Forbidden (Scandalous Sirens) (10 page)

Rufus’ wine glass hit the tabletop with a loud, wet thud, and he cleared his throat with a harsh, vicious sound. Elisa’s heart jumped once again, fear squeezing
her throat
.

Vaughn laid his hand over hers on his arm. It looked like a perfectly normal, natural action, but the slight pressure on her fingers relayed a message just for her, a reassurance in the face of Rufus’ choler. He was wordlessly telling her everything would be fine.

He seated her without another word and went back to his side of the table, next to Natasha.

Caroline was on her right. Elisa looked at her friend, avoiding Rufus’ furious face. Caroline smiled warmly. “You look beautiful, Elisa. Is that a new dress?”

“Yes, I had it made not long ago,” Elisa lied with only a small hesitation, then turned to Rufus with a purposeful smile. This seemed to bring relief for he nodded, looking pleased that she’d had the dress made for him.

Elisa’s cheeks grew warm and she reached for her glass and took a drink of the cool lemon water. She could feel Vaughn’s stare on her from the opposite side of the table. No doubt Rufus had seated him beside Natasha and across from Caroline to keep him away from her. It would be difficult to keep her gaze averted. His very presence seemed to draw her attention to him. She could feel him. She could feel him staring at her.

“Yes, now I remember that dress.” Rufus said, his tone insinuating something sensual between the two of them.

“I’m delighted you chose to wear it again,” Vaughn drawled.

“Thank you,” Elisa replied.

His white shirt was daringly open at the collar, covered by a navy waistcoat with shards of silver running throughout. His hair was slightly mussed.
 
Elisa wondered if he had been riding while she slept.
 
He seemed to crackle with energy and life, just as he had when they had gone riding yesterday.

The reminder of what had happened at the pond made her breasts ache and she grew moist, almost instantly ready.

Had Natasha gone riding with him?

Pain lanced through her at the thought.

A loaded plate was placed in front of her and everyone’s attention was drawn back to the meal. The conversation gradually picked up again, leaving Elisa to her own thoughts. Vaughn was once again a captive audience, attentive to every vacant word Natasha uttered. The dinner dragged on relentlessly.

Caroline began a conversation with Vaughn, drilling him for information about his future plans. Natasha, meanwhile, hung on every word.

Which left Elisa to Rufus’ dubious company.

“Why are you wearing such a lavish gown tonight?” he asked, his words little above a whisper.

Elisa dropped her hands to her lap and dug her fingernails into her palms. She said nothing.

“I wonder…do you seek the attention of someone here?”

Elisa looked directly at Rufus. “Marianne laid it out for me. As I mentioned before, I slept and when I awoke there was little time to do anything but don a gown that had already been pressed.” She sighed heavily. “I thought the gown would please you,” she lied. “If it doesn’t, then I’ll go and change at once.”

He watched her intently and she forced herself to keep eye contact. She could hear nothing over the beating of her heart as he stared.

Ever so slowly his expression changed, no longer hard and quizzing, but instead full of fondness.

She would never understand his moods. Ever. At times, when he offered her nothing but curses and accusations, she despaired that the impending wedding would be called off and she would be cast aside once more. Then, unexpectedly, he would display a small sign of some gentler emotion, and she would again wonder why he had sought her hand in marriage. He had professed a need for companionship, nothing more, when he had proposed.

Finally, his attention shifted back to his plate and he attacked the large helping of gravy-covered ham upon it.

Her appetite was nonexistent, but she ate anyway, knowing if she didn’t Rufus would comment on it.

For the remainder of the meal Caroline spoke of the new Limoges china set her husband had arranged to be shipped from France for her. William had commissioned the pattern to be designed especially for her and stamped with the family crest.

Elisa envied her friend for her happy marriage. Caroline and William apparently deeply loved each other and went to great effort to show it.

On the contrary, Elisa had found in her experience that the fantasy of marriage was far better than the reality.

Natasha’s laughter sounded often. It was an irritating, light trill that filled the room. Natasha and Vaughn were again whispering to each other. Natasha leaned a little closer and rudely whispered behind her hand. Vaughn’s brows raised a little and he threw his head back and laughed loudly, plainly delighted.

Elisa abruptly stood, the back legs of her chair scraping across the floor beyond the rug.

Vaughn looked up from his conversation and Caroline lifted her eyebrows.

“Elisa?” she asked. “Are you alright?”

“Please excuse me for a moment.” The words were all she could manage.

Rufus merely nodded, too preoccupied with his dessert to speak.

Elisa glanced at Vaughn as she turned from the table. His eyes were narrowed, his expression a reflective one. Natasha was already reaching for his forearm to gain back his attention.

Elisa gritted her teeth and hurried from the room. She was barely to the stairs when she called for Marianne. One of the footmen from the dining room went scurrying for the kitchen—perhaps he could read her impatience, her fury, in the imperious ring of her voice, for he went to fetch Marianne without waiting to be sent.

Elisa strode to her room, pounding out her frustration with every step. She burst into the room and came to a halt, looking around wildly.

She would show Vaughn the shallowness and predictability of the company he had chosen to keep tonight. She would show him the unexpected depths he had foregone for the sake of Natasha’s off-key nasal twittering. Elisa reached for the closures at the back of her dress.

Marianne hurried into the room, breathless, her eyes wide. “Madame?”

“Get this off me. Hurry,” Elisa said, tugging at the hooks.

“Off?”

“Yes, off, damn it! I can’t take off my corset without first removing the dress!”

“But…your corset, madam?” Marianne appeared truly bewildered.

“It is pinching me and I can scarcely draw breath,” Elisa said without hesitation. “Hurry!”

