Page 92 of Tempted
Tonight they had dinner in the formal dining room. Tina found it a unique experience to sit at the opposite end of the polished refectory table and be waited on by two footmen in livery who anticipated their every need. Ram was in a teasing mood, and he played an outrageous game of openly discussing what they would do after dinner He used polite euphemisms and wicked allusions in front of the footmen, who kept perfectly straight faces, but Tina knew full well that only halfwits would not have guessed what Ram meant by “the tall gentleman belowstairs” who had an insatiable desire to visit the perfumed garden again and again until every flower and bud was plucked.
Ram threw down his napkin and arose from the table. “My compliments tae the chef,” he said, nodding to one of the footmen Then he took Tina’s hand and led her from the room, whispering, “Christ, I didn’t know what I was eating—all I could taste was ye.”
Upstairs in the lovely master bedchamber, he did not fall upon her to undress her but held himself in check. He invited her to play a game of chess and regaled her with tales of his youth when he had visited some of the far-flung castles of the Highlands He was describing Castle Huntly that belonged to the Gordons “It stands seven stories tall, made from thick red sandstone. From the distance it’s like a castle from a fairy tale, all turrets, gables, and parapets It overlooks the green hills of Fife. Ye enter through a forecourt on the third level.”
He watched her moves carefully. They were clever without being devious. He was quite impressed with her for the simple reason she was the first woman he’d known who didn’t cheat
Tina said, “Aren’t the Gordons supposed to be quite eccentric?”
“Ye are being kind Mad as hatters is more like it. A staggering number of them are illegitimate Lady Gordon once had her eye on me for her daughter Louisa She told me not to fret myself about the streak of insanity, for there wasn’t a drop of Gordon blood in her!”
Tina laughed. “You’re making it up to distract me! Check,” she said, thinking she had him trapped
He moved his bishop. “Checkmate,” he murmured softly.
“Damnation!” she swore.
“Why don’t ye put on one of those negligées Ada designed especially tae drive a man tae commit depravities?”
“Would it throw you off your game?”
“Not the game I have in mind.”
When she opened the bag Ada had brought upstairs, she found the nightgown inside was black lace. As her hands closed over the sensual garment, she knew it would have the power to distract him. His eyes never left her as she slowly undressed, drawing it out to deliberately tease and tempt him. She was confident in the power of her beauty and her body, arching her back, tossing her hair, pouting her lips, and stroking her breasts. Before she donned the black lace, she touched perfume to her nipples, navel, and pubis, then let the peekaboo lace fall to her feet, covering her body, yet not covering it.
“Ye play the mistress very well, chérie. Have ye been at the game long?” he teased.
“Oui All my lovers have been well endowed.”
His lips twitched. “Ye like big cocks?”
“Big cocks are not enough. I need big brains too.”
They played another game of chess that Tina won because he didn’t even pretend to concentrate. She slipped his queen down inside the lace between her breasts and gloated over his defeat. “I’m going to keep your queen so that whenever you become insufferable, I’ll pull it out and taunt you!” She pulled it from between her breasts and slipped it back again.
He moved toward her with deliberate intent. “I’ll pull it out and taunt ye.”
“Oh yes, please!” she giggled. The laughter left her face as he began to disrobe. Her golden eyes changed to smoky amber with the intensity of the passion he aroused in her. His strong hands slipped the straps of her nightrail from her shoulders, and it slid down her body to make a black pool at her feet. The queen rolled beneath the great bed, forgotten by both.
He kissed her for a full hour, then played with her hair and her body for another hour before he made love to her He enjoyed the foreplay as much as she—more perhaps, for she was writhing in spread-eagled abandon before he completed penetration. He whispered, “Christ, yer so hot fer me, ye make a man feel like a man more than any woman I’ve ever known! When I see ye flushed wi’ passion, excitement stabs through me like great shards of glass.”
She gasped as the plunging heat of his blade made its relentless demands upon her to yield up everything to him. The throbbing fullness inside her set her whole body a-shiver. She loved his animal maleness. Everything about him was hard as iron. His arms, his chest, his legs, even his thighs were corded with rigid saddle muscles. When Ram’s shudder came, it was so intense it entered her and she shuddered also, becoming one with him
He loved the quiet time after he’d made love to her. He always felt so completely satisfied. He felt whole She restored his vigor. He was filled with life and love. Finally he rolled from her but kept her bound to his side with one possessive arm. The ceiling above the bed depicted Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty, naked, rising from the sea, her golden-red hair falling to her hips, one hand cupped beneath a delicately voluptuous breast. “Ye are more beautiful than Aphrodite,” he mused.
“Is that who she is?” murmured Tina.
He chuckled. “Ye are a decidedly uneducated wench. Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, is fabled tae have risen from the sea near the island of Cyprus. Her husband was Hephaestus, and she was always attended by the Graces and by Eros, sometimes called Cupid The paintings always show doves.”
“Mmm, who is that devil-eyed dark creature with the big you-know-what?”
“That is Mars. She had a notorious intrigue with him.”
“How can she possibly look so much like me?” she puzzled.
Ram chuckled. “Angus had it painted. Janet Kennedy probably posed fer the artist. Ye don’t think yer the first mistress tae lie in this bed wi’ her lover, do ye?”
She rubbed her cheek against his chest. “Do you think the king loves her?”
