocal response.
Golden devils danced in her eyes as she crooked a finger and beckoned him closer. How could he come closer to her? Unless, praise God, she wanted him to bring his sex closer. With his knees still on either side of her body, he slowly moved up until the tip of his phallus almost touched her chin. Very delicately, like a cat licking its paw, the tip of her tongue touched the velvet head, and it turned carmine as it engorged with blood. She found the ridge and placed her lips just beneath it, then swirled her tongue around, tantalizing, teasing, tempting, tasting.
Ram arched his neck and back and cried out at the exquisite sensations her tongue provoked. “Stop love—I’ll spill,” he warned.
She lifted her mouth, but murmured against his tip with her lips, “I don’t mind”
Black Ram Douglas had to take the aggressive role in sex. He was simply made that way. He put all his weight upon his hands and levered his body downward so that he covered her completely Her thighs opened of their own volition, welcoming his savage thrusts, while her lips parted beneath his hot mouth to welcome his tongue as it delved deeply.
She could not wait for him, she lost control as he carried her over the edge, and her body pulsed to the rhythm of the wild Gypsy music. Ram ignored her cries. A serpent had coiled in his brain, its fangs pumping the poison of doubt. Who had taught her these things? The king? The Gypsy? Patrick Hamilton? He knew he had taken her virginity, but she could have been experienced in other ways. His imagination nearly sent him berserk.
He took complete control of her body, arousing her again, this time to a frenzy. It was as if he wanted to brand her as his, to mark her forever as his woman, to make every other man pale by comparison. Whenever she thought of lovemaking for the rest of her life, this was the time she was going to remember. It went on forever. She yielded to his every demand as he endlessly took.
In that moment she would have given him everything— her body, her mind, her soul, her life. Everything except her love. She shuddered with the bliss of it all, yet unbelievably his shudder was ten times more violent than hers. Finally he withdrew and rolled his weight from her, and as she gazed down in wonder at where their bodies had been joined, she saw her thighs were covered with drops of what looked like melted pearls gleaming in the fireshine.
His voice was ragged as he demanded fiercely, “Who taught ye tae love a man with yer mouth?”
“Ada,” she whispered.
“Ada?” he roared.
“I—I told her you tasted me, and she asked if I didn’t want to do the same to you. Tonight I did want to.”
He laughed with pure relief and pulled her to him. “Lord God, how ye make me quiver. Ye are my torment and my delight.” He kissed her long and hard. “I love the way you smell. I love the way we smell.” It was the most intimate, private thing he’d ever said to her.
Castle Douglas was so quiet and subdued after Ram and his borderers left that Tina felt almost bereft. It was as if the sun had disappeared. She was as restless as a tigress, and after two days she felt cooped up, almost smothered by the stone walls of the massive fortalice.
Mr. Burque packed her a sumptuous picnic lunch, and she and Colin rode out upon the moors. He was more cognizant of the dangers than Valentina, since he’d seen the wounds the men had sustained, and so he insisted they have castle guards ride out with them. The men could hunt in the vicinity while Colin made his sketches, and that way Tina would not feel hemmed in and watched over. She wore a vivid jade-green riding dress and long, dangling jade earrings. Her magnificent hair fell to her waist, and Colin seemed amused that she had such definite ideas about how she wished to be painted. She shrugged a delicate shoulder, knowing better than any other how she looked her best. What was the point of false modesty?
Colin asked her to hold the pose while he captured it. She had ridden Indigo, and the dark purple coat against her jade-green velvet made such a rich contrast that Colin made some sketches of her leaning her copper head against the Barbary’s satin neck.
They sat down among the wildflowers to eat the food they had brought, and Colin wafted away the wasps that gathered. They had crusty bread and goose pâté spiced with herbs. There was a jar of pickled mushrooms and pine nuts. There was also smoked salmon with capers and savory pasties filled with minced lamb and scallions. To wash it all down, there was blackberry wine, and tucked in the corners of the basket were russet apples and damson plums.
“Let me capture ye sitting among the clover and the Queen’s Lace…. Ram will be delighted.”
“Colin,” she said bluntly, “you appear to harbor no animosity toward Ram.”
“Why should I?” he asked.
“Because of the unfairness of his inheriting the title of Lord Douglas when your brother Alex died.”
