Silken Savage (44 page)

His lips feathered across her forehead, her temple, her cheekbone. “You are so beautiful, Tanya. You are a magnificent witch! You’ve had me under your spell since the first moment I saw you.”

His lips remained elusive as she sought them with her own. “The moonlight has gone to your head,” she responded softly.

Again she tried to capture his mouth, but he was intent on a path from her neck to her shoulder, nipping lightly at the sensitive flesh. She moaned in delight, tipping her head back to allow him better access. Shivers of sensual pleasure danced through her. Her slender fingers wound their way into his ebony locks.

Adam chuckled. “Like that, do you?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she sighed languidly, then caught her breath as his fingertips brushed lightly up and down her sides.

With her hands to his head, she guided his mouth toward hers, eager for the kisses she craved. But instead of the fulfilling kiss she so desired, he held her off, nibbling his way all along the outer edges of her mouth; teasing the contours with his tongue, his teeth, his warm breath, until her lips were trembling for the full weight of his.

“Kiss me, Adam. Kiss me,” she pleaded.

When he complied, it was all she could ask and more. His mouth took command of hers, molding, searing, a promise of delights to come. His tongue sought entry, and her lips parted gladly to allow it to slide smoothly between her teeth. Their breath mingled as their tongues began a mating dance of their own, twisting, tangling, tasting.

Tanya felt the familiar fires of passion licking along her veins, heating her blood. Her body strained to make closer contact with his, her hands stroking the contours of his shoulders, urging him nearer.

Adam’s skillful fingers teased along her ribcage, edging ever nearer to her aching breasts. As they neared their goal, he lightly traced the outer curves, and for the briefest of moments, she felt his work-roughened palms brush their pouting tips.

A frustrated moan of pure agony escaped her lips as his hands failed to claim their prize. His deep chuckle told her he was deliberately taunting her. “Damn it, darling!” she breathed, wrenching her mouth from his. “Stop teasing me!”

“Tell me what you want, my pet,” he directed huskily.

“Touch me.” Her hands guided his to her throbbing breasts. “Fondle me. Let me feel your hands and mouth on my breasts.”

“Tell me how it makes you feel, my love, when I caress your breasts and tease the nipples with my tongue. What goes on inside of you?”

Just inside the next room, Melissa was in the process of closing the door to shut out the sounds of their lovemaking. She paused with her hand on the doorknob as she heard Adam’s words. Even as she felt her stomach lurch in revulsion, curiosity stayed her hand. Heat flushed her cheeks as she eavesdropped on this most intimate of scenes. She knew she should leave, but her feet seemed rooted to the floor.

For months now she had been experiencing unfamiliar twinges of response toward Justin. The few times she had allowed him to kiss her, a previously unknown flutter erupted in her stomach, and her breath had shortened magically. The one time he had gently cupped her breast, her nipple had risen immediately, and when his thumb had brushed tentatively across it, a shaft of emotion had speared through her, frightening her with its intensity. She had backed away in confusion and shame, unable to understand her traitorous body.

From Ugly Otter she had learned the pain and degradation of physical union with a man. While living with Tanya and Adam in their tipi, she came to realize that some people found pleasure in it, though she could not understand why. With Justin, she was now experiencing for the first time the emotional side of love between a man and a woman. Her heart was opening in response to his, but her mind was sending mixed signals. She had not expected her body to respond to his touch; she had anticipated disgust. Her mind and better judgment told her she should be repelled and ashamed, even as her lips thrilled to his.

Never had she linked the ideas of emotional and physical love together in her mind. To her thinking, the two were separate and distinct, one hateful, the other ethereal. Now, as she stood in the dark listening to the murmurings in the next room, she readjusted her thinking. The two types of love did, indeed, belong together.

As she heard Tanya’s heartfelt responses and Adam’s corresponding words of love and praise, she at last realized that where the heart was involved, the act of love brought no shame. Where tenderness existed, no pain could intrude. Without love, the act of mating was just animalistic rutting, with no regard for human emotion; but with love, it was the ultimate expression of the heart and soul.

