The Frenchman's Revenge (16 page)

Bai
took a deep drag off his cigarette and turned to walk toward the door.
He hesitated for a moment
in the doorway
, then stopped
and looked back over his shoulder.

“O
ne more
thing
,
Alex
. Just so you
know
. W
hen I
get someone down on the floor
and turn it loose
--
they don’t get up
.
T
he only reason you
did
is because you are E
lena’s
brother, Wyatt’s son
,
and Wan’s grandson.
”

~~~

Alex sat against the wall
,
unable to move
for
long moments after
Bai le
ft
the dojo.
Every
part of his body ache
d
,
throb
bed
with pain.
He knew his ribs were broken
,
likely
the reason
he
kept spitting
up blood. He should go to the infirmary and make sure he didn’t have s
erious
internal injuries
,
but he was too embarrassed.
He didn’t want anyone
,
especially his sister or his father
,
to know how badly Bai had beaten him.
He knew
they would
say that he let his anger
compromise his skill,
turn
ing
him into a novice.
But it was more than that.
He couldn’t
figure it out.
He was a highly trained
k
ung fu master
. G
od damnit
!
E
ven angry
,
he knew how to fight.
But
he hadn’t put a single mark on Bai. Christ, to be honest, he never touched him.

As he sat on the floor
,
his head thrown back against the wall
,
trying to get a grip
on
what happened,
he
saw
Bai’s
eyes and the expression on his face
when he
warned
Alex
to s
t
ay out of his way
.
It was
t
he Frenchman
,
the man, not the myth
. T
he reality was more frightening than the
lore
.
Alex shuddered
,
knowing
for the first time in his life
he
saw
a human incarnation of an animal in the wild
. A
poised predatory animal primed to take down its prey
. W
ith a
tremor
that shook him to his
core,
Alex
acknowledged
that this was the man his beloved sister would marry.

Chapter 7

Elena sat at her dressing table
,
taking the jeweled pins from her hair
,
reliving the evening.
She
shook out her hair and
let it fall
down to the middle of her back
in
a luminous
cloud of fire
red
curls.
She smiled
at the reflection of her
flushed cheeks
in the mirror
,
remembering
how Bai freed her hair as they danced. He tucked the pins in his pocket as if they were his to take,
as if
she was his to take. It was such an intimate thing to do
that
she blushed thinking about it.
She wasn’
t surprised
that
people were shocked at the way they danced.
From the first
throbbing
beat
of the music
to
the
last whispery
wail of the horn,
her body responded
in aroused sensual movements
to Bai’s erotic
solicitations.
She thought with a guilty little grin, it was as though they were making love to one another in front of two hundred people.

Th
at
is what he did to her, what he had always done.
Just looking at her with that wicked smile made her pulse race and shivery sensations flood over her.
Even now
,
she could feel hi
m
on her body,
tweaking her nipples,
trailing his lips up the length of her leg,
running his hands
over
her thighs
, her hips,
pinching
her bottom.
She
saw his
teasing
smile,
heard
his
thro
aty whispers telling her what he intended to do to her
.
How
he would suck her
, bite her
, how he would spank her ass bright red. A hard tremor shook her groin
at the memory
. S
he gripped the edge of the table, a rush of
moisture pooling between her thighs
.

God, it was a wonder
he hadn’t laid her on the floor and flat out fucked her. She giggled at the thought.
She would
have
loved to
see
the reaction of
those
self important
biddies with their put on airs
and disapproving whispers
. They
would
be
apoplectic.
But then they would have been the first to grovel for an invitation to the next party
. T
o preen and simper
for any acknowledgement from the
handsome rogue
they fluttered
a
round
. To
fight o
ver
the
cr
umb
s
of recognition he
flicked
their way.

Bai was a sensation
.
Elena knew
it
and
she
reveled in it.
Better than
anyone, she
understood
his powerful pull.
His s
inful
good looks and sheer animal
magnetism sheathed
in a
barely
respectable
veneer attracted
and frightened
both men and women
. Privileged people who
in every other circumstance considered themselves the
“
cock of the walk.
”

Dear
God, she loved him
. M
ore than she had thought it possible to love a man. She remembered hi
s entrance
to
the ballroom and how
a hush f
ell
over the crowd
. She wasn’t surprised.
That’s how she felt every time she saw him
. M
esmerized
– and then
breathless
with excitement
.

She knew he would be angry that the men at the party had been ogling her
,
lusting after
her
.
She saw the look on his face when he
came in
. She had seen
that look before.
She
knew it well
and
knew what it meant.
A
groin clenching
shiver
of fear
fraught
with
desire
rushed over her
at the thought of his promised re
prisal
.

Damn,
s
he thought with a flippant smile
, w
hat did he expect?
It wasn’t her fault. She was beautiful. How many times and in how many ways did he tell her that?
T
hough
she
enjoyed
the attention
from other men
, she didn’t openly
seek
it.
Men had always looked at her like that
; like they would eat her alive if they could
.

She stood up and
slipped
off her dress and threw it
over
the back of the chair.
She tried to decide if she should leave on her
sexy
underwear
,
knowing how much Bai
enjoyed
undress
ing
her.
She had
begun
wearing outrageous
silky lacy
ensembles
when she and Bai
beca
me lovers. Lei had introduced her to the
ass hugging drawers and lacy camisoles that Bai lusted over.
She blushed
as she stripped off
her lacy garters
,
hearing
Bai’s
chuckle
when she dared to kick up her leg
,
knowing that every man and
woman in
the room had seen her bare leg
s
covered only by the sheerest silk stockings available.
She felt a tremor of
excitement
,
remembering him calling her his naughty little whore
and threatening
to
paddle
her ass
.

Bai was meeting with her father and grandfather after the party
and
she wasn’t
sure when he would return
,
but
decided
she had time
to bathe. Reveling in the warm water laced with rose petals and honeysuckle, Elena ran her hands and probing fingers over her body
,
imagining Bai’s sinful touch.
After long
,
languorous
moments of soaking in the fragrant water
,
she stood by the side of the enormous tub and let the water rivulet
s
run over her naked body.
She smiled at herself in the wall length mirror
,
as the water dripped over her full breasts
. It
clung to
the tips of
her
rosy
upturned
nipples
,
then
trickled down
to her bare
mons
.
Bai insisted that
she
use a special sugar wax on
the soft fleshy mound so that he had an unobstructed view of her most private parts. She had been startled at his request and
,
even now, she blushed at the sight of her intimate folds, unprotected, open.
With a
soft cotton
towel
,
she rubbed the moisture off her taut belly, long slender legs
,
and curvy ass
. She
loved
the
way her skin warmed and
f
lushed from the
rough friction. With one last appreciative look over her shoulder at her lush body
,
she slipped on one of the sheer nightgowns and robes that Bai loved
and went back to the bedroom to wait for
him
.

She
was sitting at her dressing table brushing her
gleaming hair
when the door opened and Bai walked in.
She jumped up
a
nd started toward him
,
a
glorious smile lighting her face.
She
hesitated
,
surprised to see he was dressed in the fitted gi pants he wore when he sparred and a white silk shirt.
He gave her a curt nod
. Striding over
to the liquor cabinet
,
he
poured himself a shot glass of bourbon
. He
threw it back
in one swallow and poured himself another.
Leaning
back against the
elaborately carved parson’s
table
,
resting his ass against the edge
, he
glar
ed at her
.