Love and Dreams: The Coltrane Saga, Book 6 (30 page)

“So now, my precious…” He lifted her in his arms, laid her gently, tenderly, on the bed.

Abruptly, he parted her thighs, and without a kiss, without foreplay, entered her with such force that she screamed aloud. Only then did he cover her lips with his as he brought himself to quick release. Then he rolled onto his side and laughingly apologized. “Oh, Jade, I’m sorry. I really am. It’s just that I’ve wanted to make love to you as my wife for so long that I’m afraid I lost control. I’ll make it up to you later, I promise.”

She merely looked at him in wonder. It was as though she had been violated by a stranger. This man who held her, whose gold wedding band she now wore on her finger, was no one she’d ever known before stepping into this cabin. Where was the man who’d seemed to adore her, worship her? Treat her with such reverent respect? This alien person regarded her as property, mere chattel.

Bryan got off the bed, stretched and yawned, put on a robe. Jade reached for a blanket rolled at the end of the bed. Nakedness suddenly made her feel quite vulnerable.

“I’m going to get you something to eat.” He smiled down at her with a triumphant, possessive smile that she found offensive.

At the door he paused to wink. “After you’ve eaten and had a nap, I’ll make it up to you for being so selfish.” He blew her a kiss. “I love you.”

When he left, Jade turned her face into her pillow and let the tears flow. Surely this was all just wedding-day jitters. Bryan had always been so gentle, so kind. This new arrogance was merely his own reaction to the anxiety of getting married. Soon they’d be their old selves, in the warm and complacent relationship that had led her to agree to be his wife.

Yet even as she consoled herself, her eyes fell on the ring she wore on her right hand, the ring that Kitty Coltrane had given her the day she married her son. It gleamed in the buttery rays of the sun, and as she stared down into its brilliant prisms, it was like staring into a picture book of the past. She could see Colt, hear him, feel him, and with each roll and pitch of the yacht’s belly against the chopping sea, painful stabs of memory assaulted her heart.

Furiously, she jammed her hand under the pillow. She kept the ring only because it had belonged to Kitty, and she’d truly loved and admired her. It wasn’t right for a memento to provoke such anguish now. This was her wedding day, and all her thoughts were supposed to be focused on her new husband, her new life.

For long moments, Jade lay very still. The tears stopped. Her breathing became even. She was satisfied that she was in control.

Only then did she withdraw her hand from beneath the pillow and allow herself to contemplate the ring once again. Strangely, she realized doing so gave her comfort.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The island was even more beautiful than Jade remembered. Standing at the bow beside Bryan, his arms lovingly and possessively wrapped around her, she trembled involuntarily with emotion as the huge jadestone came into view.

Bryan was equally moved. “The Isle of Jade,” he observed proudly. “Has any man ever paid a greater tribute to the woman he loved?”

The servants were delighted to see them, ecstatic when they heard they’d married. The news spread rapidly, and friends on the mainland immediately planned elaborate parties to honor them.

There were so many socials given that Bryan and Jade seldom had time for the long moonlight walks they’d revered on her first visit, but they did manage many morning strolls along the pink-tinted beaches. The flowers of the island were in their glory, and the hillsides and landscape were alive with the colorful blossoms of red bougainvillea, golden-yellow mahonias, brilliant lemon forsythia, and fragile, dainty silver bells.

Jade thrilled to see how her herb garden had flourished—thyme, mint, parsley, garlic, rosemary, sage, all were growing in profusion. And around the house were fragrant roses of every kind and color as well as beds of callas, tiger lilies, and bright yellow viola.

At dawn one morning, Bryan woke her with a kiss and an urgent plea to get up. “Just throw your robe on. We’ve got to hurry to our special place to greet the sun!”

Like naughty children, hand in hand, they ran laughing into the fading blue-black sky toward a watermelon horizon. The air was warm, sweet, and as they made their way through a field of fragrant lavender-blue plumes, Jade eagerly breathed deeply of their heady perfume.