Tears streamed unheeded down Melissa’s cheeks. She’d never understood what Tanya had tried to tell her before, because she had not known Justin or come to love him. Now, for the first time, she saw clearly that the love she and Justin felt for one another would not be sullied by the union of their bodies. Justin was kind and gentle, and the love they shared would reflect that.

Quietly Melissa shut the door and tiptoed back to bed. An immense sigh shuddered through her body, bringing with it a blessed release of all the emotional upheaval she’d been coping with lately. She drifted into a peaceful sleep, knowing she should be ashamed of listening to Tanya and Adam’s lovemaking, but grateful that her curiosity had led her to the resolution of her problem. At last she was free to love Justin as he deserved.

“I love it when you touch my breasts,” Tanya whispered as Adam’s mouth claimed a nipple. His teeth grazed the sensitive tip, and his tongue laved it. “It sends sparks clear through me, and every nerve in my body comes alive. A lake of lava forms in the center of my being and spreads its heat outward, and I feel a tightening and an ache between my thighs.”

Her shy words of explanation sent a surge of love and pride through him, and he doubled his ministrations, determined to give her all the pleasure he could.

Wanting to return the favors he was bestowing, her eager hands traversed his body. Her fingers traced each bone and sinew within her reach, each muscle of his chest and back and arms. Her palms caressed; her fingers kneaded. Her lips and tongue sought out the sensual arena of his ear, her teeth nipping at the lobe and eliciting a shiver of passion from him.

Long fingernails skimmed along his ribcage and tantalized each ridge of his spine, extracting a groan of arousal. Her hands drew languid designs on his naked flesh as she reveled in the feel of his skin beneath her touch. The salty taste of him was on her tongue as she rained tiny bites across his shoulder, then soothed them with kisses.

“You are destroying my self-control with that magic mouth of yours, my darling,” he warned her. His method of retaliation took her breath away. As his mouth reclaimed hers, one of his hands resumed its teasing on her breast. The other ventured on, charting a lazy course along the plane of her stomach, stopping to delve into her navel, journeying along the curve of her hip. As his fingers traced tiny circles up the inside of her thigh, she tensed in expectation, her body arching up to seek his touch.

A muffled exclamation of sheer bliss escaped her lips as his fingers at last sought and probed her most secret, sensual valley of desire. All coherent thought fled as his fingers worked their sweet torture.

His mouth retreated from hers to take the route of his fingers. Every bone in her body was melting. “You’re a devil, Adam Savage,” she moaned shakily. “A sweet, sweet devil!”

He swirled his tongue along her inner thigh and grinned. “You are no angel yourself, my pet. Your body is heavenly enough, but your responses are as hot as hell itself.”

His tongue took up the torment of his fingers. Ripples of rapture swamped her senses as she quivered to his touch. “Adam, Adam,” she breathed. “Please, Adam!”

“Not quite yet, my greedy Wildcat,” he growled as he nipped and nibbled his way back up her feverish body.

Her hand slid down his back to clutch at his buttocks, urging him wordlessly to quench her need for him. When he ignored her request and continued to feast upon her flesh, licking and biting, her fingers slipped about to enclose his pulsing shaft. With silken strokes she teased and tantalized him in turn, knowing she was pushing him to the limits of his endurance.

“You’re a wanton witch! An enchantress!” he groaned in agonized desire.

“Satisfy me,” she whispered. “I’m on fire for you!”

Looping her legs over his arms, his hands cupping her buttocks, he brought her up to meet his thrust. Her body, moist and ready, welcomed him eagerly. A sigh quivered through her at his deep penetration.

“You are like warm honey; as sleek as satin,” he murmured, as he savored the feel of her about him. His sure strokes soon changed that first feeling of gratification to one of building need. With each thrust the yearning grew, intensifying into a raging inferno that engulfed them both in a savage ecstasy.

Tanya writhed beneath him, straining with the effort to blend their bodies and souls. Their union was wild and wonderful; their bodies hot and slick, laboring in perfect unison, seeking that sweet pure moment of total rapture. Then they were slipping into a swirling abyss of bright lights and brilliant colors; clinging, twirling round and round, weightless and free in awesome exultation.