“At once,” Marianne said, her fingers reaching for the hooks and nimbly releasing them, one after another. Together they lowered the dress and released the ties on the petticoats enough to undo the corset and pull it away from her body. Elisa plucked at the chemise she wore beneath. “It is soaked through,” she declared and took it off.

“Madam!” Marianne breathed, deeply shocked.

“Who will know?” Elisa said, retying the petticoats around her waist, her bare breasts free of restrictions. “Hurry, please, Marianne. Rufus is already furious at my delayed arrival. This interlude will anger him all the more.”

The implied threat was enough to get Marianne moving again. She re-fastened the petticoats, and pulled the satin gown back up onto Elisa’s shoulders. With deft fingers she began re-hooking the back closed.

The touch of satin against her breasts was shocking and…delicious. Without the confining structure of her corset, the plunging décolletage felt dangerously wicked and insecure. A sweet ache began in her cleft at the thought of Vaughn’s expression when he realized she had taken her corset off.

Marianne stepped back and waited.

“Thank you, you may go,” Elisa told her, running her hands down the sensuous satin bodice, feeling her bare skin beneath.

“Madam?”

“I said go!”

“At once,” Marianne replied and hurried from the room.

Elisa waited until she heard the maid’s footsteps pattering down the hallway, then reached beneath her skirts and took off her drawers, too.

With a deep breath, she turned and headed back downstairs, feeling the freedom and sinful bareness of her body beneath the gown with every step.

The double doors loomed before her. She swallowed. Dare she go through with this?

Suddenly, a hand snaked out from behind one of the pairs of pillars in the foyer and snagged her wrist.

She stifled her gasp when she saw it was Vaughn, standing behind the pillar. He put a finger to his lips and pulled her towards him, closer and closer, until she was pressed up against his hard body. In the dim light his eyes glittered with an intense light.

She swallowed hard and looked up into his handsome face.

“I was beginning to worry,” he said, his breath warm against her cheek. His hands came up around her waist and pressed against the material.

Suddenly, he became very still. His breath was expelled gustily.

Elisa glanced over her shoulder. She was very much afraid. If they were caught in such a compromising situation… “Vaughn, we cannot…not here.”

Vaughn stepped backwards, pulling her between the white columns, so they would be hidden from all…but it was still far too public a place. He turned her around so his back was to the entrance, which hid her a little.

“And I cannot walk away when I know that beneath this magnificent gown you are completely bare.” His hands swept up her bodice and she could feel their heat through the fabric, burning her. They stopped short of her breasts, and a little sigh of frustration escaped her.

She had his attention now, she realized.

“Is it a complete bareness, Elisa?” he asked and his voice was low and rough.

“Yes,” she whispered.

He groaned. The sound seemed to be ripped from deep inside him.

Her heart raced with an intense excitement. She was mortally aware of how many people wandered the public rooms of the hall at this moment. Staff, guests—perhaps even Rufus. The danger of being seen was so great….

Her back was flush against the cold marble, her hands at her sides as he leaned into her, his long hair brushing her bare shoulder. “Kiss me before we go back.”

“Vaughn…”

“Just a single kiss.” His arms were on either side of her, trapping her against the pillar.

He would not walk away without some sort of prize, she realized. She lifted her face to his. “Just one and that—”

His mouth captured hers.

Elisa drew in a gasping breath, surprised. For a moment her heart and body seemed to freeze. Then she registered the heat of his lips and the closeness of his big, powerful body. This was Vaughn kissing her. Vaughn! Her body leapt with a victorious, primordial excitement.

The kiss was at first light, then swiftly grew more intense. He parted her lips with his tongue, which swept past her teeth and teased her mouth.

Elisa found herself leaning into him, her arms of their own accord wrapping around his broad shoulders, holding him tighter, pulling him closer.

Then his lips left hers and traveled along her jaw. They were hot and moist and left a trail of sizzling flesh in their wake. Her eyes were closing, as waves of pleasure drained her strength. His teeth caught at her earlobe, then his tongue traced her ear, before plunging hotly into it. Thrilling bolts of excitement thrummed through her. Desperate for more, she arched her back, making her breasts thrust against the satin. His mouth was traveling down her neck, while his hands held her steady. His lips and tongue were swirling across her flesh and his hair brushed it in a light, maddeningly erotic sweep.

Elisa bit down on the gasping groan that tried to emerge from her as his mouth moved further down, to the tops of her breasts, where his hot tongue traced a pattern on her skin, searing it.

Then, suddenly, she grew aware of the shocking looseness of the top of her gown. He had unhooked the first handful of fastenings and it sagged around her shoulders, sliding down her breasts and threatening to fully reveal them. She clutched at the bodice, trying to hold it up, her breath leaving her in a rush.

“Vaughn, no.”

His hands rested against her bare shoulders. He looked deep into her eyes. There was an implacable will shining in his eyes that silenced her weak protest. While watching her face, he swept his hands down her arms, pushing the offending sleeves down and bringing the bodice with it.

Her breasts were completely bared.

Elisa caught her breath. How did he dare…?

But the hazy, incoherent thought scattered as his hands cupped her breasts and the two thumbs brushed her upright, painfully tight nipples.

She gasped and saw him smile a little.

She tried to raise her hands, to push him away, but her arms were caught in the lowered sleeves, effectively trapped at her sides. Then even that weak defensive motion ceased as he lowered his head and placed a hot kiss on her upper breasts, where his fingers had last been.

One of his hands fell to her waist, while his mouth slid with agonizing slowness further down her breast. The other hand played with the nipple of the other, sending shooting sparks of delight up and down her body. When, at last, his mouth closed hotly around her nipple, a deep groan of pleasure was pulled from her.