Overcome with the glorious beauty of the world around her, she dropped Bryan’s hand to stop and fold her arms across her bosom and whirl round and round in the middle of the lavender meadow. Then, lifting her arms above her head, as though reaching to the very heavens in homage, she cried, “Oh, Bryan, the Garden of Eden couldn’t have been lovelier.”

“Nor could Eve,” he murmured, a tremor moving through his body as he thought how much he adored her. Quickly, he moved to wrap his arms around her and kiss her till they were both breathless and shaken.

Gasping, overcome with the sheer wonder of their existence, they hurried on toward the coral cove, the narrow path lined with orchid trees laden with silky, dramatic pink blooms. At their feet were borders of starry-bright heather blossoms, and white, red, and pink spirea.

They reached the pink sand, the crystal-clear water lapping at their bare feet. Beyond and straight ahead, the sky was a milky blend of dark blue and purple with a silver streak proclaiming the glorious approach of the sun.

Bryan tore off his robe and nightshirt and ran into the water. “Come on,” he beckoned to Jade as she stood watching and laughing. “Let’s swim to the sun!”

“You’re mad!” She shook her head, grinning.

“Yes! Mad about you, so go with me, because I can’t live without you.”

Bursting with happiness, Jade took off her robe, then her gown, and plunged into the cool, clear water. Bryan held out a hand, and she grabbed it, and together they waded farther and farther from shore until they were waist-deep in the water. Then they began to swim, with sure, strong strokes, their eyes meeting in a silent exchange of love each time their faces bobbed up from the water. At last, a few hundred yards out, they rolled over onto their backs, faces toward the rising sun. With legs and arms spread-eagle, they allowed the gentle current to rock them as the sweet morning breeze kissed their naked skin.

Finally, by tacit consent, they swam slowly back to shore. Then Bryan carried her beyond the beach where he placed her in a caressing bed of fragrant, silky ferns.

“Oh, how I love you,” he whispered, stretching out beside her. He kissed every part of her, slowly, languidly, wanting to savor the touch and taste and scent of her delicious flesh. In turn, her fingertips danced across his broad, muscular back, and she curved herself against him, arching her back to get even closer.

At last, aroused to fever pitch, she begged, “Take me, Bryan, please—”

And he entered her, gently, rhythmically, allowing the undulations of her hips beneath him to set the pace for his movements.

Afterward, they lay side by side, spent, silent, enraptured.

They swam once more before retrieving their clothes and heading back to the house.

“I never knew I could be so happy,” Bryan said as they left the cove, hand in hand.

Jade lifted his fingers to her lips. Even as she did, she felt a wave of guilt over her inability to utter a like proclamation…

The days melted together to become weeks, and all too soon, a month slipped by and they knew they had to return to New York and their lives there.

As they sailed into the harbor on a humid and hot day, Jade’s mind was filled with mental notes of all that needed to be done. She stared at the nearing skyline but didn’t really see it as she thought of how exciting it was going to be to see her studio.

“Jade, darling…what’s wrong?”

She felt Bryan’s hesitant touch as he stepped up beside her at the railing.

Self-consciously, she gave him a nervous smile; she’d been in another world, her world of dance, oblivious to everything about her.

“I’ve been calling you from the other side of the boat for almost five minutes. You just stood here like a zombie.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I was woolgathering. We’ve had such a lazy month, and now all of a sudden we’re going to be busy as bees, and—”

“The reception.” He grinned knowingly. “You were thinking about that, weren’t you? Well, so was I. I’ve even made notes,” he laughed, as though embarrassed to admit it.

Jade’s heart went out to him. The last thing on her mind was having a big party. In fact, she hadn’t even thought about it since their somewhat tense discussion before they were married. “As soon as we’ve had a chance to catch our breath, let’s go pick out the grandest ballroom in New York, talk to the best caterers, hire the finest musicians,” she conceded amiably.