It was a long time before Tanya recovered enough to speak. In a voice quavering with emotion, she whispered, “You make me faint with the wonders of your love, my darling. Do you know how much I love you?”

Adam kissed the tears from the corners of her luminous golden eyes. “Enough to steal the heart from my body and give it back again, stronger and more powerful than ever. You make me invincible with the force of your love.”

Two days later, Tanya found herself back in Pueblo, up to her armpits in wedding arrangements. It took some tall talking, but she finally convinced her mother that it was ridiculous to try to plan an engagement party and a wedding so close together.

“I fail to see what all the rush is, anyway,” Sarah complained. “You only get married once, and it should be as near to perfect as possible. That means weeks of planning and management to make it the most memorable day in your life.”

“July first, Mother,” Tanya reiterated. She left the room thinking to herself, “Only married once? Not in this case! I wonder which wedding anniversary Adam and I are going to observe?”

To reconcile the differences between her Protestant background and Adam’s Catholic ties on his mother’s side, they decided to have Judge Kerr marry them. Melissa was to be the maid of honor, and Julie the only other bridesmaid. Justin, as Adam’s best friend, was to be best man, with Roberto also in attendance. Judge Kerr had offered his home for the ceremony and Emily had agreed to play the organ. With these details quickly arranged, Tanya could not believe the state of turmoil that still reigned in the Martin household.

“I wish I’d never agreed to all this,” she lamented to Adam. “That shotgun wedding you described is looking better and better all the time. Mother is in a constant dither. She is arranging to have a photographer come from Denver, and she’s changed the menu for the reception four times in the last three days! If she’s not fussing over fittings, she’s worrying that we’ll have a dry spell and all the flowers will die before the wedding!”

She eyed Adam balefully, noting that he was struggling to keep from laughing. “Go ahead! Laugh, you big lout! Wait until she gets hold of
you!
We three girls feel like pincushions! We’re black and blue from being poked and prodded and measured from our teeth to our toes! Worst of all, Mother insists on an adequate trousseau, which you and I know I won’t be here to wear, and there is no way I can tell her that all her efforts are a waste.”

Their engagement became official in Sarah’s estimation when Adam presented Tanya with a stunning marquis diamond engagement ring. The stone had been his grandmother’s, and he’d had a local goldsmith reset it. This same artisan was now busily fashioning a unique wedding band for Tanya, at Adam’s request. It was to be a surprise, and Adam was very secretive about it.

As if Tanya did not have enough to cope with now, there was Jeffrey Young to deal with once more.

Luckily, it was a few days before he was aware that she had returned. But inevitably, the day came when Jeffrey heard of Tanya’s engagement to Adam, and there was no putting off the ensuing confrontation. He came rushing over to the house one afternoon a week after her return. Forcing his way past Sarah and Melissa, he stormed into the dining room where Tanya was setting the table. He strode up to her, grabbing her roughly by the arms.

“Is it true?” he shouted.

Tanya eyed him levelly. “Is what true, Lieutenant Young?” she asked in a cool tone.

His grip on her arms tightened as his wild blue eyes glared down at her. “The whole town is buzzing with't he news that you are engaged to Adam Savage. Is it true?”

“Quite true.” She held his gaze steadily.

His face became contorted with rage and pain, and he let out a roar as he shook her. “No! I won’t let you!”

Even knowing how cruel and self-centered he was, Tanya felt a momentary twinge of pity for him. Regardless of how beastly and aggravating Jeffrey had been, he was now in genuine agony, and Tanya had inflicted the wound.

Compassion colored her voice as she tried to reason with him. “Jeffrey, I’ve told you for months now that it was over between us. You should have listened to me. Now I am going to marry Adam, and it is time you accept this.”

The look on his face was frightening in its ferocity. “Never!” he shouted. “You’re mine! You’ll never belong to anyone else!”

Realizing she wasn’t getting through to him in his demented state, Tanya switched tactics. Leaning against him and relaxing her body, she waited until she felt his grip on her arms loosen. Then she jerked free. Stepping back, she retrieved her knife from the sheath at her belt and screamed for Kit.

Julie and Sarah stood petrified in the doorway. Melissa watched silently, chewing her lip in agitation as she waited for Tanya’s next move.