He didn’t say anything, just held her against him. After a moment, she pulled away to look up at him and was puzzled by the mysterious, almost mischievous expression on his face. Hesitantly, she asked if anything was wrong, and he just grinned lazily, eyes twinkling, and assured her everything was wonderful.

It was nearly noon when they finally dropped anchor. Leaving the crew to take care of unloading their trunks and sending them on later, Bryan hurried Jade ashore and into the first taxi he could find. Settling back against a smooth leather seat, she adjusted her wide-brimmed hat with its side sweep of ostrich feathers and prepared to enjoy the ride through New York to the hotel. Then she heard Bryan give the driver the Riverside Drive address.

“No, dear,” she corrected him. “We can’t go there. It isn’t ready to move into, and I had all my personal things sent to the hotel a long time ago, remember? I kept the suite when we left so we could just move right in.”

He said nothing, and she saw he had that strangely mysterious look on his face again.

He signaled to the driver to be on his way.

Jade was annoyed. Despite the excitement of arriving home, she was exhausted, and the last thing she felt like doing was going to the house just to check on things. There was a skeleton staff there, for heaven’s sake. All she wanted to do was get to the hotel and take a nice, warm bath, order tea, then sleep the rest of the afternoon.

With an exasperated sigh, she complained, “There’s no need to go all the way to the house, Bryan. Please have the driver take us to the hotel.”

He patted her hand, gave her a patronizing smirk. “You’ll understand when we get there, my dear. Just relax and enjoy the ride. New York is lovely this time of year, isn’t it?” He looked beyond her at the sweeping view of the waterfront as they headed into the mainstream of the city.

“No, it isn’t,” she snapped angrily. This was just too much. Of all the times for him to play some silly little game! “It’s hot and dirty, and so am I, and I’d like to just relax, not go all the way to Riverside Drive to look at a house that’s technically closed up, for God’s sake.”

He turned his head to the other side of the carriage, observing the view from that angle, and said nothing. In turn, Jade folded her arms across her chest and stared straight ahead, tight-lipped and annoyed.

When the carriage stopped in the driveway, Jade did not move. Bryan stepped out, offered his hand to her, but she shook her head and coolly said, “Go and see whatever it is you came to see. I’ll wait here.”

“Oh, Jade, stop acting like a baby!” he scoffed, abruptly reaching inside to grab her around her waist and roughly pull her out.

Straightening her hat once more and jerking down the hem of her short blue cotton jacket, she hissed between clenched teeth, “Bryan Stevens, if you don’t stop behaving like a fool, I’m going to get my own taxi to take me to the hotel, and you can find someplace else to spend the night!”

He chuckled. “Well, my angry little bride, I can assure you we’ll be sleeping together tonight. As a matter of fact, we’ll be sleeping right here—in our new home.”

She stared at him, bewildered, as he paid the driver. Then he tucked her hand in the crook of his arm and led her up the steps to the front door, which swung open as they approached. Several of the servants appeared to cry in unison, “Welcome home!” then stepped back with slight bows to wave them on inside.

Jade felt a shiver of apprehension. Something strange was going on, something she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like very much.

She did not have long to wonder. As soon as she saw Lita Tulane standing midway up the curving stairway, a smug and proud expression on her face, Jade knew even before her disbelieving eyes began to sweep about the foyer to take in the unfamiliar wallpaper, paintings, statues, and other decorative pieces she’d never seen before—and certainly never selected.

With all eyes upon her, Jade walked into the grand parlor to the left, as large as a conservative ballroom, and great splashes of anger began to wash over her. The room had been completely redecorated—the walls in a pattern of bright red roses and pale green leaves, the complete opposite of the one she’d chosen: tiny white lilies interspersed among delicate ivy. Thick velvet draperies hung in swags at the window—heavy, ugly. She’d planned light and airy sheers to catch the slightest breeze from the river in the summer, changing to heavier brocade in the fall. Staring down at the floor, she saw the Tabriz carpet she’d selected and shook her head in instant horror. The fine piece was to have gone in the master suite; it certainly didn’t belong in a room meant for the heavy traffic of people.